I was a bachelor for three days last week as my wife Nancy abandoned me to spend time with her sisters-in-law in Jacksonville. She had a great time and I had some great meals. When Nancy goes out of town, it gives me the opportunity to cook some of my favorite dishes – things she finds objectionable. Things like veal.
When Nancy was a little girl, her family lived on a cattle farm and she remembers the cows mooing in the night after the trucks came and took the calves. She assumed the calves were used for veal, when in fact, the calves likely were turned into steers, fattened up to 700 or 800 pounds and then butchered. But to this day, Nancy won’t eat veal, no matter what happened to those calves on her farm.
I, on the other hand, don’t really care about the fate of those calves and I love veal, often ordering it at restaurants when we dine out. Veal is fairly pricey in restaurants, but quite reasonable in grocery stores. I saw a pack of 5 cutlets at Harris Teeter. They were on sale for about $5 and they quickly found their way into my shopping cart.
But how to fix them?
Sometimes I order Veal Marsala and sometimes Veal Parmesan, but I have always enjoyed Veal Picatta when it’s on the menu. Veal Picatta is a classic Italian dish with veal sautéed in butter, white wine, garlic (naturally), parsley and other tasty ingredients.
Here’s my recipe:
First, pound the veal cutlets to a thickness of 1/8-inches. That way, they are tenderer, cook quicker and retain juices and flavor.
Combine flour, salt and pepper in a bowl and lightly dredge the cutlets and set aside. In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat, but not smoking. Add the cutlets and brown quickly on each side, maybe two minutes total. Remove the cutlets and add a cup of dry, white wine to deglaze the skillet, reducing down to about half. Next add some lemon juice, chicken stock, minced garlic and cook about 5 minutes, till the sauce thickens. Add 3 more tablespoons of butter to the pan, melt, and then add the cutlets, cooking another minute on each side. Garnish with fresh parsley. Voila! Veal Picatta!
By the way, you can serve this dish over noodles or pasta, but it’s not necessary. I noticed on the veal pack that a cutlet was only 30 calories. Even with the butter and sauce, 3 cutlets would be less than 200 calories, so it’s a healthy dish, and really tasty. Other ingredients, such as capers and portabella mushrooms, can be added to the sauce, but again, not necessary
1 pound veal cutlets 2 or 3 per serving)
½ cup flour
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 T butter
1 cup dry white wine
½ cup chicken stock
1 large garlic clove minced
1 fresh lemon (About 2 tablespoons of juice)
Fresh parsley for garnish