When my little brother was at University he used to come home at the weekends with a pack of hungry lost boys in tow and I’d go into surrogate big sister mode and feed them all. One even took to phoning me on a Thursday night to put in a request for his favourite dish! But my culinary repertoire must have been getting repetitive because my brother bought me a cookbook one weekend, and then pointed out which of the recipes in it he’d like me to make… Cheeky! Years later, the cookbook still gets hauled out every couple of months, primarily to make this which is still one of my favourites. It’s more of an Autumn/Winter kind of a dish, but seeing how this has been the wettest summer since records began in 1910 (!) forgive me while I opt for a little comfort food this weekend 🙂
This recipe has become “a little” adapted over time, I like more Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice than the original recipe because I like the sauce seriously tangy (and it is!). If you find it too much, a spoonful of creme freche stirred in at the end will mellow it out, or cut back on the Worcestershire sauce/lemon juice the next time you make it.
This is good with a heap of creamy mash but its even better with boiled rice, but then, I think everything is better with boiled rice… When it comes out of the oven I like to slice the pork chops up and then mix them back into the sauce to coat every last bit before ladling up over rice. Serve with something green, like stir fried broccoli or garlicky butter-fried courgette slices, and get stuck in!
If you are going to eat it with mash you can double the number of chops to four and use the measures for sauce as per the recipe. Rice just soaks up “jup” in a way that mash doesn’t (because rice > mash!) If you don’t believe me, scroll down to the bottom of this page to see my proof 😉
- 2 lean pork chops, trimmed of fat and rind
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 tbsp unrefined brown sugar
- 1 tbsp dry mustad
- 2 tsps tomato puree
- 1 beef stock cube
- 280ml/half pint of cold water
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tbsps fresh lemom juice
- salt and pepper to season
- Dice the onions. Mix the sugar, dry mustard, tomato puree and beef stock cube together (if using a beef stock pot rather than a cube leave it out)
- First things first, get the oven on to 180 C/350 F.
- Pan fry the pork chops on a high heat for a couple of minutes each side to seal and brown the meat. Remove to an ovenproof baking dish.
- In the same pan, heat the oil and fy the onion gently until it is lightly browned.
- Stir the sugar, mustard powder, tomato puree and beef stock cube into the cooked onion and mix it all together well (if you’re using a beef stock pot rather than a stock cube, mix everything else in first and then mix in the stock pot last) before stirring in the cold water (it has to be cold or else the mustard powder has a hissy fit!).
- Bring it all to the boil, stirring continuously, then add the Worcestershire sauce and the lemon juice into the onion and spice mixture, then check for seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the sauce into the baking dish and over the pork chops.
- Pop in the preheated oven and cook for about 30-35 minutes, or until the meat is tender.
- Remove the chops from the sauce and leave to rest for 8-10 minutes, while you pop the sauce back into the oven to keep warm.
- After the chops have rested, slice thinly and pop back into the sauce to coat before serving over rice.
