Pork Chops with Cashel Blue, Apple and Parma Ham

When I'm lacking inspiration for what to cook I always head to Jamie Oliver's website for new ways to cook "boring" things like pork chops, it really has so many great new ideas. I have always used Parma or Serrano ham to wrap stuffed chicken breast, but never really thought about it wrapping pork chops with anything. This recipe is also good because although all the ingredients feel and taste rather indulgent, a bit of a luxury, you only need a little of each so it doesn't work out too expensive at all.

Ingredients

1 pork chop per person
Three thin slices of apple per pork chop (one small red apple should do most amounts)
About 100g of blue cheese crumbled (Jamie originally uses Stilton but I love Cashel Blue-Andrew sells both)
Two slices of Parma ham (or other good quality prosciutto) per pork chop
One sprig of rosemary per pork chop

First preheat your oven to 200C. Then brown off your pork chops in a pan on a high heat. Cook until golden brown on each side. Leave to one side to cool.

Lay out two slices of Parma ham so that they are slightly overlapping each other and place a pork chop on top in the middle.

Add three slices of apple and a about a tablespoon of blue cheese on top.

Then fold the slices of Parma ham over the top and keep in place by piercing a sprig of rosemary through the parcel. Place in a baking tray and repeat for all other pork chops.

Bake in the oven for ten minutes and serve with anything you like really! As you can see I was too hungry to take any pictures of the finished meal, but I went with green beans and blitzed mash potato. However it would also be great with rice, roast potatoes, or just vegetables.

Roast Char Sui Pork with Asparagus and Egg Fried Rice

I haven't done any Chinese cooking in a while but Mum and I were tempted by a new bright pink cookbook, The Sweet Mandarin Cookbook, so I had to give one of their recipes a go! I also like this recipe because the ingredients used to make the sauce are ones I would normally use in Chinese cooking anyway so didn't involve me spending ridiculous amounts on one-off exotic ingredients. This pork dish uses the pork tenderloin (basically the fillet) which is actually very good value for money compared to beef and chicken fillets.  Buying from a good butcher will ensure the pork is from high welfare farms and trimmed properly so that it isn't too fatty. For four people I used two medium sized tenderloins, approx 300-400g each.

The trick to this recipe is leaving the meat to marinade, and the rice to cool, over night, however I tried doing both in the afternoon before eating that evening and it was still delicious. The original recipe uses hoisin sauce and dark soy sauce which aren't gluten free, however some supermarkets sell a Tamari soy sauce which is a good gluten free replacement for both.

Ingredients serves 4
2 medium sized pork tenderloins (from high welfare farms)
3 cloves garlic crushed (2 for the pork, 1 for the rice)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons Tamari soy sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
2 teaspoons sesame oil (I used sesame seeds instead)

enough rice for 4 people
3 eggs beaten
3 spring onions finely chopped

1 large bunch of asparagus


The night before/afternoon: start by placing your pork tenderloins in a large dish. In a saucepan mix the brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, rice wine, paprika, five spice and sesame oil over a high heat until the mixture starts to boil. Leave to cool.

Massage the tenderloins with 2 cloves of crushed garlic and pour over the cooled marinade, again rubbing into the meat. Wrap the dish with foil and leave in the fridge until you want to start cooking.
Add the rice to boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and leave to cool before placing in the fridge. Cooling the rice down helps to create that fried rice texture when you later cook it.

The evening you want to eat: preheat the oven to 200C. Remove the pork from the fridge and place in a roasting dish, pouring on any excess marinade. Cook for 20 minutes before removing from the oven, turning and basting in the excess juices. At this heat I would keep an eye throughout because there is so much sugar in the sauce. If it looks like it is beginning to burn up, add 200ml of boiling water to the pan, it will help make a sauce at the end too. Cook for a further 20 minutes.

In the meantime you can make your egg fried rice. In a wok, heat some sunflower oil on a high heat. Add your beaten eggs and scramble. Add your chopping spring onion and crushed garlic, continuously stirring so that it doesn't burn. After a couple of minutes add your rice, turn down the heat, and mix in well to break down any clumps where the rice has stuck together. Cook for about 10 minutes to get the heat through the rice, and add a dash of soy sauce for flavour.

In another saucepan bring your asparagus just to the boil. Quickly drain, and about 5 minutes before you are ready to remove the pork, fry in a griddle pan with a splash of shaoxing rice wine for flavour.

Remove the pork from the oven and slice diagonally. Arrange neatly on top of the asparagus, and serve with a big bowl of egg fried rice. The juices from the pork can be boiled down to make a sauce.

Dingley Dell Pork Sausages Braised in Aspall's Cyder

For the second week of cooking local produce I have chosen Andrew's pork sausages which are made onsite by Andrew's butchers, entirely of Dingley Dell Pork. Andrew's have bought Dingley Dell pork for many years and love that these Suffolk farmers are passionate about the same things we are: taste, provenance and welfare. I asked my brother Ben what makes Andrew's sausages so good and he said that not only does it take great pork but also an expert eye. Ben and the boys that currently make the sausages have been trained by Jock: an amazing butcher, now retired, who was my Dad's first employee when he set up shop nearly 20 years ago. He has taught them the art of mixing a perfect balance of fat and lean meat that makes the sausages full of flavour, perfect for taste, texture and easy cooking.

For this recipe I have used the Gluten Free sausage that's very similar to the Original Pork, however, there are also a range of herby sausages that would be perfect for this recipe such as the Toulouse, Pork and Leek, and Lincolnshire. I braised the sausages in the famous Suffolk Aspall's Cyder, with Suffolk red onions sliced, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme.

Method:
Heat the oven to 180C. Brown the sausages in a cassoulet dish with a drop of oil.

Set the sausages aside and soften the onion, browning without burning.

Put the sausages back in, along with the whole bottle of cyder, herbs and garlic. Wait for the cyder to simmer, place the lid on the cassoulet dish, and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

After this time remove the lid and let cook for a further 10 minutes in the oven. Remove from the oven and place on the hob. Remove the sausages and turn the heat up to let the sauce bubble away. At this point I made up some Chicken Bisto Best Gravy (I know it is cheating but it is gluten free and a great substitute for flour) and added to the liquid to thicken it. You may also want to add a teaspoon of sugar to cut through the sharpness of the cyder. Replace the sausages and serve on the table from the cassoulet dish, with mash potatoes and runner beans (both from Suffolk!) I also found a delicious Rosé wine in Waitrose that has been produced in Suffolk. I wasn't sure what it would be like but it had delicious apple tones to it that went perfectly with the dish!

I hope you enjoy this Suffolk meal as much as we did...
L x

Pork Chops with Sage on Roasted Potatoes with Bacon Pieces

I haven't done a Jamie Oliver recipe for a while so thought I would cook my version of his Italian pork chops from his book, Jamie's Italy. It's one of my favourites to do as everything is cooked in the one roasting dish, apart from browning off the pork chops at the beginning, and the meat juices from our delicious Dingley Dell pork chops give the potatoes the most amazing flavour! We've been using Dingley Dell pork from their Suffolk farm for many years now and are happy to have such a great supplier so close to us! For more information on how they raise their fabulous pork click here.

Ingredients: 

Andrew's Dingley Dell pork chops on the bone

Roasting potatoes peeled and diced

A bunch of sage leaves

2-3 rashers of smoked streaky bacon roughly chopped

2-3 garlic cloves cut in half

Sunflower oil

Salt and pepper 

1  Preheat your oven to 180C. 2  Bring the potatoes to the boil, and par boil for 3-4 minutes. Drain and shake in the saucepan to make your edges fluffy. 3  Meanwhile add 4 good tablespoons of sunflower oil to the roasting dish and heat in the oven for ten minutes. 5  Remove and add your potatoes with the garlic cloves and chopped bacon pieces. 6  Heat up a frying pan with a splash of oil and brown off your seasoned pork chops each side.  7  After your potatoes have been cooking for about 15 minutes, place the pork chops and sage leaves on top.

8. This lets the potatoes cook in the meat juices, yet it will also make them quite soft. So if you want them a little crispier, after another 15 minutes take out the roasting dish and move everything around so that the potatoes are on top. 9  The dish should take a further 15 minutes to finish. Serve with veg and gravy as desired.