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Herby pork, potato and peas recipe

BY Rachel Walker

1st Jan 2015 Recipes

Herby pork, potato and peas recipe
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
potato and pork

Method:

  1. 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.
  2. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling water.     
  3. 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.
  4. 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. 
  5. 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.
  6. 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. 
  7. 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.
 

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