Monday, January 4, 2010

Pork Cutlets with a Mushroom Cognac Cream Sauce

      

     
Last summer, I visited Bonn, Germany on a work trip.  I very soon realized that the traditional, and for the most part only, cuisine of the area was a breaded cutlet with one of a few sauces, or an arm length link of sausage.  Each were good once, although I couldn't imagine of making a habit of such food as I was forced to do over the course of a week.  But in time, like most memories, one remembers only the good parts, and so, this past week I returned to thoughts of breaded cutlets with a mushroom cream sauce.  I don't remember whether I had a pork cutlet or a veal cutlet, that wasn't the important part.  The mushroom cream sauce was the inspiration which I fulfilled by recreating the dish in its form below.  It brought back a summer's night in a beer garden, Kolsch beer flowing, arteries clogging.  Once in a while, there's nothing like it.  Serves 2.
    
Ingredients
4 tbsp butter
2 boneless pork loin chops
salt/pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1 4-oz can sliced button mushrooms
1/4 cup cognac
1 cup cream
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp water
    
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.  In a medium nonstick fry pan, heat 1 tbsp of butter over medium heat.  Place the flour, eggs and bread crumbs each on a plate or in a bowl.  Cut the pork chops in half lengthwise to form two cutlets approximately 1/4 inch thick each.  If the chops are thicker, cut in thirds to make three cutlets per chop.  Season each chop with salt and pepper.  When the butter in the pan is bubbling, dredge 2 of the chops in the flour, shaking off the excess, then dredge in the eggs, then dredge in the breadcrumbs, ensuring all parts of the cutlets are coated.  Saute the cutlets on one side for a few minutes until golden, then turn and saute on the other side in the same manner.  When the cutlets are cooked, remove to a plate with a paper towel in the heated oven.  If the butter in the pan is overly browned and in danger of burning, wipe out the pan with a paper towel before adding and heating the second tbsp of butter.  Cook the second set of cutlets as before.
For the sauce, add the final 2 tbsp of butter to the pan along with the mushrooms.  Cook the mushrooms until softened and gently browned, approximately 5-8 minutes.  Deglaze the pan with the cognac, scraping up the brown bits from the pan.  Simmer down the cognac in half, then add the stock and cream, bringing to a gentle simmer.  If a thicker sauce is desired, mix the corn starch and cold water together in a small bowl and then add to the sauce, bringing the sauce back to a simmer and allowing to thicken.  Season the sauce as desired and serve over the cutlets.
   


A part of the weekend that never dies...

Hello everybody and thanks for your lovely comments on my last post! How many wonderful words, yaw! I'm glad that your NYE were lovely too!

Tomorrow here in Spain it's the night of the Magi. Here in Spain we don't share our Christmas' presents until the 6 of January, because it is suposse that on the night between the 5th and the 6th of January, three Magi from the East came into Belen, just for sharing their love and present with Jesus... so traditional here! The pity is that in almost all Spain is raining, so maybe the party for tomorrow would be a little bit wet!

Anyway, did you had fun last weekend? Mine was quite good; on saturday I had dinner with my cousin Rocio, who is at Berlin this year (and who I'll be visiting in a few days there!!); Rose, Jose, Godino, Alfonso, Paula, Manolo and Angie... we went to a italian restaurant just in front of my home, called "La Tentazione"... so delicious!!

 
Rose and Jose

Angie and Manolo

Godino and RocĂ­o
 
Alfonso and Paula

We're a happy family!

Godino eating his saldad with bread sticks..

My pasta!Stuffed with pear and goat sheese sauce!

After dinner we went to E Trocadero, a very nice pub where we always drin Paulaner, our favourite beer!



And at 3:00 am we decided to go into La Vaguada, the rock pub from Algeciras, where we met Miguel Luis... he was at Berlin for NYE but now he's back, cool!
 
Rose with her Blanco's dress

Me with Rose's Stradivarius dress... I love it!!


Dress - Stradivarius
Tights - Calzedonia
Shoes - Offbrand
Totebag - Blanco (old)

It was quite funny because Jairo was all night saying that Rose and I looked as Velma and Daphne from the Scooby Doo series! I love this kind of dresses, I don't mind looking retro!! That's why today I bought a retro fabric for making a dress like the blue one!

And on Sunday I went to the mall just for buying my last Christmas' presents: a fragance for my grandma! I saw a very nice dress on a shop, but I think it was quite expensive for the kind of piece it was, so I didn't buy it...

And you? Are you buying a lot on sales? Here, sales will start the 7th of January!

By the way, I saw the Soulwax's documental Part of the weekend never dies, and now I want to party a lot! And on March, my beloved Florence and the Machine is coming to Barcelona... I can't wait for her!!

Are you going or have you been on a concert recently?