Pork Fest! Schnitzel

I think this is right. It is right. It tastes good. I think that it is how our Polish priest had me making them, but if it isn't, well, it still tastes good.

I am not Polish. Schnitzel is cutlet in my book. But in Poland, something different.

I had a bunch of mushrooms that were a little past their sellby date. They were edible, but not pretty. I had a bunch of fresh dill. What do I use dill for? Well, next to nothing. I like it and all, but it isn't really a big player in Italian cuisine.

So, thinking back to cooking a big Polish dinner (my one and only time cooking this stuff), I decide to get some ground pork and try it out.

I started with a pound and a half of ground pork and a produce bag of mixed mushrooms. I think you must have at least a quarter of them shiitake or some other powerfully flavored ones. I chopped the mushrooms finely in the food processor.

I chopped an onion by hand into fine dice and ran three large cloves of garlic through a garlic press. I sauted the onions, garlic and mushrooms in goose fat and olive oil. I transferred them to a work bowl, added the bunch of dill (finely chopped), the pork, two eggs, salt, pepper, and caraway seeds(I don't think Father used caraway, but it seems so Polish to do so, that I couldn't resist), and mixed it all up.

I formed little patties, dipped them in breadcrumbs and fried them in oil, letting them drain on paper towels. I served them with potatoes boiled in stock and short braised silver beet. And a red wine. Very good winter meal.

I did this a couple of days ago. In order to balance things out, I had a good bowl of Austrian ox-tail soup for lunch yesterday. I am far too much of a Teuton to just go about eating Polish food and not restoring balance.