Schnitzel Dinner

Every now and then I crave dishes that I had a child or while on vacation. Schnitzel is one of those dishes that I was craving last week. This German classic bring back memories of visiting friends in Bielefeld, Germany and summer trips with my family. Several years ago, I had to opportunity to visit friends in Germany I had made while studying in Windsor, Ontario. Timo and Bjorn were most gracious hosts. Turns out that every Sunday Bjorn and Timo go to his Mother's house for brunch. I was lucky to be invited to one such feast and what a feast it was. Aside from my Mom's Schnitzel, I had the best Schnitzel ever. I will never forget the tenderness of the pork cutlet or the crispiness of the breaded covering. Before leaving Bielefeld to go back to Thessaloniki, Timo took me to a Bier Haus for a traditional German meal. Of course, I had to order the Schnitzel Dinner which was paired with creamy mash potatoes, beer gravy and a blonde ale. Mmmmmmmm! An Unforgettable dinner. Another memory pops up in my mind when I think of Schnitzel is our summer trips with the family. Where ever we ventured to, my Mom being the frugal housewife always packed a hearty lunch consisting of Schnitzel sandwiches. My Mom's Schnitzel Sandwiches were a nice marriage of the Classic Germany fare and Mediterranean Flavours. First, the Schnitzel would be placed in a toasted Greek Pita and then dressed with chopped tomatoes, parsley and a squirt of mustard. Mmmmmmm! Last week, I attempted at making my own Schnitzel. I found a very easy recipe on the Internet from Simple Recipes to follow and paired the Schnitzel with Greek Mash Potatoes (Skordalia) and Traditional Greek Salad.

SIMPLE SCHNITZEL

7 pork cutlets

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup flour

salt

pepper

bread crumbs

paprika

canola oil

1. You will need 3 separate shallow dishes for each breading step.

2. Breading station 1: mix flour with a dash or salt and pepper.

3. Breading station 2: beat eggs. 

4. Breading station 3: mix a good helping of bread crumbs and as much paprika as you want. I added 1 tbsp of paprika.

5. First dip your cutlet in the flour station. Then in the egg station making sure to cover both sides with the egg. Last coat the cutlet with the bread crumbs.

6. Fry on a hot skillet or non-stick frying pan for a couple of minutes on both sides. Doesn't take long.

7. Place each Schnitzel in a serving dish before serving. You might want to line the serving dish with paper towel to soak up the extra oil.

8. Serve with your favourite side dish.

SKORDALIA

5 large yellow potatoes

2 tbsp minced garlic

olive oil

salt

pepper

1 cup milk

1. Boil the potatoes for 40 minutes. Set aside to cool down so that you can peel them easily.

2. Mash the potatoes while adding salt and pepper. The salt helps to mash the potato easily.

3. Stir in the olive oil and mince garlic.

Cooking with Mom

This afternoon, I had a cooking lesson from the best cooking teacher I know...My Mom! She taught me everything I know about Greek Cooking. She is well known for her killer Pites and her homemade Pizza is a close second. One of my favourite dishes is Pizza. I believe it is a complete meal (depending on the toppings of course). You can have for lunch, dinner or even better for breakfast with a nice cold glass of milk. Delissimo! Since I'm trying to stay away from take out for the 10 weeks, I decided to make pizza at home. After buying all the ingredients on Sunday, the problems was on how I was  going to execute making the pizza. Thankfully, Mom wasn't too busy today and so she came to the condo to give me a lesson on rolling pizza dough. Aside from getting my Mom to help me with the pizza today, it was nice to cook together. It's been along time since we engaged in sharing a kitchen now that I am domesticated myself. I'm looking forward to slicing up my very first homemade pizza.

Barese Sausage Pizza

1 link Barese Sausage
100 g sun dried tomatoes
100 g marinated artichokes
500 g Fruilano cheese
2 cups pizza sauce
1 package of ready made whole wheat pizza dough

1. Place the pizza dough in a large bowl and set out to allow the pizza to raise.

2. Meanwhile, cook the Barese Sausage. If you have a barbecue that would be the best place to cook the sausage. If you don't just use a non-stick frying pan as I did. Allow to cook through. About 15 to 20 minutes on medium-low heat.

3. In a small mixing bowl prepare the pizza sauce. If you have ready made pizza sauce go ahead and use it. If you want to make your own it is very simple. Add olive oil to 2 cups of tomato puree along with a good amount of diced garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.

4. Slice the sun dried tomatoes and artichokes and grate the Fruilano cheese. Set aside.

5. Now, you are ready to roll out the dough. Roll the dough out to the size of your pan making sure to roll it out evenly and to not puncture the dough. Slowly place the dough on the pan. Grease the pan with oil and dust with cornmeal. This will help the pizza to slide off the pan after baking.

6. Now, assemble the toppings. First, the pizza sauce. Second the majority of cheese. Then the sausage followed by the sun dried tomatoes and artichoke. If you have left over cheese add that to the top of the pizza.

7, Bake in a 400F preheated oven for 30 minutes.