BBQ Pork Chops with Sauce Verte
Maison Mirabeau Wine
The sauce is a cross between the Argentinian chimichurri and an Italian ‘salsa verde’. Ben’s version is hand-chopped, so has lots of texture and isn’t too liquid or smooth. This recipe is for a big batch of sauce verte – as it’s a great sauce with all barbecued food!
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Passive Time 8 hours hrs
Course Main Dish
Cuisine French
- 4 Pork Chops free-range or organic *
- 1 bunch Asparagus with the bottoms, snapped off
Ingredients – Marinade:
- 2 Garlic Cloves sliced
- 1 sprig Rosemary
- 1 sprig Thyme
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil
- Black Pepper to season
Ingredients – Spicy Sauce Verte:
- 1 big bunch Parsley roughly chopped
- 1 big handful Basil roughly chopped
- 1 big handful Coriander roughly chopped
- 1 Red Chilli deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 Garlic Cloves crushed
- 1 Shallot finely chopped
- 20 g Dijon Mustard or 10g English mustard
- 8-10 Anchovies roughly chopped
- 2 tsp Capers roughly chopped
- 2 tsp Pickled Gherkins pickles, cornichons, roughly chopped
- 30 ml Cider Vinegar
- 30 ml Red Wine Vinegar **
- 80 ml Extra Virgin olive oil
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce verte together in a big bowl. Season, and put in the fridge. This can be done the day before you require it
Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil, blanch asparagus for 10-20 seconds, then plunge into iced water
Marinate the pork chops and leave in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight if possible
Take the pork out of the fridge 40-60 minutes before you want to cook it. Season generously with salt and cook over high heat on the BBQ. Alternatively, you can cook it on high heat in a frying pan – remove any bits of marinade that may burn (garlic, rosemary etc.)
After a couple of minutes on the first side, look at the colour of the meat to see if they’re ready for turning – the meat should be a light golden brown. When the colour is even on both sides, take them off the heat and rest for five minutes
Char the asparagus on the BBQ or in a frying pan
Place pork chops on a bed of asparagus on a sharing plate, and drizzle with sauce verte
* Ideally, rib chops that come from the middle part of the loin. Ask the butcher for ‘French-trimmed’ if you’d like the bone exposed and visible as we did
** You can play around with which vinegar to use depending on what you have in your cupboard but steer clear of balsamic vinegar.
Keyword Anchovies, Asparagus, Parsley, Pork, Sauce Verte