Felt very good to be cooking again after a 3-day break. With everyone in our household now at least two weeks past their second vaccination, I thought it might make more sense to post this on its own thread, instead of on the
glorious, corona cuisine thread. Not only did I shop for most of these ingredients in person but it was a trip
inside the butcher shop that actually inspired the dish. Seeing the crew at Zier's prepping scallopini for another customer reminded me that "Hey! I've wanted to try that for a while, too!"
This is definitely
not saltimbocca. Just a riff on it, based on what I bought, what I had on hand and a segment I saw recently on one of the
Great Chefs cooking shows where a chef made some veal roulades . . .
Whole Milk Mozzarella & Unwaxed Dental FlossThis has become my favorite cutting tool for soft cheeses. Not even my skeletonized global cheese knife handles the soft stuff this efficiently.
Mise En Place & Anryu Kurouchi Damascus Petty, 75mmProsciutto, whole milk mozzarella, parsley, scallopini-sliced veal, ramp leaves and garlic chives. Only needed the knife to cut the butcher twine.
AssemblyJust roll, wrap and tie. As easy as a grade-school art project!
RollsEight nice, little packages. Totally manageable.
Next up, some side dishery . . .
Broiled Japanese EggplantReally glad I remembered I had this because this was just about the last day it was going to be usable. Sliced them lengthwise down the center, brushed them with evoo and broiled the pieces for about 8 minutes.
Eggplant Sauce Mise & Anryu Blue #2 Hammered Petty, 130mmPre-minced shallot, smashed garlic, red chile flakes, parsley leaves, red wine vinegar, evoo, diced tomatoes, salt, red wine and dried oregano.
Just a quick sauce for the eggplant, which I ended up hitting briefly with the stick blender right at the end. Also held back a wee bit of the garlic until very end. That added quite a bit of punch to the sauce without overpowering. I guess it was Anryu petty day in my kitchen.
Now, back to the main course . . .
Seared RollsJust a couple of minutes on each side in hot pan in a mix of evoo and unsalted butter. After they browned, I removed them and made a pan sauce using shallots, dried porcinis and some 4x gelatinous beef stock. Once that reduced a bit, I added the rolls back and roasted it all in the oven at 375F convection for ~8 minutes.
Plated UpVeal roll-ups in shallot-beef sauce and broiled eggplant with tomato-garlic sauce.
InteriorI even remembered to remove the string before I ate them!
=R=
Same planet, different world