This year, for the first time, I noticed vendors at the local farmers market selling garlic scapes. Garlic scapes are the greens that shoot off the top of a variety of garlic.  They have a milder, garlicky flavor.  They are long, green, and have a bulbous head at the top.  I had heard of scapes, but never used them and as I am intrigued by anything garlic related, I bought a bunch.  With my first purchase, I made a pesto – just puréed scapes with olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan cheese (I just Googled a recipe).  I used it on pasta, on a pizza and on some toasted bread with a fried egg on top and it was delicious.  I picked up the next round intending to do the same thing, put holding those scapes, feeling the woody ends and craving Asian food, I figured maybe I could whip up something special and unique.  And I must say I was inordinately pleased with myself.

Garlic Scape Beef Satay Skewers

You could easily use chicken with these skewers, but the cooking time will obviously be shorter.

1 bunch garlic scapes (about 6 scapes)

½ inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled

Juice of one lime

Handful of cilantro leaves

About 10 mint leaves

A few Thai basil leaves (optional)

¼ cup soy sauce

3 Tablespoons sesame oil

1 pound beef round, cut into equal-sized chunks

Make scape skewers by cutting the woody ends off of six scapes.  Cut the ends into sharp points. Set aside.

Cut three of the scape top pieces (about 8 inches) and the ginger into small pieces and drop in a blender. Add the lime juice, cilantro, mint and basil leaves and the soy sauce.  Blend until a paste forms – the scapes are woody, so this takes a little work and scraping down of the sides of the blender.  With the blender running, drizzle in the sesame oil and blend until smooth.  Pour the marinade into a ziptop bag and add the beef cubes.  Seal the bag and shake everything around to coat the beef.  Refrigerate for several hours, turning once or twice.

When ready to cook, heat the grill or a grill pan to high heat.  Thread the beef onto the scape skewers.  If needed, you can cut a small slit in each beef chunk to slide the skewer through.  Grill the skewers until the beef is cooked through, about 10 minutes

Garlic Scape Satay Sauce

3  (8-inch pieces) of garlic scape

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup coconut milk

3 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon hot sauce

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Cut the scapes into small pieces and add to the blender with all the ingredients.  Blend until smooth.  Serve with Garlic Scape Beef Satay Skewers.

 Makes 6 skewers

Most of my time is spent thinking about food.  Or eating it.  Or cooking it.  And since I have been blogging about food, I follow a lot of other food lovers. On Facebook and Twitter and other sites.  I learn all about food trends and food foibles.  And right now, bacon is hot.  In my opinion, bacon has always been hot – but it keeps showing up on all sorts of in-the-know food sites.  In cupcakes, in chocolate, in ice cream.  Everywhere.  And I am a believer that there is no such thing as too much bacon.  So I thought I would pull out and oldie but a goodie and add my voice to the bacon gospels currently being preached.

This is really more of a guide than a recipe – I worked out some measurements, but I think we all know you want more than a dozen pieces of bacon. Certainly great for breakfast, but this sweet, tangy bacon also takes a BLT to a new level.  Or go with my favorite way to serve – broken into pieces and served with cocktails.

Mustard and Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon

12 slices thick cut bacon

¼ cup Dijon mustard

½ cup light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with several layers of foil for easy clean-up.  Place a wire rack on the sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray.

Separate the bacon slices and pat them dry with a paper towel.  Sprinkle the brown sugar onto a wide, flat plate or dish. Using a palate knife, spread a thin layer of mustard on one side of each bacon strip. Press the mustard covered side into the brown sugar.  Shake off any excess, or sweep it off with your fingers.  You want a nice coating of sugar, but no big clumps.  Lay each strip on the wire rack.  Close together is fine, but not overlapping.  You can sprinkle a little extra sugar on any bald spots.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook for 20 – 30 minutes until the bacon is crispy and shiny and glazed.  A quick word of warning: some of the sugary glaze will melt off onto the baking sheet and burn, so don’t be worried if you smell burning.  Also, that burned glaze will smoke, so turn on the extractor fan and/or open a door or window when you open the oven to check on the bacon. This is all just part of the very worthwhile process.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 slices of bacon

Ready to go in the oven

It’s easy to forget the pleasures of something as simple as a good quiche.  Just a basic pie, full of goodness, and easy to prepare, but delicious and decadent all the same.  Cary Grant as John Robie in To Catch a Thief serves it at his French villa, perhaps thoroughly proving that real men do eat quiche.  Hey, if it’s good enough for Cary Grant, it’s good enough for me.  I recently put this classic back into rotation, after my niece and I made quiche in preparation for the family trip to France, as part of our “traditional French dinner” which also included vichysoisse and salad with vinaigrette.  We told my younger nephew that it was cheese pie and he ate it up, getting very excited when he discovered there was bacon in it.

Obviously, you can very your fillings to taste.  Blue cheese and bacon, roasted vegetables, mushrooms and herbs – get creative!

Quiche Lorraine

I use a purchase rolled pastry crust for this, but feel free to make your own.

1 (9-inch) pasrty crust

9 strips of center cut bacon

4 green onions (scallions)

6 eggs

1 cup of heavy cream

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 ¾ cups grated Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Fit the pastry crust into a 9 – inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.  Dock the crust with the tines of a fork, line it with parchment paper, fill it with beans or baking weights and blind bake for 12 minutes, until beginning to brown.  Remove from the oven and discard the paper and weights.  Set the crust aside.

Meanwhile, cut the bacon strips into small pieces and cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until crispy.  Stir the bacon pieces during cooking to make sure they are separated and cook evenly.  Remove the bacon to paper towels to drain cool a little.  While the bacon is cooking, finely chop the white and some of the light green parts of the green onions.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and the cream until thoroughly blended.  Whisk in the nutmeg and the salt, then stir in the bacon, green onions, and 1 ½ cups grated cheese.  Pour this filling into the prepared crust, spreading out the ingredients so they are evenly distributed.  Sprinkle over the remaining ¼ cup cheese and carefully transfer the quiche to the oven and bake until golden brown and puffed in the center, about 25 – 30 minutes.  The quiche should not jiggle in center.

The quiche is best eaten slightly warm, not just hot out of the oven, but can also be eaten at room temperature or even cold.

Serves 8

Soup seems to be a universal comfort food. The French have their onion soup, the Italians minestrone, and Moroccans love harira.  For me, to be honest, tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich are the most comforting combination on earth. And Vietnamese pho is certainly part of this long list.

My parents are big fans of a Vietnamese restaurant near the neighborhood, but I never ventured much onto the unfamiliar side of the menu.  On my first visit, I ordered some cashew chicken bowl, and then came out my parents’ pho.  Big, steaming bowls of noodles and meat in a steaming, aromatic broth, delivered with a big side plate of fresh, green herbs. I was not willing to admit that I had ordered poorly, so I stuck up my nose at the pho.

Not long after that, I had one of the best bowls of soup I have ever experienced.  At a market in Cambodia, I marveled at a bowl of beef noodle soup that smelled so fantastically delicious, it absolutely enveloped me, even overpowering the smells of the market around me. The broth was so fragrant with chunks of beef and a nice slick of grease on the top that coated the noodles as I plucked them out.  I have never forgotten that soup, and know I will never truly recreate that moment.

So now when I go to the Vietnamese place, I order pho.  Different types, depending on my mood.  I don’t know what the Cambodian equivalent of pho is, but I have attempted to create my own equivalent.  I know it’s a simple version.  I don’t simmer bones to make my own stock or use any overly exotic ingredients – I’ll leave that to the restaurant chefs.  But this is warming, comforting and kind in its own way. This soup is easy to make, but impressive to serve.

Simple Beef Pho

The plate of fresh herbs presented along with the steaming soup make this a real treat.

4 cups low sodium beef broth

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves garlic

1 shallot, peeled and cut into chunks

1 Tablespoon sugar

3 Tablespoons fish sauce

8 ounces rice stick noodles

6 ounces top sirloin steak

To serve:

Cilantro

Mint

Basil

Pour the broth into a large saucepan and add the spices, shallot, garlic, sugar and fish sauce.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes.

While the broth is infusing, soak the rice noodles according to the package instructions.  Drain and rinse with cold water.

Slice the beef as thinly as possible.  It is easiest to do this with cold beef and a very sharp knife.  Putting the beef in the freezer for 15 minutes before slicing will also help.

When the broth has infused, drain through a sieve, discarding the solids.  Wipe out the saucepan and return the broth to it.  Place the noodles in a large serving bowl or in individual bowls. Bring the broth to a boil and drop in the beef slices.  Cook for just a minute, maybe two, until the beef is just warmed through.  Immediately transfer the beef slices to the noodle bowl, then ladle the broth over.

Serve the pho with leaves of cilantro, mint and basil to be sprinkled on top.

Serves 2

So, now you have, I am sure, studied the primer for making good Buttermilk Biscuits.  And you’d like to know all the many ways you can serve your beautiful creations. Here are two of my favorites.  I once had some friends by for a biscuit bar, serving baskets full of homemade biscuits, homemade preserves, tomato gravy, sausage gravy and lots of good butter.  I even made chocolate gravy, but I am saving that for another time.

Tomato Gravy for Biscuits

½ pound bacon

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 (14 ½ ounce) can finely diced tomatoes

3 cups tomato juice

Ground black pepper

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry in a large skillet until crispy.  Remove the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate, then drain off all put 2 Tablespoons of bacon grease.  Fry the onion in the drippings until soft, then add the canned tomatoes and the tomato juice, scraping up any browned bacon bits from the bottom of the pan.   Season with some good grinds of black pepper.

Bring the gravy to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer until the gravy thickens and reduces, about 15 – 20 minutes.  Stir in the reserved bacon. You can save some of the bacon pieces to sprinkle over the gravy if you like.  Spoon over hot, split biscuits.

Sausage Gravy for Biscuits

I like my gravy really peppery, so I go to town with the grinder.  Depending on the sausage, you may need very little or no salt.

½ pound breakfast sausage

¼ cup flour

2 ½ cups milk

Salt and ground black pepper

Crumble the sausage into a large skillet and cook until no longer pink in the middle and nice and browned.  Break the sausage into small chunks as you cook it.  Remove the sausage to a paper towel lined plate with a slotted spoon, leaving the dripping behind.  There should be about 2 Tablespoons of dripping left in the pan.  If not, add a little oil to make that amount and heat up. Sprinkle over the flour and cook, stirring and scraping, for about 2 minutes until the flour is lightly browned.  Slowly whisk in the milk, continuing to scrape the bottom of the pan.  Cook, whisking frequently, until the gravy is thick.  Stir the sausage back in and heat through, seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve over hot, split biscuits.

When I was growing up in Memphis, there were really only two fancy, sit-down, white tablecloth, special occasion restaurants.  An old-school, white-jacketed waiter, New Orleans-style place and an elegant Chinese restaurant.  My Dad is a big fan of Chinese food, so it was his choice for special meals.  My brother and I loved the egg drop soup, which had tiny little carrots floating in it cut in the shapes of ducks and bunnies.  The owner told my mom that the chef carved the whole carrot into the shape and thinly sliced the whole into paper-thin floaters.  To this day, as my kitchen obsession grows, my mother frequently asks when I plan to learn to properly carve carrot bunnies.

I was probably twelve or thirteen before any other Chinese restaurant opened, and we ate there a lot.  Sesame Chicken, Egg Drop Soup, Fried Wontons, Lemon Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Mu Shu Pork.  The standard fare in this area, on the menus of the many subsequent Chinese restaurants to open.  When I went off to college in Connecticut, my friends and I ordered Chinese food from the local, college-friendly delivery joint.  This group of folks were all from the New England and they took over the ordering, choosing their standard choice of dishes.  When we laid it all out on the floor of the dorm room, I was flummoxed.  Everyone was digging in heartily and I didn’t recognize some of the dishes.  Sure beef and broccoli was there, but I’d never seen cold sesame noodles (now one of my favorites) or dumplings before.  It had never occurred to me that ethnic food could be regional not just in its country of origin but in its transplanted incarnation as well. 

Dumplings have made their way onto Chinese menus in Memphis as totally standard fare now.  My nieces are big fans.  It never crossed my mind that dumplings were something you might make at home until I stumbled across a magazine article about the process.  I didn’t save the article, but it stuck with me for weeks until I just had to try it for myself.  I use packaged dumpling wrappers and make a flavorful filling.  I like to make a big batch and freeze them to pull out and cook when I’m in the mood.  I have to say, I am rather impressed with myself for this accomplishment.

Chinese Dumplings

1 pound ground pork

1 medium carrot finely grated

4 green onions, finely chopped

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon Chinese five spice

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon ground Szechuan peppercorns (optional)

1 package wonton or dumpling wrappers

Place all the filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Your clean hands are the best tool for this.

I find it easiest here to set up a little assembly line. Place a small bowl of water in easy reach. Lay some of the wonton wrappers out on the counter, and place about a teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper.  Wet your finger with water and run it around the edge of the wrapper.  Fold the wrapper over the filling and press the edges together, pressing any air bubbles out and sealing completely.  Keep going until you have used up all the filling. You should end up with 35 – 40 dumplings.

Place the folded dumplings on a baking sheet or plates lined with waxed paper.  Place the dumplings in the freezer until solid, at least an hour, then transfer to a plastic freezer bag or container.  I like to divide into portions of six or seven dumplings in individual bags.

There are several ways to prepare these dumplings: 

For fried dumplings: Thaw the dumplings in the fridge. Heat about 1 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet and fry the dumplings until crispy and golden. Remove the dumplings to a paper towel lined plate to drain and serve with soy or ponzu sauce to dip.

For pan-fried dumplings:  Thaw the dumplings or cook from frozen.  For each 6 – 7 dumplings, bring 1 ½ cups of chicken broth and one tablespoon of oil to a boil.  Add the dumplings and continue to cook until the broth has evaporated.  The dumplings will cook and brown on the bottom in the residual oil.

Makes 35- 40 dumplings

Familiar is good.  A good, juicy burger with melty cheese on a soft bun.  Maybe some fries on the side.  But different is good too.  And this pork, sage and apple burger fits that bill perfectly.  Juicy pork kept moist with tart green apples and tangy onions – a brilliant combination that will make a difference in a weeknight meal, or impress your friends with an exciting burger twist. And kids will love these too.  A side of sweet potato fries are a good match.

Pork, Sage and Apple Burgers

I love these served on an onion roll with caramelized onions, and maybe some melted fontina cheese.  This recipe makes 8 burgers, but they freeze beautifully if that’s more than you need.

2 pounds lean ground pork

1 medium Granny Smith apple

1 medium red onion

6 Tablespoons plain bread crumbs

1 large bunch fresh sage

salt and pepper

Put the pork into a large bowl – it is easier to work with if it is not too cold from the fridge.  Grate the apple and the onion together (this can be done in the food processor).  Add to the pork in the bowl.  Add the bread crumbs to the mixture and work together with clean hands until everything is well blended. 

Finely chop the sage and add to the mixture with a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper, and continue working until completely mixed. 

Divide the mixture into eight equal portions and form into patties.  Refrigerate until ready to use, or wrap each tightly and freeze for up to 3 months.

To cook, brown on both sides in a skillet.  Transfer to a 375 degree oven and cook until done through, about 20 minutes.

Makes 8 burgers

This is an extra post this week, because to be honest, I am quite pleased with myself.  My recipe for Pastitsio is a finalist in the wonderful website Food52 contest for Best Baked Pasta dish.  When I saw the contest theme, I immediately remembered how much I enjoy this dish.  This Greek lamb casserole is as comforting and homey as any cheesy, meaty baked pasta, but with a unique twist of lamb, red wine, herbs and salty feta.  Served with a Greek salad and some crusty bread, this is a meal out of the ordinary with a familiar feel. 

Food52 is an amazing site to read and search for recipes.  They are holding weekly recipe contests with different themes and will publish a cookbook at the end of the project.  I know you’ll enjoy the site, maybe you’ll submit your own recipe.  And while your there, consider voting for The Runaway Spoon’s Pastitsio.

Pastitsio

Greek-Style Lamb Casserole

This can be made in one big family style casserole, or two smaller sizes.  Take one to a friend and have one for dinner.

1 pound dried penne or ziti pasta

1 Tablespoon butter

2 pounds ground lamb

2 medium onions, diced

1/2 cup red wine

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon sumac (optional)

1 teaspoon dried mint (optional)

2 cups water

6 ounces crumbled feta

For the cheese sauce:

6 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 cups milk

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and reserve.  Stir in the butter to prevent sticking.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the lamb until no longer pink, breaking it into pieces, about 8 minutes.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Transfer to a colander and shake well to drain the fat.  Return the lamb to the pan, add the wine and cook over medium heat until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Stir in the tomato paste, cinnamon, oregano, (sumac and mint if using) and 2 cups of water.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set aside to cool.

For the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour until incorporated, about 30 seconds.  In a slow steady stream, whisk in the milk until there are no lumps.  Cook, whisking often, until the mixture is thick and bubbly and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 – 7 minutes.  Stir in the cayenne and the Parmesan.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Add the pasta to the lamb mixture and stir to combine.  Toss in the feta and combine. Spoon the mixture into a greased 9  x13 inch baking dish, or two 8 by 8 inch pans.   Spread the cheese sauce over the pasta mixture, smoothing the top with a spoon. Bake until browned in spots, 35 to 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven then allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

This will keep assembled up to one day in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap. To freeze, cool completely and wrap tightly in foil.  Thaw completely and reheat.

The Italian Grandmother in My Head

I do not have a particularly ethnic background.  Basic Anglo-Scots stock.  Okay, a WASP.  I cherish my Southern heritage and all the great culinary traditions I have enjoyed, inherited, and try to preserve.  But I’ve never had a Bubbe teach me to make latkes or an Abuela to show me how to roll tamales.  No Greek uncle schooling me on spit-roasted lamb or Czech relative mastering the technique for kolaches.  But I have often wished that I could pick up some of those traditions – draft on the experience of my more diverse friends.  I developed this deep desire to make Italian gravy – real meat sauce, what I would call Bolognese.  The kind that someone’s Nonna used to make.  So I asked a friend from a large, widespread Italian- American family if she could show me how to make a good sauce. Alas, her family lived next door to the city’s great Italian restaurant family, so they just bought theirs from the neighbors.  Another friend of Italian heritage held more promise.  She assured me her grandmother made fantastic sauce – really easy, but authentic and she sent me the recipe.  It wasn’t what I had expected.  Cheap, fatty beef, canned tomato sauce, canned tomato paste, dried Italian seasoning, powdered garlic and onions.  Now, it was a good sauce, but not really what I had in mind.  I could imagine her grandmother explaining the recipe.  What a joy it had been to create a sauce that didn’t require hours of chopping and mincing and peeling.  But my desire was really for something a little more traditional – or at least how I envisioned traditional.

So I went to work, researching and testing, tasting and starting over.  I read old Italian cookbooks and new Italian cookbooks.  I flipped through community cookbooks looking for any remotely Italian names as contributors.  I tried many, and failed often.  So I just sat back and thought about all I’d read, all I’d tried and what I imagined the finished product would taste like.  Then I got to chopping.  First off, I do use quality canned tomatoes, because they are packed at peak freshness and do cut down on the amount of work.  Other than that it’s all me. 

Having a good meat sauce recipe up your sleeve is a real blessing.  Make a huge batch, it will keep in the fridge for several days and can be frozen in whatever quantity you are likely to use (one family-sized bag and several single-serves maybe).  Use straight over noodles, as a layer in lasagna, stuffed into manicotti, or any way you can imagine.  The best thing about making your own meat sauce is that you know exactly what’s in it – no preservatives, unnecessary chemicals, you can limit the salt and fat amounts.                

Bolognese Sauce

Italian Meat Sauce

This recipe makes a huge batch, which is fabulous because it freezes beautifully and has a wealth of uses.  By all means half the recipe, but I can’t imagine why you would!

1 large yellow onion

2 celery ribs

2 carrots

3 Tablespoons olive oil

5 cloves garlic

1 pound ground chuck

1 pound mild Italian sausage, bulk or casings removed

2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

1 cup red wine

1 cup beef broth

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup chopped fresh oregano

½ cup chopped fresh basil

Finely chop the onion, celery and carrot – you really want small pieces here and you can use the food processor in a few pulses if you’d like. Finely mince the garlic seperately. Pour the oil into a large Dutch oven. Add the onion and sauté until soft.  Add the celery and the carrots and continue to sauté until soft and slightly browned, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook a further minute.  Add the beef and sausage, breaking the meat up with a spoon.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is no longer pink and beginning to brown.  Make sure all the meat is nicely crumbled.  Drain off any accumulated fat.

Add the tomatoes, wine, broth, sugar and nutmeg.  Stir to blend then bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low, add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in the chopped oregano and basil.  Cover the pot and simmer over low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking on the bottom of the pan.  Remove from the heat to cool if not serving immediately

Scoop the cooled sauce into freezer bags or rigid freezer containers.  Refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.  When ready to use, thaw overnight in the fridge or for and hour submerged in a bowl of cold water.  Pour into a saucepan and reheat over medium until bubbling and heated through.  Serve over noodles.

It may be politically incorrect, but I love veal.  It is my favorite meat.  If there is a veal dish on the menu (apart from sweetbreads), I will order it.  I have eaten a great veal swath across the globe. On a family vacation in Eastern Europe, I ate wiener schnitzel in Vienna every day, then moved on to veal paprikas at Gundel in Budapest.  I ate saltimbocca in Italy meal after meal, at a courtyard trattoria in Rome, at the restaurant at the Hasler Hotel overlooking the Spanish Steps, gazing out over the ocean at Le Sireneuse in Positano.  I ordered osso bucco in the fine European restaurant at the Taj Hotel in Bombay, scooping out the marrow with a tiny silver spoon.  I thank my brother for attending Tulane so I could relish grillades and grits at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. In Boston, I fondly remember braised veal cheeks at Chez Henri.  My first vitello tonnato was served at Lupo in Cape Town. A there is a restaurant here in Memphis serves some veal selections, but I will always remember (and apparently I am the only one who does) a special of veal in a brie and calvados sauce.  I ordered veal bitterballen from room service in Amsterdam, then again at Schipol airport. I buy beautiful rosé veal escalopes in London at Borough Market to sauté in the tiny, ill-equipped kitchen of the rented flat.

Veal in Memphis is not always easy to track down, particularly anything beyond veal scallopine, as the thin slices are labeled.  Generally, I take a few of these home, lightly dust them with flour and quickly sauté them in butter with lemons, capers and some chopped herbs and eat them – all by myself – maybe with a little garlic fettuccine on the side. 

But once, I truly had a late night, awake in bed epiphany about how to combine veal and chestnuts, a favorite combination.  I grabbed a pen and paper and jotted down my ideas and the next day, it still made sense, and a very good meal.  See, I even dream in veal…

Crispy Chestnut Veal with Chestnut Wine Sauce

1 (7.4 – ounce) jar whole peeled chestnuts

1 cup flour

4 sprigs thyme

3 sprigs marjoram

salt

pepper

3/4 cup panko bread crumbs (or very coarse breadcrumbs)

6 veal scallops

1 egg

4 Tablespoons butter

1/4 cup olive oil

Place 1/4 cup of the flour in a zip top bag.  Put half of the jar of chestnuts in the bag and shake to coat (use the remaining chestnuts for the sauce, below).  Drop the coated chestnuts into the bowl of a food processor (I like the mini-sized here). Add the thyme leaves stripped from the stalk, the marjoram leaves, salt and pepper and the bread crumbs.  Pulse several times in quick bursts just until you have a coarse crumb mixture.  Don’t over mix or it will get pasty.   Turn the crumbs out onto a flat dish.

In another flat dish, beat the egg.  Add the rest of the flour to the zip top bag, drop in the veal and shake well to coat.  Remove the veal one piece at a time, making sure the whole scallop is coated, but shaking off excess.  Dip each piece in the egg, coating well but sweeping any thick parts off with your fingers.  Dip the veal in the breadcrumb mixture and press into both sides, coating well.  Place coated piece on a plate and continue with the remaining veal.  Place the veal in the fridge for at least half an hour, but you can leave for several hours.

Line a baking sheet with foil, then with a few layers of paper towel and set aside. When ready to cook the veal, heat 4 Tablespoons butter and 1/4 olive oil in a large skillet and heat over medium until hot but not smoking.  Sauté the veal a few pieces at a time, being sure not to overcrowd the pan.  Turn each piece at least once until brown and crispy on both sides.  Remove the prepared baking sheet.  When all the veal is cooked, place the pan in a 200 degree oven to keep warm for up to 20 minutes.

Serve with chestnut – wine sauce and sprinkled with chopped chestnuts

Chestnut-Wine Sauce

1 half of a (7.4 – ounce) jar of chestnuts

1 shallot

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon butter

3-4 sprigs thyme

3 sprigs marjoram

2 Tablespoons Madeira wine or white vermouth

1/2 cup white wine

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Reserve 4 -5 chestnuts to chop and sprinkle over the cooked veal.  Place the rest in the food processor and puree, dribbling in a little water, until you have a smooth paste – sort of like baby food.  Set aside. 

Chop the shallot and add to butter and oil in a saucepan.  Sauté over medium heat until soft and translucent, but not browning.  Remove from the heat and add the Madeira, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Return to the heat and cook until reduced and almost evaporated, making the shallots glazed and syrupy.  Add the wine, thyme and marjoram and reduce until just a few Tablespoons are left, stirring frequently.  Whisk in the cream and the chestnut puree.  Simmer until the mixture is reduced by one-third.  Strain the sauce into a dish, then wipe out the pan with a wad of paper towels to remove any solids. Pour the strained sauce back into the pan and whisk in the butter, a Tablespoon at a time, making sure each bit is thoroughly melted before adding another.

The sauce can be made up to an hour ahead and gently reheated over low, whisking to incorporate.

Serves 4- 6, depending on the size of the veal

Crispy Chestnut Veal is delicious served with Champagne Risotto