Parmesan and breadcrumb-crusted pork with mushrooms; baba ganoush

To make the pork, I cut my pork chops in 2 lengthwise, so you end up with two thinner 'patties'. If your pork chops are already pretty thin you can skip this step. Then I dipped each in a mixture of one egg beaten with Dijon mustard, then rolled them in Panko breadcrumbs stirred together with a handful of grated Parmesan and a couple of shakes of dried thyme. I cooked them in the oven on a wire rack for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

To make the mushrooms, I sliced then sauteed them over med-high heat in about 1/2 tsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp butter with 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic. I usually put the a lid on for the first couple of minutes, then remove it to finish browning and to evaporate some of the moisture.

The vegetables in our fridge that night consisted of mushrooms...and eggplant. So I decided to make some baba ganoush as a odd sort of bedfellow to the pork and mushrooms.

Peel and dice three small eggplants (or one large one) into 1-inch cubes, then microwave for 8-10 minutes in a glass dish with a bit of water, stirring every couple of minutes. If you have a BBQ, cooking the eggplant on the grill will give the eggplant a nice smokey flavour.

Put the eggplant pieces in a blender. Add 1/4 cup tahini, 3 minced cloves of garlic, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1-2 tsp extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of ground cumin. Some people make 'a well' in the baba ganoush for extra olive oil, but I don't find I need it. Season to taste. Serve with pita.

I'm sorry for my pitiful attempt to make this look more like an exotic appetizer (let's sprinkle some paprika!) and less like cement drying. You can blame the photography skills and I'll blame the unphotogenic BG.