We recently got our hands on some eland steaks and decided to make some venison schnitzel and prego rolls.
Making schnitzel is actually very easy, but for some people it is quite a serious affair. This is great article in The Guardian by Felicity Cloake on the history of the schnitzel and the preferences of individuals.
The meat
A classic Wiener schnitzel uses veal, but pork and chicken are frequently used as cheaper alternatives. We used eland steaks.
Is is important to use a meat mallet and beat out the meat as thin as possible without making holes in it. If the meat is not thin enough, the crumbs will burn before the meat is done.
Season the meat with salt and pepper.
The coating
The basic coating consists of 3 separate coatings: flour, egg and then the crumbs. In that order.
- We used normal all purpose flour
- Beat 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons of cream
- Although advised against it, we used panko crumbs instead of normal bread crumbs
Put the above in three separate plates.
Cooking
Some people like to deep fry the schnitzel. We opted to shallow fry it in clarified butter – also called ghee
So after covering the meat evenly in first the flour, then the egg mixture and then the crumbs, we fried the schnitzel over medium to high heat in ghee until die schnitzel is golden brown
The result
Absolutely fantastic! We were worried that the panko crumbs will be too dry, but it worked very well with the ghee. The bit of cream in the eggs also contributed to the richness of the dish.
We served the schnitzel with mushroom sauce and Ottolenghi side dishes together with a bottle of Alvi’s Drift Pinot Noir / Chardonnay Brut.
