Pork porterhouse with salsa verde

By chef Gaz Smith and butcher Rick Higgins. A pork porterhouse is essentially a T-bone steak, but when it’s from a cow, it’s a steak, and when it’s from a pig, it’s a chop.

Pork porterhouse with salsa verde

SERVES

2

PEOPLE

COOKING TIME

20

MINUTES

Ingredients

  • 2 x 400g pork porterhouse chops

  • Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 

  • 1 tbsp butter 

  • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 

  • A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 

  • To serve:

  • 2 tbsp salsa verde 

Method

  1. Season your pork chops with salt and pepper. Score the fat three or four times – this will help the chops to stay flat on the BBQ and not curl up.

  2. If you’ve ever cooked a steak on a BBQ, this is the same method: nice high heat, white ashes, beer in hand and the fattest pork chops you can lay your mitts on.

  3. Now this bit sounds complicated, but it isn’t. With a pair of tongs, hold your chops over the hot coals, fat side down, and keep them there. A good pork chop should stand up on its own, but you don’t want it to fall through the grates. A little ball of tin foil on either side of the chops will save your arms being burnt off. Cook it like this until the fat has sizzled, charred a bit and rendered down. There will be a bit of flare-up from the BBQ, but as you may know by now, I love a good flare-up.

  4. Once you’ve completed the above step, turn both the chops over onto their sides over a medium-high heat (your probe should read about 250°C) for 4 minutes, until browned with lovely char marks. Don’t touch them. They will likely stick, but if you just back away, they’ll unstick themselves. Whatever you do, don’t yank them off the grill if they’re stuck, you lunatic – hold tight, it’ll all come good. Turn them over and repeat on the other side for a further 5 minutes, until browned and caramelised. Transfer the chops to a large plate or platter.

  5. Put the butter, garlic and parsley in a small saucepan over a medium heat and allow the butter to melt. Cut the meat away from bone, then carve the meat into strips and pour all the buttery, garlicky juices over the chops. Take a moment to admire their beauty.

  6. Serve with a tablespoon of the salsa verde spooned on top. I always serve these with corn on the cob that I lash onto the now slightly cooled BBQ with the lid on as the chops relax.

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