CST @ HOME #17

Serves 2

I served this with Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for fried leeks and pickled peppers from his book Plenty. The leeks are simply blanched in seasoned water and then rolled in egg and panko breadcrumbs and deep fried. The peppers are cooked from raw in a pickling liquid, resulting in a sweet and sour finish.

Also served with lemon and oregano roasted potatoes. Cut them smaller than you normally would, blanch them in salted water then roll them through olive oil, sliced lemon, thyme sprigs and smashed garlic and roast. When they come out toss through shredded oregano and lemon zest.

FOR THE PORK MARINADE
2 thick cut pork chops
2 tsp smoked paprika
4 sprigs of oregano, leaves shredded
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 sprig of rosemary, leaves roughly chopped
Enough olive oil to just combine

FOR THE ROMESCO SAUCE
1 large red pepper, roasted (use from a jar for ease)
1 garlic clove, minced
35g flaked almonds, toasted
75g tomato purée
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
120ml olive oil

Mix all the marinade ingredients and rub into the pork chops. Leave to marinade for a minimum of 2 hours.

Make the romesco sauce by putting all the ingredients into a food processor, pulse until they are all very well chopped. Then, with the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until emulsified and fully encorporated. Season with maldon salt to taste.

Now cook the pork chops. I cooked on the BBQ roughly 3 minutes each side. If you’re not using a BBQ, a griddle pan or hot frying pan will do the job just as well.