Friday. 25/09/2015. 'Pork Chops Arrabiata'

This recipe comes from 'Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect, Step by Step.' by Mary Berry. Page 144. It was accompanied by 'Pan-fried Courgettes with Crispy Shallots.' Page 210 of the same book. 

book pic.

This dish looked simple on the book picture but with the ingredients it uses, was sure to be full of flavour and pack a punch. Growing tomatoes, chillies and peppers, this one was just bang on the garden bounty money! 

my more messy result

With the preparation done, I went to cook what we are very partial to in this house, a good chop. Whatever the meat, this is a prime cut to us.

The Prep.

Romanesco Peppers.

Romanesco Peppers in our Garden.

I used more peppers than the recipe required to prevent waste of the few that we had in the fridge but also because we do love them. We are growing Romanesco peppers in the patio for the first time. If we have many of them, if they look quite successful, they are still very much green, a couple of days to October. This summer didn't lack of rain but it did a bit sunshine wise. So we chopped three shop bought Romanesco peppers which means we have another batch of seeds to sow next year and one Californian yellow bell pepper.

chopped peppers.

Bumble Bee Cherry Tomatoes.

The Sauce on the stove.

The sauce was truly the star of the show in this dish. I had a fair few cherry tomatoes of the Bumble Bee variety to use up which this sauce allowed me to do. They have that exquisite sweetness which was only a plus. I also chopped a fresh cayenne chilli from the garden instead of using a dried one. The taste of that sauce is absolutely delicious.

Bye Bye Bumble Bee tomatoes. 

Book Pic

Book recipe

For the side, the pan-fried courgettes with crispy shallots worked really well to keep in the line of the Mediterranean feel of the first recipe. It also added extra textures to the entire plate which was a true bonus from the mellow softness of the courgettes to the crispy skin of the sweet shallots. This year I haven't grown any courgettes like last year, making their usual space available to try my hand on growing pumpkin and butternut squash however I intend to have them next year again in the garden. This means that that very nice side recipe comes very handy to keep in my mind in order to deal with any future and potential courgettes glut.

Pan-Frying the Courgettes and Shallots.

All in all, we loved the entire dinner and gave it another high five. The result is that we will have it again.