Dinner Journal #7
Schnitzels in Cream
Note: Almost all of the preparation for this dish takes place 24 hours before serving.
1 large pork tenderloin
1 1/2 lbs cooked ham, cubed
3 large or 5 medium yellow onions, chopped
1 qt heavy cream
flour
salt
pepper
3-4 eggs
unseasoned breadcrumbs
paprika
lots of vegetable oil
Cut the pork tenderloin into 10-12 small sections, about 1 inch thick, and trim them if necessary. Place the pieces, one by one on an easily cleaned wooden surface, like a cutting board. If you have wax paper, it can make cleanup easier to lay a piece beneath the pork, and another piece on top, but it's not necessary. Take a small frying pan and use it as a mallet to beat the piece of pork flat. When the pork has flattened into a sort of meat pancake, set it aside.
Add some flour, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, to a dish or bowl (you can always add more later on as needed, which is why I haven't included amounts). Beat the eggs, adding a dash of water, and place in another dish. Last, mix the breadcrumbs with a dash of paprika and place in a third dish. One by one, place each piece of pork in first the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, making sure in each step to get a nice even coating on both sides of the pork.
When the pieces are all breaded, fill a saute pan with enough vegetable oil to completely cover one of the breaded pork pieces, and heat the oil up. The oil is hot enough when a drop of water added to the pan sizzles and pops. At this point, you may want to have a splatter screen ready. Add the breaded pork pieces to the oil, as many as you can that can all lie flat in the pan without stacking. Flip them occasionally. They will only take a few minutes each to cook, and you can test them by pulling one out and making a small cut to see if the middle is cooked. When each pork piece (these are now finished schnitzels) is done, pull it out of the oil and set it on paper towels or a wire rack to dry.
When all of the schnitzels are cooked, add the ham and onions to the oil you used for the schnitzels and deep-fry them as well. They are done when the onions are translucent around the edges. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to dry (they won't dry completely, but this at least removes most of the excess oil). Place the schnitzels in a large baking dish, and coat evenly with the ham/onion mixture. Pour the heavy cream into the dish, cover, and place in the fridge.
Wait 24 hours while the cream soaks into the schnitzels.
Place the dish, still covered, in the oven at 350f and bake for 1 hour. Remove the cover and continue baking for 10 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven, allow it to cool for a few minutes, and serve. Guten Appetit!
Notes: Elke Timmer, a friend of mine in Germany, gave me this recipe. I've made some minor modifications to it, but she is the source and deserves the credit. This dish is delicious, but quite heavy. I strongly recommend a side dish of bread or starch, and some vegetables. Also, the portions discussed here produce a great deal of food. I find that one of the schnitzels, plus the topping mixture and whatever side dish I have, is a large dinner, so you can feed several people well off of this dish, and still have leftovers.
Spätzle Noodles
2 eggs
3 fl oz milk
7-8 fl oz flour
a dash of nutmeg
a large dash of white pepper
a dash salt
a bit of butter
grated Parmesan cheese
Beat the eggs, milk and spices together in a mixing bowl, then slowly add the flour, mixing it in with your (hopefully clean) hands. Knead the resulting dough, and let sit for 15 minutes. At this point it should be doughy but spreadable. Dust a small cutting board with flour, and spread the batter over the board. Set a pot of lightly salted water to boil, and prepare a bowl of cold water. Dip the blade of a knife into the boiling water. Hold the board with the batter above the pot, and use the blunt side of the knife to push the dough in small portions off of the board and into the water. The pieces should boil for about 2 minutes, and then should rise to the top. When the pieces begin to float, scoop the floating ones out and drop them in the cold water. If any don't float after 2 minutes or so, make sure they aren't stuck to the bottom.
When all of the pieces are in the cold water, pour it into a colander to drain the water. You now have spätzle noodles. Gently saute the noodles in a frying pan with the butter, and then top with the Parmesan and serve.
Notes: This is a classic German food. You will have to experiment to get the size of the noodles just right. Making them too big or too small isn't really a problem, but I think having them about 1 inch long and a little less than 1 cm thick is ideal. Makes an excellent side dish for Schnitzels in Cream, as you can use the cream/ham/onion as a sauce over the noodles as well as over the schnitzels.
Note: Almost all of the preparation for this dish takes place 24 hours before serving.
1 large pork tenderloin
1 1/2 lbs cooked ham, cubed
3 large or 5 medium yellow onions, chopped
1 qt heavy cream
flour
salt
pepper
3-4 eggs
unseasoned breadcrumbs
paprika
lots of vegetable oil
Cut the pork tenderloin into 10-12 small sections, about 1 inch thick, and trim them if necessary. Place the pieces, one by one on an easily cleaned wooden surface, like a cutting board. If you have wax paper, it can make cleanup easier to lay a piece beneath the pork, and another piece on top, but it's not necessary. Take a small frying pan and use it as a mallet to beat the piece of pork flat. When the pork has flattened into a sort of meat pancake, set it aside.
Add some flour, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, to a dish or bowl (you can always add more later on as needed, which is why I haven't included amounts). Beat the eggs, adding a dash of water, and place in another dish. Last, mix the breadcrumbs with a dash of paprika and place in a third dish. One by one, place each piece of pork in first the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, making sure in each step to get a nice even coating on both sides of the pork.
When the pieces are all breaded, fill a saute pan with enough vegetable oil to completely cover one of the breaded pork pieces, and heat the oil up. The oil is hot enough when a drop of water added to the pan sizzles and pops. At this point, you may want to have a splatter screen ready. Add the breaded pork pieces to the oil, as many as you can that can all lie flat in the pan without stacking. Flip them occasionally. They will only take a few minutes each to cook, and you can test them by pulling one out and making a small cut to see if the middle is cooked. When each pork piece (these are now finished schnitzels) is done, pull it out of the oil and set it on paper towels or a wire rack to dry.
When all of the schnitzels are cooked, add the ham and onions to the oil you used for the schnitzels and deep-fry them as well. They are done when the onions are translucent around the edges. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to dry (they won't dry completely, but this at least removes most of the excess oil). Place the schnitzels in a large baking dish, and coat evenly with the ham/onion mixture. Pour the heavy cream into the dish, cover, and place in the fridge.
Wait 24 hours while the cream soaks into the schnitzels.
Place the dish, still covered, in the oven at 350f and bake for 1 hour. Remove the cover and continue baking for 10 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven, allow it to cool for a few minutes, and serve. Guten Appetit!
Notes: Elke Timmer, a friend of mine in Germany, gave me this recipe. I've made some minor modifications to it, but she is the source and deserves the credit. This dish is delicious, but quite heavy. I strongly recommend a side dish of bread or starch, and some vegetables. Also, the portions discussed here produce a great deal of food. I find that one of the schnitzels, plus the topping mixture and whatever side dish I have, is a large dinner, so you can feed several people well off of this dish, and still have leftovers.
Spätzle Noodles
2 eggs
3 fl oz milk
7-8 fl oz flour
a dash of nutmeg
a large dash of white pepper
a dash salt
a bit of butter
grated Parmesan cheese
Beat the eggs, milk and spices together in a mixing bowl, then slowly add the flour, mixing it in with your (hopefully clean) hands. Knead the resulting dough, and let sit for 15 minutes. At this point it should be doughy but spreadable. Dust a small cutting board with flour, and spread the batter over the board. Set a pot of lightly salted water to boil, and prepare a bowl of cold water. Dip the blade of a knife into the boiling water. Hold the board with the batter above the pot, and use the blunt side of the knife to push the dough in small portions off of the board and into the water. The pieces should boil for about 2 minutes, and then should rise to the top. When the pieces begin to float, scoop the floating ones out and drop them in the cold water. If any don't float after 2 minutes or so, make sure they aren't stuck to the bottom.
When all of the pieces are in the cold water, pour it into a colander to drain the water. You now have spätzle noodles. Gently saute the noodles in a frying pan with the butter, and then top with the Parmesan and serve.
Notes: This is a classic German food. You will have to experiment to get the size of the noodles just right. Making them too big or too small isn't really a problem, but I think having them about 1 inch long and a little less than 1 cm thick is ideal. Makes an excellent side dish for Schnitzels in Cream, as you can use the cream/ham/onion as a sauce over the noodles as well as over the schnitzels.