Recipe for breaded zucchini or zucchini schnitzel with ham and cheese. It can also be made with eggplant. Ingredients (7 pieces):
• 2 large zucchinis - approximately 1 kg
• 7 thin slices of smoked yellow cheese (150 g)
• 7 thin slices of ham (~200 g)
• 100 g of flour
• 170 g of breadcrumbs
• 3 eggs beaten with 3-4 spoons of milk
• Salt
• Ground black pepper
• Dried thyme
• And oil for frying - I used about 150 ml
Peel the pumpkins. We cut the part from the tail, where the zucchini starts to narrow. We set this part aside for other recipes such as zucchini salad, zucchini with dill and garlic or zucchini chips with parmesan. Slice the thick part lengthwise, into thin strips of a maximum of half a centimeter. We need 14 wide slices.
Take a thin slice of cheese, put it on top of a thin slice of ham, fold it in half and sandwich it between two slices of zucchini. I recommend you to buy the cheese and ham already sliced, because most likely you will not be able to make such thin slices at home.
In case you are wondering, you can also use venison instead of zucchini. It can be cut a little thicker because it cooks faster compared to the zucchini, but it absorbs a little more oil, because it has a porous texture.
Then we will make a panade for these stuffed pumpkins. We prepare the dishes with flour, eggs beaten with milk and breadcrumbs. In the flour and in the beaten eggs we put a generous pinch of salt and ground black pepper, in the breadcrumbs we put only thyme - about a teaspoon I would say, and a pinch of ground black pepper (the breadcrumbs already contain salt). Mix the spices well.
We pass the pumpkins through flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs flavored with thyme.
We proceed in the same way for all the pieces.
Put about a finger of oil in a pan and place it on low heat. I insist the fire must be low, and the oil must not be very hot. I check when it's ready with a small piece of the feather on the pumpkin. When it starts to bubble around it, it means it's ready.
We put as many pieces as possible without crowding the pan. Our product must spend 5 minutes in the pan, of course turning it halfway through. The crust must become golden and crispy.
Fry all the pieces in the same way.
I assure you that it is super super tasty! Have an appetite dear ones!