“Herbaceous.” That’s how this week’s French Fridays with Dorie dish (“Green as spring” veal stew, p 262) was described by one of our guests last weekend who was treated to an “experimental” (as in, I’d never made 90% of the dishes we served!) dinner party. What’s that you say – you serve food at dinner parties that you haven’t made before? Why yes, all the time in fact. Even when, as was the case last weekend, one of those guests happens to be a professional chef. No pressure, right? đ
To be honest, I don’t eat veal that often – it’s not always easy to get your hands on – especially around Easter when our neighbourhood butcher looked at me like I was insane needing 3lb of stewing veal at short notice on the Thursday before Easter. I guess I haven’t bought veal for a long time and forgot to plan ahead as much as I should have. I ended up finding some lovely local stewing veal at the last minute – phew – dinner party disaster averted!
Dorie talked about lightly poaching the veal before you cook it in the broth to get rid of any “impurities”. Donât skip this step – I tried to pan sear it quickly before adding it to the broth but it âboiledâ anyway… I drained the pan and pan seared the meat after all the âimpuritiesâ had gone to get a little bit of browning, which worked. I can’t remember ever seeing that with veal before. This was pretty easy to put together – a bonus for a dinner party – I made most of it (apart from the sauce) the day before. I cooked mine in the oven at 350ËF for about an hour instead of simmering the day before the dinner, then then brought it to a gentle simmer slowly before I removed the veal and proceeded with the sauce. Wish I would have reduced the liquid down much more than I did â the sauce was pretty runny and didnât really coat the meat much. I had been expecting it to turn out bright green as I saw in a post online (the sauce has arugula, spinach, parsley, tarragon and dill!) but mine was more of a mossy green. And not so easy to make it look pretty in a photo.  Am not a huge fan of veal but I did enjoy a small serve of this. Herbaceous tasting and all đ
You can find the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s green as spring veal stew here.
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I was surprised at how tasty this dish was. I think Bill was meaning “herbacious” when he said “spicy stuff.” I need to expand that man’s vocabulary đ
You had more meat than sauce!
Mine was almost neon green. It makes me wonder what I did wrong đ
Herbaceous is definitely the word!
I love that you make dinner parties with new food. I had the same problem with finding veal at short notice.
mmmm It looks so yummy Mardi! Will definitely try this one out when I’m back home!
I’m with you on dinner party planning… whatever I feel like making wither I’ve made it before or not… just what seems right for the guests. I suspect that your guests were culinary very open. Glad things went well for you.
My butcher was none too pleased either. Its great that you do dinner parties with new food, I thought it was just me that likes to live dangerously in the kitchen. đ
Why does reducing the broth take so long? That messed up my timing. You are right that this is great for a dinner party. Glad to know lots of the steps can be done in advance. It looks delicious. BTW, herbaceous is my second favorite word after autumnal.
I had never heard of boiling the impurities out of meat. Is it just veal or should we do that with other meat. Need to ask Dorie. I liked your use of the oven rather than top-of-the-stove. My sauce was along the lines of vivid. Honestly I think this would be delicious with pasta and that’s what I’ll try the next time. I did whisk my sauce into the creme fraiche as was suggested in the P&Q’s. I felt my sauce was just the right thickness (or non-thickness), take your pick. Am looking forward to our cooking with kids. Thanks for including us.
I’m just now making this with a veal chop I had in the freezer from when I didn’t get around to making “the” veal chop! It does smell good, and I’m looking forward to us having that quarter-recipe for dinner. It’s raining (always a good thing in AZ), so it’s perfect for it.
Happy that your dinner part was lovely – I’m a “why not try something new?” entertainer as well.
Well now a frantically busy Friday – so delayed response here.
I really liked this dish, and loved the tarragon – something that really amped up the “herbaceous” factor.
This was part of a dinner that included two dishes inspired by Noma, and a wine paired with each course.
For this, I paired a 1992 Domaine Guyot Chorey les Beaune. I thought an old Burgundy would go well with the herbs and lighter meat – and it worked beautifully. Well, that and the fact we were smitten with this divine 22-year… đ
I loved this dish, too, and thought the flavor was very fresh. I did the same as you and wished I had reduced the broth down more for a thicker sauce.
Herbaciously bodacious! Glad you liked it.
This dish was a surprise to meâŠI didnât think Iâd enjoy it, and I certainly didnât think my hubby wouldâŠI was wrong on both counts!
My grocery store butcher always has veal, but Iâm with you, I prefer not to eat it. Yours looks deliciousâŠmine was day-glo green!