Veal Stew Recipe

Walking through the market this morning, I spied a couple of packages of veal stew meat that had been marked down for last day of sale. Does anyone have a good recipe for veal stew that is none too complicated?

Braise it. I made a veal braise stew last month. Start out with 1.5-2.0 lbs of 3/4" (or so) chunks of veal. Brown them very very quickly in a bit of very very hot oil. Pull the meat out. Deglaze with 1/4c of white wine or, better, hard cider, reducing by half. Add a cup of veal/chicken stock to the reduction, make it all boil. Add the meat back, put in a bay leaf, a tsp or so of thyme, maybe a suspicion of terragon. Cover. Simmer very gently for half an hour to an hour. Add a couple of carrots, a couple of potatoes, and a turnip (and, if you want some finesse, some pearl onions), all cut to size similar to the meat chunks. Simmer it all for 45mins-hour, then test for done-ness and flavor, also saltiness and pepperness.

You could slice up a garllic clove very finely and add at an early stage if you like; plus, rather than add onions later, you could always peel an onion and stick it with a clove or two, and add after the stock addition. Or, do this plus add the pearl onions.

Molly Stevens recommends that one use parchment paper under the lid when braising. I have no fixed opinion yet on the practice; but she seems to pretty much know what she's about.

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

Geo

Perfect, Geo. I used some carrot, shallot, celery, thyme, salt and pepper. White wine and chicken stock.

The sauce was wonderfully silky and needed no additional seasoning.

Plenty is left for leftovers tomorrow.