Schnitzel and Kate's B-Day Cake

Greetings! It is Sam tonight, bringing you Stuff in My Fridge Friday!

Since I went through the fridge in the Kitchen of Despair yesterday and found that I have an awful lot of extra ingredients I don't know what to do with, I decided to make something out of the leftovers. Since we had an extra pork tenderloin and some extra white potatoes, we decided upon Schnitzel and Potatoes Anna. Both very simple and quick and TASTY.

What We Used:

Schnitzel

• 1 pork tenderloin
• 1 and 1/2 cups fine bread crumbs
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• parsley
• Cayenne pepper
• chili powder
• basil
• Seasoning salt
• egg wash (egg with a bit of milk in)

Easiest way to turn a pork tenderloin into schnitzel is this: Cut the tenderloin into three or four pieces, depending on the size you want to make your schnitzel. Put the pieces of pork, one at a time, into a freezer bag and pound on them with something heavy ( I opted for my marble rolling pin and found it INCREDIBLY easy ) until they're flat. Don't flatten them TOO much or you'll make them into mush or break them. Once they're flattened, set them aside on a plate or a piece of plastic or tin foil or whatever is available.

In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs and all the spices together. ( This is just the particular blend of spices that I used, if you'd like to do something else with them, by all means, go ahead! Sometimes, my husband and I just use premixed Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic stuff or if I want something more fragrant and earthy, I leave out the onion powder, basil, chili and Cayenne and opt to use rosemary, thyme and oregano. Experiment! That's what spices are for!! ) Set them aside and prepare your egg wash.


Since I had leftover eggwhites in the fridge from previous adventures, I used those!


Dip the flattened pieces of pork into the egg wash, then into the bread crumbs to coat them. Fry them in hot oil until they're cooked, browning them as much as you'd like!!




Potatoes Anna

• 3 white potatoes, skin on
• 1/4 onion
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil ( I will be using Olive tonight since it's got the most flavor. Use what you have or what you like! )

Slice the potatoes thin and arrange them in a baking dish. I used a Pyrex pie plate, since Pyrex pretty much rocks. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper and sprinkle them liberally with oil. You can use as little or as much as you want, just don't go crazy with it or you'll start your oven on fire. Unless that's just me.


Cut the onion into strips and arrange over the potatoes, then bake in the oven at 350 till the potatoes are soft, browning them as much as you'd like. If you don't want to brown them too much, try covering them with tinfoil or baking them in a roasting pan with a lid.




We're also making a cake for Kate's birthday!! Our lovely friend Kate requested a chocolate cake, so we decided to do something wonderful. Using the same chocolate cake recipe that spawned the TARDIS cake we made a chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and Ganache on top.


Mint Ganache

• 6 squares Bakers chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup Heavy cream
• Mint extract
  

Chop your bakers chocolate and put it into a heat friendly bowl. Put the cream into a pot heat it on low on the stove. Once the cream is hot, pour it over the chocolate, stirring all the while. Add the mint extract and continue stirring until it's nice and velvety smooth. Pour the genache over the cake, using as little or as much as you'd like!

We don't have any pictures of the cake right now... Megs was lovely enough to take a couple at Kate's thing, so hopefully we can show you soon. But it turned out lovely and dericious.

-Sam