We’re getting to the some of the last recipes I have for some of these chapters, and 7-33: Country Dinner is one of the few remaining entries from the Pork chapter of Simply Delicious. Honestly, this recipe as it exists is not much more than mashed potatoes with bacon and onions. That doesn’t sound bad per se, but I don’t know if it constitutes “dinner”.
Google only gave me a few results for similar recipes, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t too far off from the mashed potato bowls you can get at like KFC. If anything, the KFC ones come with more stuff in them.
The TIPS section offers the additional option of apples–I think I’d add corn or peas before apples, but YMMV.
Ingredients. I used tempeh bacon instead of regular, but everything else is what’s called for. I also added some black garlic seasoning for an additional kick.
Peeling potatoes into the sink. Putting a paper towel down first to catch the peels makes for easy cleanup.
Chopped the peeled potatoes to get them ready for boiling.
On the stove, coming up to temperature.
Prepping the tempeh bacon. It doesn’t look the same, and I can definitely admit that it doesn’t taste the same, but it achieves the same goal (at least for us).
Getting some color on the bacon while the potatoes boil.
Chopping the onions. This may be closer to a dice than a chop, but I like my onion pieces on the smaller side.
I overcooked the tempeh bacon a little bit–there’s a bit of a learning curve.
Onions cooking in the same pan as the bacon did–don’t want to waste flavor.
Potatoes are boiled and ready to drain.
Tossed the drained potatoes back into the pot they boiled in for seasoning and mashing.
Potato mashers are also great avocado mashers–there, now it’s a two-use tool.
Spreading the seasoned mashed potatoes into the pan.
I like to spread mashed potatoes in the pan like brownie batter.
Getting creative with my bacon placement.
When you put the onions on top, it doesn’t look half bad.
There you go–a porkless Pork dish. Wasn’t bad, but I don’t know if I’d consider it a full dinner.
Grade: B+
