Primal / Paleo Oktoberfest / "Mocktoberfest" - Gluten-Free Schnitzel with German Potato Salad



Come to Mama.


At last, I tackled "Mocktoberfest". Being partly of German extraction - and having lived in Germany for a time, sometimes I just need a good Schnitzel. Schnitten is the German verb for to cut, so you can bread and fry cutlets of just about any meat. Popular choices are beef (especially veal), chicken, and pork. The problem? Breaded Schnitzeln are ... uh ... breaded. Hence my adaptation for those living primally who need to hearken back to the Mutterland every so often.

Today we cuddled ours up next to some German Potato Salad (recipe below) and some canned red Sauerkraut. (If you are looking for a homemade red Sauerkraut recipe, check out AndreAnna's crockpot red cabbage recipe - looks delish!)

German Potato Salad

Ingredients
3 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced into 1" cubes
1/2 cup mayonnaise (you can make your own if you're up for it)
1/2 c. crumbled bacon or bacon pieces
1/2 c. finely diced white onion (this is optional; I left it out today since my husband and his side of the family can't tolerate them)
1/2 c. melted butter (I used Kerrygold)
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
To a boiling pot of salted water, add the cubed potato. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and use a slotted spoon to spoon the potato cubes into a medium bowl. Whisk together remaining ingredients into a dressing, then pour over warm potato cubes. Allow potato salad to sit for about an hour so that flavors can meld before serving.

Chicken Schnitzel with Creamy White Wine Reduction

Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts, pounded very thin (1/2" or less)
Salt and pepper
1 cup sifted coconut flour
1 cup sifted coconut flour mixed with 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
4 eggs
4 tablespoons fresh parsley
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 tablespoons milk or cream
1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 lb. Kerrygold butter

Directions:
Salt and pepper the chicken breasts, then dip in sifted coconut flour evenly to coat. Mix eggs, parsley, cheese, nutmeg, milk, and mustard thoroughly in a medium-sized bowl, then add 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper and 1/2 tsp. salt and mix again. In a large shallow bowl spread out the coconut flour/unsweetened coconut mix. Dip each floured chicken breast into the egg mix and then dip both sides to coat in the coconut flour/unsweetened coconut mix.

In a large pan, melt 4 tbsp. butter on medium heat. Add breaded chicken breasts to the pan, turning after 3 or 4 minutes. Continue turning breasts every few minutes until all sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked through. (In my case, this was side A 3 minutes, side B 3 minutes, side A 3 minutes, side B 3 minutes.) Keep adding butter to the pan a little at a time while cooking in order to prevent burning; the chicken breasts will soak up a lot of the butter while in the pan.

Creamy White Wine Reduction

After chicken breasts are all cooked, add 1/2 c. cream or milk to the pan, with 2 tbsp. butter and 2 tbsp. white wine of choice. Use a spatula to scrape brown leftover schnitzel bits off of the bottom of the pan and keep stirring to combine while sauce reduces. Once desired thickness is reached, drizzle over plated Schnitzel.



Optional but fun addition: gluten-free beer. :)



Lamb Chops with Red Wine Reduction

I had other plans for last night's dinner on my menu plan - that is, until I saw already discounted sale lamb chops with the extra "today's the last sell by day" discount sticker applied at Giant. Super cheap Australian lamb? Count me in.

Here's what I did (You'll notice some parallels with yesterday's miso salmon - let's just say that I was on a shallot kick since my mother-in-law gave me a huge bag of shallots that she didn't use over the holidays. Also, pickle juice a great addition just about anywhere, and my Bubbies were almost gone.):

• Marinated 1 lb. (5 palm-sized chops in my case) in a gallon size zip bag in about 2 tablespoons Pompeii pomegranate-infused red wine vinegar and 1/2 c. tamari. (For what it's worth I'm sure regular red wine vinegar is a perfectly fine substitute.)
• In the meantime, set 1.5-2 c. red wine (also Australian, in my case!) and 1/2 c. pickle juice (yea, you read that rightly, from my Bubbies in my case) with 4 bay leaves in a saucepan on the stove on medium-low heat to reduce until thickened and closer to syrup, over about half an hour.
• After half hour of lamb chops marinating and sauce reducing, poured excess of chops' tamari-vinegar marinade into reducing red wine sauce.
• Put 2 tbsp. bacon grease in a large pan with 3 thinly-sliced shallots, and sauted on medium-high for just a couple of minutes.
• In the pan with the bacon grease, seared the lamb chops on both sides, about 2 minutes each (this is if you - as I do - like your lamb quite rare; my husband was quite freaked out by the rawness and ended up microwaving his into submission after the fact).
• Poured red wine reduction from the saucepan into the large pan with the lamb chops and cook another 2 minutes while continuously turning the chops to ensure that they get lots of exposure to the sauce. Also scraped any brown bits from the bottom of the pan and stirred back into the red wine sauce as I flipped the chops.
• Added the lamb chops to serving plate and allowed sauce to reduce on medium-high another minute or two, then drizzled over chops.

Incidentally, the strong, savory flavor of these chops and their sauce were very nicely accompanied by the mildness of a baked sweet potato with some grass fed butter to top.