This takes about half an hour to prepare and about an hour to cook

Ingredients

4 Pork chops - boneless, organic ones are the best
Marinade

• A handful of thyme
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• pesto

Method

Create the marinade by mixing the ingredients together - I use a whisk to get the lemon and oil to mix. Brush the mixture on both sides of the chops and leave to marinade for half an hour or so (it's ok if it is left longer).

Fry the chops evenly on both sides until they are nice and charred looking (this will create some smoke). When they're all done, smear on the pesto* (the more the better) and put them into an ovenproof dish, cover them with tinfoil and put them into a medium oven for 40 minutes or so.

The juices can be used to make gravy and these go really well with mashed potato.

* If you realize that you don’t have any pesto just before you’re supposed to smear it on, a good, grainy, mustard works very well too.

Tags: main meal

This makes a medium sized loaf:

3/4 teaspoon yeast
400g strong white flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
15g butter
270 ml water

Put them into the bread pan in the order above and turn the machine on

Tags: bread

Nearly there. The under-cupboard lights are in and the dishwasher and fridge have been plumbed in.

Tags: blog

This is where I will post cooking news, recipes and so on. It's going to a be a little thin until the kitchen is finished. More news as it happens.

Tags: blog