Pork chops with rhubarb and hazelnuts - a Saturday joy

My kitchen hasn't actually been confined yet. I feel like a fraud. I was working till Wednesday, I've had to be out to collect some stuff to set up a home office on Friday, and I do not own a washing machine. This last is going to be a *big* issue in the months to come. But I've thrown everything I can at the launderette Thursday and today, and that's been an excuse/reason to keep on shopping. No more, though.

This is the unflattering selfie of a person resolved to stop indoors and keep drinking from now on

Today, I spent £9.99 on a bottle of hand sanitiser, if anyone needs to record the absolute insanity of this week - I'm out, and I need it if I'm going to hand stuff over to my folks, who are fully isolating. And I went to the extremely posh deli just down from the launderette. They have implemented an only-10-customers-at-a-time rule and cracked down on multibuying, so there was actual food on the shelves. Wildly expensive food, obvs.

I am making an actual recipe here (from Claire Thompson's The Art of the Larder, which is tops and currently very relevant). It's made with rhubarb, and I thought this was going to be my first funny substitution post, even without the panic buying. I had made plans.* I'm not sure if it's the dreadful flooding in Yorkshire earlier this year, but I've seen virtually no rhubarb hereabouts, and this was what I needed. But then, I didn't last year, either. Maybe it's not in in London, or maybe the restaurants take it all. (Used to take...) But the posh deli had it, and since I've been throwing money at making this week bearable, I threw a bit more their way.

What I did not do, was take a photo of the rhubarb until it looked like this:

You know, it will taste really good.

This is fairly standard stewed rhubarb: 3 stems, chopped into short lengths, put in a pan with a splash of water, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 tsp ginger. Bring to a boil and simmer c10 minutes. I found this really tart, so I upped the sweet content. Rhubarb does vary. You can make this well ahead - the recipe suggests keeping it warm, but so long as it's not fridge-cold I think it would be fine.

It goes with pork chops, which it turns out I should have been marinating for a while. I gave tonight's an hour or so; tomorrow's will be tastier. The marinade is another 1/2tsp ginger, some cooking oil, 3tbsps honey, 30g chopped hazelnuts. I knew I had some hazelnuts lurking somewhere (the fridge, turns out). They were a bit aged and squidgy, but tasted okay. This is probably meant to create a crunch on eating, but that definitely didn't happen. They were nutty in flavour at least.

Raw meat, sorry.

Ideally I'd grill the chops, but grilling in a small flat with no kitchen door simply fills the place with smoke and sets the alarm off. So it's frying. 4-6 mins per side, relatively low heat. The honey means this *will* burn, but it's a nice caramelisation so long as you don't blast it too high. Rest for 5 minutes.

The Lone Pork Chop of luscious solo dining

I served this with asparagus (I have a problem with asparagus almost as great as my spice problem; I'm hoping to bore you with it later), and a hunk of bread because I still have some fresh. The rhubarb and asparagus don't really go together, but as a hint of spring, it's great. 21st March today. We are sprung.

YUM. Also, vitamins!

I am a truly terrible photographer, there's no denying. But this was good. It felt weekendish, too.


*(...on which note, does anyone have exciting suggestions for two large Bramley apples, otherwise unneeded in my schedule? Or else I'll just stew'em for breakfasts. I've added a label for this - 'ingredient inspiration', if you have similar stuff without a clear purpose.)