VAS CUTLETS - VASI PECSENYE

“Vasi Pecsenye” roughly translated; cutlets as made in Vas county. My darling is from Vas County, Hungary so I asked him if he remembered the Vasi cutlets.  Well no, he said, but he recalled hearing about it. It’s heavily seasoned with garlic and Hungarian Paprika. The slow frying lends itself to using slightly fattier cuts of meat. The instruction was to lather the cutlets with garlic cream before serving, but I thought with four Russian garlic cloves in the brine the meat will be garlicky enough. The cutlet was really very tasty, but in retrospect spreading them with garlic paste wouldn’t hurt. 

 VAS CUTLETS

  4 thin slices of boneless pork chops 

 Overnight Brine: 

milk to cover meat 

1 tsp salt 

4 garlic cloves, crushed 

Breading: 

1/2 cup flour 

1 Tbsp Hungarian Paprika 

oil for frying

Garlic Paste:

4 garlic cloves

• Pound the cutlets with a meat tenderizer.
• Cut into the fatty edge on the side.
• Place the cutlets in a container with a well fitting lid. A well fitting lid is important; you don’t want all the other foods smell like garlic.
• Add 1 tsp of salt and 4 cloves of crushed garlic to the container.
• Pour on milk to cover the cutlets.
• Put the lid on the container and place it in the fridge for the night.
• When you are ready to fry the cutlets, remove from the brine and let them drain a bit on paper towel. Discard the brine.
• Meanwhile whisk together the flour and the Hungarian Paprika.
• Puree 4 garlic cloves and set it aside.
• Then one by one dip the cutlets into the flour mix, coating well both sides.
• In a large fry pan heat about an inch of oil on medium.
• One by one lower the meat into the hot oil and fry them crispy on both sides. The cutlets would have absorbed a lot of moisture from the milk brine and will take a bit of time to crisp up. Occasionally loosen the cutlets from the bottom of the fry pan.
• Sprinkle salt over the cutlets and serve them with garlic paste on the side.