Pork Chops
with Roasted Fennel Medley and Mashed Potato
When you think of fennel you normally think of the tiny seeds used in rich Indian dishes to give it that surprising aniseed flavour. Here we’re using the plant, rather than its seeds, so you’re getting some fabulous textures along with that delicious flavour. Fennel can play some cheeky tricks on your taste buds though. Certain wineries used to offer it to people before wine tastings so people wouldn’t taste how bad the wine was!
Ingredients
1
Braeburn Apple
1
Red Onion
1
Fennel
2
Potato
1.5
Apple and Sage Jelly
2
Pork Chops
Utensils
Instructions
Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees and boil a pot of water with ¼ tsp of salt. Now get all your chopping done. Peel the apple and chop it into 1cm slices. Peel the onion, cut in half and chop it into 2cm chunks. Cut the fennel in half through the root, cut off the top bits as well as the bottom of the stalk. Chop the fennel into 2cm slices.
Put these veggies on a baking tray with 1 tbsp of olive oil, ¼ tsp salt and a good grind of black pepper. Toss this to make sure everything has a coating of oil and pop it in the oven. Roast for about 30 mins.
Peel the potatoes and chop them into 4cm cubes. Add them to your pot of boiling water and cook them for approximately 20 mins. Tip: The potatoes are cooked when you can easily slip a knife through them.
Now to prepare your pork! With a spoon stir the jelly to soften it and make it spreadable. Put your pork chops on a chopping board and using a spoon coat one side with ¼ of the jelly. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the chops as well.
Put 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and fry the pork chops (jelly covered side down) for about 5 mins. Tip: Watch out they don’t burn and turn the heat down a bit if you’re worried. Whilst one side is cooking, coat the other side with another quarter of the jelly and some salt and pepper. When the 5 mins are up, turn the chops over and cook for 4 mins on the other side. Once both sides are slightly brown, take the pan off the heat and rest the meat. Tip: Make sure your pan isn’t too hot here - we don’t want your pork chops burning!
Once you’re in the last 5 mins of the vegetable cooking time, pop the pork on top of the veggies in the oven to finish off cooking, leaving the juice in the frying pan. Put your remaining jelly into the pan with 2 tbsp of water and put on a medium-low heat, stirring gently to melt the jelly into the sauce. Set this aside once the jelly has dissolved.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain them, pop them back in the pot, add 2 tbsp of milk, ¼ tsp of salt , pepper and 1 tbsp butter (if you have any). Then mash!
By this time the veggies and pork should be cooked. Tip: Your pork will be cooked when it’s no longer pink in the middle! Take them out of the oven and serve the pork on the mashed potato with the fennel medley on the side and the apple and sage sauce on top. Enjoy!
