Chorizo & Smoked Paprika Pork Chops

The beans are the actual dish here and the chop is just the thing sitting on top of them. Chorizo renders out a quantity of orange, smoky, paprika-heavy fat, and if you cook the onions and beans in that fat instead of in oil you end up with something that tastes like it took far longer and cost far more than it did. One 110g stick of chorizo and a 40p tin of butter beans is doing most of the work.

Ingredients

• 2 pork chops — about 200 g each
• 110 g cured chorizo — skin off, diced small
• 1 tin butter beans — drained and rinsed
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 brown onion — finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic — sliced
• 1½ tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

To finish

• 2 tbsp soured cream
• A little rosemary — finely chopped

Method

1. Salt the chops early. Season both sides and leave them out while you start the beans — 20 minutes of sitting salted makes a noticeable difference to how juicy they stay.

2. Render the chorizo. Cold pan, chorizo in, medium-low heat. Let it come up slowly for 4–5 minutes until the fat runs out orange and the pieces crisp at the edges. Starting cold gets far more fat out than throwing it into a hot pan. Scoop the chorizo out with a slotted spoon and leave every drop of the fat behind.

3. Onions in the chorizo fat. Onion into that fat with a pinch of salt, 8 minutes on medium until soft and sweet. Garlic and smoked paprika for the last minute — keep it moving, paprika catches and turns bitter in seconds.

4. Build the beans. Tomatoes in, then the butter beans, then half the crisped chorizo. Simmer uncovered 15 minutes until it thickens to something that just holds its shape on a spoon. Crush a few beans against the side of the pan as it goes — it thickens the sauce without any flour.

5. Sear the chops. Separate pan, olive oil, high heat. Dry the chops again, then 3–4 minutes on the first side without touching them. Turn, 3 minutes more. If there's a fat cap, hold them on their edge with tongs for a minute first to render and crisp it.

6. Rest them. Off the heat onto a warm plate for 5 minutes. They carry on cooking. Pour any juices from the resting plate into the beans.

7. Serve. A deep spoonful of beans, chop on top, the rest of the crisp chorizo scattered over, a spoon of soured cream and the chopped rosemary. Taste the beans for salt first — the chorizo brings a lot, so it may need none.