Le Cordon Bleu - Lesson 16

Mains

Medaillons de veau sautes a la sauce au tarragon

served with Gratin dauphinois

Desert

Crepes aux poires 

Aka Juicy soft veal medallions with a creamy tarragon sauce (of course) served with Gruyere cheese potato bake and if you're not full yet, we'll throw in a couple of thin pancakes with pears (that have been macerated in sugar).

Before we get started with the cooking and eating of veal, I'd like to take a minute to talk about what veal is and where it comes from.  Veal is the meat from a young calf,  mostly a byproduct of dairy farming.  In order for diary cows to continue to produce milk they must give birth to a calf once a year.   This fuels the production of veal calves and bobby calves (which I'm not going to go into). Across the world veal is a controversial issue due to the treatment of veal calves.  Different countries treat their calves differently, resulting in different types of meat produced.  

In France, and other parts of Europe, veal calves spend their entires lives in individual crates, where they are unable to turn around, they do not see the light of day and they are fed a nutritionally complete milk formula resulting in a classic white or ivory to pink coloured meat.  They are slaughtered 18-20 weeks old.

You can feel a bit better about enjoying your veal in Australia as here the calves are generally reared in groups (unless they have been quarantined due to illness), enjoy a diet of fed milk, milk substitute, grain and cereals.  They are reared until they are 7-8 months old resulting in the meat being pink-red with a texture not quite as silky as the French version, but with very little taste difference.

Since ancient times veal has been an important ingredients in both Austrian and French cuisines.  Generally the same cooking rules apply to veal as they do to Beef, using the same cuts for the same methods of cooking, with the exception of the rareness.  Because veal calves are slaughtered so young, they have under developed immune system and are more prone to illness and so veal should be cooked a minimum of medium.

Returning to our French cuisine, we were using the tenderloin, which is the premium cut of veal.  It consists of the eye meat above the backbone, is nice and tender and has very little fat and sinew.  The tenderloin gets cut into the 3 main parts: tournados, chateaubriand and filet mignons.

I was lucky to pick up a piece of the chateaubriand, with the smallest amount of sinew, so after cleaning up the tiny spec of sinew and fat, I cut it into 3 medallions, tied them with twine (to hold their shape) and let them rest in the fridge to set their shape.

We sautéed our veal medalions medium-rare, to an internal temperature of approximately 60 degrees, in a splash of grapeseed oil.  When sauteing any meat, put the meat into a hot pan and then try not to touch or move it before it has had a chance to develop a good colour.  The brown colour holds lots of taste and looks great.  Nothing worse than a grey piece of meat on your plate.   Sneak a peak at the colour, once you are happy, turn it over and repeat on the other side, adding another splash of oil if your pan has dried up.   I then tested my internal temp on my thermometer, and if you have the colour you want and its not yet cooked, pop it in the over to finish it off.  After the cooking is complete, remove the veal and leave to rest.  Then comes the sauce; degrease the pan by wiping off any excess oil using paper towel, deglace your pan using 100mls of white wine and let it reduce to 1/2.  Strain and remove to a clean pan (one that won't discolour), add 100mls of stock and reduce again to approx 1/2.  You sauce should be starting to get thicker and stickier by now.   And then finally, add 100mls of cream and reduce again.  Just before serving, add a blob of butter and finely sliced fresh tarragon.  YUM!!

Serve your medallions in a puddle of your delicious sauce.

While this was all going on we also get our Gratin Dauphinas on the go...Dauphine is a region in France. Its cuisine relies heavily on cheese, freshwater fish, crayfish, mushrooms, potatoes, and fruit, making our Gruyere cheese and potato bake very traditional, and with no shortage of cream, also very delicious and fattening.

Start by taking a few peeled Desiree potatoes, slicing them about 1.5cm thick, par boiling them in milk that has been seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg (and maybe a bit of garlic).  In the meantime heat 300ml of seasoned cream, strain your potatoes and carefully layer them into a pre-buttered and dish that has been rubbed with a garlic clove.  Pour over the warm cream to 3/4 full and bake at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.  Cover in grated gruyere cheese and bake again until cheese is golden and potatoes and soft all the way through.  

Finally to finish off with the crepes.  Crepes originate from Brittany, a region northwest of France, but are now consumed across France and are considered a national dish.  

A crepe is a thin pancake made with a trace of butter and then fried in butter or oil.  They are eaten both savoury and sweet and today we made sweet crepes with macerated pears.  

You can macerate fruit by sprinkling it with sugar, this allows fruit to release and stew in their own juices making them tastier and easier to digest.

It is best to use fruit that is still firm. We macerate our pears by peeling, de-coring and then slicing them into thin slices.  We layered them onto a tray and sprinkled them with sugar.  This was then left out while our batter rested.  Oh, I haven't mentioned that yet, yes... it is very important to make your crepe batter ahead of time and let it rest for at least 1 hour.  This is so the gluten in the flour is given time to relax before cooking.  If you are resting them in the fridge, return them to room tempreture before cooking.

Finally, before cooking, make sure you are using a frying pan that is smooth.  Most restaurant serving crepes will keep their crepe pans separately, so that they are kept beautifully smooth so that your crepes don't stick.  

Heat up a blob of butter and just before it browns pour in your crepe batter.  Spread evenly over the surface and when you have colour, turn it over and cook the other side.   We layered our slices of pear into our batter, but you just as easily add your pears after cooking, fold them up and serve with some cream.  We finished our crepes off by brushing them with Poire Williiam liqueur (pear liqueur), but you could use any liqueur of your choice.