culinary flights of fancy

Home Cooking Adventures in Berkeley Heights

Tag Archives: Veal Stock


by Leave a comment

Seared Ribeye with Polenta, Broccoli Rabe, and Spring Vegetables

Colorful spring vegetables coupled with rare, sliced ribeye and naturally creamy polenta.

Colorful spring vegetables coupled with rare, sliced ribeye and naturally creamy polenta.

RibeyePolenta.2 (2)

I’ve mentioned this before but I’ll say it again:  ribeye is by far my favorite cut of steak.  Here, it is rubbed with a few spices, cooked rare, and then cut into strips.  Cutting the steak into strips is a great way to enjoy beef without eating a huge amount.  Instead, you get the flavor of the beef and enhance the flavor with fresh vegetables of the season.  The extra bonus about serving beef this way is that you cut down on how much you need to purchase.  In fact, in this case, a large 16 ounce steak can serve four.  I chose a simple pan cooked broccoli rabe which has a subtle bitterness to play off the sweeter corn based polenta.  The raw tomatoes add color and some acidity and the whole thing is then simply garnished with a sprinkling of raw, thinly sliced spring onions.  I finished the dish with just a touch of heated veal stock to bring a light sauce and more meatiness to the dish.  If you don’t have veal stock, you can certainly skip it all together or if you prefer, simply drizzle just a touch of olive oil over the top.  Either way, you can’t go wrong!  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Pan Seared Veal Chop with Fresh Fava Beans and Peas

Veal chop, glazed with a veal stock and white wine reduction, served with a variety of simply prepared spring vegetables.

Veal chop, glazed with a veal stock and white wine reduction, served with a variety of simply prepared spring vegetables.

Cooked and raw vegetables mingle together to create different textures and flavors.

Cooked and raw vegetables mingle together to create different textures and flavors.

Happy spring!  We are finally having a seasonally appropriate week here in Jerz and I am more than happy about it.  I also received the first tomatoes of the new season yesterday.  They are local farm greenhouse tomatoes but they look and smell as they should and they are making me excited about all the produce coming in the near future!

I made this dish for a special occasion to celebrate a milestone with my wife and I wanted to make something that celebrated the season as well.  Veal is almost a perfect meat to go with spring vegetables as the milder flavor doesn’t overpower the more delicate flavors of the spring vegetables.  Here, fresh fava beans and peas take center stage.  The softer textures of those lightly blanched vegetables are balanced out with carrots and green onions that are just cooked through and thinly sliced raw radish adds color and a touch of spiciness.  The whole thing is brought together with just a touch of veal stock and white wine reduction drizzled over the top of the veal chop, creating an almost glaze like glisten and sheen that provides additional depths of flavor with a touch of acidity.

Both fava beans and peas are available right now fresh in the produce section of most grocery stores.  However, if you can’t find them, both can be found in the frozen food section as well.  Simply unthaw them and add them at the end…no need to cook them as they are blanched and then frozen.  So, as long as they are thawed, just toss them in the pan at the end to warm them through for a few seconds.

I found the microgreens used as a garnish at Wegman’s market.  If you can’t find them at your store, chopped Italian parsley would work well too.

The veal chop pictured is pretty large and can easily feed two.  If you have your butcher cut them thick, plan on one chop per two people or adjust as needed.  Recipe and another picture follows after the jump… Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

Lavender, Honey, and Sherry Braised Short Ribs

Lavender, honey, and sherry short ribs with risotto style farro and wilted greens.

Lavender, honey, and sherry short ribs with risotto style farro and wilted greens.

Raw thinly sliced radishes and spring onions add an earthiness and slight spiciness to the sweetness of the lavender honey sherry reduction. Balance the whole dish with a very small drizzle of sherry vinegar.

Raw thinly sliced radishes and spring onions add an earthiness and slight spiciness to the sweetness of the lavender honey sherry reduction. Balance the whole dish with a very small drizzle of sherry vinegar.

This is another seasonal transition dish that marries hearty braised short ribs with some liter, more spring-like flavors.  I paired the short ribs with risotto style farro, wilted greens, and the braising vegetables and garnished it with thinly sliced radishes and spring onions.  This dish would be great with any rice or grain.  You can also skip it completely and serve it simply with vegetables and maybe some crusty bread to soak up the beautiful sherry and veal stock reduction that’s scented with lavender and honey.  Here I used a sweet sherry and, coupled with the honey, was almost too sweet.  So, if you prefer your main meals more on the savory side of the spectrum, simply use a dry sherry instead.  It will be great either way.  However, if you do use a sweet sherry, the extra sweetness added a nice balance to the earthiness of the farro, greens, radishes, and onions.  If you don’t have sherry, feel free to use a good quality white wine…it will turn out just as great.  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Beef, Pearl Barley, and Vegetable Stew

BeefStew.2

Beef and Pearl Barley Soup:

I love soups and stews in winter and I especially love a good beef stew.  It brings me back to my childhood and there’s something inherently comforting in stew.  For the beef, I used a chuck roast that I cut into one inch squares.  I used a myriad of vegetables and made the pearl barley separately, cooked it until al dente and then finished it in the stew.  I used veal stock as the base and if you are so inclined, using veal stock made for a very tasty stew. However, if you don’t have access to veal bones to make the stock, beef stock will certainly do the trick.  The great thing about stew is that it’s a very forgiving dish and can accommodate almost any vegetable you have on hand.  So, I’ll provide my recipe here but definitely do not be shy about substituting out one ingredient you may not care for or have on hand for another that you do prefer or have on hand.  The only real rules with stew, as with any braise, is that you have to completely brown the meat to a dark brown and then slowly cook the meat and vegetables in a liquid, usually stock or wine or a combination of the two.  However, if you prefer beer, a dark beer would work really well with this.  Cognac would work as well.  Really the possibilities are limited only by you!  The recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Porcini Rubbed Ribeye with Veal Cognac Jus and Roasted Mushrooms and Onions

PorciniRibeye.1PorciniRibeye.2

Well this one is pretty easy.  I’m not going to write out a recipe but will give a brief summary of how to pull this together.  Just rub the ribeyes with dried porcini mushrooms that have been ground into powder with a spice grinder.  I added fine sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and red pepper flakes to the mushroom powder and then rubbed the mix on the ribeyes about  30 minutes prior to cooking.  In the mean time, I drizzled a bit of extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper  over the mushrooms and onions and tossed them into a 375 degree oven and roasted them until caramelized and golden (around 30 minutes or so).  I then turned off the oven and let them sit in the warm oven until it was time to serve.

From there, I used a cast iron skillet and heated it on high for several minutes until it was super hot and placed the steaks in the pan- no oil.  Then I cooked the steaks for around 3 minutes per side (we like our steaks rare).  I removed them from the heat and let them rest.  I turned off the heat and placed about 1/4 cup of cognac into the pan and let it reduce (which happened quickly).  I then added about two cups of reduced veal stock ( you could use beef stock in lieu of the veal if you’d like) and let the whole thing reduce down until it was very thick-about 5 minutes or so.  I strained the sauce as there were scorched bits from the steak that surfaced.

From there, to serve I simply placed the steak on a plate, spooned the sauce over part of the steak and then around it.  I added the warm mushrooms and onion to the plate and simply tore a few Italian parsley leaves haphazardly over and around the plate.  I added a bit of flaky sea salt over the whole thing though I added too much and it ended up salty.  So, unlike me, I’d advise tasting it prior to adding more salt…rookie mistake but what can you do?  I wasn’t paying enough attention this time.  Otherwise I really liked this meal quite a bit.  If you want to make it and have questions, just let me know.  Enjoy!

RoastedMushroomsandOnions.1RoastedMushroomsandOnions.2