Christmas Notebook

Supper this evening was late, but good. Crunchy Baked Pork Chops, Creamy Mushroom Bake, spinach with cashews, and corn.

Crunchy Baked Pork Chops Click the link for the original recipe. I made a couple of minor changes.

salt
4 boneless center-cut pork chops, 6 to 8 ounces each, 3/4 to 1 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat
4 slices bread, cubed [I used homemade.]
1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons) [I omitted this, as DH is allergic to onions.]
3 medium garlic cloves, minced [I used about 1/4 tsp. garlic powder.]
2 T. vegetable oil [I used olive oil.]
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 T. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
2 T. minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup plus 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
3 large egg whites [I used two.]
3 T. Dijon mustard
Lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 350*.

Dissolve salt in a quart of water and submerge the pork chops. [I used a zippered plastic storage bag.] Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Rinse well and pat dry with paper towels.

Using a food processor, pulse the bread till small crumbs are formed.

Transfer crumbs to a baking sheet and add shallot, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper. Toss until crumbs are evenly coated with oil. Bake until deep golden brown and dry, about 15 minutes, stirring twice during baking time. Cool and toss crumbs with Parmesan, thyme, and parsley.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can toast bread slices in a low oven until dry, place them in a zippered plastic storage bag and crush till they’ve turned into crumbs. Toss with the other bread crumb ingredients. Nicely browned and crispy.

Place 1/4 cup flour in pie plate. In second pie plate, whisk egg whites and mustard until combined; add remaining 6 tablespoons flour and whisk until almost smooth, with pea-sized lumps remaining.

Increase oven temperature to 425*. Spray wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and place in rimmed baking sheet. Season chops with pepper. Dredge 1 pork chop in flour; shake off excess. Using tongs, coat with egg mixture; let excess drip off. Coat all sides of chop with bread crumb mixture, pressing gently so that thick layer of crumbs adheres to chop. Transfer breaded chop to wire rack. Repeat with remaining 3 chops. [I don’t have a pan with a rack, so I just placed the pork chops in a greased baking dish which worked fine.]

Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chops registers 150 degrees, 17 to 25 minutes. Let rest on rack 5 minutes before serving with lemon wedges.

Delicious. Next time I’m going to try the coating with chicken instead of pork chops. I’m sure it will be just as good.

I’ll post the Creamy Mushroom Bake and the spinach/cashew recipe soon. Both were delicious.

~~Rhonda