Schnitzel
“Hey Shazza! Fancy a schnitty down the Rissole this sarv?” (Australian proverb). I always fancy a schnitty and now you can whip them up at home, minus the crap bread crumbs and all the grease. Don’t be a princess about there being a couple of steps in the prep and a few extra dishes to wash up, it’s super easy. Bloody lush with slaw and some sweet potato fries.
- 6 pork loin steaks (or 4 chicken breasts)
- 3/4 cup almond meal
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons dried sage
- Black pepper to tase
- 1/2 cup arrowroot
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- Fat of choice for frying (coconut oil or avocado oil works well, but I love using lard that I save from cooking pork belly or bacon)
Trim your pork steak of all fat (not because we don’t like fat, but because its easier to flatten steaks without it). Pop a steak between 2 sheets of baking paper and hammer out to about 1cm thick. If you’re using a kitchen mallet, use the flat side. Do this to all steaks.
On a large plate/flat bowl, mix together almond meal, nutritional yeast, herbs, spices, salt and pepper.
In another bowl place arrowroot. In a third bowl gently whisk eggs and mustard until combined.
Taking a steak, dredge it in the arrowroot until coated. Shake of excess, then dredge in egg wash. When coated in egg, place steak in almond meal mixture until coated all over. Set aside. Continue until all steaks are “crumbed”.
Heat a pan over low to medium heat. Don’t put the heat too high as you don’t want the “crumb” to burn, but not that low that there’s no sizzle. Heat a generous amount of your fat of choice in the pan, so there is a couple of millimetres depth in pan. Fry one side of steaks for a couple of minutes until crumb is browned and crispy, then gently flip over and do other side. You may need to do in 2 batches depending on size of pan. If so, you may want to wipe out the pan with paper towel for any burnt bits, then add a little more oil/fat for second batch.
TIP – this recipe works well with using just a cup of almond meal instead of the almond meal/nutritional yeast mix. I just use the yeast for a little more flavour.
To save lard when I cook pork belly, I just strain the fat while its still hot and liquid into a mason jar and keep it in the fridge. Works a treat!