Schnitzel Making!

I suppose this post is sort of a follow up to many others about food in Austria, international cooking, etc.  I've been looking forward to this for a while actually, as I attempt to expand my cooking knowledge and expertise to encompass all of these wonderful foods I'm now exposed to.  What better place to start than Schnitzel!

After a day of class last week my very capable Austrian culinary guide and I went to the grocery store to get all our ingredients.  Since we'd just had a discussion in class about seed laws, (and my guide is a bit of a produce fanatic)...we opted for these funny looking wrinkly ochsenherztomaten, oh so delicious. 

Our ingredients for dinner (schnitzel, salad, potatoes, and dessert). 

First up...chop everything for the salad and put the potatoes in water to boil (the potatoes eventually got peeled and tossed with olive oil and parsley...although I don't have any other pictures of them). 

Then set up our little assembly line for the schnitzel...sifted flour, eggs, and semmelbrösel (bread crumbs)

we used pork...but you could also make it with any number of other meats.

smash it thin

cover each piece first in flour, then through the eggs, then finally in the semmelbrösel

try not to focus too much on this part...just look at the lovely alpine scene on the container...

using a wooden spoon to see if it's hot enough

and then you toss the breaded meat in! I'm still not entirely sure how you know it's done, we kept flipping it until it sort of felt and looked right...whatever exactly that means...but you can always cut into a bit to double check

Two other friends came over to be the taste testers once we had finished cooking...they approved!

And of course if we somehow hadn't had enough food...we bought these delicious strawberries that are now in season

and some neapolitan ice cream to go with them...yum yum yum. 

It was a super fun evening all around, learning to cook new things and being able to cook for friends, which I don't get to do all that often here and should really try to do more of.  Also looking forward to my next attempt at other Austrian staples!