Roast Pork Chops with radicchio and apples and deep fried courgette

Serves:  4

Ingredients:
4 pork chops, about 200g each
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
3 Garlic cloves
40g butter
2-3 sage leaves
100ml of Marsala

For the Radicchio:
3 firm apples (such as Braeburn), peeled, cored and quartered
1-2 heads of radicchio, finely sliced
Handful of lemon thyme, finely chopped
Splash of Cider vinegar

Method

For the pork:
With scissors, make diagonal cuts into the fat 1/4-inch deep, making sure you don’t cut into the meat. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, season the pork chops on both sides and transfer to the pan and fry over moderate heat, add the garlic. Fry for 2-3 minutes on both sides.
Add half of the butter towards the end of cooking and then the sage leaves. Baste the chops as they finish cooking. Drain the excess fat and then deglaze with Marsala and reduce until you are left with a syrupy sauce. To check if the pork chop is cooked the flesh should feel firm but still slightly springy when pressed. Rest the chops for 5-10 minutes.

For the apples and radicchio:
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a moderate heat. Add the apples and fry for 5 minutes, turning them now and again until slightly under cooked. Add the radicchio to the apples. Cook for about 2 minutes until they begin to wilt, then add the thyme. Finally, add a splash of cider vinegar, let it cook out for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, and remove from the pan and keep warm.

Courgette tempura:
3 medium courgettes, cut into batons
80g self-raising flour
Fine sea salt
1 small free-range egg yolk
150ml cold water
2 free-range egg whites

Sift the flour into a bowl with ½ a teaspoon of salt. Make a well in the middle, add the egg yolk then gradually beat in 150ml cold water to make a smooth batter. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks then fold into the flour mix.

Heat enough oil to come a third of the way up a shallow saucepan to a temperature of 180?C. Have a baking tray lined with kitchen paper ready to place the deep fried courgette on once cooked.

Deep-fry the courgette batons in batches. One by one, dip them into the batter then transfer to the hot oil, using a pair of tongs. Fry for 3-4 minutes until crisp and golden in color. Transfer to the tray to absorb any excess oil and keep warm in a low oven while you fry the rest.

To serve:
Pile the apples and radicchio on to the centre of 4 warm plates. Slice the pork then rest on top and spoon over the sauce. Garnish with the courgette tempura.