Daily Loaf

As a child, I didn’t appreciate my mother’s cooking like I should have. A first generation American born to Austrian immigrants, my mother learned her skills in my grandmother’s kitchen. Mom didn’t have a huge repertoire of recipes. Most of our meals were casseroles, sausages, braised meats and cabbages. Her crock pot was her instrument. Unfortunately, seasoning was not en vogue and most of the cooking was pretty bland. I often opted for McDonalds which was delicious.

With age comes wisdom, however, and by my teens I knew there was something quite special going on in our very modest home. None of my friend’s ovens produced homemade scalloped potatoes, or pork chops and cabbage braised slowly for hours laden with caraway seeds. At their houses we ate foods like steaks or shrimp. For me, those foods were reserved for the ever-special dinner out.

Fortunately, as time passed, I was able to let my mom know how great I thought her skill in the kitchen was. In the weeks before she passed away, she could still gather a couple of bowls to the kitchen table where she would shuck peas or de-stem fresh green beans. Dad would have to take over the part that required standing at the stove. The last meal she prepared for me was some time earlier, when I asked her to teach me how to make her stuffed peppers. Aside from the love that went in to them, there were no special ingredients. Hollowed out bell peppers stuffed with ground beef and pork, rice and a few spices that went into the crock pot with a simple tomato sauce. It was the only time I ever set foot into the kitchen with my mother.

One of mom’s rare stovetop preparations was schnitzel. Weiner Schnitzel is traditionally a veal cutlet that is tenderized with a mallet then breaded and fried. Since veal was expensive, mom used pork. That still classifies as schnitzel. I’ve taken a few liberties with mom’s version, but the concept is hers. I use fresh breadcrumbs and buttermilk for the binder, and I cook them on a flat top instead a pan full of grease. Instead of the lemon wedges and lingonberry jam (not easy to find outside of our old Austrian neighborhood), I serve these with a simple but hearty onion gravy. A few roasted potatoes with smoked paprika later and my version of this dish is something mom would be proud of. She liked my cooking.

We all pay our respects in different ways but for me, I pay homage to my mother through the gift of my cooking. While we didn’t cook together, she passed on her taste for foods that I might not appreciate otherwise. I cannot get the crock pot out without thinking of her. As we fast approach the 5th anniversary of her passing, this meal was very reminiscent of a typical dinner from when I was a little boy, with a little twist of course.

Schnitzel with Roasted Potatoes and Onion Gravy

4 boneless pork cutlets (pounded thin)
½ cup flour+ 3 tbsp (divided)
1 egg
¼ cup buttermilk
½ cup bread crumbs (I prefer making my own but store bought would be OK)
5 tablespoons canola oil (divided)
5 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes sliced into thick disks.
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 medium Vidalia onions, sliced thinly
4 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine the potatoes, 2 tbsp oil, smoked paprika and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Lay out on greased cookie sheet or baking pan and place in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix the egg and buttermilk. Season pork with salt and pepper before dredging. Dredge the pork cutlets in ½ cup flour. Shake excess then dredge in buttermilk and egg and finally dredge in bread crumbs. Set breaded cutlets aside to rest on a wire rack.

In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, add 3 tbsp oil and onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until translucent and beginning to brown. Add 3 tbsp flour and combine. Cook for another minute. Bottom of the pan will brown a bit. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until reduced by a third (about ½ hour).

In a sauté pan over medium high heat add two tablespoons of oil and fry the cutlets 2 at a time. Cook about 3-4 minutes per side depending on thickness. Add a bit more oil before doing the second 2 cutlets.

To serve, arrange fried cutlets and roasted potatoes on a platter and pour onion gravy over top.

Serves 4.

Feel free to visit me at http://louislovesfood.blogspot.com or email me at louistjr@gmail.com

You know how everyone claims that their mom makes the best meatloaf and no one else’s can compare to it? I would have agreed with that, until I found this recipe for bacon-wrapped meatloaf. The classic comfort dish that is meatloaf and delicious salty bacon combine to make a juicy, meaty, melt-in-your-mouth taste explosion. Hungry yet? Read on.

This version of meatloaf was actually a collaboration and experiment by myself and my guinea pig/willing victim (a.k.a.: boyfriend) one Sunday afternoon. The idea was to make a better version of standard meatloaf, but how? What would elevate it from a simple comfort food to one sexy hunk of meat? And then the idea was born: Read the rest of this entry »

Bowled Restaurant
3 Stars
3451 4th St. N, St. Petersburg, 727-895-2695

Serving everything in a bowl – or as many menu items as possible – is more than just a restaurant gimmick or an excuse for an endless series of pot-smoking jokes. It’s a clear declaration of what St. Pete restaurant Bowled is all about.

You can put anything on a plate, except soup, but a bowl evokes a profound sense of comfort. Hands cupped around an offering. Birds’ nests. That Campbell’s commercial with the thawing snowman kid. A packed pipe. And although Bowled makes some fine grub, the overall effect is more about good, hearty food at a good price than fine dining from a bowl.

You might not get that feel, though, just from looking at the menu. Read the rest of this entry »

Brunch is my favorite part of the weekend — I love making it and I especially love eating it (also because it gives me an excuse to drink a Bloody Mary before noon). Combining two meals into one is a genius idea because you can have your breakfast-type items (eggs, waffles, etc.) and more substantial lunch- or dinner-type dishes.

I’m always trying out fun new places for brunch or coming up with recipes for it. This brunch dish is one I came up with that combines two of my favorite cuisines: Southern and Southwestern. Shrimp and grits are a staple dish of the coastal South, and flavors like ancho and poblano are hallmarks of the Southwest.

Recipe after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

Mexican and Tex-Mex definitely top my list of favorite cuisines. Their use of spices elevate and enhance simple ingredients to create delicious, comforting dishes. One of my favorite Tex-Mex dishes is Tamale Pie, which is a casserole that is supposed to mimic the flavors of a traditional Mexican tamale: shredded or ground meat encased in a masa (cornmeal) mixture, wrapped in corn husks and then steamed.  Tamales are very time consuming to prepare, so I decided to take the easy road and make tamale pie.

The following is a recipe for tamale pie I “Katie-fied” from one I saw on “Simply Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffman” on Food Network. Most tamale pie recipes I’ve seen use ground beef, but you can use ground pork, chicken, turkey, boar, ostrich, whatever your heart desires. I don’t usually use canned items but I decided to in this one, just to make it easier for those of you at home to save time. Read the rest of this entry »