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Martin's Specialty
1/2 tablespoon onion (finely chopped) 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup chopped cooked chicken or veal 1 cup soft bread crumbs Stock 1 egg yolk Salt and pepper Lettuce Cook onion in butter three minutes. Add meat and bread crumbs, moisten with stock, and add egg yolk and seasonings. Wrap in lettuce leaves, allowing two tablespoons mixture to each portion. Tie in cheese-cloth and steam. Remove to serving dish and pour around Tomato Sauce.
A frugal entrée built on leftover roast chicken or veal, bound with crumbs and yolk and steamed in lettuce. The original gives no steaming time and no yield, so both need filling in.
- Moisten, do not slackenThe stock is there only to bring the meat and crumbs together into a paste that holds its shape on a spoon. Two to three tablespoons is usually enough for this quantity; a wet filling will leak through the leaf as it steams.
- Steaming timeThe recipe omits it. Small parcels of already-cooked meat need only long enough for the yolk to set and the centre to come up hot -- roughly 12 to 15 minutes over simmering water in a covered steamer.
- Prepare the leavesDip whole outer leaves in boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds and spread them on a towel. Raw leaves crack at the rib and unwrap in the steamer. Butterhead or romaine outer leaves wrap far better than iceberg.
- Cheese-clothWrap each roll individually, twist the ends, and tie loosely so the parcel is held rather than squeezed. A square of parchment tied the same way works, as does a small ramekin lined with the leaf and covered.
- Soft bread crumbsThis means fresh crumbs torn or grated from a day-old loaf, not the dry sandy crumbs sold in canisters. Dry crumbs absorb far more liquid and will make the filling pasty.
- YieldOne cup of meat with one cup of crumbs makes roughly two cups of mixture; at two tablespoons a portion, that is about sixteen rolls -- enough for six to eight as an entree with the tomato sauce, more as a first course.
- Tomato saucePoured around, not over, so the parcels stay distinct. A plain cooked tomato sauce thinned with a little of the same stock suits it; the filling is mild and salted lightly, so season the sauce to carry the dish.