Double Take: Pork Scaloppine (Fancied up Fried Pork Chops)

As we've jumped around in the All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, we've found that while there've been some variations in our pleasure with recipes, we've consistently enjoyed their pork submissions. Mel and I both love pork so its always nice to add more pork options to list of those that are cycled through. Today's recipe looked pretty harmless. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the way my mom and grandma prepare pork tenderloin. There are a couple of changes this recipes makes from my mom and grandma and I'd class them as the small improvements that take the meat to the next level of tastiness. The differences are 1) frying the pork in a combination of butter and olive oil and 2) adding garlic powder to the seasoning mixture. Another addition is inclusion of cheese. I didn't find the amount of cheese to add much flavor to the recipe but I think its more in how it was applied. See my comments for more on this.

Pork Scaloppine (Serves 4) (from the All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook)

1 1/2 lbs pork loin

4 large eggs

1/4 c. milk

1/2 c. freshly grated romano

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/4 c. butter/margarine

1/4 c. olive oil

2 lemons, quartered (optional)

Cut the pork into half inch slices. Place the pork between two sheets of heavy duty plastic wrap and flatten to 1/4 inch thickness using a meat mallot or rolling pin. Whisk the eggs and the next 4 ingredients. ***Dredge the pork in the flour and shake to remove the excess and then dip it in the egg mixture. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large skillet and cook it on medium high heat. Cook the pork in batches, 1 min / side until browned and then serve with the lemon quarters.

Pork Scaloppine (Pork Chop) with peas and macaroni and cheese

Comments: I prepared this recipe in half. I found that the eggs, milk, romano, garlic powder, and salt mixture was about twice the amount needed for dipping the pork loin. I really liked the flavor that cooking the pork in a combination of butter and olive oil gave it. As a whole, this tastes much like the pork tenderloin that my mom and mamaw make. The main flavor difference was the garlic powder. I love garlic so I enjoyed this dish. That being said, there's no point in buying romano cheese for this dish. The garlic masks it thoroughly. If you want cheese, I'd hold that part constant or double it while reducing the rest of the egg mixture in half. Also, I would use mozzarella or parmesan. Parmesan would probably be the closest substitution.To keep the cheese from getting lost, you could not include it in the egg mixture and dip the pork in the cheese (on a plate), followed by dipping it in the flour (on a separate plate). This is important to 1) be able to tell that you have plenty of cheese on the meat, 2) prevent cheese from being on the outer layer and burning while frying. Overall, I enjoyed this recipe. I didn't bother with lemon juice so I can't tell you quite how that would taste on here. My mom usually serves pork tenderloin with homemade stovetop version mac and cheese and peas. I was rather shocked when talking with other people to discover that many people haven't had homemade macaroni and cheese unless it was baked. Otherwise, they'd only had easy mac. I must assure you, stovetop macaroni and cheese is easy and wonderful. It isn't microwaveable in 1 minute (instead it takes about 15-20 minutes), but its worth the time and I cooked mine while I prepared the pork. The whole process took maybe 25 minutes. I'd recommend it highly.

For more thoughts on Pork Scaloppine (otherwise referred to in East Tennessee as fried pork tenderloin), pop over to Mel's blog.

How'd your mom/grandma make macaroni and cheese?