Or you could...

Today's photo has nothing to do with anything. You know, in case you were suddenly expecting the Meaning of Life or something.

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Yesterday, in a bid to find something to cook for supper that would add minimal extra heat to my apartment (yeah, yeah, we've heard that your apartment is hot, Dee. Moving right along...), I decided to make a dish that was one of my favourites as a kid. It's a pork and mushroom casserole, but we used to call it Pork and Stuff because you had your pork and then you had your stuff that the pork was cooked with. The stuff always went on your rice. That was the rule.

It's a family recipe, and a simple one. Judging from the ordinary and -- let's face it -- somewhat boring ingredients, I'd say it's probably from the fifties or so.

It occurred to me as I was bunging things together that years of cooking for myself and watching probably too much Food Network have made changes to my version of the casserole compared to what my mother used to cook. It's become very much an or you could type of thing, in that if someone asked me for the recipe I'd find myself writing down Mom's version, but with a lot of or you coulds as asides. So hey. Why don't I just make that a blog post, then? All right, sounds good:

Pork and Mushroom Casserole

Brown... erm... some bacon (oh, good start. How much is a some, then? Let's say two to four slices, diced. Depending on how much bacon you need in your life, that is) and remove it from the pan. Use the fat to cook one medium diced onion until clear. OR YOU COULD just leave both the bacon and the onion in the pan until they start to caramelise. I'm all for caramelisation here. More flavour; better colour.

Add one can of sliced mushrooms, drained but with liquid reserved. OR YOU COULD actually buy proper fresh mushrooms. I hardly ever use canned. What mushrooms? Whatever's your pleasure. Slice them and cook them down with the onions a bit. And the bacon, if it's still in the pan.

Set aside. OR YOU COULD just throw everything straight into the casserole dish. Saves washing an extra bowl.

Cut a pork tenderloin into medallions (don't forget to remove the silver skin. My mother never taught me that part), and then bread with flour. OR YOU COULD not bother with that last bit. The flour helps thicken things a little, yes, but if you bread the pork too thickly you just get flour goo in the finished product. If you're into breading, though, this would be a good place to add a little extra flavour. At the very least put a bit of pepper in with the breading.

Brown the pork in the remaining bacon fat. OR YOU COULD just put it directly in the casserole. I know that browning adds flavour to the meat, but since I caramelise my onions it's not that important.

Layer the ingredients in a casserole dish. OR YOU COULD just kind of stir things together . Doesn't make much difference in the way it cooks. Or looks, really.

Add the reserved liquid from the canned mushrooms. OR YOU COULD actually get something more from the frying pan by deglazing it instead of using... um... mushroom water. While the pan's still hot, pour in a bit of whatever liquid suits your fancy (stock, wine, just plain water, probably not milk...) and stir things around until the liquid's hot enough to pick up most of those nice caramelised leftovers. Add the liquid to your casserole.

Bake in a 325F over for 40 minutes (or a little longer if you took the lazy route of not browning your meat). OR YOU COULD just do the whole thing in the slow cooker instead, which is what I did last night. Remember the part about not wanting to heat up the apartment any more than necessary?

Serve with white rice. OR YOU COULD be a little less boring and try a different rice. Wild, basmati; they'd both work. Pilaf probably would too, for that matter. I used a mix of rices that I tend to think of as my hippy mix (partly because of where I buy it). Why not let the rice add more to the dish rather than just having it act as a base to hold the stuff?



Anyway, that's it. Pretty simple, not exactly ground-breaking, but decent comfort food. If you decide to try it, let me know if you find another or you could. I'm always game to play around.





If anyone besides me found themselves saying That's What She Said as a reflex just there? We probably need some help.