Pork and pears

Some people seem to have a problem cooking for me. No idea why, I'm perfectly pleasant and easily pleased when it comes to food. The only time I will have something to say is when a food crime is committed, namely overcooking or ruining quality ingredients, such as well-done steak for example. All I want when someone cooks for me is a simple yet tasty dish, I'm not looking for Michelin star, throw everything at the plate for several hours and hope it works type of cooking. So after persuading the Other Half to cook me dinner one Saturday evening, she opted for a recipe out of Nigel Slater's Fast Food (brilliant book, buy it now), pork and pears.

When the evening came around.... well the battle lines were drawn. I was booted out of my own kitchen with some force and ordered not to comment on what was happening or even enter the kitchen. A quick venture into the kitchen to find wine and to check my kitchen hadn't exploded was met with a barrel of abuse, knives whizzing past my head, followed by a frying pan and then with some nifty kung fu moves I was booted back into the living room through the door, there is still a Me shaped hole in the actual door.

10 minutes later after regaining consciousness, a rather tasty meal appeared. Turns out pears are very tasty with pork. It was a lovely contrast between the the caramelised pears and the slight saltiness of the pork alongside fluffy mash and bitter rocket.

Having not witnessed the actual cooking for fear of evisceration, I assume it went similar to this:

Pork and Pears
Ingredients
2 loin pork chops
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (crushed flat and unpeeled)
2 ripe pears, cut into eights and cored, peeling optional
75ml dry white wine
75ml chicken/veg stock or water

Method
Season the pork with the salt and pepper
Heat the oil and garlic in a pan over a high heat, add the chops.
Seal on both sides
Turn the heat down and add the pears
Cook until both are tender and browned

Remove chops and pears to a warm plate
Pour most of the fat from the pan and return to the heat
Pour in the wine, scraping away the bits of pork and pear that are clinging to the pan
Add the stock and simmer until reduced by half
Pour over the chops and pears

Serve with fluffy mash and bitter leaves