The Japanese call it “tonkatsu”, the Italian call it “cotoletta milanese”, the Austrians, Germans and Swedes call it schnitzel. You can call it whatever you want, but all the variations have one thing in common. They’re absolutely delicious! A piece of pork (or veal if you want the authentic wienerschnitzel) breaded and fried it tons of fat until all crispy and good. Oh, and the Swedes add fish and peas. You don’t need to do that, I just want to get it out there.

Red wine sauce

You don’t need this for the authentic Austrian dish, but it has become a typical dish to eat in Sweden. And Swedes eat it with red wine sauce. So you should try that. Really.

• Ox broth (make some yourself or buy a low sodium one)
• A whole bottle of red wine (a semi-sweet one)
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• salt and pepper to taste
• A large spoon of butter
• Some starch like corn starch or potato starch
• Some oil

1. Finely chop onion and carrot
2. Fry in some oil
3. Add ox broth and whole bottle of red wine
4. Let it boil until it’s reduced by 75%. You’ll have this dark tasty liquid that smells amazingly good! (while you’re waiting for this, go onto making the rest of what needs to be done)
5. Pour it through ha sieve into a saucepan
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you didn’t use a low sodium broth, then no need for more salt.
7. A teaspoon of sugar. If your wine was really sweet, then no need for the sugar.
8. Add some butter, and whisk over low heat until the sauce gets all shiny and good.
9. If it’s still a little too liquid, you can thicken it up with a little starch. Mix corn starch in cold water, and drip it in while whisking. Heat up the sauce while whisking and it will thicken up. But be careful, it quickly gets too thick. A little at a time!

Hash brown (or rösti, or whatever you want to call it)

Ingredients for about 4 people:

• 8 potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 1 parsnip
• salt and pepper to taste
• a lot of oil

1. Grate the potatoes (do not peal them, potatoes are good as is)
2. Wash the potatoes in cold water. Like, really wash them good using your hands. Take that starch out of them. You’re not done until the water is perfectly clear, not milky. This washing process will make them all crunchy and good.
3. Put the potatoes in a cloth, and turn it to get as much water out as possible. Then put them on a new dry cloth and press it with another piece of dry cloth. A lot of ry cloth here, you really want to get that liquid out.
4. Grate carrots and mix with the potatoes
5. Grate a parsnip and mix with the potatoes and carrots
6. A little salt and pepper (some now, some on top later to taste)
7. Heat up a lot of oil in a large pan, medium heat
8. Drop a fist full of goodness onto the hot oil and cover without pushing it down. You don’t want to make the hash browns compact just yet, you want the heat and steam to rise through the grated pieces throughout the whole thing. Cover with a lid.
9. After about 4 minutes, flip the hash browns around. They won’t stay together, but don’t worry. Just swipe them upp to form a round potato patty again. Cover and let fry for another 4 minutes.
10. Now they’re starting to come together. Push them down a little, and turn around again. You may want to rise the heat a little, and give them a nice crust on both sides.
11. Salt and pepper to taste on top, and ready to serve! But meanwhile, you’ve done the schnitzel, right?
    

    

Schnitzel

Ingredients

• 4 large boneless pork chops
• a lot of bread crumps
• 2-3 eggs
• wheat flour
• Salt and pepper

1. Smash the pork flat using a meat hammer. I recommend you put the pork chop into a thick large ziplock bag, and smash it through the bag. It saves you from having meat juices flying around the kitchen. Start by smashing with the toothed side of the hammer, and then the flat one.
2. Three plates. First with flour, second with beaten eggs mixed with black pepper and salt, third with bread crumps
3. Put the meat into the flour and cover both sides. Then the egg mix, both sides, and finally the bread crumbs on both sides. Then repeat it again. Double coating is the best coating. You can even go three times if you want to go crazy.
4. On a large pan, tons of butter. I mean a lot, a lot, a lot of butter! Melt it on medium heat until it no longer makes sounds. Then put your schnitzel on there until crispy and golden brown. Flip it, and do the same on the other side. The meat is really thin, so don’t worry about donees. It’s done when your coating is done.
   

   

Serving

a. A classic way of serving is just with a lemon wedge and the potato patties. Maybe a little fresh parsley on top.

b. Add some green peas and the red wine sauce, and you’re almost Swedish.

c. If you want to do it the classic Swedish way, you’ll go with b. but also you’ll add a slide of lemon with sardines and capers on it. Yup, google “svensk schnitzel” and you’ll see tons of examples of this.