Veal with Crab & Profiteroles

Main: Veal with Crab
Women’s Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook Pg. 88

Dessert: Profiteroles with chocolate sauce
My own adaptation

Hi there everyone!

So, this is again from the original Dinner Party Cookbook, so very, very old.

The first thing I must say is that the success of this dish comes down to the quality of your veal. It must be the real deal and if cooked quickly it will remain tender.

It is a delicious and attractive dish. So much can be done ahead as well making it fantastic when having people around. Crumb the veal, make the sauce and have the crab at the ready (I just use canned crab). I have cooked it many times over the years and it is a never fail to impress. However, where the surprise for me came was that I decided to keep strictly to their suggestions with the potato and the salad. I usually try to get all fancy with potato casseroles by adding leek and basil, blah, blah, but this is simply sliced potato, sliced onions, salt, pepper and cream all layered and cooked little over an hour (how simple is that!). Now, the salad they suggest – wow! Wait for it! They suggest a plain old lettuce. Not, fried kale with wilted spinach leaves and pomegranate sprigs!!! Simply lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, cooked and crumbled bacon, parsley and wait for it, bottled french dressing. Sometimes I just want to hug someone at Women’s Weekly for their simplicity. As I have said before, this blog is about getting back to basics. The combination worked beautifully. The only thing I did differently was that I added more mushrooms to the sauce because I felt it looked a bit pale. Everyone loved it and gave the meal an average of 9/10.

Dessert was a different story. I had to do the choux pastry twice. My first attempt ended up with pimples.

I have done choux before but this time I went against what I had done in the past and used the electric mixer instead of sticking to the wooden spoon and beating by hand. My second attempt was a huge improvement. These can be done the day before and kept in an airtight container. I am not fond of the profiteroles that are filled with cream – I like the custard filled ones. So, I made custard from scratch and piped it into the little rolls when they were cool. The chocolate sauce is a Womens Weekly recipe from the original DPCB on page 108. They looked fantastic but guess what?

I was told that they were rather “bland”. So what could I have done to liven them up? Probably a little more sugar in the custard and more alcohol in the sauce but at the end of the day the pastry itself is bland. I think in fact it is suppose to be a more subtle flavour. Well, that’s what I am telling myself anyway. I will make them again but not for this spoilt lot who only gave them 7/10.

Until next week.

From my table to yours with love.

Veal with Crab

Impressive but easy Veal topped with crab and a mushroom sauce

Veal

6 Veal steaks
flour
salt & pepper
3 eggs
packaged bread crumbs (Panko recommended)
90 g butter
155 g can of crab
3 shallots

Sauce

60 g butter
3 shallots
60 g mushrooms
2 tsps cornflour
3/4 cup water
1 chicken stock cube
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup cream
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsps french mustard
salt & pepper

Veal

Pound out veal steaks thinly. Coat veal in flour seasoned with s & p. Dip into beaten eggs, then coat veal in dry breadcrumbs. Heat butter in pan, add veal, cook on both sides until golden brown and cooked through, approx 8 minutes total. Remove from pan, keep warm while making sauce. To serve, put veal on serving plate, spoon sauce over, top with drained, lightly-flaked crab and chopped shallots.

Sauce

Heat butter in pan, then add chopped shallots and sliced mushrooms, cook until mushrooms are just tender. Blend cornflour with water, add to pan with crumbled stock cube and wine, stir until sauce boils and thickens. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered 2 minutes. Combine lightly-beaten egg yolks, cream mayonnaise, mustard, s & p in bowl; mix well. Add cream mixture to pan, whisking well until sauce thickens. Do not allow to boil.

Potato and Onion Casserole

super easy potato bake

1 kg potatoes
salt & pepper
2 large onions
300 ml cream

Peel potatoes and slice thinly. Put a layer of potato in base of greased ovenproof dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Peel onions, slice thinly, arrange a layer of onions over potato slices. Put cream in saucepan, stir over medium heat until cream is heated through. Spoon approximately 1/4 cup cream over onion slices. Continue in layers of potato, salt, pepper, onion and cream, finishing with a potato layer. Bake, covered, in moderate oven 30 minutes. Remove the cover, cook for a further 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and golden brown.

Avocado and Bacon Salad

1 iceberg lettuce
3 medium tomatoes
1 ripe avocado
bottled french dressing
2 rashers of bacon
1 tbsp parsley (chopped)

Wash lettuce, dry thoroughly; put in plastic bag in fridge to crisp. Cut tomatoes into quarters. Peel avocado, cut in half and remove seed; slice avocado thinly, dip in french dressing to prevent discolouration. Chop bacon finely, fry until crisp, drain on absorbent paper. At serving time, tear lettuce into pieces, place on individual serving dish, add tomatoes and avocado, sprinkle with french dressing, top with bacon and parsley.

Profiteroles with Brandy Alexander Sauce

Fill these yummy little puff balls with cream or your favourite home made custard

Choux Pastry

150 g plain flour
185 ml water
1/2 tsp salt
75 g butter, diced
3 eggs plus 1 extra egg

Sift the flour onto a sheet of baking paper
Combine the water, salt and butter in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until just boiling. Remove immediately from the heat, add all the flour at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to combine.
Return the saucepan to the heat and beat vigorously over a low heat for 30 seconds or until the mixture is smooth and starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a flour film forms on the bottom of the pan. Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside for 3-5 minutes or until cooled slightly.
Use a fork to whisk together the 3 eggs. Add about one-quarter of the whisked eggs to the flour mixture at a time beating well with the wooden spoon until well combined and smooth after each addition. Use a fork to lightly whisk the extra egg and gradually add to the flour mixture a teaspoon at a time and beating well after each addition until the mixture is thick, shiny and falls heavily from the spoon. You may not need to use all of the last egg.
Pipe and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes, reduce heat to moderate bake a further 15 – 20 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove from oven, make a small slit in side of puffs to allow steam to escape; return to oven for a few minutes to dry out. When cold fill with cream or your favourite home made custard and drizzle with Brandy alexander sauce.

Brandy Alexander Sauce

125 g dark chocolate
1 egg yolk
1/4 C Water
2 tbsp Creme de Cacao
1 tbsp brandy
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 C milk
1/2 C thickened cream

Put chopped chocolate, egg yolk and water in top of double saucepan. Stir over simmering water until chocolate has melted and mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat, add Creme de Cacao and brandy; allow to cool. Mix cornflour to a smooth paste with the milk, add to chocolate mixture, stir until smooth. Stir over medium heat until sauce boils and thickens, reduce heat, simmer 2 minutes. Add cream, reheat without boiling.