We had a busy start to the year rearing the pigs. Visiting them twice a day for nearly six months certainly kept us occupied. Now that the pigs have been dispatched we can now look at harvesting our allotment of the vegetables that succeeded. Nearly everything I planted outside got eaten by the crows. I should have put a net over them to deter the pests. But the allotment beats the hedgerow for a meal every time and the vermin know this. The battle against these intruders is continuous through out the seasons. Our spuds did okay considering how dry June was. I planted the Home Guard variety, which is an early potato. The yield was small but tasty all the same. Our onions did very well outside as did our leeks. The rhubarb thrived leaving us with both sweet and tart stalks. Perfect for chutney. The parsnips did surprisingly well giving us a lovely sweet root. On an upside to all the vegetables that didn’t make it, our poly tunnel is in full swing. We grew tomatoes,chillies,courgettes,sweet potatoes and strawberries to name a few. The sweet potatoes are still growing and the rest of the growing vegetables act like a walk thru grocery store. These plants just keep on giving. The chillies have a real kick to them and the courgettes are nice and plump with the right amount of moisture. The vine tomatoes are little globes of acidic sweetness. They have just the right amount of balance needed for a sweet tomato.

These days when we now go to cook our pork we try to make sure we cook it the best way possible. This is our delicious recipe for cooking your chops. Cooking them this way prevents the chops from drying out and keeps them moist and rich with flavour.

Ingredients:
For the chop

4 large pork chops

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp Garam Masala

150ml Marsala Wine

12 vine tomatoes

100g sliced mushrooms

1 inch knob of ginger chopped

2 large shallots chopped

1 large clove of garlic finely chopped

1 courgette chopped into batons

1 tsp Maldon Sea Salt

2 tsp cumin

1 whole chilli finely chopped

For the mash

4 large potatoes

40g unsalted butter

1 tsp Maldon sea salt

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp fresh sage

The Make:
Firstly peel the potatoes and add them to a pot of water and bring it to boil. Now season the chops with Garam Masala spice on both sides. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the seasoned pork chops. Sear off the meat until lightly golden, approx 8-10 mins. Place chops on an oven tray. Now add to a frying pan the chopped shallots, garlic, ginger, chilli, sliced mushrooms, courgette batons, cumin and vine tomatoes. Season with 1 tsp of Maldon sea salt. Now add 50ml of Marsala wine. Bring to simmer for approx 10 mins to allow flavours to infuse. Now pour the mixture over each chop in baking tray. Pour the remaining 100ml of Marsala wine over each chop. Cook in oven at 180C  for approx 10-15 mins. Remove potatoes from boil, add butter, Maldon sea salt, garlic salt, thyme and sage. Plate up the mash, place a chop on top with a generous helping of tomato and courgette mix. And finish off with a generous spoon of the wonderful juice over the top.
Enjoy.