Pork Chops with Port Glazed Mushrooms

Pork Chops with Port Glazed Mushrooms

The liquor cupboard in my house is a mishmash of opened and unopened bottles of all shapes and sizes. While the red wine bottles tend to change more frequently, most of the others are dusted off only occasionally. Earlier this week I visited the cupboard looking for something to glaze a beautiful bounty of button mushrooms. What I know about wine is sadly limited, but I knew from past cooking experience that marsala went well with mushrooms. I had no marsala, not even any sherry, and so I reached for the bottle of white port (how it arrived at our house I cannot recall). It was a delicious default decision.

This main dish is simple to prepare and cooks up quickly on the stovetop. The mushrooms are sautéed dry, that is, without oil, to draw the moisture out of them. The residual mushroom “juice” is boiled away, and then butter is added to brown the mushrooms. Finally, the port is poured in and reduced down to a flavorsome glaze. The mushrooms on their own make a scrumptious side dish or you can pair them with chicken breasts instead of pork chops for an equally easy and elegant main dish.

MA's Pork Chops with Port Glazed Mushrooms

4 boneless pork loin chops
½ onion, finely diced
1 lb fresh button mushrooms, cut into thick slices
4 tbsp butter, divided into 1 tbsp and 3 tbsp
1/3 cup Port (white)
Pinch of dry thyme leaves

In a large frying pan, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium high heat.

Add onions and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes or until onions are softened.

Add chops to pan and sauté on medium heat for about 5 minutes; turn chops over and sauté 5 minutes more.

Remove chops from frying pan and keep warm.

Place mushrooms in dry pan

Remove onions from frying pan, keeping separate from chops.

With frying pan on high heat, put in all the mushrooms and stir well with love. 

Reduce the heat to medium high and keep stirring often.

Moisture is released from mushrooms

After a few minutes, moisture will begin to escape from the mushrooms.

Continue stirring the mushrooms until most of the liquid has evaporated, then add 3 tbsp butter, sautéed onions and thyme. Stir to combine.

Sauté on medium high heat until the mushrooms begin to brown.

Add the Port to the pan and toss to coat the mushrooms well. Increase the heat to high and let boil vigorously until the Port has reduced in volume by about half. 

Almost ready to serve

Return the chops to the pan and cook on medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes. 

Printable Recipe for MA's Pork Chops with Port Glazed Mushrooms

Harry's Cheeks in Caps

Pickerel cheek in mushroom cap: ready to pop into your mouth

I love feeding people so I was more than happy to welcome our friend Harry over for supper, especially when he wanted to do some of the cooking. When I found out that he was going to make pickerel cheeks, well, that was extra special.

Pickerel cheeks are a bit of a delicacy. They are literally the cheeks of the pickerel - one of the most popular fish with anglers and commercial fishermen where I live in Manitoba. (Pickerel are also known as walleye in some parts of the world.) These cheeky morsels have been compared to scallops, but I think the cheeks are more tender. The trick to making this recipe might be in actually procuring the pickerel cheeks. Unless you catch a lot of pickerel yourself or have the pleasure of knowing someone who does, you’ll have to look for a commercial source. I found one source online selling two 2 ½ pound bags for $109.00 (!) and a few ads on Kijiji for a more reasonable $10 a pound. However you get them, pickerel cheeks are a tasty treat.

Harry served the cheeks and caps with ciabatta buns spread with garlic butter then lightly toasted. Of course, they would make a great appetizer, but we had them as part of dinner and rounded out the menu with a side of herbed wild rice, bacon cheddar tarts, and Barefoot carrot salad. It was a feast.

And now, with Harry’s kind permission, here’s the recipe for his pickerel cheeks and caps.

Harry’s Pickerel Cheeks in Caps

 

Harry places cheeks on caps

  Preheat oven to 400º F.

  ½ lb pickerel cheeks, fresh or thawed

  24 good-sized mushrooms, stems removed
  (Harry used brown   mushrooms)

  ¼ lb garlic butter, purchased or homemade

  Parmesan cheese

  Paprika

  In mini-muffin tins, place mushroom caps bottoms up.

  In each mushroom cap, place about a ½ tsp garlic butter
  covered with a single pickerel cheek.

  Over each and every stuffed mushroom, liberally sprinkle
  Parmesan cheese and paprika.

Pile on the Parm and paprika

  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until cheeks are cooked through and
  everything is nicely browned.

  Printable Recipe for Harry's Pickerel Cheeks in Caps

Our feast!

Homey & Elegant Wild Rice Casserole

Wild Rice Casserole 

This is a casserole I've been making for many years. It brings together wild rice and mushrooms in a way that is at once homey and elegant. It's a favourite with our family and makes any meal a special occasion.

The original recipe comes from a 16-page, type-written handout from the Minnesota Paddy Wild Rice Research and Promotion Council. I don't remember how I came to get it. The introduction to the recipes explains that, in 1981, the Council brought together a small group of food editors from national magazines "for two days of seeing and learning about wild rice." This included "a comprehensive wild rice preparation workshop in the kitchen of Beatrice Ojakangas where they spent a morning cooking wild rice and sat down to what was described as 'probably the largest all-wild rice meal ever prepared in Minnesota!'"

The recipe here is my own spin on one of Beatrice Ojakangas' recipes. If you'd like to know more about this renowned chef and cookbook author and check out some of her more recent recipes, visit beatrice-ojakangas.com.

MA's Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lining up ingredients

2/3 cup uncooked wild rice

2 cups water

½ tsp salt

½ lb fresh mushrooms, sliced

½ cup butter

¼ cup flour

1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried marjoram leaves

½ tsp dried thyme leaves

2 cups milk

3 tbsp dry sherry or port

¼ cup (about 8 crackers) crushed soda crackers

2 tbsp butter, melted

Sprinkle flour mixture over mushrooms

Wash wild rice in three changes of hot tap water. Place the wild rice, water and ½ tsp salt into saucepan. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 to 40 minutes or until wild rice is tender. Drain any excess water.

In a large fry pan, sauté mushrooms in butter over low heat about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.

Mix together flour, salt, marjoram and thyme. Sprinkle mixture over mushrooms, then stir until mushrooms are coated.

Stir in milk. Bring mixture to boil and then reduce heat to low. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently.

Add sherry or port.

Add cooked wild rice to pan and stir well with love.

Butter a 2-quart casserole dish. Place rice/mushroom mixture into dish.

Mix together cracker crumbs and melted butter. Sprinkle over casserole.

Bake uncovered 30 minutes.

For Future Enjoyment: Let casserole cool. Cover tightly with casserole lid or plastic wrap. Label and place in freezer for up to one month. To reheat from frozen, remove from wrap/container. Place in 375° F. oven and heat until warmed through, 35-45 minutes. If thawed, warm through for about 20 minutes. Serve while warm.

Printable Recipe for MA's Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole