cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Veal’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

Sometimes food is delicious to the tastebuds, but not so delcious to the eyes. Meat loaf comes to mind. So does split pea soup, among others. Veal piccata must unfortunately be counted among these. The photos here this time, do not do it justice. (And a quick look around the Net showed me for good or bad, none of the other images I saw taken by others did it that much justice either.) And the fact this recipe falls right after the brilliant colors of salmon no doubt makes it seem duller still, image-wise.

But enough. Not every meal can spark all the senses. What this one lacks in being picturesque it more than makes up for in taste as well as in aroma. Picatta means “sharp” in Italian and it has come to mean a variety of dishes that use thin cuts of meat, cut thinly and/or pounded thinly, cooked in a pan and served with a sharp sauce, provided by the lemon and capers.

And in this dish also added to by the dry sherry. Some dishes say use dry white wine. Fan that I am of that, three reasons for doing with the dry sherry this time. The first time I made this dish was a couple decades ago from The Frug’s recipes (Jeff Smith). Next, how often outside of Asian cooking do you get to use a nice sherry? And most importantly, third, it adds more of that piccata “bite” that we’re looking for here, where as the wine might soften that too much, take some of that away. And that’s not desired.

Before I go into the nutritional and health elements of eating veal, let’s quickly get past the talk of eating veal at all. In other words, the whole “veal bad” animal rights thing. Suffice to say conditions in veal farming and the veal industry have improved dramatically in the past two decades thanks to the activists. Some say it’s enough, some say it isn’t. You wouldn’t be reading this — nor I writing it — if this issue was of great concern. As for myself, I take a practical Native American perspective when it comes to animals and food. Hunting to put an animal on a wall or make a fur coat is (among other things) a horrible waste and soley for ego. Whereas food raised to be food is to be eaten. And as humans we eat food. And this is the natural way of life. Period.

Now on to the postive assessment of veal as food. In terms of nutrition, low-fat and cost … Veal is lean; it has very little fat. This also means there is little waste when compared to other animal meat. Because of this a pound of veal can often vield three or four servings. Some have suggested when comparision shopping to evaluate the cost per serving instead of the cost per pound when thinking about veal.

Veal is an excellent source of protein with “balanced amino acid profile containing proteins of a high quality”. Also it is a superior source of B-complex vitamins, especially niacin, zinc B12 and B6. It is also a good source of iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. A trimmed, cooked three oz. serving of veal contains on average 166 calories and only 5.6 grams of fat.

Back to this specific dish, surprisingly one does not find too many veal piccata recipes around. And those that I’ve stumbled across, not sure, they seem to have lost something in translation. Beside the advice of using wine instead of the sherry, many advocate using chicken broth. Are they crazy? That even further deadens the sharp taste that is the entire reason for this dish in the first place. Why even make this dish — I want to ask these other cooks and their recipes — if you want to deaden the inherent sharpness and pleasant bite that what makes this dish?

No idea. Maybe, because many folks are more used to seeing chicken piccata something got mixed in along the way (like adding chicken broth, yuck) which was never supposed to be in the dish in the first place. Obviously chicken piccata — which I love too of course — is more prevelent as the poultry is more widely found and is viewed as a less costly an alternative. That said though, piccata was foremost and originally made as a veal dish; it’s the others that have become variants off the master.

If you have never had veal (other than as part of your meatloaf or meatball dishes), this recipe is an excellent one to introduce yourself to this lean, nutritious and delicious meat.

Veal Piccata
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb veal scallops (or veal cutlets pounded to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness)
flour for dredging
salt
pepper
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps capers, diced
1 1/3 cups dry sherry
olive oil
butter
parsley (fresh or dried flakes)

Take the precut veal scallops or the pounded veal slices and dredge in a mixture of salt, pepper and flour. Place into medium heat frying pan with hot olive oil. Roughly two minutes per side. Take out and reserve.

Pour in dry sherry and scrape up all the bits left in the pan and mix well. Add lemon juice and capers. Mix and reduce to half. (If not thick enough, sprinkle one teaspoon of extra flour in and mix well.) After reduction add some butter to make richer.

About 30 seconds later reintroduce the veal into the pan. One minute on each side. Add parsley in now or on plate before serving, your choice. Take out of pan. Pour sauce on top. Serve. Makes four servings.

There are so many combinations of meatloaf in the world. Use 100 percent beef. No, use beef and pork. No, has to be the tri-meat combination of beef, pork and veal. No, it’s lamb as the third, not veal. You can use milk-soaked bread, big crouton things purchased or made yourself. You can use breadcrumbs. Nope, use the oats in oatmeal. With and without eggs. Mayonnaise as an extra binder; no way, hold the mayo. Gotta have some gravy. Gravy has to be brown. No, it’s gotta be tomato. No gravy anywhere; that ruins it. … And the list goes on and on.

And then, like myself, many cooks have more than one meatloaf. Why? Same as above. There’s so many ways to do it and there’s no one right way. In fact, it’s pretty tough to mess up. Hope all you newbie cooks are listening up. Meatloaf is many things: The perfect comfort food being one. And an excellent dish to start on if you’ve never or rarely cooked before.

I mentioned various meatloafs myself. I recall it being one of the first things I ever did, back around the age of 18 or 20. I followed the directions on the side of the Quaker Oats box, and yeah, oats, the stuff I would have for breakfast on freezing cold winter days here in Philadelphia, it actually worked. It was a pretty decent meatloaf as I recall.

Since then, who knows how many variations. Many of the early ones I would overcook and make too dry inside, and sometimes burn the glaze (if I remembered to have one, that is.) Sometimes myself I use the triple combination of meats, sometimes it’s all beef. Each has it’s own interesting characteristic and flavor from the other. I came up with another interesting variation about a year ago when I had a big jar of salsa left over after a party. It dawned on me, the ingredients were basically three I would normally use in a meatloaf: tomato, and red and green peppers. And yes, the jalapeno gave it a really nice kick, not too hot either. I’ll no doubt get to making that one later in the season and of course, when I do, I’ll publish it here complete with the requisite photos.

For this recipe, I decided to do a gravy. I don’t always do that. This time it was simple. I had a half pound of gorgeous pre-sliced mushrooms I picked up from the store and needed to do something with. While a vegetable or chicken ratatouille came to mind, I knew with Thanksgiving days away, the last thing I needed in the fridge was going to be not one but two kinds of leftover poultry. In fact, each year the same thing happens. Before Thanksgiving you can’t wait to “get to the bird”, and days later you get tired of eating turkey and turkey and turkey. One of the best things I know is to get around that — besides creative leftovers, I mean — is to vary the leftover meals by having something beefy to switch off from. Meatloaf will work perfectly.

So, that meant I knew what I was going to do with my mushrooms, make a chunky gravy with them. I decided to go for the creamy and the wine version. Yes, it is more of a contrasting gravy than a complementary one, but I think it still works. That said, no, this meatloaf — and this new glaze I tried on it, big yums! — does in no way need the gravy. It’s got a bit of crispness on the outside and it’s moist inside. So, feel free to skip the gravy by all means, you will not miss it. On the other hand, if you want to treat yourself to something extra, something involving mushrooms, heavy cream and wine, I say go for it. You’re worth it.

     

Meatloaf with Tomato-Balsmic Glaze and Creamy Mushroom Gravy
©2007 Harry Kenney

Meatloaf:

2 lbs combination of ground beef, veal, pork

2/3 cup green pepper, cut finely
2/3 cup red pepper, cut finely
2/3 cup onion. cut finely
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
2 tbsps worchesterhire sauce
1 1/2 tbsps soy sauce
dash of hot sauce
2/3 cup grated parmegan
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 egg, whipped slightly
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup dijon
to taste:
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

Tomato-Balsamic Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup
4 tbsps balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp worchestershire
dash garlic powder
dash onion powder
2 tbsps light brown sugar

Creamy Mushroom Gravy

8 oz sliced button mushrooms
1 cup beef stock
1 cup red wine, Merlot
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/4 tsp corn starch
to taste:
salt
pepper
garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix all of the meatloaf ingredients well and by hand in a large bowl. Free-form into a loaf, place on baking sheet and put into oven.

Mix ingredients for glaze and apply to meatloaf, half-way through cooking (the 30-minute mark), covering the top and letting some spill down the sides.

For the gravy, medium heat, oil in pan, a light dusting of garlic powder in the oil, dump in the mushrooms, and cook well until browned, stirring often. Toss in the beef stock, mix, two minutes later toss in the cream and the wine. Reduce by at half to a third. Season. Add cornstarch. Let thicken and reduce until you get a nice gravy consistency.

Meatloaf should be done after one full hour. Check to make sure glaze is not getting burnt, and use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. Serve gravy a top of or on the side of the meatloaf. Makes 6-8 servings.