Thursday, February 20, 2014

food & drink magazine - mini wiener schnitzel with sauerkraut & creamy roasted beet mustard

I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post, this was a very involved recipe for just a meat without a side. It all starts with the kitchen's favourite task, roasting beets! A messy job at best. After learning about dealing with beets back when cooking through Everyday Food, I've devised a plan of attack that gets me by which involves latex gloves and a black cutting board. Since I was going to the effort of roasting beets, I made extra and enjoyed a bonus of beet and orange salad for the next couple of days. The beet needed for the mustard is processed along with hot mustard and sour cream and is used as a side for the star of the show - Wiener Schnitzel! This was our first time making schnitzel at home, but we've made chicken milanese before which is quite similar in flavour and technique. The recipe from Food & Drink uses a turkey breast, portioned and then flattened. We found that placing the meat between plastic wrap and using a rolling pin worked best (after a dismal attempt using parchment and the suggested cast iron frying pan - I'm surprised our cupboards are still standing). Once complete the cutlet is breaded and deep fried. The recipe suggests putting the cast iron skillet to better use for deep frying. Another first for me and I'll be sure to continue to do it this way from now on. I used a probe digital thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature, which was difficult to keep consistent, but nonetheless got the job done effectively. The schnitzels turned out crisp and golden and delicious. I found it difficult to tell we were even eating turkey and the recipe does mention about substituting for pork or veal in its place. 
The sauerkraut isn't worth mentioning other than it made enough to feed the German Olympic team, wasn't very tasty, didn't add or bring anything to the dinner and in the end was a waste of time and money. There was actually an excess of both the beet mustard and sauerkraut and I have a particular distain for tossing out food that can't be used again, so to me that is a flaw in the recipe when ratios are off.

I decided to defer from the German theme and roast some sweet potatoes as a side which helped round things out a bit. But I won't lie, the schnitzel and beet mustard was criminally good together. An indulgence to eat and a lot of fun to cook, but similar to the cabbage rolls, best suited for the weekend due to the time consuming nature of these recipes.

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