Although there is a wide variety of cuisine available here, there aren't many especially good German restaurants. The one that I remember as being at least all OK closed quite a few years ago. Back in Ann Arbor, though, there were a couple good German restaurants that I liked, one of them quite good as I recall.
So, whether it was knowing my brother is visiting Austria or chatting with my German and Austrian friends online or just from reading a story where the main character calls a friend in Germany for some how-to instruction so she can make schnitzel for her cousins, I decided to make schnitzel for dinner yesterday. My cookbook collection is still in disarray, so I went online and found a recipe from Guy Fieri that looked like it would work with a little adoption.
His version reminded me of cooking with my grandmother in Oklahoma, because it uses a lot of bacon grease for making the Jäger Sauce.
We often used bacon grease instead of shortening or oil for frying in the 50's.
There was a metal cylinder with a strainer and lid in between the salt and pepper shakers on the back of her gas stove. When we cooked bacon for breakfast, the extra grease would go through the strainer. If we needed grease to fry eggs or French toast or grilled cheese sandwiches, we just added a little bacon grease.
Perhaps it was the nitrates and nitrites added to cure the bacon, but bacon grease would keep like this, but sausage grease would not.
However, as we became more concerned about food safety and eating less saturated fat, we stopped using bacon grease for this.
So, with thanks to Guy and Grandma, here is my version of Schnitzel with Jäger Sauce!
Ingredients
4 6 oz boneless pork cutlets (I used pork tenderloin)2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped yellow onions
3/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 cup Panko bread crumbs (we didn't have Panko in the 50's!)
1 cup Ritz crackers, crumbled into small pieces (I do remember crumbling a lot of crackers, but probably to go in meat loaf)
1 large egg
1 cup milk (I used 1% fat)
2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 pound bacon, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Olive oil (for frying)
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 tsp beef bouillon powder
2 cups water
2 Tbsp butter
Preparation
1. Place each cutlet between two pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper and pound with a mallet or small cast iron skillet until about 1/4 inch thick.
2. Mix the flour, salt, pepper and paprika thoroughly in a wide shallow bowl and set aside.
3. Beat the egg slightly and then mix with the milk and mustard in a second wide shallow bowl.
4. Mix the Panko and cracker crumbs in a third wide shallow bowl.
5. Set a baking rack (or racks) on a cookie sheet.
6. Place a cutlet in the flour mix and coat thoroughly on both sides.
Dip it in the milk and egg mix,
let the liquid drip off, then lay it in the Panko/cracker mix and turn it to coat thoroughly on both sides. Lay the cutlet on the rack to rest for several minutes. Repeat with the other cutlets.
7. Heat a large cast iron skillet with about 1/4 inch of olive oil in a 350F oven.
8. Place a second large skillet or saute pan over medium heat and fry the bacon until crisp and slightly brown. (it took me about 20 minutes, but I may have used extra bacon.)
9. Remove the bacon pieces and place on paper towels on a plate to drain.
10. Add the chopped onions to the bacon fat and saute for 3 minutes.
11. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute for another 2 minutes.
12. Add 1/4 cup of the flour/seasoning mix from breading the cutlets (or use 1/4 cup flour instead) to the vegetables and stir thoroughly to make a roux.
13. Stir the wine into the vegetables, heat to a simmer and let it boil for about a minute.
14. Whisk the bouillon powder and water together and slowly add to the vegetables. I did this in three stages, stirring thoroughly to make a smooth mixture before adding more liquid.
15. Transfer the saute pan with sauce to a large back burner and continue to heat, stirring occasionally. Let it come to a slow bubbling simmer and thicken, but don't overcook it.
16. Remove the cast iron skillet from the oven and place on the large front burner. Increase the heat to medium high. Add two pork cutlets to the pan and brown on one side for 5 minutes. Turn them over and brown for another 4 minutes. Place the first two cutlets in an oven proof serving pan in the warm oven and repeat with the other two cutlets.
17. Add the 2 Tbsp butter to the mushroom sauce and stir till it melts.
18. Serve each schnitzel covered with the Jäger (mushroom) sauce and garnished with bacon pieces and chopped parsley.
Bon appétit!
Notes:
I actually cooked the sauce completely before cooking the schnitzel. I think the sauce lost a bit of the wonderful mushroom flavor from simmering too long, so I suggest overlapping the process per the instructions.It still tasted great, though!
A traditional accompaniment would have been red cabbage and spaetzel, but I opted for cooked unseasoned wild rice and a curried cabbage salad that we had already made, with plenty of sauce on the wild rice, of course!
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