Koteletter i Fad

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy frying pan for browning
• •Oven-proof dish with lid, about 30cm (the fad)
• •Aluminium foil if your dish has no lid

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the pork chops

   Heat your oven to 180°C. Pat the pork chops completely dry with kitchen paper and season both sides generously with salt and white pepper. Heat the butter and oil together in a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Butter alone burns before you get the color you need. Oil alone gives no flavor. Together they give you the golden crust and the nutty richness that the whole dish builds on. When the butter foams and the foam begins to subside, lay the chops in without crowding. You need space between them, or they'll steam instead of searing. Brown for three minutes on each side until you have a deep golden crust. Transfer the chops to a plate. They won't be cooked through. That's the oven's job.

   Take the chops out of the fridge thirty minutes before you start. Cold meat in a hot pan steams instead of browning. You want them at room temperature so the surface sears the moment it hits the fat.
2. 2

   Cook onions and mushrooms

   In the same pan, with all those golden bits stuck to the bottom, add the sliced onions. Lower the heat to medium and stir them through the butter for three or four minutes until they soften and turn translucent. Now add the mushrooms. They'll release their water first, and the pan will seem too wet. Let it cook off. Once the liquid evaporates and the mushrooms start to color at the edges, you're in the right place. This takes another four or five minutes. Everything in the pan is picking up the flavor the chops left behind, and that fond is what gives the sauce its depth.

   Cut the mushrooms thickly, about half a centimetre. Thin slices disappear in the cream sauce. You want pieces with enough body to hold their shape through an hour of baking.
3. 3

   Build the cream sauce

   Sprinkle the flour over the onions and mushrooms and stir it through. Cook for one minute to take the raw edge off the flour. Pour in the chicken stock, stirring steadily, and let it come to a gentle simmer. The flour will thicken the liquid almost immediately. Now pour in the cream, stir everything together, and let it simmer for two minutes until you have a sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Taste it. Season with salt and white pepper. The sauce should taste well-seasoned now because it won't concentrate much further in the oven.

4. 4

   Assemble and bake

   Lay the browned pork chops in a single layer in your oven-proof dish. Tuck the thyme sprigs and bay leaves between them. Pour the cream sauce over and around the chops, making sure the mushrooms and onions are distributed evenly. The chops should be mostly submerged but not drowned. If they sit a little proud of the sauce, that's fine: the exposed tops will pick up a little color in the oven. Cover the dish tightly with a lid or foil and bake for thirty-five minutes. The covered time is important. It traps steam, and the steam is what tenderizes the meat around the bone, turning tough connective tissue into something that dissolves into the sauce. Then remove the cover and bake for another ten to fifteen minutes, until the sauce is bubbling gently at the edges and the tops of the chops have taken on a light golden finish.

   If the sauce looks thin when you remove the foil, don't worry. The uncovered time concentrates it. If it still seems loose at the end, lift the chops out and simmer the sauce on the stovetop for a few minutes.
5. 5

   Rest and serve

   Let the dish rest out of the oven for five minutes before you bring it to the table. The sauce will settle and the meat will relax, making it more tender and easier to eat. Remove the bay leaves. Scatter snipped chives and a few fresh thyme leaves over the top. Serve straight from the dish with boiled potatoes alongside, the small waxy kind if you can find them, and let people help themselves. This is the kind of food that belongs in the middle of the table, not plated in the kitchen. Cooked with love, eaten together. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •Bone-in chops are not negotiable here. The bone conducts heat slowly, which keeps the meat around it moist during the long bake. Boneless chops dry out and turn chalky. The bone also gives the sauce body as it releases collagen into the cream. You'll taste the difference.
• •Use piskefløde, the Danish heavy cream with 38% fat. Lower-fat creams can split in the oven. If you can't find piskefløde, any heavy whipping cream works. Cooking cream is too thin and will leave the sauce watery.
• •Serve this with small boiled potatoes and a dish of syltede rødbeder, pickled beetroot. The sweetness and acidity of the beetroot cuts through the richness of the cream sauce, and together they are the taste of a Danish weeknight done right.
• •A teaspoon of Dijon mustard or Danish sennep stirred into the sauce before it goes into the dish adds a quiet warmth that makes people ask what your secret is. It's not traditional, but tradition has room for good ideas.

Advance Preparation

• •The dish can be fully assembled, chops in sauce in the fad, and refrigerated for up to eight hours before baking. Add ten minutes to the covered baking time if going straight from the fridge to the oven.
• •Leftovers keep beautifully for two days. Reheat gently in a low oven, covered, at 150°C for twenty minutes. The sauce thickens overnight, and the flavors deepen. Some people prefer it the next day, and they're not wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)