A Spot of Cookery: Pork Chops in Tomato Soup

This is my mother’s super easy pork chop recipe.

Basic Recipe: take one large London-style pork chop per person. Fry the chops until they are browned and throw them in a casserole dish. Season well with salt and pepper. Chop an onion and soften it in the same pan you cooked the pork in. When the onion is ready chuck in a can of Heinz tomato soup and bring it to the bubble. Pour your onion and soup mix into the casserole and put in the oven at Gas Mark 4 or 180 degrees for an hour. Serve with mashed potato.

I said “London-style pork chops” because I have never attempted to buy a pork chop in any other part of the UK, and you never know what cuts of pork might be on sale in, say Inverness, unless you’ve shopped there. Which I haven’t.

Our local shop here in beautiful Switzerland sells thin slices of pork. Very nice, but not the same. Plus, since Coronavirus lockdown we no longer have access to Heinz soup, so what to do? Obviously I have to make my own tomato soup... I mean sauce, for the Chef and me.

So, make a roux with about an ounce of butter and a spoonful of plain flour. Add a big squirt of tomato purée and then carefully mix in ½ pint of chicken stock. Obviously if you are cooking for more than 2 people you will want to add more stock.

Most times I can make a roux without a struggle but sometimes I get loads of lumps so if you aren’t an expert add the liquid very slowly, on a low heat, stirring all the time. Add ¼ teaspoon of marmite to the sauce and 100g passata (or more if making a larger quantity of sauce).

Season with salt and pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. It really does depend how much you want your sauce to mimic Heinz tomato soup, so add as much or as little seasoning as you like.

Cook the pork and onion according to the basic recipe. Add the sauce to the onions.

If your pieces of pork are smaller you only need to cook them for about 40 minutes.

Ingredients:
Butter
Plain flour
Tomato purée: about a tablespoon
Marmite: the Swiss make a version called Cenovis, and you could use Vegemite, but we import Marmite from London
Chicken stock: I always use a celery-free stock cube
Passata if you can get it, or finely chopped tinned tomatoes
Salt, pepper, sugar
1 Onion: chopped
Pork chops: 1 each if they’re big and chunky, 2 each if they’re small
Mashed potato, pasta, rice or maybe flatbreads to serve.

 I used the last can of Heinz tomato soup in the local supermarket