Chef
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Registered: June 13, 2006
Posts: 169
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| | Dec 15, 2008 at 05:49 AM | Reply with quote | #1 |
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A Christmas Special Roasted Veal Breast
Even if you only accomplish this Stuffed and Roasted Veal Breast once in your life, it will be worth the effort. Be forewarned it is a rather laborious and time-consuming cooking project BUT the satisfaction will provide you and your family well-deserved pride and seasonal joy. Read the recipe carefully and begin shopping and initial prepping a day or two or more ahead of your planned meal.
Thus, the effort is often transformed into a family project with everyone assigned to a job or chore. This plan can magically result in seasonal holiday fun.
Roasted (braised) stuffed veal breast is still VERY VERY popular throughout Europe with various ethnographic renditions associating the seasonings and flavors of a particular nationality and/or the season of the year. Unfortunately the amount of labor, time, and cooking skills required for this wonderful dish is rarely encountered in the United States these days.
Served hot or cold, roasted or braised stuffed veal breast was prepared and relished as far back as the Renaissance, and was considered haute cuisine reserved only for the aristocracy. Sadly today, breast of veal is often thought to be a a “lesser” cut of meat, and has been relegated to a status of peasant ‘old fashioned’, cheap home fare, which accordingly is often poorly prepared and cooked. This evolutionary dismissal by today's modern bec fins can be reborn and appreciated by most anyone who has the gumption and holiday spirit to give it a try!
I. Prepare the stuffing and veal breast:
1 large trimmed and de-boned veal breast reserve the trimmings and see #7 below)
4 to 6 cups of 3⁄4-inch cubes cut from good quality Italian, French or Viennese bread
1⁄4 to 1⁄3 cup melted butter
~1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 cup of milk or half-and-half mixed with 1 cup chicken broth
8 whole eggs
1 lb or more of ground veal from the trimmings (See #7 below)
12 or more peeled hard cooked quail eggs, or small “peewee” chicken eggs
3 to 4 tablespoons of shortening
1 to 1&1⁄2 cups “medium” chopped onion
3⁄4 cup ”rough” chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 or 2 teaspoons dried sweet marjoram or 2 tablespoons of fresh
2 or 3 whole cloves of garlic crushed with some salt into a paste
q.s. salt and freshly cracked black peppercorns to taste by titration
2 cups of 1-inch nuggets of poached veal sweetbreads
1 cup of 1⁄2-inch cubes of cooked ham
1⁄4 cup or more of black truffle peelings
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Place the bread cubes onto a buttered bun pan and sprinkle and toss with the melted butter
3. Toast in the oven, tossing every 7 or 8 minutes until golden brown.
4. Place the toasted bread cubes and the brad crumbs into an extra- large bowl.
5. In a separate bowl, beat the 8 eggs and combine with the milk and chicken stock.
6. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and toss gently – being careful not to mash the cubes. Set aside to rest.
7. Cut the veal trimmings into small pieces and grind in a meat grinder.
8. Carefully cut a pocket into the entire length of the breast. Reserve in the refrigerator.
9. In a sauté pan, sweat the shopped onions until they are slightly golden. Allow to cool and distribute over the top of the bread mixture.
10. Scatter the ground veal onto the bread along with the hard cooked eggs, parsley, marjoram, garlic, salt and optional ingredients (ham cubes, poached sweetbread nuggets, truffles.)
11. Using well-washed hands, mix gently but thoroughly. Taste carefully and re-season as necessary.
12. Stuff the veal breast with the mixture and truss it closed using a butchers’needle and twine.
II. Cooking (Braising)or(Roasting) Instructions:
2 cups of lard
1 & 1/2 teaspoons “Chef’s Salt or Lowry’s Seasoned Salt®
1 to 2 cups roughly cut unpeeled onions
1 to 2 cups roughly cut unpeeled carrots
1 or 2 celery stalks, roughly cut
Optional - 2 cups whole canned peeled Italian Plum Tomatoes1 cut into 1-inch cubes (See Nota Bene below)
Optional - 1 cup roughly-cut parsnips
Optional - 1 cup Prosciutto ham skins, bones and/or trimmings cut into 1-inch pieces
2 to 4 crushed whole unpeeled garlic cloves
1 tablespoon freshly cracked black peppercorns
2 to 4 cups chicken stock or chicken stock + white wine -- or -- brown beef stock + red wine
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves.
Nota Bene for Your Information Regarding the Seasonings for this Dish, both Paprika and Tomatoes were NOT generally used prior to 1830. However, they certainly may be added to provide a "modern" uplift to the finished sauce.
1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Rub the breast with seasoned salt and place onto a rack and into a large roasting pan
3. In a heavy (aluminum) saucepot heat the lard until it begins to smoke, and carefully using a metal ladle spoon it carefully over the veal breast. The meat will sear and visibly shrink and tighten due to the scalding effect of the boiling lard.
4. Scatter the prepared vegetables, herbs, black pepper and optional ingredients under and around the meat. Add the stock/wine mixture.
5. Cover and roast at 350°F for one hour; baste and continue to roast covered for another 15 to 25 minutes.
6. Increase oven temperature to 425° F. Remove the cover and roast, basting every five minutes for and total of 20 or 25 minutes. The veal breast should be a rosy mahogany brown and crispy.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before carving.
8. In the meanwhile, prepare a sauce by straining the pan juices into a saucepan, pressing down on the vegetables. Remove and discard the grease. Taste the remaining juice. If it is weak, reduce by boiling, or if it is too strong, dilute with water, wine or stock; re-season and “tighten” (thicken) with the cornstarch slurry. “Finish” by swirling-in a tablespoon of butter and garnish with the chopped fresh tarragon
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windsor
Registered: Nov 03, 2006
Posts: 40
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| | Jan 06, 2009 at 04:13 PM | Reply with quote | #2 |
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Hi Fritz,
Admittedly this is an ambitious recipe but during the cold winter months up here, provided we can get the rest of the ingredients, a worthy way to spend a couple of days. I must buy a side of veal. How shall I instruct the butcher to butcher it to best advantage. He's a good Australian butcher but the call for veal around here is rare. Your input is always welcome. Thanks, Jay
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I love good food and am especially good at washing up after a delicious meal requiring every pot and pan in the kitchen. |
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Chef
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Registered: June 13, 2006
Posts: 169
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| | Jan 06, 2009 at 06:03 PM | Reply with quote | #3 |
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Jay: A "SIDE" of 'milk-fed' veal breast would serve 8 to 10 people or more, WITH LEFTOVERS AS WELL.
#1. Ask your butcher to shorten the ribs by removing about 2 or 3-inches and to remove the chime bone and cut all of these into 3 or 4-inch pieces. You can then anoint these with some oil (mixed with Kitchen Bouquet® if you can find it in Canada, but which is readily available in the US) Roast these bones until they are brown, and use them as a roasting-rack along with some rough cut chunks of onion, carrots, celery and a parsnip, turnip, or small rutabaga on which you will place the prepared stuffed veal breast.
#2. Next prepare the stuffing as my original recipe suggests. Of course also ask your butcher to cut a large pocket into the breast along the ENTIRE length and breadth of the breast but that it remain attached on the chime side.
#3. Carefully stuff the beast and using a large trussing needle, truss the opening securely with butcher's twine made every 2 inches or so BUT leaving some slack to allow for expansion during roasting.
#4, Roast and baste according to my original recipe instructions. ALLOW TO REST AT ROOM TEMPERATURE FOR 3⁄4 OF AN HOUR OR MORE BEFORE CARVING !
#5. In the meanwhile prepare a Simple Sauce by de-glazing the roasting pan with some Cognac or Calvados AND some quick stock made from the bones and roasted vegetables at the bottom of the roasting pan. Thicken SLIGHTLY with a cornstarch slurry ... or better yet, use a Beurre Manie made by kneading equal parts of butter and flour.
GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN ! |
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