Milanesa Madness

A couple weeks ago I attended a cooking class hosted by OLAS, the Organization of Latin American Students here at U of T. It was a great afternoon-I met some new people in my program, practiced my Spanish and made all sorts of tasty treats. Milanesas are breaded meat fillets, typical of the Southern Cone (the guy who was teaching me to make these is from Argentina). They can be made with beef, chicken, or veal-we used thin slices of eye of round. They are typically fried, but these were made in the oven-a little healthier.

Milanesas (makes 20)

• 20 thin slices of beef (eye of round preferable and cheap)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp chopped parsley
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Lots of breadcrumbs
• couple glugs of canola oil
• Lemon juice (optional)
• Grated cheese (optional)
  

1. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, parsley and garlic.
2. Toss in the meat and mix to coat, letting it sit approx 20 minutes.


3. Spread out breadcrumbs on a large plate/platter and individually press the macerated pieces of meat into breadcrumbs to bread them and pound the slices thinner. If you don't want to make the full recipe, this is the point where they can be frozen and quickly cooked when you are ready to eat them.


4. On a baking tray with a light coating of oil, arrange as many milanesas will fit and bake 10 minutes in a 400˚ oven. After 10 minutes, flip and if you are adding cheese, just grate some on now. Bake 10 more minutes.


If you haven't used cheese, they are great with a bit of lemon juice on top. This recipe makes so many, so if you aren't feeding a crowd save some for sandwiches or freeze extras (pre-cooking).