Zur Rose

Jägerschnitzel mit Bratkartoffeln

Food Category: Food Porn

Difficulty: Moderate

Did you see that? Not Just Schnitzel finally has Schnitzel on the menu for dinner! About damn time, huh? For all those hits I've had looking for "schnitzel recipes", I sincerely apologize to the googlers for not delivering sooner. But, I promise, it will be worth the wait.

Tonight, we are having Jägerschnitzel. Most of the time, the Schnitzel part of this meal is breaded & pan fried, but occasionally not. I'm leaving off the breading for tonight & just pan grilling the meat. The Jäger part of this meal means that the Schnitzel is covered in a delicious onion & mushroom gravy.

I've tried to take lots of pictures so you know what you are aiming for. I also highly recommend prepping everything before you begin to cook anything. This includes pounding the pork, slicing potatoes & prepping the salad.

If any of the natives reading this want to add comments or suggestions, we are all ears. FrauRose (Kathy?) or Oma? Any words of wisdom?

How to make Jägerschnitzel:

I have taken 6 Schnitzel cuts of pork - I asked the German Metzgerei (butcher) for 6 Schnitzel & this is what he gave me. You have my permission to begin with pork cutlets or thick sliced pork loin. I marinated the meat overnight with Braten seasoning. Knorr has some products you can purchase over the Internet. If you are in Germany, you can find Braten, Schnitzel, Kotlett, &/or Grill seasonings at any local market.




Pound the schnitzel until uniform thickness of about 1/2 inch. Pan fry in a bit of evoo & set aside in a warm oven until the sauce is ready. You might want to start the sauce first & get it going before you cook the schnitzel.

For the Jäger sauce, wash & slice one large container of mushrooms & finely chop one large onion. Sautee onion in 2 T evoo & 1 T of butter until about 1/2 cooked.

Then add the mushroom and cook on med-high until almost all the liquid evaporates. Mushrooms will reduce in volume by about 1/2. Below is a picture of what the mushrooms look like before.
After the mushrooms cook down, add about 8 oz (250 ml) of dark beer, preferably a German Dunkel. Usually I use a medium to dry red wine, but decided to make a beer sauce tonight. MiniChick (Hi, Laura) convinced me to use beer. Peer pressure at its finest.

The picture above shows what the mushrooms looked like right after adding the beer. Notice the color and texture change. Continue to cook until the beer reduces by about 1/2 in volume. Once the beer & mushrooms look like this (below), add 8 oz of beef broth & 8 oz of light cream.

Reduce heat & continue to cook until the volume of liquid reduces again by 1/2 & the sauce begins to thicken. This might take about 20 minutes. Once the sauce looks creamy & thick, it is done. Remove from heat.

And, while you are cooking the sauce & juggling the schnitzel, you'll need to start the potatoes. Peel, cut in half lengthwise & slice (1/2 moons) at least one medium potato per person. Place in a microwave safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap & nuke on high for 7-10 minutes. You want the potatoes to be about 1/2 cooked.

Meanwhile, heat 3 T evoo over medium-high heat. Add potatoes to hot oil & top with 1/2 of a chopped onion. Cover at let the potatoes cook for a few minutes. You will need to stir the potatoes frequently, cover when not stirring.


Below is a pictures of the potatoes that are about 1/2 way done. There is still quite a bit of steam being released and a few of the potatoes are starting to brown up nicely. Don't worry about really brown potatoes, that's what provides lots of flavor.


Below is a picture of the Bratkartoffeln cooked to HausFrau perfection. They will have lots of color & will all be cooked through & be fork tender. Season with Bratkartoffel seasoning. I'll have to work on deciphering the seasoning blend. Right now, the best I can tell from the bottle in order: salt, paprika, onion powder, curry, pepper, marjoram, ginger, celery salt, & dry mustard. And a few other ingredients that totally got lost in my German & Chemical translation.


I had some leftover bacon crumbles in the fridge that I tossed in with the potatoes. You can cook bacon in with the potatoes & probably should, but that's not how I made them tonight. Maybe next time I'll add the pork fat like a proper HausFrau should & take pictures for you.

To plate the meal like it would be presented at a typical German restaurant, put the potatoes & schnitzel on one plate & top the schnitzel with the Jäger sauce. Sprinkle with freshly snipped chives. If you want to be all fancy-pants, you can also garnish with a bit of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and either orange or lemon slice.


I rounded out this meal with a side salad which is very typical for a full German meal. For a quick dressing, add 1 T mittelscharf mustard (or Dijon) & 1 teaspoon of sugar to a bottle oil & vinegar dressing. I used Newman's Own Basalmic Viniagrette because that's what I had, but I think a more bland dressing would work best. Toss dressing with lettuce greens, thinly sliced cucumber & (if you can get it) pickled shredded carrots & red cabbage.

Serve with a dark beer if you made a beer sauce. Red wine if you made a wine sauce. Either way . . .

Guten Appetite!

Pork Gyros & Garlic Potatoes

Food Category: PG-13, bordering on Food Porn
Difficulty: Easy

Pork Gyros

• season thinly sliced pork loin with prepackaged Greek seasoning
• or a combination of: oregano, crushed garlic, salt & pepper, paprika, mint
• in a tiny bit of evoo, sautée one thinly sliced onion until tender crisp
• add pork and continue to stir fry until the meal begins to crisp
  

If you need the basics of cooking gyros, try this recipe.

The Rose's Garlic Potatoes

• wash, peel & thinly slice potatoes into circles
• deep fry until golden brown
• drain excess oil & season with salt or pommes frites seasoning (all purpose seasoned salt)
  
• top with fresh minced garlic & chopped parsley

Tzaziki

• line a colander with paper towels & place over a bowl
• place approx. 20 oz of low fat plain yogurt on the paper towels
• refrigerate for several hours to drain excess water from yogurt
• mix 3 parts drained yogurt with 1 part light sour cream
• crush 2 cloves of garlic & mix with a bit of salt to make a paste
• add paste to yogurt/sour cream
• finely grated 1/2 cucumber, and drain all excess liquid by squeezing between paper towels
• 2 splashes of red wine vinegar
• 1 splash of olive oil
• few shakes ground black pepper

If that is way too confusing for you, this looks like a decent alternate recipe. I don't know for sure, but I'm going out on a limb here and declaring it not as good as mine.

Salad

• mix of red tipped lettuce & spinach leaves
• sliced red onion
• cherry/grape tomatoes
• sliced Greek peppers
• Kalamata olives
• seasoned crumbled feta
• sliced cucumbers
• Greek salad dressing or other oil/vinegar dressing

Flat Bread

I used warm Naan bread because I can't find decent pita bread. Any kind of yummy flat bread would work great.

The Rose, located in Giebelstadt, Germany, is my absolute favorite restaurant in the World. For those of you who have eaten there, you know what I'm talking about. I've been on a mission for several years now to duplicate some of our favorite menu items.

So far, I've totally mastered the tzatziki & the garlic potatoes. If you are located in Germany, you can find frozen Bratkartoffeln at any store. Deep fry those. This is exactly what The Rose uses to make their food porn potatoes. If you must use real potatoes (like me) use small ones with a diameter no bigger than 2 inches.

My gyros tonight were made with pork loin that was packaged with gyros seasonings. Any commissary in Europe should carry them. It's the stir fry pork loin, gyro style w/onion. If you are in the States, you probably have lots of options for pulling this tasty meal together.

Just make sure that you take the time to drain off all excess water from both the yogurt & the cucumbers. Tzatziki is supposed to be very thick & creamy, not runny & watered down.

This meal is wonderful with an opening shot of Ouzo, followed by a medium Greek red wine. My favorite is Imiglikos. That's a #80 on The Rose's Menu.

If you want to lighten up this meal, skip the potatoes or make oven fries instead. The tzatziki is made with a low fat superfood, and you just can't go wrong with that. The salad is a bowl of total health & the pork is a lean white meat. Skip the bread or serve with the low fat, whole grain flat bread. This meal could be very Bum Lovin' under the right circumstances.

HausFrau Wisdom: To remove obnoxious odors (like onion & garlic) from your hands, rub them over a stainless steel sink or carefully along the flat side of a knife.

Leftover potential: Tossing leftover meat & tzatziki in with leftover salad makes a great entree salad for lunch. We never have leftover potatoes. If you do, you might want to seek counseling. Seriously.

The only way to add to my perfection would be if BB Lady would come over tonight locked and loaded with a warm pan of baklava for dessert.

That's a hint. We are all awaiting your recipe over on Strudel.

Tex-Mex

Saturday, 11 October 2008

We had dinner out at a Mexican Cantina in the Kaiserslautern area. Hands down, they serve the best Tex-Mex in Europe.

Between the four of us, we ate: a very large burrito, flautas, tacos, nachos, beans & rice.

No pictures, but you know what that stuff looks like!

Schnitzel und Rumpsteak

Friday, 10 October 2008

As promised, we made the voyage to Germany and ate our way through the weekend. We had dinner at a great restaurant in the Bitburg area.

Hey, I'm just happy that someone else is doing the cooking & dishes.

I think Man is just enjoying the Bitburger Pils.

The salad was totally awesome. I ate mine & Laze-E's.

The girls ate Wiener Schnitzel and Pommes Frites.

It was a tough call, but I finally decided on Jägerschnitzel & Bratkartofflen.

Man ordered the Rumpsteak with pan fried onions.
And a second Pils.

Laze-E had no problem finishing off her ice cream. Salad? No. Dessert? Yes.