Belgium: Côtelettes de porc a la Flamande (Flanders-style Pork Chops with Apple and Cider)

It's interesting how firmly an adjective can get attached to a recipe. Say "a la Flamande" to most cooks, and almost all of those who've ever heard the phrase before will instantly add the word "Carbonnade" to the front of it, citing the famous recipe for beef in Belgian beer.

Yet they do drink other things in Belgium, and cook with other things. There is, for example, some good hard cider around. (We specify "hard" here for the sake of our North American readers: in Europe, cider is always alcoholic, and everything else is just apple juice.) Stassen is probably the best-known of the Belgian ciders. But other ones would certainly have made their way across the border from France (when the local farmers weren't already brewing their own cider out back). It was only a matter of time before some good dry cider found itself into a pork dish like this, displacing the ubiquitous beer. (Though EuroCuisineGuy, a Belgian beer fan to the last, points out that this recipe would also work nicely with one of the sharp dry fruit beers like Kriek or framboise.)

The spicing in this dish is interesting. The presence of the juniper berries and the rosemary suggests that the people who first came up with the recipe saw an advantage in flavoring it as if it was something gamier -- specifically wild boar. Whatever, the juniper certainly enhances the flavor of the pork, pointing up the fruity quality of the apples as well.

Plated up with the côtelette in the image is shredded baby cabbage baked in cream.

Click on "read more" for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 thick pork chops (1 1/2 to 2 inches thick)

• 50 grams butter
• 4 large tart apples, preferably a cooking variety like the Bramley apple
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 crushed juniper berries
• Sprigs of rosemary and parsley
• 30 grams butter, melted: to pour over
• Hard (alcoholic) dry cider to cover: probably about 500 ml. (You can substitute nonalcoholic apple cider if you prefer, though the dish will not be as good, as the hard cider's acidity helps tenderize the pork while baking.)

This recipe can be made either with pork chops still attached to the bone, or boneless ones. Whichever you're using, trim off any excess fat before you start. Also, peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. (Using a mandoline works well for this.)

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F.

Brown the chops gently in butter on both sides for ten to fifteen minutes. Arrange them in a shallow lidded casserole.

Crush the juniper berries and scatter them over the pork chops. Add the parsley and rosemary sprigs. Arrange the apples over the pork chops: tuck some slices down the sides as well, if they'll fit.

Pour the melted butter over the apples. Finally, add enough cider to just come up to the top of the pork chops (leaving the apples just barely exposed).

Put in the oven for 30 minutes. At this point, remove the lid and check to see if the cider needs topping up. Continue cooking with the lid off the casserole for another 20-25 minutes, until the pork is completely cooked through and quite tender.

Serve directly from the casserole, spooning the cider sauce over.

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