Download this Veal Cooking Guide for even more information.

The most common recipes for veal involve traditional applications of veal cutlets, chops or shanks, but it is easy to move past these items to serve innovative veal dishes.

Veal takes well to ingredients that introduce salt, acid and bitterness, such as salted capers, lemon or preserved lemon, anchovy, fresh tomato, olives, artichokes and prosciutto or crispy pancetta. Mediterranean herbs work well too – sage, bay leaf, rosemary and marjoram.

Veal cutlets, pounded thin and lightly dusted with flour, can be sautéed with white wine, lemon, marjoram and chanterelle mushrooms. Veal shanks braise well in white wine, bay leaf and fresh tomato, afterwards served in their cooking juices and topped with a gremolata of lemon zest, chopped Italian parsley and extra virgin olive oil. Veal chops are excellent marinated with anchovy, kalamata olives and rosemary, then grilled.

Veal Briskets yield High Margins

One of the more cost-effective veal cuts for the foodservice chef is the brisket.  Here are some great veal brisket recipes:

Wild Mushroom Braised Veal Brisket over Gorgonzola Polenta & Braised Greens

Separate brisket plate from deckle. Remove all excess fat. Cut into 8oz. pieces. Sear until caramelized. Set aside.

Sauté 2 large carrots, 6 stalks celery, 1 large Spanish onion and 6 cloves of garlic over medium heat scraping bottom of pan until tender. Deglaze with white wine. Reduce white wine until practically gone. Add 2 gallons of veal stock or 1 gallon veal demi glaze & 1 gallon of water. Add 2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms & return veal brisket to pan.

Bring to boil then turn down and simmer for 3-4 hours. When meat is tender, remove, then reduce broth to rich sauce (consistency should coat back of spoon). When sauce is ready, strain and return meat. This will prevent from drying.

Make polenta to your liking. Add crumbled artisanal blue cheese over polenta to taste. Preheat individual portion of veal brisket in sauce, adding fresh wild mushrooms of your choice. Braise greens such as chard or escarole with garlic. Place on plate next to polenta. Slice brisket and place it over top nape’ with sauce.

Slow Roasted Veal Brisket with Parmesan Risotto & Spinach

Season veal brisket generously with salt, pepper and 2 sprigs of your choice of herb per piece. Individually wrap in aluminum foil. Put on sheet tray and put in preheated 300-degree oven for 3 hours. Remove from oven and let rest in aluminum for at least 30 minutes. Drain juice from inside the aluminum foil into sauce pan and add demi glaze. Reduce to sauce consistency.

Precook Risotto Reserve. Bring cream to simmer, add risotto and handful of Parmesan cheese. Cook until tender, adjust seasoning. Bring enough sauce for 1 portion to simmer in saucepan. Slice veal brisket against the grain scraping off excess fat. Add to sauce to reheat. Sauté spinach and assemble plate.

Veal Brisket and Grits

Ed Matthews, Owner and Executive Chef at One Block West, knows how to turn a low-food-cost item into a delectable profit center. Check out his recipe below and others on his blog.

For 20-24 portions: 4 Le Québécois veal point end briskets (about 16 pounds); vegetable oil; 1-1/2 cups duck fat*, oil, or other fat; 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour; 4 poblano* chiles, diced; 2 large yellow onions, diced; 1 bunch green onions, sliced; 6 stalks celery, diced; 6 tablespoons garlic, minced; 4 T Cajun spice mix*; 1/2 #10 can diced tomatoes with juice; water; salt and pepper to taste.

Heat a braising pan over high flame, film with vegetable oil, and sear hard both sides of each brisket, being careful not to burn the fond. Remove briskets from pan. Add the oil, duck fat, or bacon grease and bring to temperature. Add the flour and stir frequently to form a medium brown roux. Add the vegetables to the pan to stop the roux from cooking and stir well for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and spice mix and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes and mix well, then the briskets, and enough water to come about half way up the briskets. Cover and braise until tender, 4-6 hours. Remove meat to a hotel pan and chill. Defat the gravy and season to taste. Reserve gravy for service.

Slice a portion of veal (three slices about 3/8″ thick, about 8 ounces) across the grain. Reheat 4 ounces of reserved gravy and the veal in a sauté pan. Finish in a hot oven, turning the veal once, until everything is hot. Mound grits in the well of large soup plate. Place veal and gravy over. Garnish as desired.

Ed’s Notes: Roux in Cajun home cooking is made from whatever fat happens to be on hand. If you process as much duck at your restaurant as we do here, you have buckets of duck fat on hand at any time. Duck fat gives the roux great depth of flavor.

Poblano chiles are not traditional in Cajun and Creole cooking; Bell peppers are. To me, bell peppers have an assertive vegetal flavor that I don’t really care for and I find that they bring out the absolute worst qualities in a wine. I’m also convinced that if the Acadians had had Poblanos, they would have used them in preference to Bell peppers.

Cajun spice mix is ubiquitous: you can find it anywhere. Years ago, I used to make a unique blend for each specific dish, but now as a time saver, we make 5-pound batches of a blend that I’ve been tweaking for 10 years. Use whatever you feel like.

Other Veal Recipes

For other suggestions for using grain-fed veal, Le Québécois offers a collection of grain-fed veal recipes covering most cuts on their website

Veal Wine Pairings

Although veal is a red meat, its lightness and leanness make it an excellent match for white wines and lighter, more acidic reds. If you are serving veal prepared with white wine and anchovy or lemon, choose a full white like a Soave or Vin de Savoie. If you have added chanterelle mushrooms to the sauté, or are serving grilled veal chops or veal shanks braised in tomato, go for a red such as Nebbiolo, Gamay Noir or Zweigelt, a medium-bodied red wine from Austria.

Available Food Service Veal Programs:

 Call us at (888) 276-5955 for more information!

 
Chanterelle mushrooms are one of the more widely known and most sought-after of the wild mushrooms harvested in North America. Found in forests on both coasts under conifers and oak trees, they are a warm yellow to orange in color, with a trumpet-like cap over a sometimes spindly stem. Their aroma is both earthy and fruity, often described as apricot-like, and they have an earthy flavor and firm, chewy texture when simply sautéed with butter and herbs or added to a soup or stew. Chanterelles tend to come into season in the Pacific Northwest, depending on weather, anytime from fall until early spring.

Applications:

Chanterelles are best when shown on their own, such as in a sauté or a ragout, or when accompanying a main dish like salmon or wild boar. Their firm texture and strong earthiness go well with herbs like sage, rosemary, tarragon and thyme. They are good in stews with rich stocks, and go very well with roasted corn and with mild, creamy goat cheese.

Wine Pairings:

Pair a simple sauté of chanterelles with a very dry rose wine from Provence or Spain. If serving them as a side dish with salmon or wild boar, choose a medium-bodied fruity red, such as a simple Burgundy or a light sangiovese like Morellino di Scansano.

How to Select:

Look for mushrooms that are clean, uniformly golden and dry. Size will vary a lot, from small, compact buttons to larger, flowery ones, but always try to find chanterelles with compact, unopened gills and not too much stem. It is not uncommon for a batch of wild chanterelles to contain some dirt or pine needles, but avoid any that are wet or are beginning to turn soggy.

Handling & Storage:

Store chanterelles cool and dry, with room to breathe. The best storage is in a walk-in cooler in a ventilated bin, layered and covered with napkins or paper towels. Never wash chanterelles, and always try to keep them dry.

Pre-prep:

Brush chanterelles free of any dirt or pine needles you may find. Trim the ends of the larger stems, retaining any trimmings for making stock. Smaller mushrooms will cook nicely as they are; larger ones should be halved or even quartered, lengthwise.

Cooking:

Chanterelles can be sautéed or braised. They are also easily added to soups or hearty stews.

How to Buy:

Just give us a call at (800) 276-5955! We’ll FedEx overnight your order, fresh from the mountains of the Pacific Northwest!  We offer wholesale fresh chanterelle mushrooms, dried chanterelle mushrooms for foodservice, and frozen chanterelle mushrooms from France.

For information about some of our other foodservice products, visit our Chef’s Notes Collection.

We are a fine-dining restaurant supplier that specializes in “center of the plate” products that master chefs rely upon when designing their signature dishes.  (If you know MarxFoods.com, we are their big sister…the original company that MarxFoods.com was created from).

While this division is focused on serving fine restaurants, we’d like to ask YOU, the restaurant patron, to tell us where you would most like to eat.

Leave a comment below, telling us the name, city and state of the restaurant where you would most like to eat and why and you will be entered to receive a $200 gift certificate to use at that restaurant.

Any fine dining establishment in the US is fair game!

Enter by May 3, 2009 at midnight by leaving a comment below.  The winning entry will be selected at random using the random integer generator at random.org and will be announced on May 4, 2009 May 5, 2009 May 6, 2009.

Good luck!!!

Read Contest Rules.

Fiddlehead Ferns, one of the stars of our wholesale wild produce line, are the scroll-like fronds of any wild edible fern. They grow in clusters near streams on mountain slopes in the NW & NE coasts of North America. Pickers forage the mountains in their “secret spots” where fiddleheads grow every year.

Flavor Profile:

Fiddleheads taste like a cross between asparagus and an artichoke. Their mild flavor and nutty bite will please the most discriminating palate.

Applications:

They can be used in ways similar to any firm green vegetable and are exciting substitutes for string beans, spinach, artichokes and asparagus. Fiddleheads are great in pasta dishes and as a side for steak, lamb, seafood and poultry.

How to select:

As the fern fronds mature, they will begin to unfurl and become less tender. Therefore, the freshest fronds with the tightest scrolls and brightest jade green color will have the best flavor and texture. When fresh, their aroma is similar to fresh-mowed grass.

Handling & Storage:

Tightly wrap and refrigerate fiddleheads at 35° F to prevent drying. They have a short shelflife and should be used within a couple days.

Pre-prep:

Before cooking, rub off any brown scales and trim to about 1 inch below the coil of the head. Discard any fiddleheads with black scales. Blanch with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of baking soda. Then, shock the fiddleheads to retain their beautiful jade green color.

Cooking:

They can be sauteed, stir-fried or steamed. They should be cooked to achieve an asparagus-like texture with a light crunch that gives when bitten into.

Nutrition:

A six oz. serving contains 58 calories and .7 grams of fat. Fiddleheads are a good source of vitamins A and C. Fiddlehead ferns should be consumed in small quantities. Do not eat raw.

How to Buy:

Restaurants: give us a call at (888) 276-5955! We’ll overnight them to you, fresh from the mountains!  Home chefs: Buy fiddlehead ferns here.

For information about some of our other foodservice products, visit our Chef’s Notes Collection.

Le Quebecois Grain-fed Veal has just released a new product: veal demi-glace made from Le Quebecois bones.

Unlike the typical recipe for commercial veal demi, which relies upon a roux-thickened espagnole sauce to stretch the amount of veal stock used, Le Quebecois is made in the style of glace de viande, meaning that it is all stock. This results in a purer veal flavor, unclouded by the muddy taste of concentrated brown roux. It also means you can safely serve sauces made from it as part of gluten-free dishes without running the risk of aggravating someone’s allergy.

Le Quebecois Veal Demi-Glace is made in a kitchen by expert chefs and is now available through North American Import Export frozen in 4 pound tubs.

To use, simply thaw the demi and add to your preparations as you would house-made demi-glace. No reconstitution or dilution necessary. Any leftovers can merely be frozen again and used at a later date.

Le Québécois Grain-fed Veal just hosted a veal recipe contest. Professional chefs and culinary students submitted 135 extremely impressive, professional veal recipes to the contest.   

All of the recipes have been organized by cut and can be viewed at the Le Québécois veal recipe collection.

Finalist #1: Herb Roasted Loin of Veal, Layered Confit Potatoes with Braised Veal, Creamy Salsify, Pan Seared Sweet Breads and Parsnip Chips

by David Fritsche, Senior Sous Chef of Jumeirah Essex House in New York City

Finalist #2: Osso Bucco Stuffed Herb Crusted Veal Chop over Porcini and White Truffle Risotto with Brunello de Montalcino Sauce

by Phil Kane, Chef de Cuisine of The Colony Bay Club in Bonita Springs, FL

Finalist #3: Techniques in Veal: Spring Braise en Croute, Saute & Crepenette

by Dean A. Thomas, Executive Chef of Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in Lakeside, CA

Finalist #4: “21^st Century Vitello Tonnato” Braised Grain-fed Veal Osso Bucco and Sashimi Tuna Roll with Celery Root Horseradish Mash, Pignoli Nut Chive Gremolata and Bone Marrow Balsamic Reduction

by Dino Jagtiani, Chef / Owner of Rare and Temptation Bar & Restaurant in Cupecoy, St. Maarten, N.A.

Finalist #5: Veal Scalopini Salad with Grilled Pancetta Wrapped Figs, Goat Cheese & Shitake Mushrooms

By Connie Deady, Corporate Chef of Occidental Petroleum Corp. in Los Angeles, CA

THE WINNING RECIPE:

Herb Roasted Loin of Veal by Chef David Fritsche

Chef David won $1000 in cash and a trip for two to Montreal.  

The four contest finalists; Chef Philip Kane, Chef Dean Thomas, Chef Dino Jagtiani, and Chef Connie Deady won a $250 gift certificate to MarxFoods.com.

Next week, we’ve got some hot deals on menu items that you can make nice margins on.

First off, game sausage is a fantastic way to get game on your menu inexpensively.  Next week, we’ve got Italian Wild Boar Sausage for only $.92 per piece on our food service weekly specials. 

Also, Grass-fed Beef Tenderloins are only $6.25 per lb. and New Zealand Lamb Racks are only $6.95/lb.

Don’t forget, too, that Fall Wild Mushrooms are in season.  Right now, we’ve got Chanterelles, Lobsters and Matsutakes on special. 

Finally, enter the Le Quebecois Grain-fed Veal Recipe Contest.  And, encourage your customers to enter our consumer divisions’ oyster contest.

Thanks to the 70 chefs who submitted recipes in our wild boar recipe contest!

Last week, we selected four finalists.  And, last Friday our Executive Chef prepared those four recipes for our judges.  

The four finalists are:

Finalist #1: Black & Tan Sirloin, Shank Confit & Southern Fried
by Chef Dean Thomas of Barona Valley Ranch Restaurant in Lakeside, CA

Finalist #2: Wild Boar Ragu with Paparadelle
by Jason Weiner of Almond Restaurant in Bridgehampton, NY

Finalist #3: Roulade of Wild Boar Rack
by Ed Matthews of One Block West in Winchester, VA

Finalist #4: Roast Loin of Wild Boar w/Apricots, Apples & Prunes
by James Canora of Delmonico’s in New York City

All four recipes were delicious and plated beautifully.  The decision was difficult.  But, we had to choose a winner.

THE WINNER: Roulade of Wild Boar Rack by Chef Ed Matthews

Chef Ed will receive a check for $500.  

Thanks again to all of the chefs who entered exceptional recipes.  If you participated in the contest, you’ll receive an email offering you a discount on your first Wild Boar purchase from NAIE. 

And, Le Québécois Grain-fed Veal is hosting a Veal Recipe Contest that starts on October 1st.

Finally, to the home chefs who have been following the contest, you can Buy Wild Boar here.

As game meat is increasing in popularity, an easy way to introduce it to your menu is with specialty game sausage. Game sausage has a relatively low food cost and high profit potential.  And, it’s an excellent item for a slightly edgy mixed grill. Plate costs can be cut with out losing desirability—it’s a win-win.

The intricate flavors of our specialty game sausage can really be enhanced when paired with the right beer or wine. If you’d like to know what to recommend to drink, check out this list of beer and wine pairings for sausage by our resident sommelier.

The Perfect Drinks to go with Your Links:

Venison Sausage with Merlot Wine & Blueberries:  
Wine: 2005 Long Shadows Pedestal (Merlot), Columbia Valley
-or- Sineann Merlot Champoux Vineyard 2006 Washington
Beer: Dogfish Head Black & Blue, Milton, DE (Strong Belgian style fermented with blueberries and blackberries)

Buffalo Sausage with Chipotle Chilies: 
Wine:  2005 Domaine de Belliviere Rouge Gorge, Coteaux de Loir (Pineau d’Aunis)
-or-: (J): Alvaro Palacios Priorat “Les Terrasses” 2005 Priorat, Spain
Beer: Pike Brewing Old Bawdy Barley Wine, Seattle

Rabbit Sausage with White Wine: 
Wine: 2006 Domaine Weinbach Pinot Blanc, Alsace
-or-: La Badiane Cassis Blanc “Terroir des Deux Soeurs” 2007 Provence, France
Beer: Huyghe Brewery Delirium Tremens, Melle, Belgium (golden triple)

Duck Sausage with Orange Liquor:
Wine: 2006 Gross Gelber Muskateller Steirisch Klassik, Sudsteiermark, Austria
-or-: Eric Texier Cotes du Rhone Viognier 2007 Rhone Valley, France
Beer: Unibroue La Fin du Monde, Quebec

Chicken Sausage with Apples & Cranberries:
Wine: 2004 Georg Breuer Spatburgunder, Rheingau, Germany (Pinot Noir)
-or-: Laurent Gautier Chiroubles “Chatenay” Vieilles Vignes 2006 Beaujolais, France
Beer: Brasserie Dupont Foret, Belgium (Organic Saison)

Wild Boar Sausage with Cranberries and Shiraz Wine: 
Wine: 2001 M. Chapoutier Cornas, Rhone, France
-or-: Glaetzer Shiraz “The Bishop” 2006 Barrossa Valley, Australia
Beer: St. Bernardus ABT 12, Watou, Belgium

Duck Sausage with Foie Gras and Sauterne Wine 
Wine: 2005 Domaine de Belliviere Calligramme, Jasnieres, Loire, France (ridiculous off-dry chenin)
-or-: Francois Chidaine Montlouis-Sur-Loire Demi-Sec “Les Tuffeaux” 2006 Loire Valey, France
Beer: Anderson Valley Brewing Company Brother David’s Triple, Boonville, CA

Pro Chefs: For more info, contact us.   Home Chefs: Buy Game Sausages Here.