French Provincial Cooking (88 page)

A salad of lettuce hearts with a mild dressing is the best accompaniment. And if the butcher cannot cut a
noix
of veal, a boned and rolled shoulder can be used.

Buy about 3 lb. of the chump end of loin of veal (
quasi de veau
in French butchers’ terms) and have it boned and tied in a sausage shape. The other ingredients are a calf’s foot, split in two, a wine-glass of white wine and a small glass of brandy if possible, 2 tomatoes, an onion, 1 lb. of carrots, garlic and tarragon. If possible buy also from the butcher half a dozen strips of pork rind, which, as I have already explained in several recipes, are much used in these sort of dishes to give an extra gelatinous quality to the sauce.

Spike the meat with little pieces of garlic rolled in salt, pepper and chopped tarragon. Brown it in a mixture of oil and pork dripping; put it in an earthen or iron pot lined with the strips of pork rind. Add the sliced onion, also browned in dripping, 2 carrots, the tomatoes cut in half, a sprig of tarragon and the calf’s foot. Salt and pepper. Pour over the brandy and the wine and an equal quantity of water. Cover with two layers of greaseproof paper and the lid. Set in a low oven, Gas No. 2, 310 deg. F., and leave for at least 3 hours until the veal is absolutely tender.

Take out the meat and leave it to cool before removing the string. Put it in a deep dish, surround it with the whole carrots cooked separately (cooked in the daube they give too strong a carroty flavour to the sauce) and cool the strained sauce separately. When it has set to a jelly next day remove all traces of fat, melt it sufficiently to pour over the veal and leave to set again, incorporating a few fresh tarragon leaves for decoration. English veal does very well for this dish and there should be enough for six.

A plain lettuce and hard-boiled egg salad goes well with it.

I usually avoid escalopes of veal in French provincial restaurants, partly because there are usually more interesting dishes on the menu and partly because it seems to me that the French have a hard job of it to beat the Italian methods of combining veal with Parma ham and Parma cheese, but I was tempted by the description of this dish at the Beffroy restaurant in Rouen, and it proved excellent and original.

Quantities for two people, apart from two fine escalopes, cut slightly on the bias from the wide part of the leg and without seams, but not beaten out too flat, are half a sweet apple,
pint of thick cream, butter, seasonings, Calvados.

Cut the peeled half apple into little cubes; season the meat plentifully with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Melt about 1
oz. of butter in a thick frying-pan. When it starts to foam, put in the meat, let it take colour rapidly on each side; add the apple cubes. Heat a liqueur glass (about 2 tablespoons) of Calvados in a little pan; set light to it. Pour it flaming over the meat, at the same time turning up the heat under the pan. Rotate the pan until the flames die down. Pour in the cream. Lower the heat. Cook gently another 2 minutes or so, stirring the sauce and scraping up the juices all the time. As soon as the cream has thickened, transfer the meat to the serving dish, arrange the apple cubes on top of each escalope and pour the sauce all round.

Cognac, Armagnac,
marc,
or even whisky, which, curiously enough, is the best substitute, can be used instead of Calvados, but then, of course, it is no longer quite the dish of the Pays de Caux.

Although triangles of bread fried in butter would not be out of place as a garnish, vegetables should be kept until afterwards, as always with these creamy dishes, for one doesn’t want them floating about the plate and getting mixed up with the sauce. Also, however tempted one may be to cook the whole apple just for the sake of using it up, it would be a mistake to do so. It is just that little hint of a sweet taste and contrasting texture that gives the dish its originality. More would be heavy-handed.

For two escalopes cut from the topside or thick flank of veal, each weighing approximately 3
oz., the other ingredients are 1 oz. of butter,
pint of thick cream, 4 or 5 tablespoons of dry white vermouth (in the Savoie they use the local Chambéry vermouth), and seasonings.

Season your escalopes with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Cook them rapidly on each side in the foaming butter; pour in the vermouth; let it bubble. Moderate the heat. Add the cream. Shake the pan so that the cream and wine amalgamate; now lower the heat again and simmer another 3 or 4 minutes, until the cream has thickened.

Miniature escalopes cut either from the
filet mignon
or from the narrow end of one of the larger leg cuts can be treated in the same way. Allow two to four per person according to size (these miniature escalopes are not necessarily cheaper than the large ones, but as I have already explained in the introductory note they often represent better value). Instead of partially lowering the heat when the cream is added, leave it as high as possible. The cream will start to thicken almost immediately. Shake the pan, spooning the cream up and over the meat, and serve the minute the sauce is thick. It comes out a beautiful pale coffee colour.

It is always difficult to decide what vegetables, if any, should go with these creamy veal dishes. On the whole it is best simply to serve a few little croûtons fried in butter, or some small plain boiled potatoes as a garnish, and to keep green vegetables for a separate course.

Have four very thick veal chops cut from the loin, each weighing about 6 oz., or, better still, get slices weighing about 4 oz. each from the boned and rolled loin; prepare a seasoning of a dozen dried and crushed juniper berries, salt, freshly-milled black pepper, and dried marjoram or thyme; squeeze lemon juice over the meat and then rub the seasoning well in.

Chop a small onion and dice 3 carrots; melt a good lump of butter in a shallow flame-proof dish; put in your onion and carrots and when they start to turn pale golden add the meat; let it brown lightly on each side; pour in a small glass of white wine or vermouth; let it bubble and reduce; add the same quantity of water; on top of each chop or slice of veal place a dessertspoon of chopped cooked ham; cover with a mixture of breadcrumbs and chopped parsley; put a little piece of butter on top of each piece of meat; transfer the dish to a low oven, Gas No. 2, 310 deg. F., and cook uncovered for 1
hours.

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 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.

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.