Something Saucy – Slice 8- SCHNITY SUNDAY
Bone-in Pork Chop Schnitzel with Pickled Mussels
Welcome to Something Saucy. You will find your fair share of sauce-related recipes here, but Something Saucy won’t solely be a repertoire for sauce making. We will also feature various recipes and techniques deemed that little bit ‘saucy’. As always, it is our quest to expand on what we don’t know and to share with those who care.
This newsletter is brought to you by Cúán Greene, Founder of Ómós.
Happy Bank Holiday Weekend! And well, if you are not living in Ireland or work freelance, happy Sunday. You still have work tomorrow.
I recall back when I was in my early twenties, interrailing through Europe with an American friend. We had met while working in a restaurant in Boston, a restaurant that operated on a back-to-work scheme for ex-convicts of the Suffolk County House of Correction. Before we make assumptions of my past and indeed, Mark’s, the restaurant was also a portal for students, many of whom were Irish, fresh off the boat. It truly was the perfect symbiosis.
Mark, my traveling companion, was your quintessential Bostonian. He had a mouth like a gutter, each word broadened by his distinctive local accent, you can’t help but rehearse, and was rarely seen without his Dunkin Donuts Coffee—‘Gaaarbage!’. He sported a full back tattoo, reminiscent of those of the Yakuza, and although he may have had more than one commonality with Mark Wahlberg, he was no ex-convict. He was a big dreamer and had a heart of gold, working day and night in the restaurant industry to pay his way through university where he had ambitions to become a lawyer at Boston University (and yes, he did). Mark also loved an egg and cheese brioche sandwich in the morning. Something we bonded over.
Schnitzel = Comfort.
Traveling through Germany, Austria, then over to Hungary and the Czech Republic was not the European trip Mark had envisioned. Like every American does he was captivated by the romance of Barcelona, Paris, and Rome. He dreamt about the Tuileries gardens while crunching on fresh baguettes filled with ham and butter, rambling through French markets, sitting at the counters of the Mercado de Boqueria in Barcelona, or indulging over gelato amidst the ornate architecture of Rome. However, I had already done that and selfishly decided that was not the journey we would take. So, that June, Mark found himself in Prague, a city he knew nothing about, eating braised goose, with red cabbage and dumplings, in the 40°C heat. At least the food was cheap.
Although braised goose did not tick the boxes that year, Weiner Schnitzel certainly did. Tenderised cutlets of veal, coated in breadcrumbs and fried, served with an obligatory slice of lemon. There’s something so comforting about slicing into the crisp crust, revealing succulent meat. It’s a dish I don’t think I could ever become tired of.
It appears veal is still super pricey, and relatively rare to find here in Ireland. For the recipe below, I have replaced veal for pork, and prefer to opt for the chop with the bone in. Cooking meat with the bone protects the meat, resulting in a juicier end result. The bone is also delicious to gnaw like a rib! A couple of weeks ago I cooked this dish for my good friend Shantanu Starick in his beautiful home, pictured below.
