Pig Under the Duvet

Of course, I mean pork, not the whole pig :-) the name for the dish was somehow inspired by the names of dishes I used to find really fascinating as a kid. A lot of dishes served covered with some variety of white sauce, often a cream or cheese based sauces tend to be called ".... under the duvet" or "... under the cover". Funny, isn't it?
I remember how gripping I used to find cookbooks, or my mum's recipe scrapbook as a child. Not that I wouldn't read other books, I did. I was quite a bookworm, and actually that hasn't changed.
There was certainly something intriguing about the dish names I found there, sadly most of the dishes rarely lived up to the expectations :-)
The names still don't cease to amuse me - when I see all the "the royal style" dishes - meats (mostly game), fish, pates, and even soups. There were also the 'luxurious', 'exquisite' or 'gourment' dishes - raging from meats, through salads, bakes, to cakes and desserts - who wouldn't want to try those
There were many dishes "with a surprise" - which to me sounded promising, until I found out that the surprise was hard-boiled egg, cheese, mushrooms or some vegetables. Come on, what sort of surprise is that? :-)
My favourite one of the lot is the so-called "Nothing Soup", which actually isn't a soup but a kind of creamy dessert. Ah well, bearing in mind that my early childhood fell in the martial law period, I supposed people were trying to use fancy-sounding names to colour-up the grey reality. Maybe.

My dish doesn't really need any sugarcoating, it tastes delicious even if you call it exactly what it is - namely, pork with mushrooms and cream and cheese sauce.

Ingredients:

4 pork chops
salt, pepper
paprika
turmeric
plain all purpose flour
oil for frying

Sauce:
200g mushrooms
a clove of garlic
a pot of cream
200g grated strong cheese

Beat the chops with a mallet, sprinkle spices on both sides and toss each chop in flour. Heat the oil on a frying pan and fry the chops until golden brown on both sides. Place the chops on a baking tray.

Peel and chop the mushrooms and garlic, season and fry them. Put mushrooms on each chop and put them into the oven (180C).

In the meantime, combine the cream with grated cheese in a bowl, add salt, pepper, paprika and turmeric. Pour the sauce onto the chops and bake for a bit longer, until the top is golden and crispy. It's ready to serve, and truly delicious!

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