My Moorish pork chops
When the Moors invaded Spain they brought grapes and dried fruits with them. Their love of mixing dried fruits with meats definitely left its mark on Spanish cooking and this is my nod to that time in Spain's history. Cut into these big tender chops and you'll get sweet juicy flavours inside perfectly cooked meat. Go to a good butcher and ask for chops that are 2.5cm thick, ideally with two different colours of meat on them: the sweet darker meat, and the leaner eye meat. Then head to any good food store for the jarred beans. Spanish beans are like the Bentley of beans, so although they cost a bit more than the tinned ones they make all the difference.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 14 of 17 ingredients — the other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 14 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Pork | 100g cooked | 242 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Bacon | 1 slice cooked (8g) | 43 |
| Wine | 2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml) | 25 |
| Chili | 1 tsp (2.7g) | 8 |
| Spinach | 1 cup raw (30g) | 7 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Oregano | 1 tsp dried (1.8g) | 5 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Marjoram | not in our table | 0 |
| Bean | not in our table | 0 |
| Swiss Chard | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- a few sprigs fresh oregano or marjoram, leaves picked
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small handful raisins
- good-quality dry sherry
- Spanish extra virgin olive oil
- 4 large, thick higher-welfare pork chops, approximately 350g each, bone in
- a few slices pata negra, trimmed fat of, and some pata negra offcuts (or 2 rashers higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon, roughly chopped, or pancetta)
- olive oil
- 1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 large red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
- a few sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked
- a few fresh bay leaves
- 540 g jarred white beans or butter beans, drained
- 400 g Swiss chard, stalks trimmed, or spinach leaves