pork & spinach

Four different meals with exactly the same ingredients.
The first two recipes on this page are variations on cheese-stuffed pork chops and will take considerably longer than the others. Count on at least 2 ½ hrs., starting with fresh spinach, but I thought it was worth the trouble.

WARNING for sensitive people:
If gooey cheese make you uncomfortable, do not look at the pictures on this page. :-)

A. casserole without potatoes

2019-06-14

Another hybrid recipe: stuffed pork chop, spinach roll, shepherd pie.

You can layer the potatoes in there too instead of preparing them separately. To balance the dish, make sure you use lots of spinach, about same weight after cooking as pork. The scalloped potatoes are prepared and served separately here.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 6+ servings:

1 ½ lbs. pork roast, deboned
any nice roast will do
1 pt. Alfredo sauce
OR very cheesy béchamel or Mornay
1 ½ lb. cooked spinach
½ lb. bacon or ham, sliced or chopped
1 lb. potatoes, peeled, scalloped
Swiss cheese, chopped small
or use your favorite melting cheese
S&P

Pic1: pork & spinach, scalloped potatoes

Directions

Pic2: meat + sauce
Pic3: spinach, bacon, sauce, repeat
Pic4: finish with cheese, I should have used a bigger pot

Preheat the oven to 250-350 ºF. 250 cooks slower, 350 has more risk of boiling over.
Cook the spinach AND squeeze it hard to remove the liquid.
Cut the pork roast about the size and thickness that you like your pork chops.
If you prefer, you can cut the meat smaller, to stew-size.
Don't forget to season the meat, spinach and sauce.
Pan-fry the bacon and/or ham until very crisp.
You can chop the bacon or ham small before frying it.
Layer the food in a large oven-proof bowl:
- Start with some sauce on the bottom of the bowl.
- Add pork, spinach, ham/bacon, scalloped potatoes and sauce again. (Pic4) Repeat.
- End with a layer of sauce and sprinkle generously with chopped Swiss cheese.
- Leave about 1” headroom, otherwise the bowl will boil over in the oven.
Bake 60 minutes at 350 ºF, 90-100 minutes at 250 ºF.
Remove and serve immediately. Enjoy

B. casserole with potatoes = shepherd's pie

2019-06-14

Pic5: slice meat, arrange in oven-proof dish
Pic6: layer meat, spinach, scalloped potatoes, sauce
Pic7: bake + serve

This one is topped with scalloped potatoes and uses more sauce.
I forgot to take a picture of the meal with this one.

C. stovetop potpourri

2019-06-15

I arrived here with the leftovers from the above 2 recipes.
You can come here directly without that detour by skipping the oven and mixing all the ingredients together stovetop. These are the same ingredients, almost the same dish, but the stew presents very differently with a sauce that is a lot thinner.

Pic8: toss all ingredients together, add water / milk / cheese
Pic9: simmer until fully cooked
Pic10: serve and enjoy

Cut and brown the meat.
Prepare spinach, sauce and scalloped potatoes.
Toss it all in the same pot.
Simmer until done.
Serve and enjoy.

D. soup

2019-06-14

Again the same ingredients, with something extra. Like with almost all soups I make, I added a sachet of Knorr vegetable recipe mix to have the MSG and some extra vegetables.
Again a very different presentation.

Pic11: stew the spinach
Pic12: blend spinach in water, add other ingredients
Pic13: simmer until done

I stewed and blended the spinach in 3 quarts of water before adding other ingredients.
That is not absolutely necessary, but if you don't you'll have stringy spinach leaves floating in the soup. I prefer that a bit smoother in this case.
Add the other ingredients (stew meat, potatoes.)
I also added the dehydrated veggies.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover.
Simmer 30 minutes over low heat until the potatoes and meat are fully cooked.
Serve and enjoy.

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more and avemariasongs.org

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more
and avemariasongs.org