We’ve always had a signature pork dish on the menu – it wouldn’t be THE PIG without it! For a long time, it was the Bath chap, a bold and hearty choice (definitely not for the faint-hearted). These days, our signature has evolved into a dish that’s a little more refined but still packs in all those robust, smoky flavours we love – a pork chop.
This dish, much like the one featured on our current mid-week lunch offer menu, is all about celebrating the best cuts and keeping things simple yet satisfying. The pork is brined overnight to lock in the flavour, then charred for a smoky, golden finish. Served up with rainbow chard or garden greens and a tangy mustard sauce, it’s a real showstopper.
If you’d like to try your hand at dishing up this PIG classic at home, we’ve shared the recipe below – perfect for a cosy midweek dinner. Or, for the real deal, why not join us for our mid-week lunch offer, where this dish is waiting for you? Book a table here.
Ingredients:
Serves 4
4 tomahawk pork chops
5 knobs of butter
4 garlic cloves, bashed
4 sprigs of thyme
a couple of handfuls of rainbow chard or another leafy green such as kale
salt and pepper
For the brine:
500ml (18fl oz) water
25g (1oz) table salt
25g (1oz) soft dark brown sugar
a sprig of rosemary
a sprig of thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed
For the mustard sauce:
500ml (18fl oz) fresh beef stock
1 teaspoon fruit vinegar
70ml (5 tablespoons) double cream
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
Method:
The day before, make the brine by boiling all the ingredients together until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Leave to cool to room temperature (this will take a couple of hours). Immerse the pork chops in the brine and leave in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Wash off and pat dry.
To make the sauce, reduce the beef stock to a glaze consistency (so that it coats the back of a spoon), add the fruit vinegar and the double cream, and bring to the boil. Add the mustard and whisk it in so there’s an even amount of sauce and mustard. It should be thick and gorgeous and the colour of milky coffee.
Preheat the oven to 220°C, 200°C fan (425°F), Gas Mark 7. Either chargrill the pork chops or cook them on the stove in a ribbed griddle pan, rotating them after 2 minutes by an angle of 90 degrees so you get nice criss-cross lines. Grill for another 2 minutes then flip and repeat on the other side (so that you’re grilling them for 8 minutes in total).
Put the chops on a baking tray and top each one with a knob of butter, a sprig of thyme and a garlic clove. Roast in the oven for 6 minutes, then rest for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, prep the chard by separating the leaves from the stems. Finely slice the stems into batons and blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes. At the last moment, throw in the leaves and cook for 30 seconds. Drain, put back in the pan with the remaining knob of butter, salt and pepper, and lightly toss. Serve the chops with the chard and the mustard sauce.
Around our Kitchen Table
Mid-week lunch from £28.50 per person
If you’d rather leave the cooking to us, pull up a chair round ours and join us for our mid-week lunch offer menu, featuring two courses for £28.50 or three for £32.50, until 28th February across THE PIGs (excluding THE PIG-in the wall and The Village Pub). It’s the perfect excuse to escape to your favourite PIG and enjoy a long, lazy lunch in good company! Find out more here.