Pork with Madeira Mushroom Sauce

Copyright 2007 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 lb. thinly sliced pork, boneless
1 cup bread crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper or chopped flat parsley
3/4 cup baby bella or crimini mushrooms, sliced
½ cup Madeira wine (or Marsala)
1 T fresh sage, minced
1 T unsalted butter
2 bulbs of shallots, finely diced
4 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t salt

Place bread crumbs onto a plate, and then coat each pork slice on both sides. Warm large non-stick skillet with 2 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat and then pan-fry pork until golden brown (about 2 minutes on each side). Remove from skillet and place on a serving dish to rest. (Don’t worry if your pork seems undercooked because it’ll continue to cook while resting on the dish.)

In same skillet, warm another 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then saute the shallots for one minute. Add mushrooms and sage, and saute for another minute, adding salt to help sweat the mushrooms. Add Madeira wine to deglaze your pan and continue cooking for a minute to burn off alcohol. Melt butter in the wine sauce and then spoon warm sauce over your pork pieces.

Makes two to three servings. Serve with herb-roasted potatoes and apple chutney.

Serve with a glass of Australian shiraz.

TIP: Don’t wash your skillet after you’ve pan-fried your pork and before you start your sauce. All the leftover bits from the pork will add more flavor to your sauce.

CHOPS or SLICES: I called for thinly sliced boneless pork in this recipe because I feel it’s always faster to cook thin pork than it is to cook chops. When pan-frying, I always want to cook fast to avoid the meat absorbing too much of the pan oil. But if you like your pork thick and juicy, then you can substitute the thin pork with pork chops with bone, but cook it for an additional minute. Again, the pork will continue to cook while it’s resting on the dish as you’re working on the sauce, so don’t overcook it in the pan. It should be near done when you remove it to rest.