I waste food. I’m ashamed of myself when I have to admit this. I buy things and plan to make it and then I get busy and life gets overwhelming and bam.. into the can the dead food goes. Am I alone?
I’ve been really good all week and haven’t spent much money on food at all and I haven’t tossed one thing. Usually I go over the top and then wonder where the grocery budget went but not this week. First we had osso bucco that I’ve been wanting to make all winter. Now that it’s getting warmer I figured I’d better get busy. I think the meat cost $5.
The next night was even better – slow cooked beef cheeks that almost melted in my mouth. Meat? $4.50 for both of us. Then last night I picked up two lovely pieces of veal and decided I’d make veal scallopini. I searched around for recipes and came across Kevin and Jane’s Kitchen’s because the recipe called for things I had in my pantry and fridge.
I also saw a few other recipes I liked too but kept coming back to this one. Not sure why but no regrets.
I put the potatoes on to boil and pounded the meat nice and thin and coated it with flour, then quick fried it in a hot pan. Nothing’s worse than thin leather-like steak so just enough cooking to make it dark pink inside and then I set it aside.
Into the frying pan went the chopped onions and sliced mushrooms and then the wine and stock. I tasted it and thought it tasted a bit too bitter. Now here is where I made the executive decision to toss in a gurgle of port. I know it doesn’t go but seriously.. it was just what I wanted.
Once I added the tomato paste and got it all stirred in, it said add 1/4 cup of cream. Now you and everyone else who would make this dish would measure 1/4 cup of cream and then toss it in. I didn’t. I took the cream container and opened the top and poured and a bit too much came out. Maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of cream to be honest. I hemmed and hawed about what to do and then figured there was no way to take it out so I’ll just cook it down.
I could have eaten only the sauce – seriously. It was delicious.
This meal took 30 minutes to prepare – it looks like it took a lot longer, don’t you think? Nope.. the meat takes just minutes to cook and the sauce takes about 15 minutes and if you put the potatoes on before you start pounding the meat, this lovely Italian dinner’s on the table in under 30 minutes.
When it was time to plate it up I remembered seeing this presentation on another blog somewhere (I can’t remember who and if it’s yours, please let me know so I can give you credit). I kept the meat out of the sauce and rolled two spears of asparagus up in the veal and placed it on top of the garlic mashed potatoes and poured the sauce over it. John was impressed. He said, “Yeah, it’s all right!”
Once I had it on the plate I decided it was pretty enough to share – so here’s the recipe.
- 4 veal steaks, pounded reasonably flat between two pieces of cling film
- Plain flour with salt and pepper for coating
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small brown onion, chopped thinly
- 125 gm mushrooms, sliced
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ¼ cup chicken stock
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste (you can use less if you like it less tomatoey)
- Dash of cream is the original recipe. I used ½ to ¾ of a cup
- Pound veal to about ¼ inch thickness
- Cut veal pieces into serving size
- Coat veal lightly and evenly in seasoned flour.
- Heat butter and oil together (the oil stops the butter from burning).
- Brown the veal pieces on high heat and set aside. (don't overcook or you'll get leather)
- Add mushrooms and onion to pan and cook for a couple of minutes, until onion is softened and slightly browned.
- Mix together the wine, stock and tomato paste.
- Pour over the mushrooms and onions.
- Add cream and reduce sauce
- Add browned veal pieces and cook til the meat is heated through.
- Serve over garlic mashed potatoes or noodles.
Linked to Carole’s Chatter’s Veal on Friday