Roasted pork chops

Cyril Lignac is one of the most popular chefs in France at the moment. He is often on TV shows, opens new restaurants and publishes cookery books. He used to write recipes for supermarket booklets and his roasted pork chops was published years back in a such booklet.

The following recipe is my twist of his original recipe. It works just as well with traditional pork chops with bone and pork chops without bone. It now seems that removing bones from pork chops is fashionable among French butchers. Chops without bones need a bit shorter roasting time.

In spring, I like to serve the chops with roasted tomatoes, green asparagus, and rice mix as shown in the photo.

2 servings

2 pork chops

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 small shallot, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. soya sauce

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C, roast.

Coat a large oven-proof dish with olive oil and place the chops in it. Make a mixture of Dijon mustard, minced shallot and garlic, soya sauce, black pepper, and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Divide the mixture on pork chops. Roast the chops for 30 minutes if the bones have been removed, for about 40 minutes if the bones are still on. Cover with aluminium foil if the chops brown too much.

Tomato halves and green asparagus can be roasted in the same dish. Sprinkle the tomato halves with some bread crumbs and olive oil and roast for about 20 minutes. Trim away the tough ends of asparagus and shake in a plastic bag with some olive oil. Roast for about 15 minutes.

Cook the rice mix according to the advice on the package. Divide the chops, rice, and vegetables on the plates and decorate with chopped basil.