Simmerstock.com scripts: Veal Piccata

Prep

This dish cooks very quickly, so you want to have everything diced and sliced and ready to cook before you even think about putting something into a hot pan. First, turn your oven on to 200° and slide in an oven proof plate. Depending on the size of your frying pan, you'll want to sauté the veal in at least two batches and you will use the warm oven to keep the meat warm between batches and while making the sauce. It is important that you warm the plate along with the oven. Because the veal is so thin, putting it on a cool plate after sautéing it will cook it down instantly.

Slice one of your lemon's in half lengthwise (from end to end) and cut one of the halves into very thin slices. Over a strainer (to catch the seeds), squeeze the juice from the remaining 1-1/2 lemons (might I recommend a citrus reamer ?) and set the juice aside.

Mince the sage, shallot, garlic and parsley, setting each aside in separate plates, ramekins, prep bowls or pieces of plastic wrap. Timing is important once it comes time to make the sauce, and you want to be able to quickly dump each of the ingredients into the hot pan individually.

Sauté Veal

Put a heavy-bottomed fry pan on the stove over medium-high heat. You want to pan to be very hot when it comes time to sauté the Veal.

With a meat tenderizer , rubber mallet , heavy skillet or the flat side of a cleaver or chef's knife , pound the veal slices very thin. Most recipes I've seen call for 1/8", but who in the world actually whips out a ruler and measures?

Season the veal slices liberally with salt and pepper and dredge them in the flour. Be sure to and shake off completely all excess flour (I find tossing the slices back and forth between my hands works better than simply wiggling the meat back and forth over the flour).

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and cook the meat for about two minutes on each side. Don't flip them over and over. One turn is enough. You're aiming for well caramelized slices of meat: Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. These things are thin and they'll be covered with sauce, so our priority here is the crispy outside rather than a moist inside. If you turn them over more than once you'll end up with well grayed pieces of shoe leather rather than crispy brown scallopini. When done, put the meat onto the plate in the oven and repeat (tablespoon of oil followed by a couple of veal slices) until you have sautéed all of your veal.

Make the Sauce

With the pan still at medium high heat, add the garlic and saute until fragrant (only about 10 seconds).

Add the shallots and sage to the pan and saute until the shallots are translucent and the sage a bit crispy (only about 30 seconds).

Deglaze the pan with the wine (add the wine and scrape up whatever browned bits may be stuck to the bottom of the pan), add the lemon slices and reduce the sauce until there's about 1/3 cup left (five minutes, probably a bit less).

Add the lemon juice and capers and bring the sauce to a boil. As soon as the sauce reaches a boil, turn off the heat and add the parsley (the goal with the last bit of heat is just to warm the lemon juice, capers and garlic, rather than to cook them).

Thicken the sauce by adding the butter in small increments, whisking with a sauce whisk , wooden spoon or silicone spatula .

Plating

As shown here, the Veal Piccata is (or should I say “was”) served family style with a simple Arugula and Goat Cheese salad. The salad was made by tossing Arugula with a splash of white wine vinegar, a splash of extra virgin olive, half of a preserved Meyer lemon (minced), salt, pepper and crumbled goat cheese. To plate simply mound the salad in the middle of the platter, lay the veal around the salad on the platter, and spoon over the sauce.