Bifana (Portuguese pork cutlets)
- Ready In:
- 24hrs 10mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 1 1⁄2 lbs boneless pork cutlets, cut very thin
- 1 1⁄4 cups dry white wine, divided
- 1⁄4 cup white wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bay leaf, crumbled
- 3⁄4 teaspoon pimiento, paste divided (available in Portuguese food stores)
- 1⁄2 teaspoon spanish paprika, divided
- 1⁄4 teaspoon whole black peppercorn, crushed
- 1⁄4 teaspoon whole cloves
- 1⁄4 teaspoon piri-piri, sauce (or Tabasco sauce, if necessary)
- 2 tablespoons lard
directions
- Rinse the pork cutlets and then pat dry with paper towels.
- Place pork in a large heavy plastic bag (like a freezer ziploc bag) and place in a large bowl.
- In a mixing bowl, combine one cup of the wine, the vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, 1/2 tsp of the pimento paste, 1/4 tsp of the paprika, peppercorns, cloves and piri-piri sauce.
- Pour this over pork, make sure all meat is coated, and seal the bag.
- Refrigerate for several hours or overnight, turning bag over in bowl frequently.
- Bring meat to room temperature before cooking.
- To cook, remove pork from marinade and lightly pat pork dry with paper towels.
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and melt lard, then cook pork in batches in hot lard; if your pork is thin it will likely only take a minute per side, at the most.
- When all the pork has been sauteed, drain off the fat and add the remaining wine (1/4 cup), remaining pimento paste (1/4 tsp), remaining paprika (1/4 tsp) to the skillet, as well as salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring this to a boil, stirring the pan to get up any brown bits.
- Return all the pork to the skillet, reduce heat to low, and cook for about another minute.
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Reviews
-
This is an excellent way to quickly cook delicious pork cutlets. For easy preparation, I recommend purchasing a jar of pimento paste (Carne de Pimento Choricero by Rajope), and increasing the amount of pimento paste to 1 3/4 tsp (3/4 tsp in the marinade, 1 tsp in the sauce). For an excellent paprika flavor, use 1/4 tsp sweet paprika in the marinade and 1/4 tsp smoked paprika in the sauce.I also use bacon fat to fry the pork cutlets instead of lard. Recommended amounts of salt/pepper: 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper. This dish goes extremely well as a main course accompanied with black beans and steamed artichokes.
Tweaks
-
This is an excellent way to quickly cook delicious pork cutlets. For easy preparation, I recommend purchasing a jar of pimento paste (Carne de Pimento Choricero by Rajope), and increasing the amount of pimento paste to 1 3/4 tsp (3/4 tsp in the marinade, 1 tsp in the sauce). For an excellent paprika flavor, use 1/4 tsp sweet paprika in the marinade and 1/4 tsp smoked paprika in the sauce.I also use bacon fat to fry the pork cutlets instead of lard. Recommended amounts of salt/pepper: 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper. This dish goes extremely well as a main course accompanied with black beans and steamed artichokes.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
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