Home › The World's Kitchen › Veal Cutlets, Oswald
Veal Cutlets, Oswald
Finely chop up one and a half pounds raw lean veal with four ounces fresh beef marrow, place in a mortar, add one finely chopped bean garlic, a half teaspoon finely chopped parsley, one teaspoon curry powder, half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons cayenne pepper, a saltspoon grated nutmeg, a half gill cream and two egg yolks; pound all well together for five minutes. Remove from the mortar, divide the preparation into six even parts, roll them out on a lightly floured table to cutlet forms, then dip them in beaten egg and roll in finely shredded cocoanut.
Heat two tablespoons melted butter in a frying pan, place the cutlets one beside another and gently cook for eight minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a dish and keep hot. Plunge two green peppers into boiling water for three minutes, remove and peel, cut in halves, remove the seeds, then fry them in a tablespoon melted butter for two minutes on each side. Lift them up with a fork and arrange over the veal cutlets. Cut three slices of peeled eggplant in quarter-inch-square pieces and add them to the pan in which the peppers were cooked; brown them for six minutes, add two tablespoons sherry, one gill demi-glace, two saltspoons salt and one saltspoon cayenne pepper; mix well, boil for five minutes, pour the sauce over the cutlets, sprinkle a little chopped parsley over and serve.
A shaped veal forcemeat masquerading as cutlets, curry-scented and coated in coconut. The measurements are Escoffier-era professional shorthand; the technique is straightforward once the units are decoded.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so a half gill of cream is 4 tablespoons and the gill of demi-glace is 1/2 cup. A saltspoon is a scant 1/4 teaspoon, meaning the two saltspoons of cayenne in the forcemeat is roughly 1/2 teaspoon — assertively hot but not implausible for a curried preparation. Scale it down if that reads too aggressive.
- Beef marrowFour ounces of fresh marrow is what keeps this mixture succulent; it melts at a lower temperature than suet and gives the smooth texture the pounding is meant to develop. Ask a butcher for marrow bones and scoop the centres, or substitute an equal weight of very cold beef fat or unsalted butter, accepting a slightly firmer result.
- Mortar versus food processorFive minutes of pounding is emulsifying the meat, marrow, cream and yolks into a paste that will hold a shape. A food processor does it in 30 to 45 seconds; keep everything cold and stop as soon as it comes together, or the fat breaks and the cutlets weep in the pan.
- The hinge: cook them throughThis is raw ground veal bound with egg yolk, not a whole cutlet, so the eight minutes a side matters. Keep the heat moderate so the coconut coating browns rather than scorches, and check that the centre reaches 160F before serving.