new recipe: Pork with Mushroom Sauce

[photo credit and recipe link]

The January 2012 issue of Cooking Light seemed to have a lot of real winners - meaning I tore out at least 10 recipes from the magazine.  Which kinda makes me think, I probably should have just kept them in the magazine rather than have a lot of torn pages sitting inside another cookbook.  But I know how I operate and sometimes I just won't go back and look through an entire magazine to get a recipe that looked good to me. 

I did a lot of tweaking to this recipe (see my notes at the bottom of the post as well as in parentheses in the ingredients list). It turned out to be a very good meal, definitely one that we will make again.  And because of that, I thought I'd share...

Pork with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed (I used pork chops)
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 (8-ounce) package button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar)
• 1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (didn't use this, I'm not a fan)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (didn't use this either, I never seem to have fresh herbs around when I need them.)

Preparation

1. Place a small roasting pan in oven. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Sprinkle pork evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to preheated pan, and swirl to coat. Add pork to pan. Roast at 425° for 20 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest portion of pork registers 145°, turning after 10 minutes. Remove pork from pan, and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Place roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add mushrooms; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, and sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 1 minute or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring occasionally. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and broth; bring to a boil. Cook until liquid is reduced to 1/3 cup (about 7 minutes). Remove from heat, and stir in crème fraîche and mustard. Cut pork crosswise into slices. Place 3 ounces pork on each of 4 plates, and top each serving with about 2 1/2 tablespoons sauce. Garnish with parsley.

Note: Wine Match: Look to California for a wallet-friendly wine to pair with this recipe. Highlight the dish's meaty pork tenderloin and creamy, earthy mushrooms with a light, fruity red like The Naked Grape's Pinot Noir ($9). --Gretchen Roberts

Julianna Grimes, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2012

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My notes:

I didn't cook the pork chops in a roasting pan / oven. I just made them like I usually do in pan on the stove. I took them out to use the same pan for making the mushroom sauce.  I also didn't add the mustard because I don't like it (simple as that). It was still very delicious without the mustard, but if you like it, by all means, toss it in. So if you want to follow my way of cooking it: just skip steps 1 and 2 and head straight to step 3 after you have seasoned your pork chops with salt and pepper and browned them in the pan.

Also, a side note: I don't typically eat any meat other than fish or chicken. But after a while I get really really sick of chicken, so I started to cook pork chops because I figured I could stomach them and as it turns out I can, as long as they are masked in some sort of sauce, which is why this recipe caught my eye to begin with. I cannot however stomach pork loin. Something about that seems a little too meaty for me. 

We really enjoyed this meal. Mike typically doesn't like sauces on top of his meat, however this one proved to be a winner in his book.  He cleaned his plate - always the biggest compliment.

Along side this meal, we had au gratin potatoes and corn, and St. Francis Cab 07 (because it's a stable in our house).

the end.