Recipe XCI - Pork Schnitzel

So normally, Wiener Schnitzel is made with veal meat and is deep fried. As you know, I never follow recipes to the letter - why would I? You can find a thousand of the same on the Net. This is a variation, and I must say, I find it somewhat more flavoursome than the original, because it has a few extras in it...


Equipment required:
A meat tenderiser (a hammer with a serrated surface)

Ingredients:
600g sliced pork, about 15mm thick and 10-15cm long
Some flour and a decent amount of ground pepper
2 eggs, beaten and in a wide bowl
Some breadcrumbs, with a lot of finely chopped dried herbs (thyme, oregano, or whatever you want)
Goose fat or butter for frying

Arrange them as below, then you will always follow the correct order.



Instructions:
Take your pork and put it onto a flat surface, preferably not ceramic or glass, for what you are about to do next. Take the meat tenderiser and give your pork a good bashing so that it becomes very thin and twice the surface of its original state. Sprinkle salt over it then roll it in the flour and pepper, and set aside whilst you prepare your vegetables.



Once you are ready to proceed with cooking, dip the meat into the eggs, making sure it is totally covered. You'll be better doing it by hand than with a fork.



Put some oil into a large, flat non-stick pan. I used goose fat because it crisps up the outside very nicely, and fry on a medium-high heat for 4 to 6 minutes each on both sides. Turn it now and again, but leaving it to its own devices for a few minutes will let it crisp up. I also made some sautéed potatoes and Savoy cabbage.



Austrians also have lemon to add flavour to the breadcrumbs, but if you just add a few herbs to the mixture, you won't need the lemon. Mayonnaise was also welcome!

Recipe LIV - Breaded Chicken Breasts on a Bed of Green Beans with Polenta and Coriander Scrambled Egg

Bit of a mixed bag this week. As you may have noticed by now, I hate throwing raw ingredients away after they've been used for their primary function. That accounts for the scrambled egg. It actually made a very nice accompaniment. I'm not going to go into detail about polenta today, as the main purpose of this recipe is the breading. As you see in the first photo, I've put everything in order from top to bottom (left to right in my kitchen).



Ingredients:
1cm-thick sliced chicken (or turkey) breasts
3 bowls:
Bowl 1 with some flour in
Bowl 2 with three whisked eggs in
Bowl 3 with some finely ground breadcrumbs in
I add some Herbes de Provence to the breadcrumbs

Instructions:
Salt your chicken breast on both sides, pick it up with your fingers or a fork, and place it in the flour, covering it on both sides.



Take it from there into the eggs and cover it completely.



Move it from the egg into the breadcrumbs and cover it fully. Then put it in the pan and repeat with the other pieces you have.



Serve with green beans, polenta and the egg (see after the photo for details).



Coriander Scrambled Egg
I took a small amount of fresh green coriander and put it in the pan after the chicken had been there. I put some salt and fresh black pepper in the egg and poured it into the pan on top of the coriander, which had been gently frying for only one minute.

Green Beans
I steamed the beans until they were al dente. Then, in a pan with butter and olive oil, I fried one chopped onion and three roughly chopped cloves of garlic. I sweated the onion for three minutes, put in the garlic and then the beans, stirring constantly for three minutes or so.

Polenta
There are the conventional starch side-dishes: potatoes, pasta and rice are the most obvious. Polenta should really be the fourth, but because it is quite time-consuming, it is only really a bit-part player. I love polenta very much and will include it in a recipe in the coming weeks. Promise!

Recipe L - Bread Sauce (on Turkey Steak, Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli)

Charles De Gaulle was a man obsessed with food. He famously said about France, "How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?" and then went on to say, "In England there are sixty different religions, and only one sauce," which shows you where his priorities lay. As long as the food is to his satisfaction, who cares about democracy and religious tolerance? However, in Britain, there are literally thousands of sauces. He obviously couldn't get a decent chef. This one is so easy to make, and yet people choose to get it from a packet. Things taste so much better when made at home.

Ingredients for the sauce:
About 80g sifted breadcrumbs
About 60g butter
Between 30cl and 50cl milk
1 whole onion
1 clove
Half a carton of fresh cream
Some ground black pepper
A pinch of salt



Instructions:
Take the peel off the onion and with a cocktail stick make a hole in the top. Using that stick, force the clove into the onion. Don't worry, all will soon become clear...



On a hot flame, heat up about 30cl of your milk. Turn down the heat and add the butter and two thirds to three quarters of your breadcrumbs. Put the onion into the mixture and allow to simmer for 15 to 25 minutes, making sure you stir regularly to stop it burning the bottom of the pan. You can, during this time, add more milk and breadcrumbs, depending on how much sauce you want. Once you are satisfied your sauce is runny enough (it's like a kind of lumpy custard), take out the onion and serve quite soon after, as a layer of skin will form on the top!



The rest of the meal:
I took 500g of turkey steaks, salted them and put them in very little butter for about 30 minutes on a low heat. Half way through, I added some freshly ground black pepper.
To go with it, I boiled some potatoes and on top, steamed some broccoli.

Bread Sauce: the onion in it truly adds to the flavour, giving it a tang that will really compliment your meal. This sauce is perfect for poultry or fish.