Better a dinner of herbs.....

If you read my husband's blog, Marksvegplot you will know that we have a lot of herbs in the garden, and while the recent weather might have made most of us feel miserable, the herbs are loving it! Most of them  are luxuriant and fragrant at the moment, and when we have plenty herbs, I'm inspired to make a dish loosely inspired by one from the book Spices,  Salts and Aromatics in the English Kitchen by the late Elizabeth David.

I pick a selection of herbs - this time they are parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, chives and bayleaves. The other ingredients are

2 pork steaks or chops

2 cloves of garlic

½ a lemon, sliced

a drizzle of olive oil

seasoning

Score the surface of the meat in criss-cross lines then rub all over with the cut face of a halved garlic clove. Rub with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoning.

Put a layer of herbs in the bottom of an ovenproof, non-metallic dish and top with the meat. Cover with the lemon slices and cut garlic then top with more herbs.

Cover with cling film or a plastic lid and refrigerate for several hours. Then replace the cling film or lid with foil  and bake for about an hour in a moderate oven. If you like your meat to look brown, you can remove it from the herbs at the end of cooking and quickly brown it under the grill, but I think that can make it rather dry.

Just scrape off the herbs and eat! This time, I served it with a gratin of potatoes, kohlrabi and butternut squash

And some braised Florence Fennel with white wine, shallots and raisins

The finished meal - I'm afraid I forgot to keep back any uncooked herbs to garnish it with and I didn't want to go out in the rain for some fresh ones! It really could do with a fresh green touch on the plate.

I am submitting this for the Herbs on Saturday challenge