Thomasina Miers’ recipe for pork chops with garlic roast turnips

It was the chef Rowley Leigh who alerted me to how good turnips are, with their sweet and delicate flavour. Here, they are complemented by the season’s young garlic, which makes a wonderful partner for pork chops.

Pork chops with roast turnips, summer garlic and caramelised lemon

Prep 20 min
Cook 35 min
Serves 4

Pair the turnips with garlic, lemon and olive oil-braised chickpeas for a vegetarian alternative.

4 pork chops
8 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1.5cm wedges
2 heads fresh, young garlic, halved horizontally, plus 1 clove, peeled
1 lemon, cut into eight wedges
2 red onions, peeled and cut into rounds
100ml extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 bay leaves, divided
A few sprigs rosemary, leaves picked
1 small handful thyme, leaves picked

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/ gas 6, and take the chops out of the fridge to come up to room temperature.

Put the turnips, halved garlic heads, lemon wedges and onion in a baking tray, and toss with five tablespoons of olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Scatter over half the herbs, then put in the oven for 30-35 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally.

Meanwhile, prepare the chops. Put the garlic clove and remaining herbs in a mortar with several generous pinches of salt, and bash with a pestle until you have crushed everything into a paste. Stir in the rest of the oil, then scoop out and rub all over the chops.

Once the turnips have been in the oven for 10 minutes, put the chops on a baking tray and roast on the shelf above the turnips for 20 minutes, until golden. Remove the chops from the oven, cover with foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

The turnips should now be golden, caramelised and cooked through, and the garlic soft. Remove from the oven, and serve alongside the chops, giving each plate half a head of garlic and a few slices of caramelised lemon and some onion. This is delicious served with garlic- and lemon-braised greens.
And for the rest of the week

Try roast turnips in a warm salad with baby gem lettuce and knobs of blue cheese scattered over for a delicious light lunch; or, gently sweat the turnips with garlic and onion in a pan with the same herbs, then whizz with vegetable stock for a wonderful summer soup, served with blue-cheese toasts.

Banana tarts recipe

The thinnest of tarts. It is worth rolling the pastry as finely as you can. Try placing the pastry on the baking sheet before adding the bananas. It makes life much easier than transferring them fully laden.

Makes 4

butter 40g
puff pastry 125g
bananas 2
icing sugar 2 tbsp
maple syrup 4 tbsp

For the cardamom cream:
green cardamom pods 10
double cream 250ml
icing sugar 1 tbsp
vanilla extract

Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 8. Place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.

Melt the butter in a small pan, remove from the heat and set aside. Roll out the pastry very thinly, then cut out 4 discs about 12cm in diameter. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Peel the bananas and slice thinly, then place in a single, slightly overlapping layer on each disc. Brush the bananas and the rims of the pastry with the butter then dust generously with the icing sugar.

Place the baking sheet on the heated sheet in the oven and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven then trickle the maple syrup over the bananas and return to the oven for 5 minutes until the pastry is deep golden brown and the fruit is sticky and glistening.

Meanwhile, make the cream. Crack open the cardamom pods and extract the dark seeds, then crush to a powder using a spice mill or pestle and mortar. You need 2 tsp of the ground spice. Pour the cream into a cold mixing bowl and add the icing sugar, ground cardamom and a couple of drops of vanilla extract. Beat till thick, stopping once the cream will hold its shape on the whisk.

Peter Gunn's berry, praline and coconut yoghurt dessert recipe

It may be the picture of simplicity but with a few delicate additions, Peter Gunn, the chef and owner of Melbourne’s Ides restaurant, gives this dessert the fine-dining treatment.

Fresh and dried berries with coconut yoghurt, strawberry syrup and anise praline

50g blueberries, randomly cut
50g blackberries, randomly cut
25g strawberries, randomly cut
10g dried blueberries
200g coconut yoghurt
Macadamia oil
Chrysanthemums
Mint flowers
Sea salt

Praline
1 cup caster sugar
¼ cup water
2g star anise (or store-bought star anise powder)

Place the star anise into a pan and toast until fragrant.

Using a spice grinder, grind to a powder. This could be substituted for store-bought anise powder, toasted in a pan until fragrant.

Place 1 cup of caster sugar in a clean, heavy-based pan.

Add ¼ cup of water and set over medium heat. Resist the urge to stir and instead swirl and gently shake the pan back and forth to distribute the liquid and make sure the sugar melts evenly. Stirring the sugar causes recrystallisation and clumps to form, which is not desirable.

Once the sugar has melted into caramel and browned slightly, add the anise powder and remove from heat.

Immediately pour on to a tray lined with baking paper and leave to set as a hard sheet.

Once hard, crush down with a grinder or mortar and pestle until crumbly

Strawberry syrup
25g strawberries
1 tbsp caster sugar

In a bowl, mix together the cut strawberries with caster sugar. Allow to macerate for around 30 minutes.

Once macerated, use the back of a spoon or your hands to further break down the strawberries to a pulp.

Pass the pulp through a muslin cloth into another bowl; the result will be a vibrant strawberry syrup.

To serve

Whisk the yoghurt and sugar together.

Pick chrysanthemums and mint flowers.

Spoon yoghurt into bottom of a bowl and cover liberally with fresh berry mixture, sprinkle with dried blueberries and flowers. Dress with macadamia oil and strawberry coulis. Finally, crumble over the praline and finish with a light sprinkle of sea salt.