Here's a keeper that I sort of invented this evening. I say "sort of" because I derived it from a classic Italian combination I have made a few times, pork braised in milk with sage and potatoes. (Here, I Googled it for you).
I didn't have a dinner plan and I didn't have any potatoes, but I managed to turn up two pork chops in the freezer, and the pantry yielded part of a bag of wild rice, and there were parsnips in the fridge along with some limp-looking carrots and celery. Also I found some bacon. So this is what I did:
- Chopped up an onion, a carrot, and some celery, and smashed a couple of cloves of garlic with the side of my knife.
- Peeled and thinly sliced four parsnips.
- Minced up a couple of slices of bacon and browned them in some olive oil in a skillet. I lifted the crispy bits out with a slotted spoon and left the grease in the pan.
- Added the two pork chops and browned them well on both sides. Salt and pepper of course. And removed them to a plate.
- Poured off all but about 2 Tbsp of the fat, and then added the onion/carrot/celery/garlic. I stirred that around, scraping up the browned bits from the pork, until it was nice and soft. Then I added the sliced parsnips and tossed them till they were coated.
- Nestled the pork chops in amongst the vegetables.
- Poured milk into the pan until it came about halfway up the side of the inch-thick chops. I brought it to a boil, added a bit more salt and pepper, turned it down and let it simmer until the chops were done and the parsnips quite soft. I turned the chops halfway through, by the way.
- Removed the chops to a fresh cutting board and chopped up the meat. Here is where I would have returned the meat to the pan, except that I am feeding children who accept unmixed food a bit better. So I kept the pork out and passed it separately.
- Mixed in 1 can white beans (drained). Turned up the heat and let the mixture bubble a bit to reduce and thicken.
- Transferred to serving bowl and sprinkled with reserved bacon bits.
I served this with wild rice, plain brussels sprouts, and my mother-in-law's home-canned pears. It was really good -- I might never use potatoes again, the parsnips were so sweet. There were lovely little flecks of orange color from the carrots. It was a very autumn-like dinner, even though we had it in January.
And it's yet another entry in the list of "ways to stretch a little bit of meat." We didn't even eat all of the pork.
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