Making schnitzel, German-style
I'm going to do something unexpected today and post a pseudo-recipe. The only other time I did that was here, and with good reason since a friend had achieved the minor miracle of pulling off North American home cooking in Korea.
Today's recipe comes with its own backstory, though it's not quite as good as the time I gave a Chinese friend his first water chesnut...in China. Turns out Stefan has eaten the heck out of pork schnitzel but has never actually made it himself. So when I brought some schnitzel meat over one night with the intent of cooking it as mere pork steaks, he suggested we give making our own schnitzel a shot.
We used a basic recipe that tasted great to my rather untrained tongue. I got so excited about it that I actually took photos, which I've included above.
You'll need: flour, one or two beaten eggs, plain breadcrumbs (which you can buy or make yourself from leftover rolls), salt, pepper, fresh lemon, lots of oil and thin pork steaks. (Okay, so you're supposed to use veal, but let the little cows be and just use pork. Trust me. Turkey schnitzel is also fantastic if you don't eat pork.)
If the meat isn't thin enough, cover it with plastic wrap and use the broad bottom of a pan to flatten it to 1/2 or 1/3 inch. Put enough oil in the pan so that it's about 1/4 of an inch deep and turn on the burner to medium heat. Then, dip the meat in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. Repeat with the egg and breadcrumbs. Put a wooden spoon in the oil; if you see bubbles around it, the oil is the right temperature. Put the schnitzel in the pan and let it fry on one side for 2-4 minutes, or until golden. Flip it and repeat. Sing The Stranglers' "Golden Brown" as you remove it from the pan, dance a jig, drain on paper towels and serve with french fries or mayonnaise/mustard-based potato salad, both of which are authentic to Germany. Sprinkle lemon juice all over the meat. Let the first bite sink in. Get up after the second bite and dance another jig. Repeat tomorrow night.