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Tuesday 10 July 2007

Kotlet schabowy - yummy obiad


Polish food is a large part of the culture and I am willing to reflect this through my breakfasts (sniadanie) and dinners (obiad). There are other meals such as second breakfast (first breakfast can be a chore as I'm not usually hungry), but they are no way near as important.

This particular dish are pork cutlets in breadcrumbs which are then fried and traditionally served with kiszona kapusta (sour raw cabbage) and ziemniaki (potatoes, usually skinned and boiled). The dinner I had which is the photo below varies in that I had salatka (salad pronounced sawatka) and frytki (chips).

I know it looks like battered cod and chips here but I promise you it's a genuine kotlet schabowy!

I have heard that these are good for building muscle, being high in protein and calories and that one kotlet is the equivalent of one piwo (lager, pronounced peevo). However it is obviously high in fat being fried in oil in combination with a considerable insulin spike from the breadcrumbs and if you worry about the measuring tape then you should avoid regularly eating large amounts of carbs and fats together in one meal. Of course that is not an excuse to pass up the opportunity to eat this wonderful hearty foodtuff which adapts equally well to breakfast the next day, cold on a kanapka (sandwhiches but fillings are not between slices of bread, they are on one and eaten in a similar manner to e.g. cheese on toast).

In case anybody readding this is getting hungry, I will lay out a method of making these nutritional nuggets.

  1. Clean thin cutlets of pork removing fat and grisle.
  2. Pound the meat with huge tenderiser hammer to ensure the pig has definitely passed on.
  3. Season with salt
  4. 'Deikata' (Special spice but you should find it in Polish shops) is mixed with breadcrumbs.
  5. Dip meat in egg yolk/white and then into breadcrumb powder mix.
  6. Repeat coating until you have the desired thickness of breadcrumb coat.
  7. Fry in olive oil until golden brown.

Easy peesey lemon squeezy!!!! You do not have to use pork though, it can be chicken,turkey or fish (don't like them).

There are many versions of this in other countries e.g. German schnitzel and when I have gone visited each country and tried them all I will put together THE definitive guide with ratings and everything!

Anglik rating: 8

If I still smoked I would enjoy it extremely after a couple of these beauties.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

All this time and beer and food are still number 1 priorities I see :P Great blog mate, keep it up - whens the Vodka review?

jw connolly said...

Well I have to get involved with the culture - I have no choice!
Everything in good time, I have much more to talk about.
Cheers for comment

jw connolly said...

Well I have to get involved with the culture - I have no choice!
Everything in good time, I have much more to talk about.
Cheers for comment

Izzy said...

If you don't have access to a commercial mix (I don't living in Tasmania, Australia), do what my Polish grandmother use to do:

Prepare meat as described in the blog.

Then take some fine grade breadcrumbs (dried bread minced, it is faster in a machine). Add to it a liberal amount of salt, pepper and caraway seeds. Caraway is an important flavour when cooking with pork, and is a must when doing bigos too. :-)

Then dip the meat in flour, egg, and breadcrumb. You can pack a lot of crumbs onto the meat at this stage. Let this dry for about half an hour on a rack or even a large plate (single layer). You can repeat another layer if you wish, but don't need to add an extra drying time.

Fry till mid golden brown. Then place it in a slow oven (I put it onto oven sheet not to add more oil) for about half an hour. This not only allows you too keep a large batch warm but makes the meat very tender to eat. :-)