Veal Scallopini Piccata

We don't eat much veal in our house, but when I saw some delicate little white veal pieces at the butcher's I was inspired to give it a go.

So here is a simple Italian inspired (but not authentic) dish – Veal Scallopini Piccata

Ingredients:

White veal scallopini (prepared by the butcher)

Salt & Pepper

Flour

Butter

Olive Oil

White wine

Stock

Slices of lemon

Lemon juice

Capers

Cream (optional)

Some green herbs like parsley or cress

Method:

Season the meat and dredge each slice in flour.

Fry the meat in batches in a mix of butter and oil

Take the meat out and set it aside covered in foil to keep warm

Add a good splosh of white wine to the pan and stir it in so that all the bits stuck on the bottom come off

Add your stock (I used a light chicken stock) and lemon slices

Fry until the liquid has thickened up a bit (the flour on the meat helps with this)

Add a good knob of butter, the capers and the herbs.

Turn off the heat and add a splash of cream after the sauce has stopped boiling – you don't need the cream but when I tasted the sauce it was very lemony indeed and I just needed to tone the lemon down a bit.

From whoa to go, this takes about 10 minutes maximum.

Slow Cooker Osso Bucco

I have seen Osso Bucco in passing over the years but never really knew what it was.  The butcher had some, so I dived in and bought it.  The meat used is veal shank – but it is sliced across the bone.

I did the Osso Bucco using the slow cooker – but I did brown the meat first – which is a pain but which in this case I think was necessary.

First, I put salt pepper and a tablespoon of flour in a plastic bag and then put in the meat.  After closing the bag I shook it all around until the meat was properly covered.

I browned it in a pan in butter – how decadent!

After taking the meat out, I deglazed the pan with a splosh of wine.  That just means that I boiled the wine in the pan while stirring it with a wooden spoon so that all the bits on the bottom of the pan mixed in with the wine.

After lightly oiling the slow cooker I added:

The browned meat

The wine mixture from the pan

¼ an onion, roughly chopped

A can of chopped tomatoes (might be better to use only about ½ a can)

½ a small carton of chicken stock

½ a tomato soup packet mix

A carrot cut into rounds (you don't need to peel it)

A leek, sliced (celery could be used instead)

I cooked it on low for about 6 hours.  With half an hour to go I chucked in some leftover potatoes. All the slow cooker books I have read in the hope of mastering the technique say that you should not open the cooker up and stir because you lose so much heat that you will have to cook for much longer. I'm sorry I just don't buy that.  The area of the ceramic dish is so large and stores so much heat that I don't think a quick stir makes any difference at all.  I have checked this out with my better half who is of a scientific bent and he agreed.

Before serving I garnished it with parsley and lemon zest.

Food on Friday: Veal

ON

Another Friday, another theme!  This time it's Veal.

Veal goes well with

Anchovies	Artichokes	Breadcrumbs
Butter	Capers	Cream
Eggplants	Garlic	Ham
Leeks	Lemons	Marsala
Mushrooms	Mustard	Olive oil
Olives	Onions	Parmesan cheese
Parsley	Pasta	Potatoes
Rice	Rosemary	Sage
Sorrel	Spinach	Tomatoes
White wine

To link in, just put your name plus the name of the dish into the first Mr Linky box and then copy the url for your post into the second one.

It may help you to choose which other links to visit if you pop over to the Pinboard  where I'll be pinning the links as soon as I can.

Happy linking!

Ps -  For those that like to plan ahead, the next Food on Friday's topic is all things BBQ.

Piripiri Veal Rack

We don't have veal often for some reason.  I saw a milk-fed veal rack at the store and decided to give it a go.  I marinated  it for one hour in a store bought Piripiri marinade and sauce.  This is a sort of South African chilli.  I then roasted it in a hottish oven for 20 minutes, then reduced the heat to moderate and finished it for another 20 minutes.

It tasted quite different from other meats.  We liked it but it must be said I don't need to eat it again right away.  I served it with a potato salad.