Pork Tenderloin "Schnitzel" with Old World Mustard Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients :

Sauce:

6 oz good beer (German beer would be a bonus. Use a lager.)
4 Tbl minced shallots
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup whipping cream (or half and half)
3 Tbl German or Dijon mustard

Pork:

2 pork tenderloins, trimmed, cut crosswise into one-inch thick medallions
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup egg substitute (or 2 fresh eggs beaten with a fork)
1 cup bread crumbs (Canned is fine.)
1/2 cup walnuts
4 Tbl fresh parsley leaves
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 Tbl olive oil (divided)

Start the sauce first.

Put the beer and the shallots in a medium saucepan. Boil them slowly until reduced by half. Takes about 10 minutes. Add the chicken broth. Boil down to 1-1/2 cups of liquid total. This will take about 10 more minutes. You're making a reduction, which intensifies the flavor of the sauce. Turn off and let sit for a bit.

While the sauce is boiling you can start the pork.

In order to keep my kitchen cleaner, I pound meat inside a sturdy plastic bag. Take your medallions a couple at a time and put them in the bag. Using a meat mallet, pound them to about a quarter inch thick. Their circumference should about double. Get them all ready to go in this fashion. Set them aside on a plate.

Put the flour on one plate. Put the eggs in a shallow bowl. Put the crumbs in your food processor along with the parsley, walnuts and pie spice. Whiz until the whole mixture is finely chopped. Then transfer this mixture to another plate. You now have an assembly line: flour, eggs and breadcrumb mixture.

Pick up a piece of tenderloin. Dredge it in flour and shake off the excess. Dip both sides in the eggs. Now dip in the breadcrumb mixture and coat both sides. Set aside. Do this again and again until you have all pieces ready to sauté. Now wash those messy hands.

Heat your 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Sauté as many pieces of tenderloin as will fit in the pan. Medium to Medium-High heat will do it. Get the meat golden brown on one side and flip it over. Brown the other side. This shouldn't take more than 6 minutes total. As you get batches done, put them on a heat proof sheet and put them in the oven on Warm. Check one to make sure it's not too pink in the middle. The meat will continue to cook while it's warming. If you have two large sauté pans, you can probably do the whole batch at once, but most folks will need to do this in two batches. The other 3 tablespoons of olive oil are for the second batch of medallions.

While the second batch is sautéing, you can add the cream to the sauce. Heat on Medium-High just until it starts to bubble. This will thicken the sauce. Then turn to Low until the meal is ready.

If you are serving a veggie, this is the time to get that ready too.

The modern way to serve this would be to spoon the sauce around the meat rather than on top. This way it keeps a crunchy crust on the pork tenderloin.

Enjoy!