Sesame Crusted Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Mash

This recipe was also from Food Fast recipe book by Marie Claire.
Very simply the pork is coated in sesame seeds and pan fried. We had huge chops so i did 6 minutes each side in a medium pan - perfection!
The sweet potato mash is something we have cooked before. I really like it, you cook the sweet potato with ginger and then mash with honey and butter. We usually serve it with salmon marinated in a gorgeous asian style sauce.
So when these two come together as the recipe book suggests I didn't think the marriage really worked that well.

The pork was delicious but as my husband said you would have trouble to ruin such a beautiful piece of pork. Honestly it is the most delicious free range pork bought from my local butcher.
And the mash was also delicious, sweet potato has to be close to being my favourite food!
Just together it didn't quite work. My husband normally cooks the chops with a mustard crust and that is an absolute winner - next time we will stick with that!

Lemon Risotto with Seared Scallops

This was inspired by my Fast Food recipe book by Marie Claire. Even if you don't happen to have this in your collection you really don't need a recipe, it is just a basic risotto recipe and I added a few ingredients to make it a more special such as a little garlic and some spring onion. The final adding of fresh lemon zest and baby spinach leaves was what make this risotto. It was really lovely, the lemony flavour went wonderfully with seared scallops. It was quite a light tasting risotto (well light for risottos anyway). The scallops I put in a hot fry pan with some butter for less then a minute each side. The had light caramelisation on the edges, were so soft and melted in your mouth with the tender grains of rice. I really like the roe on a scallop, do you?