Cornmeal Fried Pork Chops and Goat Cheese Smashed Potatoes - Page 137

I discovered something about myself...and I'm not proud of it.  I over mash my potatoes.  I never knew that you could just "smash" them, and make a much better quality rustic mashed potatoes.  Of course, sometimes you want the ultra smooth, creamy mashed potatoes, but that's another food entirely.  These potatoes were so much more Potatoey (made up word of the day) than my usual mashed potatoes.  Just crush each one with a spoon and then fold in the flavorful stuff - what could be simpler!  I'm a convert.

We used a locally bought green tomato relish, to which we added some homemade pickles, since green tomatoes aren't in season.  We'll make the Heritage version next spring or summer.  It's actually one of the harder parts of doing every recipe from a book.  Usually, we see what's available and fresh, and then make something based on that.  Here, we have to plan ahead, plotting out recipes based on what will be available, and then hoping it's good and fresh.  Initially, this was easy, because there were a lot of recipes with ingredients that were available and good year round.  As the recipes dwindle, it gets a bit harder.  But enough whining - this is super fun - I just feel like we need to make excuses for the long gaps between recipes sometimes.

We bought nice thin pork chops from the butcher so they required a minimum of flattening.  The dredge was simple and easy and the frying went well, though we almost missed that there were no temperature checkpoints, the cooking is done entirely by time, which was nice - and worked perfectly.  At least until my piece of shit electric stove stayed on when we turned it off.  I can't wait to convert to gas.

The entire meal tasted great together.  I loved the bits of cheese interspersed in the potatoes.

Advice: Don't have a piece of shit electric stove.