Pork Steak, Kale Chips, and Edamame.

As soon as I wrote the title, I realized how obscure this meal sounds.  Regardless, it was actually a really easy and tasty dinner.  I have a bad habit of being a bit more ambitious during my grocery shopping than I am with my cooking... sure pork steak is on sale at Whole Foods... I don't exactly know what that is, or how to cook it, but why not, let's buy some. 

Then after a long day of working I'm not ready to tackle a big cooking project, and the veggies I've bought get limp or moldy in the fridge while the meat nestles itself into the bottom of the freezer for months.  Then my husband is really happy that we just spent $400 at Whole Foods.  Ugh.

BUT, I'm proud to say that tonight I actually used some of the more "ambitious" ingredients in my fridge.  I read a blog called Kath Eats Real Food.  She literally posts about every single thing she eats.  Sometimes it's a bit TMI, even for someone as crazy as me, but she does take a lot of very pretty pictures of food and definitely has some great ideas.  One of her ideas is kale chips. 

So here was my first attempt at kale chips.  I ripped the kale into smaller chunks, drizzled them with olive oil, then sprinkled a little bit of kosher sea salt, shredded Parmesan cheese, and creole seasoning.  Then I just mixed it all together on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. 

 

It surprised me how much the kale chips shrunk in the oven, so next time I'll definitely use the whole head of kale.  Other than that, they turned out great. They were super tasty, and actually felt more like you were eating a potato chip then one of the healthiest vegetables in the world.  Kinda cool, huh?  I'll definitely be adding these to the rotation.

Here is a video of Kath doing a little video demo on kale chips.  Of course I watched the video AFTER I already made them.  Jeez Amanda. 

I also made some edamame using this recipe.  The recipe called for lima beans, but after spending five minutes in the freezer section at the grocery store last week, without finding any lima beans, I opted for edamame instead. 

For the pork steak recipe I relied on one of my favorite recipe sources: allrecipes.com.  I just typed in the ingredient "pork steak" and sorted by highest rated recipes.  Of course I didn't plan ahead well enough to have all the ingredients onhand for any of the recipes so I sort of combined these two recipes (Jagerschnitzel recipe and Iowa Pork Steak recipe) and improvised.  First I pounded the pork steaks flat, then dipped the pork steaks on a plate with a beaten egg, then on a plate with bread crumbs, and then sprinkled them with salt and pepper.  I cooked the pork steaks in an oiled skillet over medium heat about 4 minutes on each side until the bread crumbs were a little crispy and the internal temperature of the pork reached 140 - 145 degrees.  A digital meat thermometer has made the single largest impact on improving my cooking skills.  I would really recommend buying one, especially if you're not an experienced cook with that 6th sense as to when meat is perfectly cooked.  Thanks again mom!

After the pork steaks were done I put them on a plate and covered with foil while I made a sauce.  I sauteed about half of a chopped red onion in the leftover oil from the pork steaks, then added a can of cream of chicken soup (would have added cream of mushroom soup, but I didn't have any).  Then added a little bit of water (about 1/4 cup), a packet of french onion soup mix, and 1.5 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.  I put the sauce on the meat and paired with the kale chips and edamame, and Voila! 

Here was the final product:

Kevin thought it was really, really good.  He couldn't stop raving about it.  Probably because I haven't cooked a proper meal in weeks... poor boy.