J: Yes. Those were the two when we looked at everything together that we thought looked the most… That we would never think to try ourselves.
CM: Oh okay.
J: It seemed like it would be very intimidating techniques and we were like, “Okay, so let’s just dive in if we’re going to do it. Let’s just rip off the band-aid.”
CM: Intimidating techniques, just hammering a poor piece of meat into submission. Oh my god.
J: Do you know what it was? I guess because I had never thought about pounding a pork chop, I thought, “Oh, can you do that with pork? Is it going to be too tough? Is it going to be gross?”
CM: The rules you have.
J: I’m telling you this is so… I didn’t think this was going to be such a psychological deep dive just to get some prescriptions.
CM: Well, I’m obviously very happy that you made both recipes, because they show very different techniques and methods. Let’s start by going through the quicker recipe, the Crispy Pork Cutlets with Kimchi Slaw.
J: Yes, and I don’t want to give anything away, but this wasn’t technically the quickest recipe for me of the two.
IA: Oh.
CM: This is the time to give things away. I just want to make that clear. Here you just have to lay all your cards on the table. It wasn’t the faster recipe.
J: This didn’t move any faster, to the point where my husband came into the kitchen and said, “Okay, what do you want me to do to move this along?” And I’m like, “No, I can do this. I know I can do this.”
CM: What happened?
J: Yeah, so I think it was the multiple steps to do this. It wasn’t just about making the schnitzels. It was then that I had to think about assembling the slaw. And so technically it probably wasn’t the pork itself, but compared to the other thing that was just kind of brown, throw things in and literally go back to work for a few hours. It was actually more hands-on than the others.
CM: Wow. Yes, that makes sense. There is a recipe that takes 45 minutes, but it is all active time and it is very, very practical. And yes, there is a three-hour recipe, but it’s mostly hands-off.
IA: The pot does most of the work for you.
CM: Yes. Was the flour, the egg, the panko dredge, that three-piece dredge, did that feel intimidating? Was that a new kind of technique for you?
J: No. So when I make a traditional chicken cutlet, I’m kind of quick with it and just add eggs and breadcrumbs and move on.
CM: You don’t put the flour?
J: I don’t do the flour part. Just because I feel like I don’t know if I notice that much of a difference. And my kids watch a lot of cooking videos and stuff online and my son said, “Why don’t we do the three steps?” I say, “Who told you this?” So he said, “These people know what they’re doing. They make you flour.” I was like, “Okay, relax.”