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While busily chopping the cabbage into fine strips for this recipe I see this tiny hand reach up and grab a big hunk of cabbage that was sitting there on the bench. Crunch – straight into my daughter’s mouth. I was expecting an immediate and noisy ejection of this vegetable, but no. She stood there, took another big bite and proclaimed the cabbage was delightful! “Mmmm…  NumNum!! MMM… Good!”

She really does surprise me sometimes. I just stood back, mouth open, became very quiet - akin to watching from the shadows, a lion dining on its prey – I daren’t disturb her, and witnessed this miracle unfold before me.

It didn’t last long – a handful of bites and she was over it, but none the less, I was still impressed. She’s not too bad with some vegetables – peas, corn, potatoes, broccoli, sometimes carrot, never asparagus – but I still lay a spear on her plate everytime we have it for dinner – no pressure! I figure the more she sees us enjoying vegetables, and the more they are available to her, one day – just maybe – she might like it.

Schnitzel

pork – a small, fairly simple cut, not too thick

wholemeal flour (or plain flour)

1 free-range egg, lightly beaten

panko (Japanese bread) crumbs (if you’ve never used these before, do yourself a favour and grab a packet of them from the Asian foods section in the supermarket. They are super crunchy!!)

big handful of fresh parsley, chopped

oil with a high smoke point (rice bran oil is brilliant) – just under 1 centimetre of oil in the pan

 

Method

Pour the flour, egg, and crumbs with parsley added into 3 separate bowls

coat the pork:

in the flour

then Egg

then the panko/parsley mix

If you have time, pop them onto a plate and into the fridge for maybe 30 minutes – this helps the crumbs to stay put.

Heat the oil (about 1 centimetre) in a frypan on a medium-high heat. Keep a good eye on it – add a couple of panko crumbs every once in a while – once they start to bubble as soon as they are in the oil, it is hot enough. Place the fillets in the oil (don’t overcrowd the pan) and wait until they look golden on the sides then flip over and cook until golden all over. Drain on an absorbant paper towel.

Then serve with the appleslaw and maybe some oven chips.

Apple-Slaw

Mix all these ingredients together in a big bowl:

1/4 white cabbage, shredded finely

1 granny smith apple, grated with skin on

handful of pecan nuts, chopped

dollop of whole-egg mayonnaise

pepper

Serve it all with a wedge of lemon.