Pork chops with quince | Lawrence Murphy

Hampshire and West Sussex are renowned for fantastic quality outdoor-reared pork and you only have to take a trip to Funtington to see the pigs snuffling around their fields to know they are happy.

A slow-cooked pork belly is a great winter dish but does take quite a long time to get to the table.

A good pork chop, however, takes a relatively short time to pan-fry and finish in the oven.

In fact, the quince will probably take longer to cook than the pork. With its wonderful aromatic flavour, quince works so well with our local pork and with the addition of some silver skin onions and a little sage makes a great mid-week supper.

Ingredients – serves 4

4 pork chops

1 quince

500ml water

100ml white wine

175g caster sugar

Buice of half a lemon

Bay leaf

16 silverskin onions peeled

24 sage leaves

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel the quince, cut into wedges and remove the core.

2. Put the quince, water, wine, lemon juice, sugar and bay leaf into a saucepan.

3. Bring to a simmer and cook on a low heat for 25min until the quince starts to turn orange.

4. Add the silverskin onions and cook for a further 10 min.

5. Allow to cool and strain the onions and quince from the liquid.

6. Season the chops and pan fry them until browned all over. Transfer them onto a baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven 210C gas 6 for 8 to 12 mins, depending on how large the chops are.

7. While the chops are cooking, fry the onions and quince in a little butter and add the sage.

8. Once the chops are cooked put them onto warmed plates and top with the quince, sage and onions.