Better than a restaurant...and in just over 30 minutes!

Pork Milanese with Whole Wheat Spaetzle
and Baby Green Salad with Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette




Having a husband from Iowa, I knew that he would be pretty excited if I tried to make ANY version of a breaded pork tenderloin (I think it might be the State dish and if it isn't it should be). Not only was he thrilled, I got rave reviews from both of my boys (the ones that are eating solid food, of course--the baby seemed to enjoy his pureed squash but was looking pretty envious). Even better, I dressed things up a bit (a usual tenderloin would be served on a bun with some combination of ketchup, mustard, pickles and onion), so I felt like it was healthier and company-worthy.

Also fun about this dish is that you can feel anywhere from humble to cosmopolitan depending on what name you give it and what you serve along side. "Breaded Pork Cutlet," totally down-home. "Pork Schnitzel," very Germanic. "Pork Milanese," so very sophisticated...anyway you call it, every single part of the meal was done in just over thirty minutes. See? No excuses! I think it gives "pork chop night" a whole new appeal! I've included the separate recipes for all the components and down below, I'll give instructions on how to prepare everything at the same time to be done in just over a half an hour.

Breaded Pork Loin:
4, 1-inch thick boneless pork loin chops
Canadian steak seasoning
3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup breadcrumbs, unseasoned
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
Lay out a piece of plastic wrap big enough for each pork chop to be spaced about three inches apart and with some overhang. Lay pork chops evenly spaced apart. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap. With a meat mallet or rolling pin, take out any pent up aggression by pounding pork chops until they are an even thickness (1/2 to 1/4 inch thick).

In a shallow dish, mix together breadcrumbs, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese. Have beaten egg in another shallow dish waiting. Pull off plastic wrap and sprinkle steak seasoning on both sides of meat. Rub flour into each side of chop and then dip into beaten egg. Finally, dredge in breadcrumb mixture on both sides.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Place pork chops in a single-layer in skillet and brown about three minutes. Flip and brown on other side (lower the temperature a bit if getting browned too quickly) about 3.5 minutes. Voila! Your pork is finished!

Whole Wheat Spaetzle:
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup whole wheat
3/4 cup white flour flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2-4 Tablespoons butter, depending on taste
chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Fill a medium sauce pan with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat eggs until well combined. Whisk in milk. Combine flours and salt and whisk into egg mixture. It should look like thick pancake batter. Take spoonfuls of batter and using a spatula, scrape the batter across the large holes of a cheese grater into the simmering water. It will form small, irregular-shaped dumplings that will sink to the bottom and then quickly rise to the surface again. Give a gentle stir and then, with a slotted spoon, remove spaetzle dumplings and place in a bowl to hold. Repeat process until you've used up all of your batter. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place spaetzle in skillet in a single layer. Allow to brown (2-3 minutes) in butter and then turn to brown on the other side. Remove from heat and toss with parsley to garnish

Baby Green Salad with Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette:
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons stone ground mustard
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (about one lemon), reserving zest for garnish
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
fresh ground pepper to taste

1 bag of salad greens (I used one that was on sale at the supermarket, Mache, it's sort of like a combination in texture and flavor of spinach, watercress and arugula). Baby spinach or arugula would go beautifully, but use what you can find!

Remove zest from lemon and set aside. On a cutting board, mash down on garlic clove with the side of a large kitchen knife. Chop into smaller pieces and then sprinkle salt over top. Using the side of the blade again, drag the salt through the garlic pieces repeatedly to form a paste out of the garlic and salt (this way you won't have sharp bites of garlic pieces in your dressing). Scrape garlic paste into a small bowl. Whisk in mustard and lemon juice and stir to combine. Finely drizzle in olive oil while whisking constantly to form a smooth vinaigrette. Season with fresh ground pepper. Toss with salad greens. Feel free to garnish with lemon zest or fresh tomato for color.

Meal Preparation Instructions:
Bring spaetzle water to a boil. While waiting for water to boil, pound out and bread pork chops as well as mix together spaetzle batter. Let pork chops rest while you are simmering spaetzle. Then, after all the spaetzle have been cooked, brown pork chops. While pork chops are browning, prepare salad dressing. Flip the pork chops and brown spaetzle in another skillet (or wait until the pork chops are out of the skillet and use the same skillet to melt the butter and brown the spaetzle). Toss dressing with salad and you're ready to plate! Ha! Don't you feel like Rachael Ray???