CornBreaded Pork Cutlet with white wine mushroom gravy

This started out as a simple meal. $3 worth of tenderized pork cutlet and frozen peas. A mushroom white wine sauce would be nice if I can get the cutlets crisp. I'll use up the last of the new potatoes and the peas and carrots I'll sauté with an onion and the last of the celery.

First I got out the potatoes, there weren't enough so I got a russet and scrubbed it.  I left the small potatoes whole and cut the larger ones into similar sized pieces.  The same with the russet. I covered them with water, added a little salt and put them on a cold burner for now.  I had to get further along in prepping before turning on the potatoes.

I put  a couple of tablespoons of corn flour in a plastic bag and added salt, mixed ground peppers and 1/4 tsp of mustard powder. I shook that up then added the pork cutlets to get them thoroughly coated. Next I needed to get the vegetables and sauce ready so I took a slice of an onion, diced it and put it in the sauce pan.  The rest I chopped into large pieces.  I peeled a couple of carrots and diced a stick of celery.  Lastly, I beat up an egg and get a bowl of corn meal or corn grits ready. Clean the mushrooms and slice them up.

Turn on the potatoes and start browning the diced onion for the sauce.  Put the diced carrots and frozen peas in a pan with some chicken stock and slowly cook off the stock. Get the meat frying pan well oiled and heating up.  Dip the meat in the egg then roll in the corn meal. I completely covered my hands in corn meal and egg but I go the chops coated and in the hot pan.  I had to keep tipping the pan occasionally to keep the center oiled.  Also I was using my 12" frying pan so I had to rotate the meat so both edges were in the middle of the pan enough to brown.

Next the mushrooms go in with the diced onion to brown.  The peas and carrots should be drying out so it's time to add oil and the onion and celery.  I had to keep tossing the vegetables and mushrooms to keep them from burning.  When the mushrooms were almost done I sprinkled some flour over them and cooked the flour taste off.  Next I added chicken stock, an ounce of white wine and an ounce of milk then and let it reduce gently.

I could see the cooked meat in the cutlet had reached the middle so I turned both cutlets over.  The potatoes were done so I drained them and added a slab of butter and a little salt. Some pepper into the vegetables and it's time to plate. The sauce was coming to the right consistency. I plated the cutlet, potatoes and vegetables.  I scissored some chives over the potatoes and added sauce over the cutlet.

The egg and corn meal on the cutlet formed a crunchy coating that kept moisture in and didn't get soggy under the sauce.  The vegetables were much better than usual so I should do that again when I have lots of time. This meal took me nearly 1.5 hours to put on the table and everything on the plate was delicious.