Herby pork, potato and peas recipe
1st Jan 2015 Recipes
Pork, potatoes, and peas… it sounds like a bland cafeteria meal, right? Wrong! This recipe goes to show the magic of herbs when it comes to enlivening a dish. Serves six.
Ingredients:
For the pork
- 1tbsp herbs de Provence
- 6tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2tbsp Dijon mustard
- 6 pork loin chops
For the ‘peas and potatoes’
- 800g Jersey Royal potatoes
- 180g frozen peas
- 25g basil leaves
- 55g Parmesan, finely grated
- 55g pine nuts
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 150ml olive or rapeseed oil
- Lemon
Optional serve:
- Dressed watercress salad
Method:
- Start by preparing the pork marinade. Use a fork to mix the olive oil and herbs de Provence, then add the ground pepper, Dijon mustard and a dash of salt. Coat the pork chops in the marinade, cover and refrigerate.
- Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling water.
- Meanwhile put the basil leaves, Parmesan, pine nuts and garlic into a blender, with a tablespoon of oil to loosen. Blitz into a paste. Slowly drizzle in the rest of the oil and continue to blend to a rough paste.
- After 12 minutes, the potatoes should be near “done” and tender enough to poke a fork into them without much resistance. Add the peas to the pan and cook for 2 more minutes. Drain, and then return the peas and potatoes to the pan.
- Use a spatula to scoop the pesto into the pan with the peas and potatoes. Put the lid back on and rattle it until all the warm potatoes and peas are well-coated in the pesto. Tip the warm salad into a serving bowl and set to one side.
- The key with cooking pork loin chops is to do it quickly and at a high temperature—ideally hot enough that the outside takes on a bit of colour, without cooking them so long that the meat dries out. Usually 2–3 minutes on each side is about right, but it depends on thickness.
- Put the cooked pork chops on a board and serve them along with the warm potato salad. It’s ideal as part of a barbecue, or as a quick and nutritious dinner.
Read more: The perfect wines to pair with pork