French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [215]
Serve bubbling hot in the same dish. The juice should be somewhat reduced, the meat tender and juicy, the top nicely browned. A few potatoes go well with it. Enough for four.
If you have no suitable flame-proof dish, the preliminary cooking can be done in a frying-pan, the sauce and meat being transferred to a baking dish before the addition of the ham and breadcrumbs.
BRÉZOLLES LORRAINES
SLICED VEAL BAKED IN THE OVEN
Brézolles are slices of veal cut from that inside part of the leg known as the noix patissière, or the rouelle, although this latter term may also mean slices from the knuckle end of the leg, cut right across with the bone.
The brézolles should be cut rather thicker than escalopes, should weigh 3 to 4 oz. each and should not be flattened out. For two of these slices the other ingredients are a shallot, a slice of cooked ham, a little parsley, butter, a very little white wine, breadcrumbs.
In a frying-pan heat a good lump of butter. Into this put your shallot and parsley, both finely chopped. Let them cook a few seconds, then add the chopped ham. After another few moments put in your slices of meat, previously seasoned. Let them take colour on each side. Pour in 2 or 3 tablespoons of white wine or vermouth and let it bubble. Then lower the heat and cover the pan for 2 minutes. Transfer the meat and sauce to a lightly buttered, shallow, fireproof serving dish. Strew the meat with fine breadcrumbs and add a few small nuts of butter. Finish cooking for 20 to 25 minutes, uncovered, in a moderate oven.
ÉPAULE DE VEAU BOULANGÈRE
SHOULDER OF VEAL BAKED WITH POTATOES
Rub the boned and rolled shoulder with salt, pepper and chopped herbs. Heat 1 oz. of dripping or butter in a roasting tin or earthenware baking dish. Put in the meat; let it cook at the top of a hot oven for 10 minutes. Now add 2 to 3 lb. of potatoes, peeled and sliced about inch thick, and arranged underneath and all round the joint. Season with a little salt; if liked put 2 whole cloves of garlic underneath the joint to flavour both potatoes and meat. Add a soup ladle of meat stock or water. Cover with greased aluminium foil and a lid, or another roasting tin inverted. Cook in the centre of the oven at Gas No. 3, 330 deg. F., for just under 2 hours. During the last 15 minutes remove the lid, the foil and the protective slice of fat which has been tied round the meat by the butcher, strew the top surface with breadcrumbs and leave the dish uncovered so that the top will brown.
Before serving ladle off some of the excess liquid, and let the meat stand a few minutes before carving. Enough for eight people. Veal cooked by this method but without the potatoes is also excellent cold.
MÉDAILLONS DE VEAU AU VIN BLANC
MINIATURE VEAL STEAKS WITH WHITE WINE
For four médaillons (see page 370) peel 16 very small pickling onions; cook these gently in a frying-pan in a mixture of 1 oz. of butter and a little olive oil to prevent burning. When golden, remove the onions and keep warm. Slightly flatten out the médaillons, season with salt and pepper; brown them lightly on both sides in the butter from the onions. Pour a good glass of white wine into the pan, let it bubble a few moments, turn the flame low; return the onions to the pan with the meat, add 4 oz. diced lean cooked ham. Cover the pan and simmer very gently about 20 minutes. Serve on a hot dish, with the sauce from the pan poured round. Enough for four. These little cuts of veal (shown in the drawing on page 368) are, in kitchen terms, alternatively called noisettes; when flattened out to an oval shape and piquéd all over with pork lard to resemble a miniature