Daniel Pfyl, hospitality management lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. In this series he shares recipes from a recent trip to his family in Switzerland, by way of Hong Kong.
Serves 8
1kg pork loin
80g flour
4 eggs, beaten with a little water
250g fine breadcrumbs
oil for frying
for garnish:
2 lemons
8 anchovy fillets
8 tsp capers
1) To butterfly pork schnitzel, cut a 1cm slice through a fillet or loin of way down then another slice right through.
3) Bash with the side of a heavy cleaver or the bottom of a frying pan until large and thin.
In Austria they are as big as a plate, Chef Pfyl says.
Season with salt and pepper.
1) To crumb the schnitzel, place some seasoned flour in a bowl. Beat a couple of eggs with a little water and place the bowl next to the flour. Put the crumbs in another bowl next to the eggs.
The flour sticks to the meat, the egg sticks to the flour and the crumbs stick to the egg. If you don't use flour first the egg and crumbs tend to fall off, he says.
2) Press the schnitzel into the flour on both sides so it is well covered and shake gently to release excess flour.
3) Dip the floured schnitzel into the egg, making sure it is well-covered and gently wipe on the edge of the bowl to release excess egg.
4) Press into the crumbs so they stick to the egg and cover the meat.
Chef Pfyl recommends using one hand for dipping the meat in the flour and egg and the other for the crumbs so you don't have two messy hands.
Tap the crumbed schnitzel on the bench to get rid of any loose crumbs. They should be dry on the outside. It's best to crumb just before frying.
You can add chilli, garlic or parmesan to the crumbs if you like but it's not traditional in Viennese pork or veal schnitzel.
1) To cook the schnitzel, heat plenty of oil in a pan - you need enough so you don't get hot spots.
Place each schnitzel in the pan away from you to avoid splashing hot oil.
3) Before putting another schnitzel in the pan, drain the oil through a sieve to remove any crumbs which would blacken as you cook the second batch. Return the strained oil to the pan, reheat and cook the next batch.
To make traditional garnish for pork schnitzel, slice the zest off a lemon, leaving some of the white pith. Slice the lemon and remove the pips. On each slice place an anchovy fillet rolled around some capers.
Serve with pan-roasted potatoes, fries or potato salad, and garlic aioli or tomato sauce.
Pan-roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary.
Serves 8
4 large potatoes
olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
1) Wash and cut potatoes into large bite-size pieces. If you trim the edges they look a bit like new potatoes, Chef Pfyl says .
2) Cook in boiling water until almost done. Drain.
3) To finish cooking, heat oil in a frying pan and add the potatoes. Once they start to brown, add salt and pepper and shake the pan to turn the potato pieces.
4) When nicely browned all over, add butter, garlic and rosemary and continue to cook a little longer.
Serve hot.
If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know.
Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
To check earlier Cooking 101 columns visit: www.odt.co.nz and search for "cooking 101".
More information on cooking from Otago Polytechnic can be found on www.otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com
