Pork braised in milk with parsnips, white beans, and sage.

Here's a keeper that I sort of invented this evening.  I say "sort of" because I derived it from a classic Italian combination I have made a few times, pork braised in milk with sage and potatoes.  (Here, I Googled it for you).

I didn't have a dinner plan and I didn't have any potatoes, but I managed to turn up two pork chops in the freezer, and the pantry yielded part of a bag of wild rice, and there were parsnips in the fridge along with some limp-looking carrots and celery.  Also I found some bacon.  So this is what I did:

– Chopped up an onion, a carrot, and some celery, and smashed a couple of cloves of garlic with the side of my knife.

– Peeled and thinly sliced four parsnips.

– Minced up a couple of slices of bacon and browned them in some olive oil in a skillet.  I lifted the crispy bits out with a slotted spoon and left the grease in the pan.

– Added the two pork chops and browned them well on both sides.  Salt and pepper of course.  And removed them to a plate.

– Poured off all but about 2 Tbsp of the fat, and then added the onion/carrot/celery/garlic.  I stirred that around, scraping up the browned bits from the pork, until it was nice and soft.  Then I added the sliced parsnips and tossed them till they were coated.

– Nestled the pork chops in amongst the vegetables.

– Poured milk into the pan until it came about halfway up the side of the inch-thick chops.  I brought it to a boil, added a bit more salt and pepper, turned it down and let it simmer until the chops were done and the parsnips quite soft.  I turned the chops halfway through, by the way.

– Removed the chops to a fresh cutting board and chopped up the meat.  Here is where I would have returned the meat to the pan, except that I am feeding children who accept unmixed food a bit better.  So I kept the pork out and passed it separately.

– Mixed in 1 can white beans (drained).  Turned up the heat and let the mixture bubble a bit to reduce and thicken.  

– Transferred to serving bowl and sprinkled with reserved bacon bits.

I served this with wild rice, plain brussels sprouts, and my mother-in-law's home-canned pears.  It was really good — I might never use potatoes again, the parsnips were so sweet.  There were lovely little flecks of orange color from the carrots.  It was a very autumn-like dinner, even though we had it in January.

And it's yet another entry in the list of "ways to stretch a little bit of meat."  We didn't even eat all of the pork.