Saute de Veau Marengo

The fancy dish Mom made when she or Dad had work folk or friends over for spiffed-up dinner parties when I was a kid. It was served w/ buttered egg noodles. So you know, I just ate noodles. Later in life (circa age 12) I would deign to put some of the veal and sauce on the noodles, but keep that fungus away from me!

What was I thinking???

When I got older and smarter it was the dish Mom made for me to celebrate. College gradation. Grad school. A record-breaking Senate election. A birthday of note.

Made it last night for pops and a couple pals and we sopped up veal w/ mushrooms and a sauce rich with taragon, orange, and vermouth for HOURS. Good lord that was tasty food.

I have the recipe printed on two old and stained 3x5 index cards. Mom wrote it for me. She left something out too, and I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not. The first few times I made it I had to call her mid-cooking to check. I'll give her a post stew call this time...

Saute de Veau Marengo

• 3 lbs veal stew meat
• 2-3 T olive oil (for browning use what you need)
• 1 cup diced yellow onion (Mom has minced, I go more texture)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
• 2 T AP flour
• 2 cups dry vermouth
• 1 lb firm, red tomatoes (peeled, seeded, and rough chopped) or 1 c dained/stratined canned, diced
• 1/2 tsp basil or tarragon (I use tarragon, fresh -- and it's amazing)
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1 3-inch strip of orange peel
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 lb button mushrooms (I mix in creminis and halve/quarter accordingly to get bite-sized)
• 1/2 T cornstarch in 1 T water slurry (if needed)

1. Dry veal on paper towels
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Rack in lower third.
3. Heat oil in skillet and brown veal in batches.
4. Place browned meat in large casserole/Dutch oven
5. Lower heat in skillet, remove all but 1 T oil in skillet and add onions. Brown for 5-6 minutes, scraping the bottom of the skillet.
6. While the onions are softening, toss the veal w/ the salt, pepper, and flour over medium heat to cook the flour onto the outside of the veal.
7. Once the onions are soft, add the vermouth to the pan and raise the heat, stirring until the liquid boils.
8. Add the onions and vermouth to the Dutch oven and stir over medium heat.
9. Add the tomatoes, herbs, orange peel, and garlic.
10. Bring to a simmer.
11. Cover and place in the oven for about an hour.
12. Remove from the oven, check the tenderness of the veal. If fork tender, add the mushrooms and bring to a rapid simmer on the stovetop.
13. Cover and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes.
14. Remove from the oven, remove the orange peel and skim any excess fat.
15. Boil the sauce for 5-7 minutes until it reduces by approzimately 1/4.
16. Add conrstarch slurry to adjust thickness of the sauce.

Notes:

I served last night over the classic butterd egg noodles (1 lb noodles w/ 1 T butter) with the fresh addition of 1/4 cup of chopped, fresh, flat-leaf parsley and a loaf of crusty tuscan bread. Hey, even the noodles couldn't soak up all that gravy...there was soppin' to be done!!!

I cut the salt from 1 tsp in the original to 1/4 tsp here and used it to help soften the onions when they went into the skillet.

I also used diced, canned San Marzano tomatoes and DID NOT drain them. I think I end up with more sauce AND that the tomatoes in the can give you some of the lost salt back. I sure wasn't missing any saltiness last night.