Stuffed Veal Loin Served With Fresh Spinach Recipes

Steps:

• Prepare sweetbreads:
• Soak sweetbreads in a large bowl of ice and cold water in the refrigerator, changing water occasionally (2 or 3 times), at least 8 hours. Drain sweetbreads and transfer to a 4-quart heavy saucepan. Cover with cold water by 1 inch and add 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until sweetbreads plump and feel slightly firmer to the touch, about 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop cooking. Cut away any fat and pull away as much membrane and connective tissue as possible with a small paring knife without breaking up sweetbreads.
• Arrange sweetbreads in 1 layer in a baking dish, then cover with plastic wrap and top with another baking dish or plate holding weights. Chill sweetbreads, weighted, at least 8 hours.
• While sweetbreads chill, blanch pistachios in a small saucepan of boiling water 1 minute, then drain and peel.
• Pat sweetbreads dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a deep 12-inch skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté half of sweetbreads, turning over once, until golden brown, about 4 minutes total, and transfer to a plate. Add 1 tablespoon butter to skillet and sauté remaining sweetbreads in same manner, transferring to plate.
• Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to skillet, then reduce heat to moderate and cook pancetta, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme, then reduce heat to moderately low and cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add Sherry and bring to a boil, then add demi-glace, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, pistachios, and sweetbreads and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, then cover surface of mixture with a buttered round of parchment paper (buttered side down) and simmer sweetbreads, skillet partially covered with lid, until firm but still springy to the touch, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Transfer sweetbreads with a slotted spoon to a bowl and, when cool enough to handle, pull apart into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces. Ladle cooking liquid through a sieve into a bowl, discarding bay leaf and thyme, and reserve. Reserve vegetables in another bowl for sauce and stuffing.
• Make stuffing:
• Cook spinach in a large pot of boiling salted water , uncovered, until wilted, about 20 seconds, then drain in colander. Transfer spinach to a bowl of cold water to stop cooking and drain again, squeezing handfuls of spinach to remove excess liquid. Chop spinach and stir into reserved vegetables along with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg.
• Stuff and roast veal loin:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
• Make a hole for stuffing that runs lengthwise through veal: Beginning in middle of 1 end of roast, insert a sharp long thin knife lengthwise toward center, then repeat at opposite end of loin to complete an incision running through middle. Open up incision with your fingers, working from both ends, to create a 1 1/2-inch-wide opening. Pack loin with all but 2 tablespoons vegetable stuffing, pushing from both ends toward center.
• Tie veal roast with kitchen string at 1-inch intervals along entire length of roast. Pat veal dry and season generously with salt and pepper.
• Heat oil in an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until just smoking, then brown veal, turning with tongs, about 5 minutes.
• Transfer skillet to oven and roast veal until thermometer inserted diagonally 2 inches into meat (do not touch stuffing) registers 150°F, 45 to 50 minutes for veal; about 40 minutes for pork. Transfer roast with tongs to a platter and let stand 20 minutes.
• Make sauce and reheat sweetbreads while veal stands:
• Skim fat from sweetbread cooking liquid and bring liquid to a boil in a 2 1/2-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons vegetables, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Add sweetbreads along with any veal juices accumulated on platter and simmer until just heated through. Remove from heat and keep warm, covered.
• Discard string, then cut veal into 1-inch-thick slices and serve with sweetbreads and some sauce. Serve remaining sauce on the side.

Steps:

• Sprinkle the veal breast inside and out with salt and pepper to taste
• Chop together on a flat, heavy surface the half teaspoon dried thyme, half a bay leaf and one teaspoon chopped garlic. Set aside.
• Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet and add the finely chopped onion. Cook, stirring, until wilted and add the ground veal and pork. Cook, stirring and chopping down with the side of a heavy metal kitchen spoon to break up lumps in the meats. Add the garlic mixture and mushrooms and cook, stirring, about five minutes.
• Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Add the bread crumbs, ricotta cheese and egg. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and pepper flakes. Stir to blend well. Let cool.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Open up the pocket of the breast. Fill the pocket with the mixture. Sew up the pocket all around with string to enclose the filling. Rub the bottom of a baking dish with the tablespoon of corn oil.
• Put the breast in the baking dish and rub it all over with the remaining one tablespoon of olive oil. Place the breast, bone side down, in the baking dish and place in the oven. Bake 30 minutes.
• Add the sliced carrots, celery and coarsely chopped onion. Continue baking 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, tie the three sprigs of parsley, two sprigs of thyme and remaining bay leaf into a bundle. Add this to the veal.
• Add the tomatoes, wine and garlic clove. Cover the meat loosely with foil and continue baking about 30 minutes.
• Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. Remove the foil and baste well. Continue baking 30 minutes. The total baking time is two hours. Transfer the meat to a warm serving platter.
• When ready to serve, add the broth or water to the pan. Bring to the boil on top of the stove. Stir to dissolve the brown particles that cling to the bottom and sides of the pan. Discard the bundle of herbs amd garlic clove.
• Remove the string from the veal. Carve the veal and serve with the vegetables in sauce surrounding the roast.

Steps:

• Mix first 5 ingredients, 1 tablespoon marjoram, 1 tablespoon garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and nutmeg in large bowl to blend.
• Preheat oven to 400°F. Place veal breast, pounded side up, on work surface. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Form ground veal mixture into 8-inch-long, 3 1/2-inch-wide loaf. Place loaf atop breast about 3 inches from 1 long side. Fold short sides of breast over stuffing. Fold long side nearest stuffing over. Roll up, enclosing stuffing. Tie in several places with twine. Fasten each short end with toothpicks. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Wrap in plastic; chill.)
• Sprinkle veal with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add veal; sauté until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer to large roasting pan. Add 1 tablespoon oil, onions, carrots and celery to skillet; sauté until golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer vegetables to pan with veal. Add wine, 2 cups stock, tomatoes with juices, 2 tablespoons marjoram and 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic to roasting pan.
• Roast veal until very tender, turning and basting with pan juices every 30 minutes and adding stock as needed to keep juices halfway up sides of veal, about 2 hours 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Transfer to platter; let stand 30 minutes. Remove twine. Slice veal. Transfer pan juices and vegetables to saucepan; rewarm. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon juices and vegetables around veal.

Steps:

• Remove any large, thick stems from the spinach and rinse the leaves in cold water. Put the spinach in a pot with just the water that clings to the leaves and sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until all the spinach is wilted. Drain in a colander and press with a large spoon to remove as much water as possible.
• Lay the veal flat and trim the excess fat (do not remove all of it, or the roast will be too dry when done). Spread the spinach over the veal and add the garlic cloves evenly spaced apart. Roll up the veal jelly-roll fashion and tie it securely with kitchen twine.
• Put the butter and vegetable oil in a heavy braising pan that will hold the veal comfortably and place it over high heat. When the oil and butter are hot, put in the veal and brown it well on all sides. Season with salt and pepper, then add the wine. Allow the wine to bubble for 1 to 2 minutes to evaporate the alcohol and use a wooden spoon to loosen the tasty bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes. When they begin to bubble, lower the heat so that the contents of the pan cook at a gentle but steady simmer. Cover the pan with the lid slightly askew and cook until the meat is tender when pierced with a fork, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Turn the meat from time to time and add a little water to the pan if all the liquid evaporates before the veal is done.
• When ready to serve, cut the veal in slices about 1/2 inch thick and remove the twine. If the sauce in the pan needs to be reduced, raise the heat and cook until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Arrange the veal slices on a platter and pour the hot sauce over them. Serve at once.

Steps:

• Mash anchovy paste into 4 tablespoons butter in a bowl until combined. Gently pound cutlets to slightly less than 1/8 inch thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap with flat side of a meat pounder or with a rolling pin. Pat cutlets dry and season lightly with salt and pepper, then spread 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy butter over top of each cutlet. (You will have a little butter left over.) Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over anchovy butter, leaving a 1/4-inch border, then arrange spinach leaves, overlapping in 1 layer, to cover cutlets. Working with 1 cutlet at a time, arrange with a short side nearest you and roll up tightly, then secure with a wooden pick.
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.
• Pat rolls dry. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch ovenproof heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté veal, turning occasionally, until golden on all sides, about 4 minutes total. Transfer skillet to oven and bake veal until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer veal with tongs to a platter (reserve skillet) and keep warm, covered.
• Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet, then add wine and deglaze skillet by boiling (on stovetop) over high heat, scraping up brown bits, until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, then add any juices accumulated on platter and swirl in remaining 2 tablespoons butter (not remaining anchovy butter). Cook over low heat until incorporated. Stir in parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Steps:

• Char peppers over gas flame or in broiler until blackened on all sides. Wrap in paper bag; let stand 10 minutes. Peel peppers. Cut lengthwise into quarters; seed and stem peppers. Trim edges of peppers to flatten all sides if necessary.
• Stir cream cheese and goat cheese in small bowl to blend.
• Butterfly veal by staring at 1 long side of veal and cutting horizontally to within 1 inch of opposite long side. Open veal as for book. Place large sheet of plastic wrap over cut surface of veal. Using meat pounder or rolling pin, pound veal to generous 1/2-inch even thickness, forming rectangle approximately 10 X 12 inches. Season with salt and pepper.
• Blanch arugula in saucepan of boiling water just until wilted, about 2 seconds. Drain; rinse with cold water. Drain well on paper towels; pat dry. Repeat blanching process with basil leaves. Overlap arugula leaves down center of veal, forming 2-inch-wide by 12-inch-long strip. Cover with half of bell peppers, skinned side down. Top with tomatoes, arranged in 2 rows.
• Set aside 1/4 cup cheese mixture for sauce. Spoon remaining cheese mixture in even log atop tomatoes. Arrange remaining bell peppers, skinned side up over cheese. Arrange blanched basil leaves over peppers.
• Fold 1 long side of veal over filling. Tightly roll up veal jelly roll style. Cover ends of veal roll with heavy-duty aluminum foil to enclose filling completely. Tie kitchen string around veal roll every 1 1/2 inches to maintain neat log shape. Wrap string lengthwise around veal roll to secure foil at ends, weaving string alternately under and over crosswise ties. Cover veal roll and reserved 1/4 cup cheese mixture separately; refrigerate until well chilled,at least 6 hours. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Melt butter in heavy large shallow roasting pan over medium-high heat. Season veal with salt and pepper. Place veal in pan and brown on all sides, turning frequently, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat; cool veal 15 minutes. Drape bacon slices over veal, tucking ends under veal.
• Roast veal until thermometer inserted into center of meat (not filling) registers 140°F, about 45 minutes. Transfer to work surface. Let stand 15 minutes.
• Combine broth and shallots in heavy medium saucepan. Boil over high heat until mixture is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 20 minutes. Whisk in lemon juice and capers. Reduce heat to low; gradually whisk in butter, then reserved 1/4 cup cheese mixture and parsley. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
• To serve, remove bacon, string and foil from veal roast. Cut veal roast crosswise into even slices. Spoon a few tablespoons sauce onto each plate. Top with 2 veal slices.