There is something of a stigma attached to veal. Many people are skeptical about how veal is farmed and have horror stories of baby calves in dark crates for all of their short lives on repeat in their heads. Not a pleasant thought…
But nowadays, veal farming has improved in leaps and bounds. In fact, the practice of keeping calves in crates and feeding them only milk to keep the meat white has been banned in the UK since the 90’s and since 2007 in the European Union. But veal farming has never really recovered from the cruelness of the techniques of the 80’s.
Or at least that is the case for us Brits. But the French have a different relationship with veal and it has commonly played a bigger part in their culinary repertoire than ours. So in the spirit of my French gastronomic education, I thought I should venture into the world of veal and investigate a bit.
Once again I am truly lucky to have wonderful local produce easily available to me and I was able to lay my hands on a 5kg box of top class, rose veal from calves I know with 100% certainty, had a very happy life, from my fab friends over at Grasspunk. My box held a delicious array of joyously pink cuts of veal, lean and very beautiful indeed.
Paupiettes are common here in France where the veal escalopes are stuffed with a herby pork mix. Other common ways with veal are to roll it around some herbs or to breadcrumb it and fry it. I was inspired by all these methods when deciding how to cook mine.
I carefully made a pocket in my veal and stuffed it with a little parcel of brie wrapped in Bayonne ham, fixed it with a tooth pick, coated it in Panko breadcrumbs and fried it up. I served it with some buttery crushed new potatoes and a chunky roasted tomato, garlic and basil sauce.
What can I tell you? It was glorious! The veal was so tender that it cut like butter. The oozy soft melted brie inside worked so well with the chunky tomato sauce and the salty ham whilst being mild enough so as not to over power the incredible meat.
I declare myself a lover of veal. I may not have known it until now, but now that I do know it, I intend to embrace it…as regularly as I can!
Veal Escalopes Stuffed with Brie & Bayonne Ham Served with Roasted Tomato, Garlic & Basil Sauce
(Serves 2)
800g tomatoes, chopped up
2 fat garlic cloves, chopped
a good drizzle of olive oil
250g escalope of veal, cut in half for 2 portions
2 generous slices of brie
2 slices of Bayonne ham
2 tbsp plain flour
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp Panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
Handful of chopped basil
Heat your oven to 175 Fan/ 200 C. Place your chopped tomatoes in a tray, sprinkle over the chopped garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Season generously and give the lot a mix and cook in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes until the tomatoes have collapsed completely. Stir occasionally during the cooking time.
Cut each slice of brie in half and place in the center of a slice of Bayonne ham and fold up to create a parcel. Try to keep the cheese enclosed in the ham which will help contain it during cooking.
Very carefully cut along one side of a veal escalope to make a pocket. This is a delicate operation so go slow and try not to break the meat at the top or bottom. Slide a pocket of cheese and ham into the little cavity and then use a toothpick to close it up snuggly.
Then place the flour on one plate, the egg in a small bowl and the breadcrumbs on another plate. Dust each escalope in flour, then drench in egg and finally coat in breadcrumbs. Repeat with the other escalope. Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the veal until golden and crispy on each side. (Roughly 5 minutes each side)
Once cooked, remove the toothpicks before serving! Add the chopped basil to your tomato sauce and adjust the seasoning. You could add a little sugar if you think it’s too sharp at this stage.
Serve the veal sitting alongside buttered crushed new potatoes, some green beans and a good couple of spoonfuls of tomato sauce.
And a little photo of the dish half way through eating just to demonstrate how deliciously moist, oozy and wicked this was to eat!
I am entering this recipe into a few blogging challenges. First of all, into Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w/Luv Made With Love Mondays as it was entirely made from scratch.
And, I can enter this into Elizabeth’s #ShopLocal Blogging Challenge as I used veal I got from my friends at Grasspunk…producers of 100% grass fed beef and veal. It really is amazing meat.
And finally, into #RecipeoftheWeek hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too.
Gorgeous! I’ll have to try this one!
Excellent! It was Deeeee-licious 🙂 Let me know if you make it and what you think xx
I love the combination of ingredients here. Popping over from Recipe of the week
Hi – thanks for stopping by! Glad you like the recipe. Just popped over to your site and love your pork and apple stew. Very nice to ‘meet’ you 🙂
The color of the veal is amazing, Anneli, and I love the combination of flavors for the stuffing. It’s been a long time since I’ve had veal and I’m certainly not opposed to it. Although I’d feel much more comfortable knowing how the calves are raised which can be tough to ascertain sometimes…
Hi Mark, I have been really impressed with how tender and lean veal is. It is also quite robust in my opinion and works well with so many varied flavours. I am looking forward to experimenting more with it now that I have sourced it locally and ethically. xx
That veal looks so delicate and fresh. What a wonderfully imaginative and mouthwatering combination!
It is a delicate meat but it marries well with so many flavours. Thank you very much for your compliment…it really was mouthwateringly soft and delicious 🙂
It’s funny how veal is still very much frowned upon in the UK, despite numerous documentaries and various TV chefs attempting to demonstrate how humane their farming is now. People just cannot get over the veal crate stories. But in France it’s just a normal meat, even served to school kids on a regular basis. And delicious too. Your recipe looks no less than fabulous, with your normal inventive twist!
It’s a shame really especially as British rose veal is such a great product. I wish people would open their minds to it more…they don’t know what they are missing! Thanks for thinking me inventive…thats really nice to hear! Hugs to you xx
It’s crazy to make a fuss about just veal when almost all factory famed animals are distressed. As long as you source from reputable farms and responsibly farmed, we can enjoy meat. It’s unfortunate that’ we have to worry about such things. In the US, the factory farmed situation is quite bad.
Anyway, your veal looks soooo good. Just excellent.
Nazneen
You are so right of course! I really feel so happy to be able to be so sure of the provenance of this meat. So glad you like the look of it, thanks for stopping by! Just popping over to check out your site now 🙂
We love veal – I prefer it to the beef here. When we lived in Andorra we had A.O.C. ‘country’ veal, which was grazed in the mountain pastures until it was a year old. Wonderful.
I haven’t seen ‘milk-fed’ veal in ages – don’t know if they still have it in the U.S. Love your birds!
I think I am reaching the same conclusion as you Kate that veal is better than the beef here. It’s just so tender when so many of the cuts of beef here can be tough. Mountain grazed veal sounds wonderful, lucky you 🙂 xx
I dont understand the British hang up over veal but I know that no-one i know buys it. I love it and always have done. This dish reminds me how much i am looking forward to eating good French food again over the Xmas holidays, can’t wait!
Absolutely Laura! It is hard to change people minds when they are made up though. Are you in France for Christmas this year then? If so, enjoy xx
Very attractive end result and the thought of that melted brie is making my mouth water. Thanks for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. I’ve pinned this post and there’s a fresh linky live now – would be great to see you join in again x
Melted brie has a knack of making my mouth water also! Who can resist! I really enjoy #recipeoftheweek and have linked up again already x
Veal is something I’ve never been tempted to try, a direct result of the stigma associate with it from so long ago. That and I’ve never seen it available to buy anywhere in Shetland! I’ll have to keep an eye out. Your recipe sounds gorgeous! Thank you for sharing with #ShopLocal 🙂
You should seek it out…it really should be allowed to break free of it’s past bad press. Veal is delicious and tender, I don’t doubt you would love it. I hope it finds it’s way to Shetland soon! xx
Your entire meal sounds wonderful and looks delicious.
Thanks Karen! So pleased you like the sound of it. It was delicious indeed. Hope you are well xx
I remember making veal paupiettes while living in Paris. Unfortunately, veal in Australia and the US doesn’t seem to have the same quality as in France. Your dish looks great – I’ll have some now!
You are welcome to come over for some veal anytime you can Fran 🙂 I am very lucky with the quality of the meat I get here. It makes such a big difference to have wonderful food provenance and quality. x