This recipe is worth a visit to your butchers for the best quality pork chops you can find. You want nice thick chops ideally on the bone and most definitely with the skin on. The cauliflower mash here can be used as a side to many pan fried or roasted meats and is good addition to your regular repertoire.
For the chops:
2-4 pork rib chops on the bone, skin on
6 sage leaves
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, finely sliced
2 handfuls of greens (kale, chard, spinach)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Cauliflower mash:
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp cream cheese
1 tsp thyme, finely chopped
A small handful chives
Metal steamer
Saucepan
Food processor
Large oven proof pan
It is from the Irish that the word ‘griskin’ comes, meaning the best part of the loin. Some idea of the usefulness of the pig is given in this extract from The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840–50, of Baltiboys House,Blessington. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.
November 20th, 1842
‘A present from old Peggy, the back griskins of her pig … it will be the most delicious bacon ever cured, but all the comfort that so small a weight of consumable material will give, the skin for a sieve, the lard for kitchen and the bones for soup, the blood for puddings, and the inmeats, a week’s dinners, it will be a very merry Christmas …’