Roulade of Veal Breast

I love working with less commonly used cuts of meat. Here's a recipe for veal navel brisket (or plate), which we put on the menu as veal breast. While I use a lot of point end brisket, the larger triangular brisket, I really enjoy working with the flatter, thinner navel brisket that comes from back towards the belly (hence the name navel). The great thing about a plate or navel brisket is that it is thin enough to roll, so I always seem to roll it.

No matter which cut of brisket you use, each requires long, slow cooking and will shrink considerably, so you must figure shrinkage loss into yield. I plan on at least 25% shrinkage loss (but no doubt you could reduce this using a really low temp on your combi oven). Fortunately, brisket pricing is low enough to offset shrinkage loss.

The following recipe made from a single brisket yields about 8 or 9 substantial portions. Scale up is fairly direct.

Roulade of Veal Breast Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Spinach

2-1/2 pounds mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery)
4 T garlic, minced
1 pound spinach
6 ounces goat cheese, softened
1 Le Québécois navel brisket, about 5 pounds
1 bouquet garni
12 ounces dry white wine
1 gallon tomato coulis (tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and pepper)

Procedure

Sweat half a pound of mirepoix and add a little minced garlic during the final couple minutes of cooking.

Blanch, shock, and wring out a pound of baby spinach. Chop well.

Soften 6 ounces of goat cheese.

Add all three ingredients to a bowl, mix, and season to taste.

Lay out the brisket, rib side up, skin side down on your cutting board. Cover the brisket with the spinach mixture, leaving a good one inch margin all the way around.

Roll and tie the brisket.

Brown the rolled brisket in a large braising pan, being careful not to burn the fond.

Remove the browned brisket from the pan and add the remaining mirepoix and the bouquet garni. Cook until the onions become translucent, then add the garlic and cook a couple minutes longer. Deglaze with white wine.

Place the brisket roll on top of the vegetables and add the tomato coulis. Adjust the liquid level with water as necessary. Braise at low temperature four to six hours as necessary.

When done, remove to a sheet tray and chill. Defat and season the braising liquid.

For service, remove the strings from the cold, firm brisket. Portion into slices about an inch thick. To reheat, add a couple ounces of water to a pan with a cold brisket slice and warm four or five minutes in a very hot oven.

Plating

I tossed some gemelli pasta in the braising sauce and put that down in a large pasta bowl with the veal leaning against the mound of pasta. Sauce over the veal and a bit of grated Pecorino Romano and a rosemary sprig for garnish.

Veal Brisket and Grits

Here's another recipe using veal brisket, a cut that's unfamiliar to customers and chefs alike. My inspiration for this recipe is grillades and grits, amazing comfort food from New Orleans and environs. I generally make this dish with beef paleron steaks, while high dollar New Orleans restaurants tend to use more expensive cuts of veal, such as butt tenders or eye rounds. I've got to tell you that veal brisket makes outstanding grillades.

This is a recipe for chefs; you'll want to scale this down for home use and no doubt, you'll need to substitute beef brisket for veal, unless you have a really good butcher shop. Also, the cook and reheat technique is for restaurants: you can either mimic that or not as you see fit.

Veal Brisket and Grits

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

Method
1. 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.

2. Remove briskets from pan.

3. Add the oil, duck fat, or bacon grease and bring to temperature.

4. Add the flour and stir frequently to form a medium brown roux.

5. Add the vegetables to the pan to stop the roux from cooking and stir well for a couple of minutes.

6. Add the garlic and spice mix and cook for another minute.

7. Add the tomatoes and mix well, then the briskets, and enough water to come about half way up the briskets.

7. Cover and braise until tender, 4-6 hours.

8. Remove meat to a hotel pan and chill.

9. Defat the gravy and season to taste. Reserve gravy for service.

Garnish
grits*

Assembly
1. Slice a portion of veal (three slices about 3/8" thick, about 8 ounces) across the grain.

2. Reheat 4 ounces of reserved gravy and the veal in a sauté pan.

3. Finish in a hot oven, turning the veal once, until everything is hot.

Plate Up
1. Mound grits in the well of large soup plate.

2. Place veal and gravy over.

3. Garnish as desired.

Chef'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 any more: 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.

*We use Anson Mills grits, the long cook 90-minute kind. Use the best grits you can find.

Veal Brisket with Vietnamese Spices

I'm doing a little recipe development for my veal supplier using brisket, a cut that's unfamiliar to customers and chefs alike. My inspiration for this recipe is Pho Hanoi, awesome rice noodle and beef soup from North Vietnam. I've recently commented how much I like soup and I was craving a big bowl of this soup when I was ready to start cooking the briskets.

Customer reception was uniformly positive, one customer stating, "That may have been the best veal I ever had."

This is a recipe for chefs; you'll want to scale this down for home use and no doubt, you'll need to substitute beef brisket for veal, unless you have a really good butcher shop. Also, the techniques and presentation are for restaurants: you can either mimic them or not as you see fit.

Veal Brisket with Vietnamese Spices

For 20-24 portions:
4 Le Québécois veal point end briskets (about 16 pounds)
vegetable oil
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup soy sauce
water
1 bunch green onions
1/2 bunch cilantro, with roots if possible
1 yellow onion, sliced
4 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped
16 star anise pods
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 cinnamon sticks
3 inch section ginger, sliced
2 Thai chiles

Method
1. 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.

2. Remove briskets from pan and pour off oil.

3. Add sugar to pan and cook to light caramel.

4. Deglaze with soy sauce and a quart of water.

5. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and place the briskets over.

6. Add water to come about half way up the briskets.

7. Cover and braise until tender, 4-6 hours.

8. Remove meat to a hotel pan and chill.

9. Pass the stock through a chinois and defat. Reserve stock for service.

Garnish
20-24 large cipollini onions, roasted
60-72 green onions, cleaned and trimmed at about 6-8 inches long
hoisin sauce, in a squeeze bottle
star anise pods
reserved stock

Assembly
1. Slice a portion of veal (three slices about 3/8" thick, about 8 ounces) across the grain.

2. Reheat 4 ounces of reserved stock in a sauté pan.

3. Add three green onions, a cipollino, a squirt of hoisin sauce, and the veal to the stock.

4. Depending on the saltiness of the stock, lightly season the veal.

5. Finish in a hot oven, turning the veal once, until the green onions are cooked and everything is hot.

6. Reduce the stock over high flame as desired.

Plate Up
1. Fan the three slices of veal in the well of a large soup plate.

2. Garnish the top of the fan with the cipollino.

3. Drape the green onions over.

4. Place a whole star anise pod on top of the cipollino.

5. Broth over all.

6. Zigzag with hoisin.