Saturday, April 11, 2009

Wiener Schnitzel!

Tonight I made Wiener Schnitzel for dinner. It is so good when it's homemade, and so easy! Basically, you need rather thin slices of pork which you should then hammer with a mallet on each side until about 1/8 inch thick or even a little thinner. Salt and pepper the first side before turning over to hammer the second side, then salt and pepper the second side after hammering it. Dip the hammered meat first into flour so that it’s dusted all over, then into beaten egg until completely coated, then into fine (like coarse sand) bread crumbs. The breaded meat should be fried in a flat skillet with about ¾ of an inch of heated peanut oil. Fry on each side until the breading is a nice deep golden brown. Remove to a plate with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. It must be served with lemon wedges - squeeze the lemon over it before eating.

You can use chicken breast instead of pork, but you need to then hammer it a little more gently, because chicken breast is a much more delicate meat. When chicken is prepared this way, it is called “Huehnerschnitzel” in German.

As an accompaniment, I cut some broccoli into florets, peeled some brussel sprouts, added a fair amount of virgin olive oil and some salt, mixed it all up well with a slotted spoon, then put the mixture on an oven tray and roasted it at about 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) until a bit brown (about 10 minutes).

2 comments:

Christopher said...

I hope, when you did finally settle down to eat your Vienna Schnitzel, that you found it every bit as delicious as you made it sound.

marain said...

Thank you, Christopher! Yes, Wiener Schnitzel has become a favorite meal and is so much better when it's homemade. I only started making it recently - like maybe only since November of last year. I've been in Austria for 27 years and have only recently tried to make some of the traditional recipes of the region.

Another favorite is "Backhendl", which is the Austrian equivalent of fried chicken. I use the same breading ingredients. The difference from American fried chicken is that the meat of chicken legs and thighs is loosened from the bone so that the meat lays flatter. This makes it cook more evenly and less frying time is required. It should also be served with lemon wedges.