Day 87: Pork chops with sage and apple

Sunday, 5 August 2012. A momentous day in every Donegal person’s life. For that is the day that Donegal beat Kerry. The naysayers said we couldn’t beat the Kingdom but, if there’s one thing that Donegal people have an abundance of, it’s the sheer determination to be a grafter; pouring heart and soul into what we do. For years to come, every Donegal person will know where they were the day we beat Kerry. I, of course, instead of being in Croke Park, was actually in the kitchen doing this Challenge though and thank God for it because it was the only thing that could contain my nerves throughout an enthralling 70+ minutes. From 4 o’clock until the final whistle, I cooked and cleaned and cooked and baked and cleaned some more. Never did cooking time go so quickly. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone with a heart complaint could watch a match like that without ending up in A&E. Thankfully, I don’t have that to worry about. We all dreamt about winning; an almost impossible task for a relatively new squad against a county with 36 All-Ireland wins. The hoping and wishing was almost palpable as we watched our county panel line up for Amhrán na bhFiann. All that stood between us and a win over an admittedly tough side was 70 minutes of hard work ethic and magic which Jim McGuinness has instilled in our players. Aw, I think I could write and write about today’s match but, then again, you’re reading this for the cooking and not the football so, I’ll get down to the recipe which was Pork chops with sage and apple.

I started off my melting butter in a griddle frying pan. I then added two seasoned pork chops and fried them for 3 minutes on each side before adding sliced apple. After 5 minutes, I poured in some cider (Bulmers, if you must know!) and stirred in crème fraiche and sage. I used dried sage because I hadn’t a hope of getting any of the fresh stuff. It all bubbled away for a few minutes until the sauce thickened and I finished it off my seasoning it. I served the pork chops with a small portion of potato and bacon gratin as I made some smaller portions the other night.

The verdict…

A personal win for me today as Dear Husband scored the pork chops a full 10 out of 10 marks. Every evening I try to get more feedback out of Dear Husband; for one who is so fond of talking and who is also extremely good at it, it’s a task to get anything other than the score and mono-syllabic responses when it comes to verdicts for the Challenge. Therefore, although I would love to be able to elaborate on the verdict each night, that section of the blog will continue to be diminutive.  

Overall, an extremely easy, worthwhile and highly recommended recipe to make especially considering the high marks. I just asked Dear Husband there now were the pork chops worthy of Sunday lunch status and his response was “big time!”.  I told you…mono-syllabic verdicts…