Lemon-crumbed pork chop, spiced quince, smashed potato

Method

For the lemon crumb, cut the crusts off the loaf of bread, then cut the bread roughly into dice. In a food processor, in small batches, process the bread to make fresh breadcrumbs. Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl and mix with the other crumb ingredients. Flour the pork chops, then soak them in the beaten eggs. Dip them into the breadcrumb mix to crumb them thoroughly, leaving the bone exposed. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to set the crumb. In a heavy frying pan over medium-low heat, heat the oil and butter until the butter starts to froth, but don’t burn the butter. Add the pork chops and fry until golden on both sides, about 4–5 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towel. For the spiced quince, peel, quarter and core the quince, then put them and their peel in a bowl of water to stop them from browning. Preheat the oven to 110°C. Put 4 cups of water and the sugar in a pot over low heat, along with the cardamom, lemon peel, cinnamon and peppercorns. Bring to a simmer. Add the quince and cook for 5 minutes, then pour the contents of the pan into a baking dish. Cover the ingredients with the reserved quince peel and bake in the oven for about 1 hour, or until the quince are tender. (Baking them in the oven will ensure they don’t break up, and adding the peel gives them that nice pink colour.) For the smashed potato salad, wash, peel and quarter the potatoes. Place them in a pot over medium heat and cover with cold salted water. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes well and return them to the pot with the butter and pepper. Roughly smash them up with a fork, season to taste and add the herbs last so as not to discolour them. To build the plate, rest the pork chop on the smashed potato salad and place the quince on the side with a little of the poaching syrup.