Austria: Weiner Schnitzel, Gurken Salad and Apfelstrudel

After my catastrophic Australian meal last week, I’m happy to report that this week was a big success! I was really excited to cook Austria because I’ve always wanted to try the iconic Weiner Schnitzel, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally taste it! I also decided to make an apfelstrudel for dessert, ‘cause who doesn’t like warm, sugary apples and pastry??

Traditionally schnitzel is made with veal, although many places will make it with pork or chicken instead. I was able to find veal at my local supermarket so I decided to go the traditional route and it was SO good!

To make schnitzel, you have to pound the veal very thin and then coat it in flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs. Then it’s time to fry! This all sounds really fattening and filling but it actually turned out surprisingly lighter than expected! Schnitzel is usually served with some kind of salad (either potato, cucumber or green), so I also made a Turkey (cucumber) salad as a side and it paired perfectly with the meat.

Fun Fact: apparently there’s a law in Austria stating that it’s illegal to call a dish Weiner schnitzel if it isn’t made with veal! Austrians are pretttty serious about their schnitzel haha!

Apfelstrudel (or as we Americans know it, apple strudel) is a light pastry filled with apples, raisins, breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon, then dusted with powdered sugar. The fun part of making this was stretching the dough- after rolling it out, you lift and stretch it using your knuckles, slowly turning it (similar to pizza dough) until it’s thin enough to read through!! It actually was easier than it sounds, although I did end up with a few easily fixed tears.

Unfortunately, once cooked, the pastry cracked like crazy when I cut into it, so it was a little difficult to get a nice picture of it. I’m thinking that a slightly shorter cooking time may have prevented this. I also would use a sweeter apple in the future- I used Granny Smith and it was quite tart for my taste. Still really good though, especially with a scoop of ice cream on top!

This was such a fun meal to make and really brought my confidence back up after last weeks disaster! Have you tried Schnitzel or Apfelstrudel??