Hello everyone!

Hope you’ve had a great week and tried a few new recipes.  I’m delving into the the Dinner Party Cookbook No.2 again and have found a rather impressive veal with mushrooms, accompanied by vegetable risotto.  Well, for me the risotto would be reason alone to cook this little combination.

Now, I’m going to start by saying that I haven’t ever cooked a “nut” of veal.  It is the fillet from the end of the leg so I just thought with a name like “nut” and being from the leg, it would be sort of round???  Well, no it was quite flat so that took me by surprise in terms of carving.  We ended up with much thinner strips of meat than I anticipated and I don’t know that I did such a great job in the presentation department.  BUT what about flavour you ask.  Given that the veal is marinated for 4 hours (which of course makes you think that this is perhaps a less tender cut to begin with) and then cooked for 90 minutes in a sauce combining the marinade with stock, worcestershire, thyme and tarragon, I would expect nothing less than it to be tasty and it was.  The mushrooms are added to the sauce once the veal is cooked.  Colour is the thing that I found not quite what I expected.  The veal didn’t have a pinkness to it, I guess because of the marinating and the texture was a lot like corned beef (which was fine) but the sauce seemed to be very light in colour and whilst tasty enough, visually it just didn’t have the appeal.

This menu is a hearty one that I think you’ll enjoy – give it a go.

Until next week.

From my table to yours with love x

Veal with Mushrooms

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1.5 kg nut of veal this is the fillet from the end of the leg
• 1/2 c dry white wine
• 1/4 c sherry
• 3 tbsp oil
• 30 g butter
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 c cream
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1/2 c water
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp thyme fresh is best
• 1/2 tsp tarragon fresh is best
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp water extra
• s & p
• 250 g mushrooms
• 60 g butter

Method

 

1. Cut sinew from veal, place veal in bowl, pour over combined wine and sherry, leave to stand 4 hours, turning occasionally. Remove veal and pat dry; reserve marinade. Heat oil and butter in pan, add veal and brown on all sides; remove and place in ovenproof dish. Pour off pan juices, leaving 1 tbsp in pan. Add peeled and chopped onion, cook 2 minutes.
2. Add flour, stir 1 minute, add strained marinade, cream, crumbled stock cube, water, worcestershire sauce, thyme and tarragon, stir until boiling. Pour sauce over veal, cover, bake in moderate oven 1½ hours or until tender.
3. Melt extra butter in separate pan, add thinly sliced mushrooms, cook over high heat 2 minutes, remove from pan. Remove veal from dish and keep warm. Pour sauce into saucepan, add mushrooms; combine cornflour and extra water, add to pan, stir until boiling; season with salt and pepper. Pour over sliced veal.

Notes

Source: Women's Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook No. 2

Vegetable Risotto

It would add more flavour to this dish if you reduced the amount of water and increased the amount of wine. Ratio to your liking.

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 c long grain rice or Arborio rice
• 60 g butter
• 1 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 c dry white wine warm the wine
• 2 1/2 c hot water
• 1/2 20g packet of saffron threads
• 1 chicken cube
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 stick celery
• 30 g butter extra
• 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• s & p

Method

 

1. Heat butter in pan, add peeled and finely chopped onion and crushed garlic. Cook until onion is tender. Add rice, stir until well coated with butter mixture. Add wine and 1 cup of the hot water, add saffron and crumbled stock cube. Stir well, bring to boil. When water has almost evaporated, add remaining hot water, reduce heat, cook until this water has been absorbed. Cooking time is about 20 mins from the time the first cup of hot water is added. Cook rice uncovered throughout.
2. Add the seeded and finely chopped peppers and finely chopped celery, mix well. Stir in extra butter and parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Stir gently until butter melts.

Notes

Source: Women's Weekly Light & Luscious

Lemon Coconut and Strawberry Flan

If Apple Jelly is unavailable then use Orange Marmalade or Strawberry Jam

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 1 c plain flour
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 60 g butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp water approx
• 90 g butter
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/2 c castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/4 c coconut
• 1/4 c apple jelly
• 250 g punnet strawberries halved

Method

 

1. Sift flour and icing sugar into bowl, rub in butter. Add egg yolk and enough water to mix to a firm dough; turn onto lightly floured surface, knead lightly until smooth, cover, refrigerate 30 mins. Roll out on lightly floured surface large enough to line a 23cm flan tin. Spread pastry with filling, bake in moderately hot oven 10 mins, reduce heat to moderate, bake further 20 mins or until golden brown, cook to room temperature. Brush flan with half the apple jelly, top with strawberries, brush with remaining apple jelly.
2. Cream butter, lemon rind and sugar in bowl with electric mixer, until light and fluffy; beat in eggs one at a time. Mixture might curdle slightly at this stage, but will reconstitute when coconut is added. Stir in lemon juice and coconut. Soften apple jelly over low heat.