January 18th - Schnitzel

January 18th – Schnitzel

I was over at a client that’s up the hill from the Widmer Brewery and as I was driving over the Freemont Bridge, I could see that they were brewing. I was tempted to stop by for a pint on the way hone since I got done a little early, but we’ve been trying to save money and every pint counts, so I just headed home but was stuck thinking about Widmer and the food at the Gasthaus. When I got home and was trying to think of what to cook, I decided to go the quasi-German route and cook some schnitzel.

I’ve met a lot of people over the years who think that schnitzel is some kind of sausage but it’s really just th4e German phrase for cutlets. The most famous of course are Wiener Schnitzel (Viennese Cutlets) which are just breaded and sautéed veal cutlets. Schnitzel can be pork, veal, or chicken, but pork is still my favorite. I had a couple of loin chops but they were from the end of the loin and looked like they’d be tough to cut in half so I got out a meat mallet and pounded them thin (after a quick brining in salt water). I don’t always use breadcrumbs on them and sometimes just use a quick dusting of flour, which is what I did this time. I sautéed them quickly in a little oil and pulled them out before they were done (since they’ll continue to cook as they sit). I threw some chopped garlic and capers into the pan and let them cook for about 30 seconds before deglazing the pan with white wine. When the wine had reduced I gave them a quick squeeze of lemon juice and then added a small amount of butter to emulsify the sauce. I added the schnitzel back to the pan and tossed them to coat them with the sauce. I had enough potatoes left to make a few potato pancakes on the side and added some applesauce to the plates as well. I had some cornichons and meant to serve a few but forgot about them.

The perfect thing to have with this would have been pilsner. I had looked at the Pilsner Urquell at the supermarket, but saw that they had Skagit River Brewery’s Sculler’s IPA on sale, so I bought one of those instead. (Should have bought the pilsner…) I like Sculler’s a lot but I think this one was on sale because it was getting a little long in the tooth. It was still good, but tired. It still had the great hop profile it generally does and still had the big caramel malt backbone, but because of its age, it was a little lackluster. Should have trusted my instincts and bought the Pilsner Urquell.