Pork chops with wild garlic & mushrooms
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 4 pork chops, bone in
- 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
- 1 shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
- 125g shiitake mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 2 large handful wild garlic, washed and thickly sliced
- 70ml white wine
- 150ml double cream
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
- 100ml water
- 1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon
- Maldon sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
You will need a large frying pan and a roasting tray large enough for the 4 pork chops.
Timings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Pork chops with wild garlic & mushrooms
Wild garlic comes out at the end of February in the UK and carries on until April. You can find it in damp, shady areas of woodland and banks of wooded pathways. By the time the season is well under way, you’ll most likely smell it before you can see it! It Wild garlic has a pungent smell… think of a grassy version of regular garlic and you’ll be conjuring up the right kind of aromas.
Try and pick just 2-3 leaves from each plant to ensure that the bulb continues to produce more leaves. Once home from foraging, I like to pop it in a bowl of cold water to wash and freshen the leaves. Then I drain and keep in the fridge in a bag for up to 1 week. You can also chop and freeze the leaves for use throughout the year.
This recipe is a beautiful and easy way to make the most of wild garlic, with the creamy mustardy wine juices and saltiness from the pork combining with the earthiness and goodness of the shiitake mushrooms. A truly delightful meal.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180/350/gas 4.
Season the pork chops on either side with Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry for 4 minutes on either side, or until the chops have started to take on some colour.
Remove the chops from the frying pan to a roasting pan. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the juices have run clear. The cooking times will depend on the thickness of the pork chop. The meat should be white or grey not pink inside.
Meanwhile, make the wild garlic and mushroom sauce. Return the frying pan to the heat and fry off the mushrooms and shallots of 5 minutes. Add the wine and let it bubble for a further 3 minutes.
Next add the cream, wild garlic, Dijon and wholegrain mustards and vegetable bouillon and cook for a further 3 minutes, scrapping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Taste and season with Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper as necessary.
When the pork chops are cooked, drain the sauce from the pork pan into the sauce. Stir well.
Serve alongside the pork chops and pour over all the sauce from the pan. This is lovely with some boiled new potatoes and sprouting broccoli.
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT RECIPE HERE.
The wild garlic leaf is a beautiful verdant green with smooth edges and a pointed tip. It eventually produces a white chive-like flower by the end of Spring. The main way to tell it apart from other plants is by it’s smell and the smoothness of its leaf. Do take care as the Lily of the Valley (also with green leaves but with more of a snowdrop flower) is poisonous.”
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