I haven’t had veal since I was a young child (about 16 years or so)… when I found out how they were raised I couldn’t eat it any longer. Today when I was at the grocery I found some humanely raised free roaming veal stew meat on sale because it needed to be sold by June 7th. I’ve seen it before but it was always an expensive addition to my grocery list of already expensive free-range meats like bison and chicken so I never bothered…
Forestière:
[ah lah foh-rehs-TYEHR] French term meaning “of the forest,” referring to dishes (usually poultry, meat or game fowl) garnished with butter-sautéed potatoes or potato balls, bacon or salt pork and wild mushrooms such as chanterelles, morels and porcini.
Prep: 15-20 min
Cook Time: 2.5-3 hrs
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients:
- 1lb Veal stew meat, HUMANELY RAISED from a REPUTABLE SOURCE
- 2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 C. shallots, diced
- 2 Cloves garlic, diced
- 16oz Container of fresh mushrooms, your choice or a blend
- 1/2 C. Dry sherry or Marsala wine
- 2 C. Chicken stock
- 6-8 Thyme stems, take off the stem
- 4 Slices Prosciutto, or other aged ham of choice
- 1 TBS Butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 TBS flour
- 1/4 Sour cream, I used light (you can use cream for this as well).
- 1/2 TBS Fine herbs
- Egg noodles * if desired- get a good quality brand
- In a medium to large brasier, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat. Sear the cubes of meat on all sides until brown, don’t worry about cooking the meat all the way through. Remove meat to a plate.
- Add a bit of olive oil and lower the heat to medium-low. Add the shallots and the garlic and sweat very gently for 1-2 minutes, until the shallots are translucent, and the garlic is fragrant.
- Add the mushrooms to the pot, and turn up the heat slightly. Cook until soft and a touch brown around the edges. Season with fresh sea salt and ground pepper.
- Deglaze the pan with the cooking sherry. *Take the pan off the heat, and add it in. Turn the heat up so that the sherry simmers and reduces. Now add the meat back into the pot.
- Add the chicken stock and the thyme and bring to a boil over high heat. When the pot boils, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 2-2.5 hours.
- Pre-Heat oven to 450 degrees, spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray, PAM. Lay out 4 slices of Prosciutto on the baking sheet, and place in the 450°F oven for 10 minutes until crisp. Allow to cool. Brake the crispy ham into pieces.
- Make a beurre manié by smashing together the flour and the butter. Stir into the stew, and let it simmer a few minutes until the stew has thickened. Take the pot off the heat, and stir in the sour cream. Add the crispy pieces of ham on top along with the fine herbs.
- Serve on top of egg noodles if desired.
You know it’s funny, I’ve been sworn off of veal for so long it never even occurred to me that humanely raised veal would be available. These days it seems like anything is possible. Viva change! I’ll be dreaming about veal stock until I get my hands on some. Thanks for the post!
I didn’t know either… So when I found some I researched it. The kind I purchased was raised to roam free as they please on land and are nursed by their mother for their food and nutrients. They do not use any hormones or antibiotics which is good as well. They are however still slaughtered as calves. I still won’t eat it often but this is definitely a better choice!!! I hope you can find some out there! Thanks for the comment!
What a great recipe. I love veal and marsala together. Mmm and prosciutto…
Ohhhh it was to die for! Still thinking about it 😉
Hi Jen;
This recipe looks delish! We have a very small farm and raise our own milk, meat, and eggs, open pollenated seeds, and fruits. We recently started getting calves that would otherwise go to the sale barns and into industrial operations and bottle feeding them with our extra wonderful grass fed milk. We are selling our first veal this year. Happy calves, raised with buddies and allowed to graze and drink mothers milk. If anyone is in Virginia and interested, you can email me at adamandfaith1atgmail.com. If it’s not ok to give my email, just delete.
Thanks! 🙂 Thanks for the info, do you have a website as well???
Not yet, it’s in the works 🙂