A few weks ago, I read the second book in the School for Good & Evil trilogy, A World Without Princes (followed by the third book, The Last Ever After, which has recently been released). As it's a fairy-talesque fantasy novel, I wasn't sure I would find much to inspire a real-life meal but I was in for a treat - a litany of warming, autumnal comfort food as Sophie wanders past the homes in the woodland village of Gavaldon. The homely cooking smells all sounded rather appealing to me (except for the pickled yams !) :
p7 "As she splashed out of the square toward soddy cottage lanes, trails of smoke wafted from chimneys, and Sophie knew what each family was having for dinner : breaded pork with mushroom gravy in Wilhelm's house, beef and potato cream soup in Belle's, bacon lentils and pickled yams in Sabrina's ..."
I debated trying beef and potato cream soup (which I may still come back to) and I've already made bacon and lentil soup before so I decided to recreate breaded pork with mushroom gravy. This was a quick midweek meal that was thrown together after a busy day at work so I didn't even bother trying to make it look pretty, which fits in perfectly with the peasant-style cooking of Gavaldon.
Breaded pork with mushroom gravy
ingredients :
1 pork chop per person
2 cups dried breadcrumbs
1 cup parmesan
1tbsp dried herbs
1 egg
drizzle of olive oil
a knob of butter
5 mushrooms
1 cup gravy
3tbsp crème fraîche
Mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan and herbs in one dish. Break and lightly beat the egg in a separate dish.
Dip each chop in the egg then the breadcrumbs on both sides and fry on a fairly low heat (so that the breadcrumbs go golden brown but not black !) for 5 minutes per side. Check the pork is cooked all the way through.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry off the mushrooms.
Stir in the gravy and cream and pour over the pork chops. Serve with rice, spaghetti, chips or baked potatoes.
Absolutely delicious! I can imagine the wonderful aroma as it was cooking.
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