Out of Sauce’s stack of French cookbooks , I chose French Bistro by Bertrand Auboyneau because I don’t have a lot of experience cooking French cuisine, and this cover, compared to some of the others, looked inviting. There’s something about a red bistro table that says uncomplicated.
But like the age-old adage, don’t judge a book by its cover. When I started flipping through the pages, filled with gorgeously plated, rich French cuisine, I realized that while the recipes, themselves, didn’t sound all that difficult, obtaining the ingredients was going to be another story. I know I can find beef tongue, monkfish, mullet and pigeon if I look hard enough – but I didn’t want preparing dinner to turn into a week-long scavenger hunt, so I opted for the most familiar-sounding recipe: veal chop served with a creamed morel sauce.
The recipe’s first step was to rehydrate the morels the day before making the veal, but I reasoned, why do that when I can just buy the morels fresh? After all, I had, coincidentally, chosen this recipe smack dab in the middle of morel season. However, not only are wild morels tough to find (Unless you’re Madame Charcuterie, ahem, who likes to blow up Sauce’s Instagram feed with photos of morels but refuses to help a sister out and disclose the location.), fresh morels are also hard to find at the grocery store. I eventually found the right dried morels at Whole Foods, and boy, oh boy, now I know what my next get-rich-quick scheme is going to be: professional morel forager.
The recipe called for three and a half ounces of dried morels, but I believe it should be three and a half ounces of rehydrated morels, since an entire bag of them dried (running at a whopping $20 a bag) only weighed one ounce.
The veal was also, surprisingly, a bit difficult to find, but after making a few calls, I finally located some at Straub’s.
Once I had my ingredients together, the cooking part took no time at all. Literally in 10 minutes, I had prepared a fantastic French meal. I also cooked up some garlicky, rosemary mashed potatoes too, just in case the massive amount of butter and cream I already used with the cream sauce didn’t make me feel fat enough.
Veal Chop in a Creamed Morel Sauce
Serves 4
4 14-oz. (400g.) bone-in veal chops
3½ oz. (100g.) dried morels
2/3 cup (150 ml) milk
7 Tbsp. (100g.) butter, divided
2 shallots, chopped
¾ cup (200 ml) heavy or double cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Freshly ground nutmeg
• A day ahead, rehydrate the morels by soaking them in a scant ¼ cup of milk. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• To prepare the meat, brown the veal chops in a skillet with half the butter for 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Set aside in a warm place.
• In a separate sauce pan, fry the shallots until lightly browned in the remaining butter. Stir in the cream, and cook for 5 more minutes.
• Add the morels to the sauce, and simmer over low heat for another 5 minutes.
• Return the veal chops to the skillet, and cook for 2 to 5 minutes, depending on desired doneness. Remove the chops when cooked to satisfaction, and arrange on plates.
• Reduce the sauce if necessary, and adjust seasoning. Don’t forget to add a little ground nutmeg just before serving.
Reprinted with permission from Flammarion Press. What’s your favorite spring vegetable and how do you like to use it the most? Tell us in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy French Bistro. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s By the Book column. And now, we’d like to congratulate Brandy, whose comment on last week’s By the Book has won her a copy of French Brasserie Cookbook. Brandy, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew.
This article appears in April 2013.