Perfect roast veal

In my series of essential basics, here comes the roast veal. Veal, like lamb, is a fine, delicious and delicate meat. Just respect the cooking times, and you get a delight. Here is a recipe that will allow you to bring a perfect roast to your table, and that will give you the time and leisure to work on an accompaniment that does it justice.

For 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 roast veal, cushion for instance, without bard
• Ask your butcher to add some trimmings: the pieces of meat and bone you ask him to crush. If he has any, ask him to add a little veal kidney fat, about half the quantity of the trimmings, it gives the juice an incomparable taste.
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery stick
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove
• 12 green olives
• 1 bouquet garni with 6 sprigs of flat parsley, 2 sprigs of thyme, 1 sprig of rosemary, 1 bay leaf, tied in leek green
• Salt, fleur de sel and black pepper
• 8cl (8 table spoons) of water
• 1 table spoon of olive oil
• 10g of butter

Equipment

An ovenproof casserole dish (no plastic part)

A pan

A skimmer or a spider

A small kitchen knife

Oven

A dinner plate

A soup plate

A wooden spatula

A colander

A salad bowl

A strainer

A sauce boat

Skill

Time frame

1h40. 45 minutes of preparation, 40 minutes of cooking, 15 minutes of meat rest.

Price per person

7,5 €

Recipe

Ask your butcher for a roast veal of 800 grams, preferably in the cushion. It is a piece located at the back of the calf, near the tail. Most importantly, without a bard! I will come back to this later.

Take the roast out of the fridge at least half an hour in advance, or even an hour. It must be at room temperature at the core. If the core of the meat remains cold, the cooking time I propose is too short, and you end up with raw meat instead of being pink. Generously salt and pepper the roast on each side.

Peel and seed the tomatoes. You will find the method in my recipe for dried tomatoes. I remind you of it here. Bring a pan of water to a boil. With a small knife, make a cross-shaped incision in the bottom of the tomato.

Immerse the tomatoes in boiling water for 15 seconds, no more. Remove them with a skimmer or a spider and put them in a colander to drain. You can do it by 2 or 3 tomatoes at a time, rather than all at the same time. In this case, wait until the boiling resumes between each batch.

To peel the tomatoes, it is then very easy. You slide the blade of your small knife under the skin of the tomato by taking it under. The skin comes by itself.

You get beautiful peeled tomatoes.

Cut them in 4. Using the small knife, cut the white part in the middle and remove all the pips. Everything will come very easily. You get impeccable tomato quarters. Crush the tomatoes, i. e. cut the quarters into small dices.

Peel the carrots and dice them. Slice the onions: cut them in half vertically, remove the sprouts, peel them and cut the halves into thin slices. Cut the leaves of the celery stalk and dice it. Crush the clove of garlic on the board without peeling it: place the blade of a large flat knife on the clove and give a sharp blow with the palm of your hand on the blade.

Preheat your oven to 180°.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in the casserole and heat it over medium heat. When the oil is hot (before it smokes), add 10g of butter and foam it. When it foams, put the trimmings, vegetables, olives and bouquet garni in the casserole. Spread them evenly and sweat them by mixing for 3 minutes, then place the roast without pricking it on this bed of vegetables. From this moment on and throughout the cooking process, make sure that the meat never directly touches the bottom or edges of the casserole dish.

Do not add anything, neither water nor white wine. Always over medium heat brown the roast for 10 minutes on all sides. Do not prick it to turn it over, use pliers or a spoon. All the taste of the meat lies in its juice. If you prick it, the juice will flow out and the taste will go with it. This is also why the meat is browned: it cauterizes the surface and traps the juice inside the meat during cooking. This is why you should never use a bard: it is this fat that would be grilled, and the meat would lose its juice underneath during cooking.

Oh oh, here's someone that identified the smell. Clelia loves rare roast meat. She's waiting...

When the surface of the meat has turned blond (no need to turn it brown, 10 minutes is enough), turn off the heat, and place the lid on the casserole dish. Make sure that the meat is lying on the bed of vegetables and trimmings without touching the edges or bottom. Put the casserole in the oven at 180° for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, turn off the oven. Take the meat out of the casserole, still without pricking it. Place it on an upside-down soup plate on a flat plate. Salt the surface with fleur de sel, pepper well. Turn the meat over and season the other side in the same way. Then let the meat rest for 15 minutes, until the juice flows well in the flesh and gives it its taste and softness evenly. Either in an auxiliary oven with the keep warm function or at 80°, or in your oven switched off, door ajar with a sheet of aluminium foil placed on the meat without wrapping it.

Prepare the juice. Leave the vegetables in the casserole. The diced tomatoes have almost melted, the olives have spread their particular sharp taste that goes so well with the veal. Remove excess fat from the surface of the juice, if any, with a large spoon. Add 8 cl of water (8 tablespoons). Put the dish on the heat, over medium heat, for 5 minutes. Mix and scrape the bottom of the dish with a spatula to remove the juices and add them to the sauce. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat. Place a colander on a bowl. Pour the contents of the casserole into the colander. Press the vegetables firmly into the colander with the spatula to extract as much juice as possible. You can then discard the vegetables or use them to make a vegetable broth and discard the trimmings. Then, pass the juice from the salad bowl through a strainer in the sauce boat. Salt lightly with fleur de sel and pepper the juice to your taste.

At the end of the 15 minutes of rest, take out the meat, cut the strings if there are any, and cut the slices a little thick to enjoy the tenderness and juiciness of each bite. The meat is tender and slightly pinkish to the core. A few grains of fleur de sel, a little 5 berries pepper on each side, and you only have to serve with the juice in a sauce boat.

Suggestion for accompaniment

Fresh pasta with a nice tomato sauce to match the tomato juice of the meat.