Kitchen appliances have made life easier for housewives so that any gourmet dish is not particularly difficult to prepare, and if we talk about meat, the variety of homemade meat dishes that do not cause much trouble to the hostess reaches unthinkable values. But, nevertheless, every day, in the morning or at the end of the working day, thousands of women ask one and the same question: what to cook, for example, from pork? At the same time, one wants variety, time saving, simplicity and taste.
Let’s try to solve this problem, at least for the next month, by correctly composing the family menu and purchasing the necessary products. Planning is a great force in any matter!
The most delicious pork main dishes: family menu, home-cooked foods, saving time and budget
The main thing in a meat dish is meat. If it is correctly bought and distributed according to the technological requirements of a particular recipe, then cooking will cease to be a problem.
Buy meat once or twice a month, depending on the volume of the freezer. A solid purchase will bring savings if you purchase fresh meat from farmers in the market. They will gladly provide a discount to the "wholesale" buyer. In the future, you can move on to closer "cooperation", order the necessary pieces of pork on certain days, and this will save every housewife from the need to often go shopping and think about what to buy and what to cook for dinner. Before buying, it’s better to think over the menu in advance for the coming week or even a month, ask family members what they would like to eat in the near future: such a psychological move will save the woman from the vagaries of the family at the table, as the responsibility for the decision will become collective and set up in advance household members on a discussed diet.
A lot of dishes can be prepared from any part of the pork carcass, because the processed pork carcass is waste-free if a real professional is involved. Bones are very useful for cooking broths for first courses, and will make it more saturated and nutritious. Lard and pork fat can be used to make minced meat from lean beef, dressings for first courses. Pork fat is perfectly stored in a sterile dish after being thawed. Pig skin is useful for cooking jellied meat: cut it off if you bought a piece of meat with skin, scrape it with a knife, wash it, let it dry and put it in the freezer until the right moment. Collagen is contained in pig skin, and in other words, it is gelatin, which is often used for cooking jellied meat. "Fresh gelatin" for desserts will not work, but in jelly - what you need!
Cut off fat and "ugly" parts of meat, use for cooking meat, adding them to lean meat. Stuffing will acquire juiciness thanks to fat. Use tenderloin for chopped meat, the neck is a good choice for barbecue, pilaf, stew, goulash and other main dishes where good slices of chopped meat are needed. Also, the neck can be baked in the oven, choosing the favorite marinade recipe for it.
Before sending the meat to the freezer, divide it into grades, prepare the minced meat, sliced, stew, so that it is convenient, if necessary, to take the portions and immediately start cooking, without subjecting the whole piece to repeated thawing / freezing. Semi-finished products can be prepared from minced meat: home-made, not bought cutlets, meatballs, zrazy and other preparations are much tastier, the terms and conditions of their storage do not raise doubts when everything is done with your own hands, and you can cook dinner at any time and as soon as possible.
The next meat preparation is sliced pieces of pulp, which, like minced meat, can be placed in portions (for one preparation) in closed trays and stored in the freezer to quickly prepare a hearty breakfast or lunch at the right time. True, in classic versions of the dishes, beef or veal is used, but lean pork also looks good. The superiority of this type of meat is a quick roast compared to beef, and spices and side dishes can be exactly repeated, as for beef dishes. This group of dishes has similarities in the preparation of meat, which is cut into small pieces, pre-fried, roll in flour. You need to fry the meat quickly, in a well-heated pan, so that it does not lose its juiciness. For meat in a Stroganov style, the slices are cut very thinly, with bars of 0.5x0.5x2.0 cm, for the remaining dishes, you can cut into cubes 1.5x1.5 cm.
Large pieces of meat for baking, of course, it is better not to freeze. For special holiday dishes, it is better to buy fresh chilled meat separately. The tenderloin tenderloin can be cut into portions, but the meat must be beaten only after thawing. By the way, portioned pieces will defrost much faster.
Preparing vegetables and all other ingredients for meat main dishes is much easier and faster when the meat is almost ready.
1. The most delicious main dishes of minced pork - brisol with egg and herbs
Ingredients:
Semi-fat pork 1.0 kg
Salt
Oregano, dried
Boiled eggs 5 pcs.
Green onion 200 g
Dill 100 g
Garlic 50 g
Eggs, raw 3 pcs.
Flour (for breading) 120-150 g
Cooking:
Prepare the filling from boiled eggs and fresh herbs: chop the ingredients, adding spices to taste. Salt the minced meat, add dried oregano, pepper, beat well, divide into portions weighing 100 g. Pour the flour onto the desktop. Form round and thin flat cakes from the minced meat. Put cooked stuffing on each of them. Wrap, or form balls: the shape can be arbitrary.
Beat raw eggs in a froth, adding salt. If desired, you can add a little cream or milk to the raw egg mass to make the dish tastier. Prepare a baking dish: a large baking sheet or small portioned baskets. Put in them semi-finished products and bake at 180 ° C for 15-20 minutes. After that, fill each portion with beaten egg mass and return to the oven for a few more minutes, until the egg white curls well and browned. Sprinkle with herbs, serve garnish with porridge, french fries or vegetables.
Filling options for a change:
liver paste,
cheese and eggs with garlic,
mushroom paste
sauteed onions.
If you do not want to cook brizol, then semi-finished meat products are easy to turn into zrazy: bread in a batter (egg + flour), then bread in breadcrumbs. At any time, zrazy can be deep-fried, in the right amount.
2. The simplest pork dishes for home cooking - Cossack goulash
Half-fat pork 0.5 kg
Onion 150 g
Tomato paste 20 g
Pepper
Sour cream 250 g
Salt
Smoked lard 100 g
Flour
Chopped greens to taste
Cooking:
Preheat the pan, put finely chopped pieces of smoked bacon. When the fat is melted, put the meat in a pan, roll in flour, and fry for 3-5 minutes, until golden brown. Next, add the chopped onion, and also lightly brown it. Add tomato paste, a little water or meat broth to sour cream. Pour the liquid into a deep dish, bring to a boil, transfer the meat into it. Stew for 20 minutes. At the end of cooking, bring salt and spices to the desired taste, add chopped herbs.
The sauce (gravy) should be medium in consistency. During cooking, the density can be adjusted using water or flour.
Garnish for meat - any porridge, boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes. This cooking option is not only related to Cossack cuisine: it is a popular Hungarian dish, where it is usually cooked like a thick soup, adding fried potatoes and vegetables to the stew, and the Hungarian version does not have sour cream, but there is caraway seeds that give a special spicy aroma of tomato sauce.
This means that there are at least two options for the second course of pork, which will bring the desired variety to the lunch menu of the family cuisine.
3. The most delicious pork main courses - Stroganoff meat
This dish has several cooking options. V. Pokhlebkin points out that Count Stroganov came up with a recipe in which the meat was fried, and then stewed with sour cream gravy with the addition of tomato. In other, more ancient and authoritative sources, there are recipes for sour cream sauce with mustard. In western restaurants, grilled meat with onions, tomato sauce and sour cream are served separately, and the dish is positioned as a traditional Russian. There are also options for using offal instead of meat: kidney, liver, heart. Choose any option - it will still be delicious.
Ingredients:
Pork (tenderloin) 600 g
Onion 200 g
Fat 120 g
Salt
Mustard 30 g
Sour cream 300 g
Pepper
Cooking:
Cut the meat across the fibers with thin bars. Please note that when roasted, the pieces will decrease in size by 40%. For the preparation of meat in a Stroganov style it does not need to be rolled in flour.
Heat the pan, put in the fat and sauté the onion, cut into strips. After a couple of minutes, put the chopped meat on a layer of onion, and after another five minutes - season with salt and pepper, and pour the sour cream mixed with a spoon of mustard on top.
As a side dish, beans, pickled corn, french fries, Korean carrots, boiled rice are suitable for the dish.
4. The simplest main course of pork is stew with vegetables and white sauce
Ingredients:
Pork fillet (back) 800 g
Cauliflower 500 g
Carrots, boiled 250 g
Green peas, frozen 180 g
Onions 300 g
Cream 200 ml
2 eggs
Salt
Lemon 1 pc.
Butter 120 g
0.5 L broth
Flour 75 g
Nutmeg
Pepper
Greenery
Cooking:
Season small pieces of pork with spices (do not salt!), Roll in flour. Heat oil and fry the meat until golden brown, stirring with a spatula. Fry chopped vegetables one by one. Transfer the prepared ingredients to a saucepan, fill with broth and let boil. Warm the cream and beat the eggs. Pour the hot cream into the egg foam, stirring the mixture with a whisk. Then pour the sauce in a thin stream into the stewpan as well. Season the dish with spices, add fresh lemon zest and juice to taste. Stew for 15 minutes.
5. The most delicious pork main course - rolls with garlic and herbs
Ingredients:
Tenderloin (or back) 2 pcs. per serving 1.2 kg
Bacon 400 g
Onions, 300 g
Garlic to taste
Fresh greens
Flour
Fat for frying
Salt
Sour cream 250 g
Water or meat broth
Black pepper
Cooking:
Thinly chopped meat across the fibers. Sliced bacon, onions and garlic, salt in a blender, add pepper and chopped herbs. Spread the filling on the chopped pieces of meat, roll them with a roll. Fry in a pan, laying first with a seam down. After putting the rolls in a pan, pour them with a mixture of sour cream and broth, simmer until soft, adding the necessary spices to the gravy at the end.
6. The simplest second course of pork - roll with mushrooms in a potato "coat"
Ingredients:
Cutting 2 kg
Pepper
Roasted honey mushrooms with sautéed onions 700 g
Hard cheese 350 g
Boiled potatoes 1 kg
Eggs 3 pcs.
Flour 100 g
Salt
Operating procedure:
Cut the pork flesh with an accordion to make a whole layer. Beat off the workpiece. Grate the cheese on a grater. Stir fried mushrooms with a blender to make a paste. Mash hot boiled potatoes, add flour, eggs to it, also beat with a blender.
Put the mushroom paste on the meat with a thin layer. Roll the meat into a roll and transfer to a baking sheet. Cover the roll with a thin layer of mashed potatoes. Bake in a cupboard at an average temperature of 40-45 minutes. Remove the roll, sprinkle with grated cheese on top and return to the oven to brown the cheese crust. Serve with sour cream, mushroom sauce.
The simplest pork main courses - useful tips
When roasted, the meat protein coagulates, deforming the pieces. To keep the chops juicy and not deformed as a result of frying, sprinkle the meat with lemon juice before brewing it: citric acid changes the structure of collagen (protein in the meat), makes it supple and soft. Fry meat breaded at high temperature, no more than 3-4 minutes. After roasting, let it “rest” with a lid.
Try to salt meat dishes at the very end of cooking. Salt draws juice, drying fried meat.
