To start off, again it’s good to be back and making Soigne [swan-yay] recipe videos again for you all and I hope you are enjoying them, as well as this one for Pork Milanese with Spring Kale Salad Recipe. If you missed last week be sure to check out Salmon Recipe with Lemon Butter Sauce, it’s a hit! In these Soigne videos I’m trying to take super classic dishes, or even classic dishes with my own Chef Billy Parisi twist, and then putting them into super sexy (soigne) videos to show just how easy they are to make. So many people get freaked out when attempting to make a few elegant dishes, whether they be new school or old school, but truth be told they aren’t so bad to make at all. Just follow along and you’ll be good!
Pork Milanese is a super old school Italian dish, but it’s more about the technique of alla Milanese. Milanese is the process of coating a thin piece of protein in flour, egg, and then bread crumbs, and then pan frying it in some olive oil. Essentially you could probably Milanese just about anything. You can absolutely use steak, or chicken but I much prefer a bone-in pork chop because after you pound it out, it’s huge which means more meat for me! SCORE! I like using a bone-in pork as well because it provides a ton more flavor and tends to be a lot juicier. Score again!
Once the meat is pounded out to about ¼” to ½” thick you then want to bread it using the standard breading procedure. A standard breading procedure goes like this: flour, whisked eggs, bread crumbs and in that exact order. You can choose to season your protein before or season the flour, eggs and bread crumbs. I like to season before because I can see just how much salt and pepper I’m putting on it. You however can do as you see fit! You can also add some seasonings to the bread crumbs like garlic powder, onion powder or herbs. I’m a bit of a purist so I leave it as simple bread crumbs. If you use few simple ingredients then you will taste what it was meant to taste like, but that’s me and you do you!
After the pork is all breaded up you then want to pan fry it in a bit of olive oil. Don’t be afraid to add in the fat because this pork Milanese is rather large and the bread crumbs tend to soak up the oil so be mindful that you are going to need quite a bit. I also like to add in a bit of butter for flavor and for browning purposes. Yup I too basted this recipe! Once the pork is done cooking, which only takes about 4 minutes on each side because it’s so thin, you then want to remove it from the pan and let it dry up a bit.
Let’s move on to this kale salad recipe shall we? What goes in this salad is completely up to you. You could use red leaf lettuce, spring mix, romaine, frisee, I don’t care just pick a leafy green as the base. I used a combination of baby arugula and baby kale, which is killer by the way. I then proceeded to add in cucumbers, peas, radishes, and thinly shaven par-boiled and chilled asparagus. Again simple ingredients but absolutely delicious. I made a very easy vinaigrette whisking together fresh squeezed lemon juice and olive oil, that’s it. I want this spring kale salad recipe to compliment the pork Milanese not over take it. You can add in a little Dijon mustard or even some honey if you want to slightly alter the flavor of the salad but again that’s on you. Season the salad with salt and pepper and then toss it around with the vinaigrette until all of the greens are lightly coated. After that you simply want to serve it right on top and off to the side of the pork Milanese. I garnished with a bit of micro-greens and fresh shaved parmesan cheese and I think you should too!!! Happy Cooking!
- 2 1-pound bone-in pork chops
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour, in a bowl
- 3 whisked eggs, in a bowl
- 2 cups of panko of bread crumbs, in a bowl
- ¼ cup of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- juice of 1 lemon
- ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups of packed baby arugula
- 2 cups of packed baby kale
- ½ thinly shaven cucumbers, no seeds
- 2 thinly shaven radishes
- ⅓ cup of cooked and chilled peas
- 8 to 10 thinly shaven cooked and chilled asparagus
- ¼ cup of micro greens
- ¼ cup of shaven parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- Pork: Using a mallet pound the pork until it is ¼” to ½” thick in between to pieces of plastic wrap. Season it well on both sides with salt and pepper.
- Coat the pork on both sides in the bowl of flour. Then submerge it in the whisked eggs make sure it gets completely coated. Then transfer it to the bread crumbs and press it down to make sure it is covered completely. Remove and set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat or until it begins to lightly smoke. Add in the pork and the butter.
- Fry the pork for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown on both sides and cooked through out. Set aside on a plate.
- Salad: In a large bowl whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil and then toss it with the arugula, kale, cucumbers, radishes, peas, asparagus, and salt and pepper and divide it between the two fried pork chops.
- Garnish with micro greens and parmesan.