CHEAP CHOPS (and brine and green sauce, too)

Before giant factories were responsible for growing our meat and injecting the final product with a mixture of sugar water, good responsible folks took a decent product, like a thick cut pork chop, and submerged it in water and salt and sugar - and a handful of aromatic spices. They discovered that letting the chop float around in this bath was a way to give a lot of flavor and moisture to meat that ordinarily tasted about as good as a pair of rain boots. This flavor and moisture enhancing bath is called a "brine."

And while there's no certain ratio of salt to sugar to water to spices - this one works well for me:

Three quarts water
1/2 cup sea salt
1/4 cup cane sugar

A scant handful of:
Allspice
Juniper
Black and white peppercorns
Cloves
Bay leaves

Bring all your ingredients to a boil and then let cool. Set your meat in a non-reactice container. Pour the brine over it until it's covered. Keep for 2-3 days in the fridge.

This is a great tool for pork chops, loins and turkey. It's especially useful for more robust cuts of pig: trotters, tongues, ears, snouts - whole heads, even. Stop your bitching.

So, three days have elapsed. Grab the chops from the fridge; wipe them off and discard the brine. Season a cup of organic all purpose flour with cayenne, dry mustard, salt and pepper and mix. Add a knob of butter and some olive oil to a pan large enough for your chops to lounge comfortably in. When the butter is melted and the pan is making noise, coat both sides of the chops in the seasoned flour. Add them to the pan. Let them pop and sizzle.

Meanwhile prepare your green sauce. You'll need the following:

Anchovies
Cornichons
Capers
Boiled eggs
Garlic
Olive oil

And some or all of the follwing:

Parsley
Mint
Tarragon
Dill

Crush you garlic and mince it finely. Mix with the anchovies. Chop your cornichons and shred two boiled eggs. Roughly chop your herbs and add them to the bowl. Wet them with oil until the whole mixture comes together. Add capers. It's ready.

The chops need to be turned; you should have a nice brown crust on them. Cook for five minutes on the other side and then finish them in a moderate oven - 350 degrees. Take the pan from the oven; remove the chops and deglaze the pan with dry vermouth or white wine. Scrape the "fond" - all the little brown bits - off the bottom and take the heat down a bit. Return the chops. The liquid should thicken nicely.

Bring the bowl of green sauce to the table. Mustard's good, too. Grab some wine. Gnaw on them bones.

Photos: (a) Teh salsa verde; (b) brined thick-cut chop; (c) suppah