Pork Loin with Mushrooms and Onions under a Cheese Crust

Name: Pork with Mushrooms and Cheese Crust - Baked Pork Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Pork (loin or neck) 300 g; Onion 2; Parsley 1-2 sprigs; Button mushrooms 8-10; Hard cheese (Radamer, Emmental, Gouda) 100 g; Vegetable oil 2 tbsp; Mayonnaise 1 tsp (optional) (5 g); Salt, black pepper, coriander, dried aromatic herbs (basil, oregano, savory) to taste

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60 mins

Meat under cheese is a simple, accessible dish that needs no exotic ingredients. The sheer variety of dishes and foods in the modern diet has led people to eat just about anything, without paying much attention to what is in their meals, mixing foods that hardly go together.

Meat dishes are washed down with sweet fizzy drinks, everything is smothered in ketchup from a sachet, and most vegetable salads are dressed with mayonnaise.

Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s famous hero, said: “The food was pretty good, but the one bad thing was that everything was cooked by itself.” Eating without any order will sooner or later show up in your health. In my view, it is better to eat one tasty, well-cooked dish than a mix of unrelated foods.

Well-cooked meat with mushrooms, like French-style pork, baked under a cheese crust, is an ideal choice for a full dinner and needs no side dish, no salad and, of course, no ketchup from a sachet.

In ancient times, once clay cookware came into use, culinary horizons widened beyond comparison. Being able to bake food rather than fry it over an open fire moved people forward enormously in the quality of what they ate.

Meat under cheese is an easy dish that is simple to repeat and can make a great dinner. A piece of pork, mushrooms and onion. These ingredients, plus a piece of hard cheese, are always in the fridge or at the nearest store.

Ingredients

2 servings

Pork (loin or neck) 300 g
Onion 2
Parsley 1-2 sprigs
Button mushrooms 8-10
Hard cheese (Radamer, Emmental, Gouda) 100 g
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
Mayonnaise 1 tsp (optional) (5 g)
Salt, black pepper, coriander, dried aromatic herbs (basil, oregano, savory) to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the ingredients

For meat under cheese, it is best to take pork neck or loin. These cuts are fairly tender and contain fat, which keeps the finished meat juicy.

Prepare the meat: clean and wash it, removing any bones and large pieces of pork fat. Cut the meat into small pieces, no larger than 3 cm.

Prepare the onion and mushrooms: peel the onion and cut it into thick strips, and wash the mushrooms. It is best to use small mushrooms; cut large ones into several pieces.

Frying the meat, onion and mushrooms

Season and fry the meat. Salt the meat to taste and sprinkle with spices: a mix of black pepper, dried aromatic herbs and ground coriander. In a frying pan over high heat, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and fry the meat until a golden crust forms. There is no need to fry the meat until fully cooked; a browned crust is enough.
Fry the onion with the mushrooms separately. Fry the sliced onion in the remaining oil over medium heat.
After 2-3 mins, add the mushrooms and fry until the onion is soft and golden.

Baking under cheese

Divide the ingredients between baking dishes. Put the fried meat into ceramic or clay baking dishes.
Put the onion and mushrooms on top. Add a little salt and pepper.
Place the dishes in an oven preheated to 200°C for 30 mins. The meat needs a while to heat through, and then it starts to bake. Usually 15 mins from the moment the pork begins to bake is enough, and the meat is fully cooked.
Sprinkle the meat with cheese and bake. Grate the hard cheese on a coarse grater and sprinkle it evenly over the meat, leaving no gaps.
If you like, for a nice golden crust, brush the surface of the cheese with 1 tsp of mayonnaise (5 g). Put the dishes back in the oven and bake for about 5 mins, until the cheese melts and starts to change color. Once the cheese has melted and baked, the meat baked with cheese is completely done.