J.R.'s Veal Grillades

Back in the day when we used to all hang around in a pack a la Breakfast club we would have Sunday Brunch at a rotation of our houses. It started out with the best intentions of brunch followed by a walk somewhere but generally turned in to an all day food and drinking fest. My friend J.R. from Gulf Shores Alabama gave me this recipe and it is one of my favourites. It is very easy to make and one of those recipes where you see a short list of ingredients and think well, that can't add up to much, but you would be oh so wrong. The alchemy that happens to this dish in the oven turns out a sublime silky sauce created by the roux and the wine and the veal which requires only a fork to eat. J.R. always made it as part of a brunch, but I like it for dinner as well. You can do the first step of this, pop it in the oven and walk away for an hour and a half which is my idea of Sunday cooking.
Oh, and if you ever find yourself in Atlanta and thirsty, stop by Max Lagers and ask for J.R., he's the head brewmaster and part owner, tell him I sent you and make a southern boy happy, tell him you love his grillades.

J.R.'s Veal Grillades

1/4 cup of all purp flour (or more depending on your quantity of veal
salt
pepper
cayenne
1 pound Veal cutlets (Costco has some great ones - and a very resonable price)
butter
Olive oil
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 full bottle of white wine (I've used Sauvignon blanc, white bordeaux even pinot grigio just please, please, for the love of grillades DON'T use Chardonnay)

You can do this one of two ways. I season each individual cutlet before dredging in flour. Alternately you could season the flour and just salt and pepper the cutlets lightly as well. You also need to know your audience and how much they like or dislike heat and adjust your cayenne accordingly.

My way:
Preheat the oven to 350 (300 if convection)
I grind a good amount of black pepper in a small bowl, I have kosher salt in another small bowl, cayenne pepper in a spice jar with a shaker lid and then a third shallow bowl with the flour.
Use a heavy bottomed dutch oven with a lid that can go stovetop to oven, heat 2 TBS butter and some olive oil in the pan (again, you made need to add more depending on your quantity of veal), I use about 1/4 cup.
Sprinkle salt and pepper and a shake of cayenne on each side of a cutlet, lightly dredge in flour, shake off excess. Place cutlet in pan and brown on both sides (maybe 1- 2 minutes each side). You are just looking for colour here. Continue with each cutlet, removing them when done to a plate.
When the last cutlet has been removed pull the pan off the heat, sprinkle in the remaining flour (if you seasoned your flour before dredging, add this, if you did it my way, season the flour with some salt and pepper) and whisk. You are creating a light roux here. Jsut cooking it enough to remove the flour taste. Put it back on the heat on med-low and stir for 1 to 2 minutes. Shut off heat when done.

At the same time as I am doing the cutlets I have sliced the onions (pole to pole) and minced the garlic and in a saute pan with some olive oil I carmelize them while the veal is cooking.

When all of the cutlets are cooked and the onions are soft and browned you will assemble this all back in the dutch oven.
Put a layer of the onions on the bottom, layer of veal, layer of onions, until done. Now pour the FULL BOTTLE OF WINE down the side of the pan, not directly on the cutlets if you still haven't covered all of the veal with the liquid you can add some stock at this point. Cover. Put this in the preheated oven and after 1 hour, put a knife in the veal, if it is not butter soft give it another 30 minutes.

When it comes out, it looks like this. Man I wish the web had smell-o-vision.

Comments

[kelly]

made this tonight and it was awesome! perfect for the snowy weather...next time i will make up some egg noodles...tonight we had the veal with green beans and salad. loved it, love your blog, thanks for the ideas!!

[Kathleen Kavanagh]

Why cannot buy any veal I live in Wigan ?