Tag: pork

Easy Glazed Pork Steak

When I find something on sale at the supermarket, I am tempted. A couple of weeks ago, the meat manager had put some packages of pork steak into the discount bin. I brought a package home, found a recipe for boneless pork chops that looked pretty good and adapted it to turn some inexpensive meat into a delicious dinner.

You can put these pork steaks on the table complete in less than twenty minutes if you don’t dawdle. And if you start the pasta water when you walk into the kitchen, you can have the complete meal on the table in a half hour.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 lbs. pork steaks, at least 1/2 inch thick
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1/2 tsp. powdered garlic
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 T vegetable oil or shortening
1 T maple syrup (optional)

PROCEDURE:

Using a fork, mix the sugar and spices together in a small bowl. Cut the pork steaks into serving-size pieces and put them on a platter. Spread half the sugar and spice mixture over upper side of the steaks and rub it into the meat. Turn the steaks over and repeat the procedure. Let the steaks rest a few minutes while you warm the frying pan.

Coat a non-stick frying pan with about two tablespoons of oil or shortening and heat it over high heat until the oil is very hot. Put the steaks in the pan, scraping any juices and spice mixture from the platter onto the steaks. Fry them for about three minutes, then turn the steaks over and fry them another three minutes. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the steaks another three or four minutes on each side.

If you wish, drizzle a tablespoon of maple syrup over the steaks when they are nearly done and turn them a final time to complete the glaze.

Pasta with vegetables goes very well with these steaks, but you may prefer rice or potatoes.

NOTES: If you are one of those people like me who counts carbs, you should experiment with making your own glazes for meat. This recipe, for instance, has fewer than sixty-two grams of carbohydrates. Since it makes four servings, each serving has only about sixteen grams of carbohydrates. Contrast that with one of my favorite “eating-out dinners,” General Tso chicken, which alone has sixty-four grams of carbohydrates.

If you think that dieting means to follow the advice of a doctor who supposedly said, “If it tastes good, spit it out,” these glazed pork steaks will change your mind. Just don’t eat more than one.

Pörkelt: Pork Goulash with Caraway and Lemon

Our family ate a lot of pork when I was a boy. We feasted on hams for Sunday dinners, and breakfast was bacon, eggs and homemade bread at least a couple of times a week. Mom used smoked pork hocks for making soup, and she made pork pot roasts with vegetables, pork chops smothered in gravy and shoulder roasts done slowly in the oven.

She did not, however, introduce her son to pörkelt. That honor belongs to an anonymous cook in the cafeteria of the dormitory where I lived when I was a student for a year in Germany. The dorm fee included dinner, which was served at noon. At that time in Germany, this was the main meal of the day, and the cafeteria cooks did their best to see that students got enough to fill them up.

Most of the meals were pretty good, but I did learn quickly that if a lot of tables were empty, chances were good that boiled liver over noodles was the main course that day. If students on very limited budgets skip a meal they have paid for, you know that something is wrong.

Pörkelt was one of the most popular dishes. A couple of us would go to the serving window and fetch back bowls of the fragrant meat, steaming noodles and lovely red cabbage. Bread and butter were already on the table. Once everyone was served, someone would say “Greif zu!” and we would do as ordered: “Dig in!”

Pörkelt is actually a kind of Hungarian goulash, a meat stew seasoned with paprika and other spices served with noodles or dumplings. It is made with pork rather than beef and is a mild dish with a delightful taste of lemon and caraway.

There are dozens if not hundreds of recipes for pörkelt. I tinkered with several until I got a version that we really liked. It reminds me of the dish I first had in Germany long ago, and we have been enjoying it for many years. Here’s how to make it.

INGREDIENTS:

3 lbs. pork
3 cups chopped onion
2 T oil
2 T butter
1 tsp. caraway
3 tsp. marjoram
1 lemon rind
2 small or 1 large clove garlic
2 T paprika
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T flour
1/4 cup water

PROCEDURE

Cut the meat into one-inch cubes, discarding the excess fat. Put the oil and butter into a large heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid. Peel and chop the onions into about a half inch dice, put them into the pot and cook them over low heat until they are soft and translucent. Do not brown them.

Crush the caraway seeds in a mortar or with a wooden spoon in a sturdy cup. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash a lemon and use a grater to remove the zest (the bright yellow outer layer of the rind) from it. Stir the caraway, marjoram, garlic, lemon zest, paprika and salt into the onions. Add the meat and the chicken broth. Add water if necessary to cover the meat.

Simmer the goulash for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Mix the flour into the quarter cup of water and add it to the goulash to thicken the gravy slightly. Simmer for another five minutes, then taste and correct the seasoning.

Serve your goulash over noodles with a good crusty bread. If you want to add a vegetable, red cabbage is a good choice.

NOTES: Most paprika sold in U. S. supermarkets is the mild or sweet paprika. This is the kind I use for pörkelt. There are hot paprikas, however, that you can get in some food stores if you prefer a spicier dish.