Pork Chops & Roasted Rhubarb.

When Chopper met Rhuby it was love at first bite. At least for this dish anyway ♥ The beautiful marriage of roasted rhubarb and a simple pork chop, with roasted rosemary & garlic potatoes and our good friend zucchini is just perfect. As the summer months are sadly behind us, we look forward to the cooler autumn climate, and our vegie patch too is starting to reflect the change in season. Our rhubarb that was planted months ago is now plentiful, along with eggplant/aubergine and zucchinis/courgettes (there seems to be a never ending supply!). The basil is still going strong too (any more basil recipes – send on over). The pork was sourced locally from our butcher who gets his pork from Otway’s (regional Victoria), and the potatoes from the farmers market.  A truly regional low-mileage meat + 2 veg + 1 fruit dinner…Enjoy.

Prep time: approx. 20 min. cooking time: about 45 min

Kitchen stuff needed: a grill, Sharp knife, 2 x large baking dish, chopping board, blender, cling wrap, foil.

Ingredients from the garden:

6 x stalks of fresh rhubarb

2 x large Zucchini

4 x springs of rosemary
6 x large potatoes (courtesy of local farmers market)

Other Ingredients

4 x large pork chops (go and see your local butcher instead of supermarket if you can)

1 x teaspoon cinnamon

2 x tblespn white sugar

50gm x butter
6 x cloves garlic
Olive oil

S & P to taste

Let’s do it:

1. Turn on oven to 180 degrees

2. Peel your potatoes, chop each potato (if bigger) into about 6 pieces each. Throw in pot of boiling water and boil for about 6 min.

3. In a bowl, add your pork chops, a clove of chopped garlic, the cinnamon, s&P and a good swig of olive oil. Get your hands in there and massage the flavours into each side of the meat, cover bowl in cling film and pop in fridge.

4. Chop all rhubarb into 8cm (or so) chunks. Place in baking tray, sprinkle evenly with sugar and butter. Pop in oven and roast for 20 min.

5. Drain water out of pot that potatoes are in. Then holding on tightly give the pot a good shake and rough up the tatoes a bit around the edges. Lay out onto a clean dry tea towel for a few min to dry and then pop into a baking dish.

6. Tear off your rosemary from the stalks and add to potatoes, along with 4 whole garlic cloves (skin on), a good sprinkle of sea salt and pepper, and ¼ cup of olive oil. Again, get your hands dirty here and give them all a good toss together. Pop in the oven to join Rhuby, err.. the rhubarb. These need at least 30 min.

7. Wait 10 min take out the rhubarb, put your feet up, have a glass of wine J you have a 10 min break.

8. Feeling refreshed, chop zucchini into rounds and then halve than. Fry off with last clove of chopped garlic gently. Turn off heat once slightly soft and cooked through but leave in pan.

9. Turn on grill/griddle pan and when hot, place your pork chops onto the pan. Cook each side for 5 min. (or to your liking. Once cooked on both side, rest pork on plate with some foil over the top.

10.         Lastly take approx. ¼ of baked rhubarb, pop in blender with a small swig of olive oil and pulse for a few sec until smooth

11.         Now to plate up! Divide the roasted rhubarb evening between 4 plates, and make a nice little bed for the pork to rest. Add a small tower of zucchini circles to the plate, with some lovely roasted potatoes and add a dollop of the sauce. Lastly add your pork and a clove of delicious caramelised roasted onion on top.

Enjoy with a large glass Trentham Estate Pinot Chardonnay Sparkling > keeping it local of course :)

Soundtrack for Country Victoria Autumn dinner: Fish Out of Water by Ash Grunwald