Fried Pork with Vegetables

Name: Fried Pork with Vegetables: Easy Pan-Fried Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Carrot 1; Celery root 1; Parsnip 1; Onion 2; Vegetable oil 2 tbsp; Salt, dried Mediterranean herbs to taste; Pork (shoulder or leg) 0.4 kg; Vegetable oil 1 tbsp; Salt, black pepper, ground coriander to taste; Light soy sauce 1-2 tsp (optional)

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45 mins

Pork is the usual culinary and economic name for the meat of pigs. I won’t be wrong if I say that pork is the most widespread and most in-demand meat in the world. The first mentions of eating pork date back to the 5th millennium BC.

Besides freshly cooked meat (fried, boiled or stewed pork), pork is well known in the form of all kinds of canned products, sausages, smoked meats and so on. Different ways of processing and preserving let you keep a stock of pork for later. Surely everyone has heard the word “salt pork”. That is exactly salt-cured meat, bacon or fat. The well-known “salt pork” is not really meat. It is a product much closer to pork fat with a little meat, salted in barrels.

Our own Ukrainian salo, with properly treated skin and properly salted. Salo is eaten even by one toothless acquaintance of mine. Still, besides ordinary homemade salo, I especially love salo baked with garlic in the oven.

For religious reasons, eating pork is either heavily restricted or excluded altogether in many regions of the world. But in Asian cuisines, for example, pork is meat number one, and a huge number of dishes are made from it. High fat content and ease of cooking make pork very popular.

The simplest way to cook pork is to fry it. Fried pork is tasty if you simply fry it in a dry pan with a minimum of spices. Salt and ground black pepper are enough.

Pork, especially in large pieces, goes very well with a side of fried vegetables, the simplest ones. I remember my grandmother making an amazingly simple home dish in my childhood: fried pork with onion. Simple as can be: fresh pork in small pieces and plenty of coarsely cut onion. And, of course, a big piece of very fresh bread.

More with pork neck or shoulder

Buzhenina – Pork Roast Baked in Foil

24 h

Pljeskavica with Beef, Lamb and Pork

45 min

Homemade Pork Sausage

14 h

Pan-Fried Pork with Onions

45 min

Homemade Braised Pork

3 h

More pork neck and shoulder recipes

Ingredients

2 servings

For the side dish
Carrot 1
Celery root 1
Parsnip 1
Onion 2
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
Salt, dried Mediterranean herbs to taste
For the meat
Pork (shoulder or leg) 0.4 kg
Vegetable oil 1 tbsp
Salt, black pepper, ground coriander to taste
Light soy sauce 1-2 tsp (optional)

Step-by-step recipe

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Vegetable side

It is better to make the side first, the fried vegetables. Only then cook the fried pork in the same pan.
Peel the carrot, celery root and parsnip and cut them into cubes. Cut the pieces about twice as large as you would normally.
Peel the onion and cut it into large cubes or strips.
Mix all the cut vegetables in a bowl, salt to taste and add 1-2 pinches of dried herbs typical of Mediterranean cooking (basil, oregano, savory and others).
Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry all the vegetables over high heat, stirring, until browned. This usually takes 10-12 mins, and by then the vegetables are practically cooked through.
Move the fried vegetables to a separate dish and cover with a napkin. Don’t wash the pan, because the pork will be cooked in it.

Pork

Fried pork in large pieces turns out best with meat cut from the shoulder or leg. Usually, or rather most often, we prefer to fry a “bitok”, or as we say, a cutlet, from the French côtelette, derived from côte, meaning rib. A cutlet is a piece of meat with a rib bone, or, as we are more used to, a natural pork chop. Large pieces of beef, on the other hand, are better cooked as meat in wine.
There is no need to pound the meat. Just cut it into pieces about the size of a not-too-large plum.
Season the pieces of meat with ground black pepper, preferably freshly and coarsely ground. Add salt and sprinkle with ground coriander. Pork goes wonderfully with coriander.
Add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to the oil left after frying the vegetables and heat it. Put the prepared pieces of pork into the hot oil.
Fry the pork over medium heat until a golden crust forms.
Then fry the meat until fully cooked, stirring fairly often, without a lid, otherwise the pork will simply steam in the vapor that forms. Not very thick pieces of meat take 15-20 mins in total. Cooked meat has no pink juice when cut.

Combine and serve

When the pork is done, add the fried vegetables to it and stir. If you like, add 1-2 tsp of light soy sauce.
Fry everything together for 2-3 mins.
Put the fried vegetables and pieces of meat on a plate. Serve the fried pork very hot.
I have often seen pork served with lemon. I don’t like it, because lemon somewhat dulls the taste and aroma of fried meat. But adding a bit more coarsely ground black pepper to the pieces of meat, that I do like.