Occasionally nothing that will do but a properly grilled pork chop and, sadly, so often pork chops are not properly cooked. The fat will be flabby and the chop will lack the char that makes it so delicious. It is difficult to get pork chops right at home without ending up with a smoke filled kitchen and the stressful cacophony of the smoke alarm in the background but this method works. I cannot take credit for it, I read about it on the website kitchen but the recipe is my own.
The morning of the day that you plan on making the pork chops, prepare the brine. I tend to do this as I make my coffee, leave the chops in brine in the fridge and have them ready to cook when I get home. You can skip this step. My brine consists of 3 cups of water, 2 tablespoons salt, 1 tablespoon mustard powder, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, 2 teaspoons crushed fennel seed and a bay leaf. I melt the salt and dissolve the syrup in about 1/3 cup of boiling water, add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, top up with ice water and submerge the chops. Voilà until dinner time.
4 bone-in pork chops, brined as mentioned above
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp mustard powder
8 dates, pitted
2 Tbsps grain mustard
2 tsps white wine or Bourbon
Preheat your oven to 400. As soon as you turn the oven on, place an oven proof skillet in it to heat up at the same time as the oven.
Remove the meat from brine or package and dry well with paper towels.
Mix one tablespoon of the olive oil, the maple syrup and the mustard powder together to form paste. Brush half of this mixture over the top side of the pork chops. Salt them. Set the remaining half of the mustard-maple mixture aside for later.
Turn your kitchen fan to high. Gingerly, using your thickest oven mitts, remove the skillet from the oven and place over medium heat. Add the remaining teaspoon of olive oil.
Using tongs, start by rendering the thin fattiest side of the chops by holding them against the surface of the pan for about a minute. Remove and repeat until all 4 pork chops have a rim of crispened fat.
Then place them, mustard-maple brushed side down, in the hot pan. Sear for 3 minutes. While the pork chops are searing, brush with the remaining mustard-maple mixture and salt again.
After 3 minutes, turn the pork chops over and place in the oven for an additional 8 minutes.
While the meat is cooking, make the date mustard by placing the dates, grain mustard and wine in a blender or whizzing them with an immersion blender until they form a smooth paste.
Remove the pork chops from the oven, move to a plate, cover with a loose layer of tin foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. If making the Baby Hakurei Turnips and Turnip Greens in Thyme Cream that I made to accompany this dish, use the skillet in which you cooked the pork to add all the meaty juices to the thyme cream.
Serve the pork chops with a generous dollop of the date mustard on the side as well as a ladle of the thyme cream, if serving.