Stuffed Pork with Stale Baguettes
Stale Baguettes are useful in any number of ways, for preparing breadcrumbs or bread pudding, crisped at a low temperature brushed with olive oil for bruschetta, and in today’s recipe are perfect as a stuffing mixed into a combination such as spinach, garlic, mushrooms and Parmesan between two boneless center-cut slices of pork.
One tip that makes it easier to use stale baguettes instead of tossing them away after sitting in your pantry for any designated period is to slice them thinly the day you purchase them and return the slices right back into the bread bag. This makes it so much easier to work with than a rock hard baguette that requires taking a hammer to beforehand.
Last weekend my next -door neighbor had a free evening to herself and so we planned to just catch up on things over dinner at my house (and enjoy a couple of cocktails too.)
My Post for the day finished, I began preparing dinner. After about my fifth ‘taste testing’ of broken stale baguette pieces softened in the pan delicately flavored from the butter and sauteed mushrooms they got transferred to a bowl and mixed with the fresh spinach cooked with garlic and olive oil it occurred to me this would make a great dish to share.
Finished photographing before my neighbor arrived; instead of calling the dish: ‘Stuffed Pork with Stale Baguette’, it artfully transformed as, ‘Stuffed Boneless Grain Fed Center Cut Pork Slices with sauteed Spinach, Garlic, Mushrooms, and Parmesan Cheese’ Heck, the simple idea being that no matter the title there are many ways to use up your Stale Baguette.
Stuffed Pork with Stale Baguettes
Ingredients
- 4 beaten eggs
- 3 cups fresh ground bread crumbs
- 8 thin sliced bone-in pork chops
- 3 slices bacon, plus reserved bacon grease
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 7-8 Tablespoons butter
- 8-10 ounces fresh baby spinach, rinsed clean with slight water droplets still clinging to the leaves
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 8 button mushrooms, chopped
- 8 thin slices of stale baguette, cut or broken into small bite size pieces, approximately, depending on size of pork slices
- 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
- Coarse kosher salt and cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Beat eggs in a shallow bowl large enough to accommodate pork slices for dipping, set aside
- Pour breadcrumbs into a shallow bowl large enough around to fit dredging pork slices, set aside
- Lay pork slices on a baking sheet, set aside
- Fry bacon in a large nonstick sauté pan, cooking until half done, not crisp, transfer bacon to a plate reserve grease in a small bowl
- Wipe out the nonstick sauté pan used to cook the bacon, heat on medium temperature, drizzle olive oil around the bottom of the pan and swirl to cover, drop in the spinach, cook one minute, tossing, add in the garlic and continue cooking until fully wilted, around three minutes
- Transfer cooked spinach and garlic into a small colander pressing hard with the back of a spoon to drain excess liquid
- Wipe out the same sauté pan, return to stove on medium high heat, drop in 2 tablespoons butter, and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan
- Tumble in the chopped mushrooms, cook for a minute before stirring then continue cooking another few minutes until the mushrooms have given up their liquid, another few minutes, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper then transfer to a side dish
- Again, wipe out the same sauté pan, add three tablespoons butter, and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan
- Drop in the broken stale baguette pieces, stir and cook on very low heat to soften
- As the stale baguette pieces become very soft and hot, return the cooked mushrooms back to the pan stirring together with the softened bread pieces
- Stir in the drained spinach and garlic
- Sprinkle in the Parmesan cheese, and a pinch each of salt and pepper, stir through, transfer stale baguette mixture to a bowl and wipe out the sauté pan
- Evenly spoon the stuffing between 4 of the Pork Chops leaving some room around the edges
- Top each stuffed pork chop with a plain pork chop
- One at a time, dip the stuffed pork chops into the beaten eggs, completely covering then shaking off any excess
- Dredge the egg dipped stuffed pork chops into the bread crumbs, shake lightly, and return pork to the baking sheet as each piece is breaded
- Heat the nonstick sauté pan on medium heat, add in the reserved bacon drippings and 2-3 tablespoons of butter, and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan
- Set in the breaded pork chops and cook until golden brown on both sides around 3-4 minutes each side
- Set two half pieces of bacon on top of the pork, then place into the oven to finish cooking around twenty-five to thirty minutes
3 Comments