Veal Escalope with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Yesterday was G20 protests day here in the capital, so what better way to offend the more crustier of the demonstrators than by putting together this simple supper of veal and asparagus? Veal is often considered “cruel meat” in the UK and as such it rarely makes it onto the plate of the average at-home cook. Indeed (foodie fact alert!), veal accounts for just 0.1 per cent of meat bought in Britain and fewer than 1 in 100 households buy and eat it. I’m sure this would shock our European cousins in Italy, who can’t seem to get enough of that “baby cow, wow”.

Before you castigate me as some barbaric child chomper, and before my blog is hacked by the Animal Liberation Front, I should point out that I chose for this dish British “rosé ” veal. Unlike continental white veal, where the calves are confined to a crate to restrict their movement and muscle use, rosé veal is produced to high standards of animal welfare. The calves are suckled by their mothers, eat natural food and live outdoors in summer. They live for about six months, enjoying a longer life than many pigs. The flesh takes on a pink hue, but is still incredibly soft and tasty – a treat for the conscientious carnivore! You can see the pinkness of the meat in the shot below:

I popped out from work at lunchtime, running the gauntlet of G20 protestors, to make my way to the nearby Porterford Meats on Bow Lane. The friendly butcher there cut me a couple of veal escalopes and kindly did the job of “tapping out” the meat using a lump of marble of the sort that looked like it would come in handy in the event that any of the protestors strayed into his shop.

I picked up the rest of my shopping from Borough market, including asparagus flown in from Mexico (yes, me bad – more fuel for the eco-hackers) and a mixture of oyster, shitake and chestnut mushrooms. You can see them below along with the other ingredients of butter, cream and fresh thyme.

So, onto the (simple) cook-through. I started by trimming up the asparagus and popping them into boiling water for a couple of minutes before blanching them in iced water and setting to one side.

I then added the mushrooms to a pan with thyme, olive oil and a knob of butter. These were fried off until they began to colour and the water released from the mushrooms had cooked off.

Next a couple of tablespoons of the cream was stirred in and heated through. The creamy mushroom mixture was then seasoned and set aside to keep warm whilst I got on with flash-frying the veal.

For the escalopes, I seasoned them with salt and pepper and added them to a really hot pan with some olive oil. I cooked them for about 30 seconds each side, whilst at the same time I added the blanched asparagus back to a pan of boiling water to reheat.

Once the veal had turned a golden colour, I plated them up with the asparagus and the creamy mushrooms on top. You can see the dish below served with a pint of Morrisey-Fox Blonde ale. Yum!

So, how did it taste? The veal was scrumptious. Tender and a little sweet. The mushrooms and asparagus made a great accompaniment. Given how quick and easy the recipe was to do, I couldn’t be happier with the results. Its certainly a midweek supper dish I will be making again.

A last question: So far in my Great British Pub Food journey, have I been guilty of choosing the easiest recipes to try? Have I been easing myself in to the task? Hmm, perhaps I have. So a promise: this weekend I will try and tackle something a little more complicated and challenging. Honest gov!