PAN-FRIED PORK CHOPS WITH STEAMED KALE & APPLE SAUCE

This is a multitask dish. The apple sauce is freshtasting and nutritious. Meanwhile, the pork chops are placed into the hot pan when the butter is at beurre noisette stage – hazelnut brown, foaming, and with a slightly nutty aroma. The chops will be gently caramelised, and the juices will create deposits on the pan. These, in turn, will give you the most marvellous jus.

Serves 2 ● Prep 5 mins ● Cook 20 mins

● 2 large double-bone pork chops (cut thick to include two bones, ask your butcher or use regular large chops)

● 3 pinches of sea salt

● 4 turns of ground black pepper

● 1tbsp unsalted butter

● 2 thyme sprigs

● 100ml (3½fl oz) water For the apple sauce

● 2 Braeburn apples (or Bramley for a faster apple sauce – it has higher acidity and water content and will be done in 5 minutes)

● 2tbsp water

For the wilted kale

● 4 large handfuls of kale

● 100ml (3½fl oz) water

● A generous pinch of sea salt

● 1tbsp unsalted butter

First, make the apple sauce. Peel and core the apples, and chop them into pieces of about 2cm. In a medium pan with a lid and on a medium heat, cook the apple pieces in the water for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apple pieces are soft enough to be broken with the back of a fork. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the sauce to cool until ready to serve. It can be blended to a purée or left as it is, with more texture than a purée.

While the apple sauce is cooking, put the kale in a medium pan, add the water, season with the salt and place the butter on top of the kale. Cover the pan with a lid, and leave it for now. Next, season the pork chops with the salt and pepper. In a large frying pan over a medium heat, melt the butter and when it is foaming (at the beurre noisette stage), carefully add the thyme sprigs, and place the pork chops in the pan. Cook the chops for 7 minutes each side, until golden and appetising. After you have turned the chops, cook the kale.

Put the kale pan, covered with a lid, on a high heat. Very quickly the kale begins to steam and it will take 3-4 minutes to cook. Drain the kale, and taste for seasoning. In the final minute of the chops frying, pour the water into the hot pan. Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle – don’t you love the reassuring sound of near completion! Divide the kale between two plates, place a chop on top, and spoon the hot pan juices over. Serve with the apple sauce.

Extracted from Simply Raymond: Recipes From Home by Raymond Blanc, to be published by Headline Home on 29 April 2021 at £25. © Raymond Blanc 2021.