"The Swiss Cookbook" - Veal Cutlets from Ouchy

Date I made this recipe: April 27, 2008

The Swiss Cookbook by Nika Standen Hazelton
Published by: Atheneum
© 1967

Recipe: Veal Cutlets from Ouchy – p. 236


If you’re like me, spring doesn’t exactly equate with the heartier foods I tend to associate with Switzerland such as fondue or Rosti potatoes but people, when it’s the end of April and it is STILL snowing outside, then making a Swiss dish doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

Despite the weather, I still don’t know if I would have gone through with making a dish from this cookbook (it’s on a shelf on the way upstairs and happened to catch my eye) if I hadn’t opened another cookbook in my collection, Life is Meals. (Life is Meals – A Food Lover’s Book of Days by James and Kay Salter)

Now, I plan to actually make a recipe from Life is Meals at some other point in time, but Life is Meals is a chronicle of 365 food facts, food stories and/or recipes, one for each day of the month and each month of the year. And it was the entry in this book for April 24 that made me make the recipe I did from a Swiss cookbook in the middle of spring (a term we use loosely in this state).

You see, on April 24, one of my best friends, Carol, celebrated her 50th birthday. Carol has cancer. Actually Carol has ovarian cancer but it manifested self, in of all places, in the duodenum, a small sack that is part of the stomach and intestinal system. Carol has been unable to eat real food for over two months now and is frighteningly thin. And yet even in the hospital, she talked of food. In fact, she was oddly comforted by, of all things, programs on The Food Network. And even between rounds of chemotherapy, she still expresses in interest in the one activity she loves – eating. (In fact, she “approved” this recipe!)

Carol and I may share a long-term friendship but our view of food is vastly different. Whereas I am all about the process and following directions (especially for purposes of this blog), she is all about eating and experimenting. I can’t think of one recipe that she hasn’t tweaked since I’ve known her and she frequently substitutes things that I would never dream of adding. To her, the finished product is everything. To me, the finished product is just the result of the process and if the end result is good, it’s good and if it’s not, well then it’s not. Oftentimes, I lose interest in the entire dish once it is done (and leftovers really tend to bore me) but not her. She relishes every bite and loves having leftovers to freeze. My leftovers, if I keep them at all, reside in my refrigerator lest they fall victim to the dreaded freezer burn!

And so to her, Life is [indeed] Meals and there is nothing sadder than the fact that she cannot eat or even prepare any food at this point in time. Ensure, that hideous but necessary liquid vitamin drink is what is driving the bus and keeping her going and the route it takes is via feeding tube to the stomach. In this instance, life is no longer about meals, it is all about nutrients and there’s nothing fun, exciting or even remotely interesting in that. Nothing is savored at the end of the meal and there's most certainly nothing to freeze for a rainy day...or even a spring day that isn't!

So—how does this all relate back to a Swiss meal? Well, the entry for April 24th in Life Is Meals is a little story about Fritz Karl Vatel, a Swiss (key word here!) immigrant who worked as a steward for Louis XIV’s finance minister and who one day, ran short of food during a party honoring the king due to an unavoidable rush of last-minute guests (nothing seems to have changed much over the centuries—people, always remember to RSVP!), Feeling that his reputation was ruined, he fell on his sword while awaiting a late shipment of food and that was the end of that.

Now I must admit that it didn’t occur to me until just now that this suicide story might not go over well with a friend who is so ill but then again, Carol “gets it.” She understands in ways I do not that life really is about meals…and meals really are about life. And Vatel failed to appreciate that. Here is what one critic wrote of Vatel and the unfortunate incident: “An authoritative appeal to the goodwill of his team temporarily at a loss, some brief and clear orders called out over the tumult of the upset pots and pans, and the problem is resolved. The service continues.”

My friend, Carol, is nothing if not a problem-solver. If at all possible, she will solve this problem, get off the food rollercoaster she’s been on and once again savor a good steak with a dry martini or an excellent Veal Cutlet from Ouchy and life will go back to being all about meals. And that is how it should be.

Veal Cutlets from Ouchy (this made 3 servings using slightly under a pound of veal)

Note: I doubt very much if Ouchy is pronounced like we think it is—as in “I have a boo-boo.” But it reminds me of how many words I mispronounced as a kid, particularly chocolate mousse. It was always “mousey” to me!

4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1 ½ pounds veal scaloppini
Thin slices of boiled ham
Thin slices of Gruyere cheese
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Flour
Butter for sautéing

NOTE: Let me just say that it’s clear I don’t reside in a state populated by Italian-Americans because finding veal cutlets took some doing. I found veal shanks and veal roasts and in one place, veal chops but it wasn’t looking too good for the scaloppini home team until I visited a couple of Italian delis. Even then, the cutlets were frozen rather than fresh. I have to admit it was a headscratcher. One of the butchers at one of the regular grocery stores I visit said that they don’t stock them because there’s not much demand for them. Well, I demanded them—so there!

To make the recipe, mix the butter with the anchovy paste. Trim the meat so that the slices are all of the same size. The meat for this dish must be very thin so pound the cutlets down if you have to. Spread the anchovy butter on half of the meat slices. Top each with a slice of boiled ham and cheese. Cover with the remaining veal as if making sandwiches. Secure each meat sandwich with a toothpick or tie with a string. Take care that the cheese is well covered by the meat, or it will ooze out during the cooking. Dip the meat sandwiches in the beaten egg and then in the flour. Saute in hot butter for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Serve very hot with any green vegetable.

"The Casserole Cookbook" by James Beard & "The Seducer's Cookbook" by Mimi Sheraton - Veal and Noodles and Apple-Pecan Tart

Date I made these recipes: February 17, 2008

The Casserole Cookbook by Jim Beard (as in the legendary James Beard)
Published by: The Bobbs-Merril Company, Inc.
© 1955
Recipe: Veal and Noodles – p. 25

The Seducer’s Cookbook by Mimi Sheraton
Published by: Random House
© 1962, 1963
Recipe: Apple-Pecan Tart - p. 58-59

Valentine’s Day this year found me working days and my husband working nights. I left him cupcakes and a card for when he came home and he left me cookies and a card for when I woke up. It was actually kind of fun—sort of like Santa coming only in February.

So dinner had to wait until the weekend when we were both home. I don’t know why I pulled out Jim Beard’s Casserole book but I just did although I’ll argue that a veal casserole is slightly more romantic than say, tater tot casserole.

As to dessert, I thought the Seducer’s Cookbook by Mimi Sheraton would be a good place to look for a recipe although the chapter it came from - How to Get Him to Marry You - is a moot point seeing as how we already passed Go on that almost 17 years ago. Recipes in this section, however, were a far better choice than The Gay Divorcee and Can’t We Be Friends.

On the “how cosmic is that?” front, I had just finished making out a shopping list that included Damson Plum Jam when a neighbor popped over to check out our kitchen (we remodeled years ago and she wanted to see what we had done). As I was showing her the panty, I opened the door and danged if right there, front and center, was a jar of Damson Plum Jam, given to us by friends who now live in Maine. I was meant to make this tart!

As to the recipes themselves, they were good but not great, certainly not the level of a seductive meal. I never anticipated the difficulty in finding a simple veal cutlet in a city of this size but we went to a couple of stores before finally settling on veal stew meat. I cut down some of the pieces so as to make them stretch as buying three pounds of veal was out of the question at $12.00 a pound. So we had ourselves noodles and veal instead of veal and noodles! Were I to do this recipe again, I would also substitute small, white onions with diced onions as the white onions tend to run on the large size and therefore get picked out of the recipe.

As to the tart, it was good although I thought the topping was a little heavy for the thinly sliced apples resting below it but it didn’t affect the taste at all. I forgot to buy pecans but my husband is not a big fan of nuts so it all worked out in the end.

Veal and Noodles - Serves 8
1 pound noodles
1 pound small white onions (or substitute sliced or diced onions)
1 can condensed chicken broth
1 can white wine
1 package frozen peas
**note, I had to double the broth and wine in order to make the 2 cups necessary to finish the dish
3 pounds veal (I used 1.5 pounds)
Flour for coating the veal
Dry mustard, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper to season the veal
Grated lemon rind, enough to coat veal slices
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk

Cook the noodles in boiling salted water about 9 minutes until tender, not mushy. Peel 1 pound small white onions and boil until tender in 1 can condensed chicken broth and an equal amount of white wine. Skim out onions, reserving broth (note, you will need 2 cups by the time you are done; if you fall short, add broth and/or wine to the pan).

Dredge well 3 pounds of veal, sliced very thin, in flour seasoned with dry mustard, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper. Brown the veal well in fat in a skillet. When browned and drained on absorbent paper, sprinkle each slice with grated lemon rind. Cook 1 package of frozen peas according to instructions.

In a large, shallow casserole place layers of veal, noodles, onions and peas.

Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in top of a double-boiler then blend in 6 tablespoons of flour. Add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of the onion broth. Stir constantly until creamy smooth. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour this mixture over the layers in casserole and bake at 375 until bubbly – about 45 minutes.

Apple-Pecan Tart - serving size not given
4 apples (firm but not too sour)
3 tablespoons butter
½ cup Damson Plum Jam
1 tablespoon rum
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
½ lemon rind, finely grated
1 tablespoon flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups breadcrumbs, preferably made from light pumpernickel
1/3 cup finely ground pecans
2 egg whites
Salt

Peel, quarter and core apples and slice into thin lengths. Put 1 ½ tablespoons butter into a 10” skillet and when it bubbles, add half the apple slices. Saute until apples are golden brown on both sides and are firm but tender. Put them into a buttered 8” baking dish about 1 ½” to 2” deep. Add another 1 ½ tablespoons butter to the skillet, sauté the remaining apple slices and put them into the baking dish when they are done.

Rub the jam through a sieve into the skillet and add the rum. Cook slowly for 4 or 5 minutes so that the jam melts, but be careful that it does not scorch. Add this mixture to the apples and turn it through them gently.

Cream 3 tablespoons butter with the sugar in a mixing bowl, add yolks, lemon rind, cinnamon and flour and mix lightly before adding breadcrumbs and ground nuts. Add salt to the egg whites, beat until stiff, and fold into egg-crumb mixture. (Pet peeve: how MUCH salt? She doesn’t say so I threw in a very small amount. I would have liked to have known what effect this would have on the mixture but alas, it will remain a mystery).

Spoon mixture onto apples and spread evenly over them with a spatula. Bake in 325 oven for 40-50 minutes or until the topping is a deep golden brown.

This tart is best made a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator overnight. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving and/or whipped cream.