2. Boneless Pork Loin – Sliced and Fried
One boneless pork loin
about 2 pounds is what I used - but adjust that to the size of your family or the number of people you are feeding
flour (I used oat flour)
salt
pepper
cooking oil (I use peanut oil)
First, you go to the store, and you buy meat that looks good at the best price you can find. Then you take it home and figure out how to cook it.
Of course you can roast a pork roast, or a pork loin, or even a flounder if you want to. Sometimes though roasted meat just doesn't sound good. If you have been on one of those low fat diets you may be wanting something fried. If you have that craving more than a couple of days, you better go ahead and eat something fried, or you may find you self with a glass of Penzoil on ice.....but that is a different story for a different book.
Anyway, a pork roast or a pork loin will fry up nicely. Take the meat and slice it about 3/4 of inch thick. If you are really energetic you can give the meat a few whacks with a meat tenderizer hammer. You can do it before or after you add the spices and flour.
Salt and pepper to taste. I like to sprinkle on some seasoning salt if I have it. Currently I have a couple of jars of seasoning salt from Cabela's. One is for wild game - but it tastes good on anything. The other one is general seasoning salt - and it also tastes good on anything. It looks pretty nice on pork because it has some colorful items in it, and pork being light meat, the seasoning shows up nicely. It makes it look like you spent a lot of time getting your spices together when all you really did was just open the jar and shake a little on the meat,
Then lightly flour the meat. Don't over do because you are not deep frying, and you don't want the flour to soak up too much oil. I used to always use wheat flour, but since our youngest grandson is allergic to wheat now, I have branched out. I have found that oat flour browns up nicely and works for a lot of stuff. So, that is what I used for this. But of course wheat flour will work fine. If you have time lay the meat out single layer and let it sit for 20 minutes to even a few hours. Technically you can get the meat ready to fry one evening and refrigerate it until the next day. This seems to set the flour and you get a better crust if you do that. If you don’t have time for that don’t worry about it.
I use peanut oil for frying because it seems like that oil doesn’t smoke if I let it get a little hotter than I meant to. It doesn't seem to soak into the meat quite a much as other oils do.
Pour a scant half inch of oil in the skillet. I use a very large cast iron skillet for just about everything. Iron skillets heat very evenly, and give your arm muscles a work out every time you actually lift one. Heat the oil to medium heat or maybe just a tad hotter.. Stand back so you won't get burned by grease if it splashes, and carefully put the sliced, seasoned, floured pork into the skillet. You can use tongs to hold the meat so you can stand back even further. Watch the edges of the meat. It will probably take about 5 minutes until you can see the edges beginning to brown. Turn the meat with a spatula. I use a metal spatula because that works better to get any meat loose that sticks to the bottom of the pan It is usually around ten minutes per skillet. Take the meat up as it is done. Put more meat into the skillet, and keep on cooking until all the meat is fried. This is pan fried, not deep fried, so the calories are not as bad, and the crust is not as thick.
Now, if you happen to like gravy, there will some nice brown crust left in the pan. It will make very good gravy. The way I make gravy is like this. I use half milk and half water when I have milk. If I don’t have milk I use all water. I put the liquid in a jar with about ¼ to ½ cup flour to approximately 1 quart of liquid. Add a dash of salt and good shake or two of black pepper. I put a lid on the jar and shake it until the lumps are all gone. Then I pour it into the skillet and stir like mad until it is mixed with everything left in the skillet from cooking the meat. Cook it over medium heat until it is as thick as you like it. Then pour it up in a bowl or measuring cup. A measuring cup is great because it is easier to pour on food and you don’t have to use a big spoon. Then fill your skillet with water and let it soak while you eat. It will clean up very easily.
Mashed potatoes goes very well with this meal of course, and if there is gravy, then it is really good on bread.
Pork loin slices fry up nice and round like a hamburger patty or a chicken fried steak. The pan fried pork works great in a hamburger bun served with a bag of chips or an apple. This makes a great breakfast the next morning or a nice lunch sandwich.
Basically, this is a very tasty meal with not a lot of effort involved. It has potential to cover more than one meal, so that makes it even better.