The Return of the Naked Chef

Dinner last night was tray baked pork chops with potatoes, parsnips and pears, from The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver.

The recipe first triggered a major bugbear, and subject for a rant another day, of mine; the wide spread dishonesty of food photography in recipe books. The dish shown to illustrate the recipe is obviously not cooked from the recipe given.

The dish itself was OKish, but has the potential to be a great meal if cooked with a bit more intelligence. As written, all of the ingredients are mixed together, then cooked together for the same length of time. This resulted in undercooked vegetables, and dry, overcooked pork chops. It also doesn't result in the chops being beautifully browned as in the illustration. The flavours, however, were great and really worked together,

So, what would I do differently? I would cut the potatoes into  I would toss the veggies with the marinade drained from the pork and cook them for 45 minutes or so, or until browned and almost done. I'd then sear the chops to brown them, and add to the veggies for the final 15 minutes or so to finish cooking.

Tray Baked Pork Chops with Potatoes, Parsnips and Pears

8 pork chops, or 4 double pork chops
1 * rosemary, garlic and lemon marinade (see below)
3 parsnips
3 smooth skinned pears (I used Conference)
680g/1.5lb potatoes
salt and pepper

Rosemary, garlic and lemon marinade
2 good handfuls of fresh rosemary, pounded
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 lugs olive oil
3 lemons, halved, juiced and skin squashed
freshly ground black pepper

Rub the chops with the marinade, and leave for 1-6 hours (in the fridge in a ziplock bag, turning regularly).

Preheat the oven to 220C. Wash and quarter the parsnips and pears, removing the core from the pears. Slice the potatoes into 0.5cm slices (I'd cut the potatoes into chunks in future, and probably start cooking them before adding the parsnips and pears).

Put everything (the potatoes and marinade) into an appropriately sized (the largest I have) roasting tin, and toss together lightly to coat. Season, then roast for 45 minutes-1 hour (adding parsnips and pears after 20 minutes and cooking until veggies are almost done. Then sear the chops in a very hot pan and add them to the tray. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes) depending on the size of the chops,