Pork Chop with Apple, Sage & Cannellini Beans

Ingredients

• 2 thick-cut bone-in pork chops, about 280g each
• salt and black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 x 400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 100 ml chicken stock
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 25 g butter
• 1 large eating apple, cored and cut into thick wedges
• 8 fresh sage leaves
• 150 ml dry cider or apple juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Fresh thyme, to serve
• Steamed greens, to serve

Method

1. Pat the pork chops dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no crust. Season generously with salt and pepper on both sides, including the fat edge.
2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy stainless or cast iron pan over high heat until it's just shimmering. Lay the chops in away from you and don't move them — you want a deep mahogany crust, 4–5 minutes per side. If your pan only fits one comfortably, sear them one at a time; crowd the pan and they'll steam instead of brown. Rest on a board while you build the sauce.
3. Drop the heat to medium-high. Melt half the butter in the same pan — those brown stuck bits are the backbone of the sauce. Add the apple wedges and cook for 2–3 minutes per side until golden at the edges and just softened. Lift out and set aside with the chops.
4. Add the remaining butter, the sliced garlic and the sage leaves. Fry for 30–60 seconds, just until the sage crisps and the garlic turns pale gold and fragrant — don't let it go past that or it turns bitter and takes the sauce with it. Lift the sage out onto kitchen paper.
5. Pour in the cider and let it bubble hard for 2 minutes, scraping up the sticky bits from the base with a wooden spoon — that's where the flavour lives. Add the chicken stock and Dijon and simmer for 3 minutes until glossy and slightly reduced.
6. Tip in the cannellini beans and warm through for 3 minutes, letting them drink up the sauce. Taste, season, taste again — adjust the salt and pepper now, not at the table.
7. Slide the chops and apple wedges back in to warm through for a minute, spooning the sauce over the top. Any pork resting juices on the board go in too.
8. Plate the chops, spoon the beans, apples and cidery sauce around them, shatter the crispy sage leaves over the top, scatter the fresh thyme, and finish with a squeeze of lemon to cut the butter.