It's been a very long minute since I've updated this blog, but with a brand new computer and camera [iPhone 4], I'm ready to go y'all!
I'm gonna go ahead and make a blog about the delicious meal I made tonight. A Breaded Pork Tenderloin over Mushroom Foccacia Bruschetta.
Ingredients:
Pork loins
Flour [I used pancake mix]
Egg
Oil [I prefer olive oil]
Panko Bread Crumbs
Spinach
Garlic
Shallots
Portabello Mushroom
Bread [I used foccacia, a flat cheesy bread]
First I lined up the three dipping stations, flour, egg, and then breadcrumbs.
It is best to completely dry the meat out so the flour will coat the surface more completely. I just use two paper towels and give it a good squish.
From there, the dipping begins!
First flour, give the meat a good flip.
Then it goes into the egg, I make sure the meat is covered by egg so the panko is able to get all over the meat. It's nice to have a little crunch in all the nooks and crannies of the meat.
Finally, the breadcrumbs.
Now starts the frying. I've already preheated the oil in a large pan [a skillet would also suffice] on medium-high heat. You have to be cautious with Olive Oil as its smoke point is a much lower temperature than your average vegetable oil. Working in a few different restaurants I have found the larger fryers use olive oil mixtures, not pure olive oil. This is definitely not ideal for them arteries of y'alls.
I give it a good fry on each side for 3-4 minutes as the pork loins I had were only about a quarter of an inch thick. I continued this process for 3 more loins and they all turned out cooked well done. In the process of continual oil use, the olive oil became darker and darker as leftover panko breandcrumbs just overcooked after falling off the meat and floating around in the oil. I scooped at them after the second loin to try and bring some lengevity to the oil, but after the last pork loin, I had to dump the oil as it was almost black.
Here are the finished loins. There were originally four but I ate one as I was cooking the second and third. It was quite scrumptious.
After dumping the oil, I began to preheat oil once again in the pot while I prepped the veggies.
I started sauteeing the mushrooms, then I added shallots to the mix. I wanted the mushrooms to absorb a nice amount of oil before I added the shallots to the mix. The shallots are not as dense so they cook much faster than the mushrooms. I continued to sautee these two until the shallots became slightly trascluscent.
From there, I added a buncha spinach and chopped garlic.
Rolled the veggies around in the oil until the spinach wilted down.
I then reduced the heat to low while I prepared the bread.
I found a discounted foccacia bread at the local Smith's so that's why I'm using it here in my recipe. I encourage you to use any form of bread though. Day old baguettes, french bread, ciabatta, etc. Bruschettas are an amazing thing only enhanced by different type of delicious breads.
I sliced the bread and coated spray on olive oil as I preheated the broiler.
I felt in the mood for some cheese so I quickly foraged for some in the fridge and ripped apart some provolone. Definitely one of my favorite cheeses.
After a minute in the broiler [Yes, sometimes even less than a minute with how hot broilers get], I began setting my plate for presentation.
There is the product with fanned out provolone foccacia, sauteed spinach, mushrooms, shallots, and garlic, topped with panko breaded pork loin. I ate it with some OJ 'cause that's all I had. It seemed a little bare without anything on the meat, so I added a sprinkle of parmesan for the final product.
I ate until maximum fullocity.
Glad to get a good blog in! Look forward to more random seasonal sale dishes from the B$-Hive Kitchen.