Receta Pan-Grilled Veal Chops with Tomato-Blue Cheese Butter and a Cherry Tomato Salad
I
don’t think food should be controversial. It should be one of life’s great
pleasures. To quote none other than Luciano Pavarotti “One of the nicest things
about life is that we regularly have to stop whatever it is we are doing and
devote our attention to eating”. That
being said, we come to today’s post.
Here is a recipe I used to celebrate Andrew’s recent birthday. At its center were two luxurious veal
chops. I say luxurious because I’d be
hard-pressed to find anything at the butcher that is more expensive on a pound
for pound basis than a veal chop. But I
have to admit; there are few types of meat I enjoy more. That brings us to our controversy. I’d like to nip it at the bud. There’s good news about Veal!
The
most successful animal rights campaign began over 25 years ago. No, it was not about foie gras. It was about veal or more specifically the
way veal was raised. People were shown
photographs of veal calves tethered in crates.
Sales of veal immediately plummeted and have never recovered. Where Americans once consumed an average of 4
lbs. of veal a year in the 50s and 60s, consumption now runs about ½ lb. a
person. You will be pleased to know that
Veal Farmers finally got the message.
Veal crates have been banned
completely in nine states and virtually every major veal producer in the
country is in those states. Farmers have
returned to the old method of raising veal calves. They are put out to pasture with their
mothers and grain fed. Other producers
still keep them in barns but they are free to roam with other calves. If they are ‘milk-fed’, it is with a milk
replacement formula and grain has also been added to their diet as well. These changes have made a difference not
just in how the animals are treated, but also in their taste and texture as
well.
Veal, once the blandest of meats,
now has real character and flavor. The grass and the grains combined with the
milk substitute have produced a whole change in their taste. One writer compared the taste of today’s
humanely raised veal to biting into an heirloom tomato after a lifetime of
eating supermarket tomatoes. I hope I
have assuaged any anxiety you have about veal. But I will immediately let you
in on a secret. Bruce Aidells’ the
creator of this dish has an author’s note in the margins of the recipe stating
that the veal may be substituted for grilled steaks or thick pork chops. So there!
Bruce
Aidells is famous for meat cookery. He
is also famous for having brought Chicken Sausage to market in 1983. His Bruce
Aidells’ brand comes in no less than 18 flavors! When he is not making sausage, he is writing
about meat. In 2012, he brought out an
updated version of his classic “Complete Meat Cookbook” in the form of “The
Great Meat Cookbook” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This is a 632-page bible that
covers everything from sausage making to curing meats to recipes for every
imaginable cut of everything from Elk to Goat.
This recipe for Veal Chops brings together flavors that were meant for
each other. He writes ”Certain flavors
have an affinity for each other: tomato and blue cheese, basil and tomato, blue
cheese butter and grilled meat. I can
attest to that. In our house, blue
cheese is not one of Andrew’s favorite things.
So while you can make this dish with a full-flavored Blue like
Roquefort, you can also choose milder cheese.
I went for Carrabolla, because some time ago, it passed muster in another
dish so I hoped it would here too. In
reality shallots, two kinds of pepper, tomato paste and butter, accompany the
blue cheese here. The end result is
magnificent but hardly overwhelming blue chees-y. The tomato salad is a lovely
accompaniment.
I served some simply
- prepare asparagus with it. Here are the recipes:
- Recipe for Pan-Grilled Veal Chops with Tomato-Blue Cheese Butter and
- Cherry Tomato Salad from Bruce Aidells
- Serves 4. (I made the entire recipe
- because the Butter keeps for a good long time and is excellent on steak or pork
- chops.)
- 4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted
- Butter, softened
- 2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. Aleppo Pepper ot ½ tsp.
- Cayenne Pepper
- 4
- 1 ¼ to 1 ½ in. thick veal rib or T-bone Loin Chops (2 to 2 ½ lbs. total)
- 1 Large Garlic Clove, cut in half
- Salt and Freshly Ground Black
- Pepper
- For the Cherry Tomato Salad:
- 1 Cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1 tbsp. Finely chopped Shallots
- 1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 6 fresh Basil Leaves, in a
- chiffonade (cut cross-wise into thin shreds
- Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
- 1. Remove any rind, then pulse the blue
- cheese in a food processor fitted with the metal blade until it has the texture
- of coarse meal. Add the remaining ingredients and process to form a homogenous
- paste. Spread a 12 by 8 inch piece of plastic wrap on a work surface and scrape
- the butter onto the plastic wrap.
- 2. Shape and roll the mixture into a log about 2
- inches in diameter. Seal the butter in the wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at
- least one hour or until ready to use. ( you can make the butter a day a head
- and refrigerate it. Or you can freeze the butter and use it for up to two
- months.)
- 3. Rub the chops on both sides with
- the cut sides of the garlic. Discard the garlic. Season the chops with
- about ¼ tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper
- per side. Set aside.
- 4. Not more than 30 minutes before you
- are ready to cook the veal chops, make the tomato salad. Toss the tomatoes, shallot, oil, vinegar and
- basil together in a small bowl. Season
- to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside. (I used Opal Basil for color.)
- 5. Heat a large cast iron skillet over
- high heat. Brush the chops with the olive oil and add them to the pan, making
sure not to overcrowd the chops. If
necessary, cook them in two batches. Sear for 2-3 minutes or until the are
nicely browned on the first side. Flip the chops over and sear the other side
for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook for 3 minutes more per
side or until an instant read thermometer registers 125 to 130 degrees for
medium rare, 130 to 135 degrees for medium. Remove the chops to a warm platter
and top each with a ¼ inch thick slice of Tomato-Blue Cheese butter. Let rest 5 minutes , loosely covered with
aluminum foil.
6. Smear the now mostly melted butter
over the chops, divide the tomato salad among the plates and serve.