Selle de Veau à la Romanoff

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large oval cocotte or covered roasting pan
• •Wide sauté pan with lid
• •Heavy medium saucepan
• •Small heavy saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve and cheesecloth
• •Food processor or heavy mortar
• •Sharp boning knife
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Long ovenproof serving platter
• •Warm sauceboat

Instructions

1. 1

   Make beurre d'écrevisse

   Crush the dried crayfish heads and shells into coarse rubble with a mortar or food processor. Melt the ½ cup butter in a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, add the shells, and cook for 15 minutes with only an occasional lazy bubble, stirring often. The butter should turn orange-red and smell sweet, never toasted. Strain it through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth, pressing firmly, then let the sediment settle and pour off the clear coloured butter. Measure 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g) and reserve it. If the shells begin catching, lift the pan from the heat immediately and strain without scraping up the dark sediment; the clear butter above it is still usable.

   The crayfish meat does not enter this preparation. Keep it chilled for another meal; the Romanoff flavour comes from the shells dissolved into real butter.
2. 2

   Brown the saddle

   Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Pat the veal completely dry and season it with 2 teaspoons of the salt and 1 teaspoon of the black pepper. Heat the clarified butter in a covered roasting pan or oval cocotte over medium-high heat, then brown the saddle patiently on every accessible side, about 12 to 15 minutes. Lift it out. Add the onion and carrot to the same pan and cook until lightly bronzed, scraping without disturbing the brown film underneath.

3. 3

   Braise it gently

   Pour 3 cups of the stock into the pan and scrape every bit of fond from the bottom. Add the bouquet garni and return the saddle with its fat side uppermost; the liquid should rise no more than one-third of the way up the meat. Cover tightly and braise for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, basting twice, until the centre of the loin reaches 140 to 142°F (60 to 61°C). It will reach a safe 145°F (63°C) as it rests. If the liquid boils hard, lower the oven; if the pan threatens to dry, add a little hot water. A saddle is tender loin, not stewing meat, so stop while it remains juicy.

4. 4

   Braise the fennel

   While the veal cooks, melt the 2 tablespoons butter for the fennel in a wide sauté pan. Set the fennel halves cut-side down and let them colour lightly for 4 minutes. Add the remaining 1 cup stock, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper. Cover and cook at a bare simmer for 25 to 35 minutes, until a knife slips through the core without resistance. Uncover and reduce the liquor until it glazes the fennel. If the liquid disappears while the cores remain firm, add ¼ cup water, cover again, and continue gently.

5. 5

   Coher the mushrooms

   Melt the 2 tablespoons butter for the mushrooms in a broad pan over medium-high heat. Add the minced mushrooms, ¼ teaspoon salt, and the remaining ⅛ teaspoon black pepper. Cook until their water has evaporated and the mince begins to take a little colour, about 10 minutes. Add the cream and reduce until the mushrooms form a moist, close paste that holds the track of the spoon. If the mixture remains loose, keep cooking; flour would mute the mushrooms and make the filling heavy. Cover and keep warm.

6. 6

   Build the Béchamel

   Melt the ¼ cup butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, the cooked butter-and-flour foundation, and cook for 2 minutes without allowing it to colour. Whisk in the hot milk gradually, making each addition smooth before adding the next. Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring along the pan floor, until the Béchamel coats a spoon in a generous layer. Season it firmly with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne. If it lumps, whisk vigorously and pass it through a fine sieve. Hold it covered directly on the surface, but do not add the beurre d'écrevisse yet.

7. 7

   Reduce the clear jus

   Transfer the veal to a board, cover it loosely, and rest it for 20 minutes. Strain the braising liquor into a fat separator or narrow jug, discard the vegetables and bouquet garni, and remove every visible trace of grease. Boil the clear liquor until reduced to about 1 cup, glossy enough to cling lightly to a spoon but still fluid enough to pour. Strain it once more into a warm sauceboat. If it becomes salty before it gains body, stop reducing and serve it lighter; balance matters more than forcing it to syrup.

8. 8

   Cut orderly collops

   Remove the strings and set the saddle bone on a warmed, ovenproof serving platter. Run a sharp boning knife close against the backbone and ribs to lift the two long loin fillets away intact, including the smaller tenderloin strips if present. Slice the fillets across the grain into even collops about ½ inch (1.25 cm) thick, keeping every slice in its original order. That order is what lets the fillets return to the bone looking whole.

9. 9

   Finish the Béchamel

   Reheat the Béchamel gently until it just begins to move, then take it completely off the heat. Whisk in exactly 4 tablespoons of the reserved beurre d'écrevisse, one tablespoon at a time. This preserves the source proportion of four ounces of crayfish butter per quart of Béchamel. Never boil it after the butter enters. If orange droplets bead on the surface or the sauce turns greasy, put 1 tablespoon cold milk in a clean bowl and whisk in the broken sauce by spoonfuls until it comes together. Ça se rattrape.

10. 10

    Rebuild and mask

    Spread a rounded teaspoon of the warm mushroom mixture on the cut face of each collop, then lean the slices together in their original sequence and return both reconstructed fillets to the saddle bone. If the veal has cooled, cover it loosely and warm it for 5 minutes in a 275°F (135°C) oven before saucing. Coat the entire upper surface generously with the crayfish-finished Béchamel, but do not brown it. Arrange the glazed fennel halves as a border and carry the platter to the table, with the clear reduced jus served separately. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Order the saddle from a butcher and give the dimensions of your pan. Ask for a center cut with the chine trimmed or split to fit, the kidney removed, and the joint tied. A boneless veal loin will taste fine but cannot give you the reconstructed presentation the entry requires.
• •Prepared beurre d'écrevisse from a good fishmonger is an honest home equivalent if it contains crayfish shells and real butter. Lobster or shrimp-shell butter follows the same grammar but tastes different, so use it only when crayfish cannot be had and say plainly what changed.
• •Keep the two sauces separate. The coral Béchamel masks the veal; the clear braising jus is passed at the table. Mixing them would muddy both the colour and the precise shellfish flavour.
• •A broad, dry white Burgundy has enough body for the veal and cream while leaving the fennel and crayfish clear. Serve it cool rather than very cold, so the wine does not disappear beside the butter.
• •Refrigerate leftovers within two hours. Keep the veal and fennel for up to two days, with the Béchamel and jus in separate covered containers, then reheat everything gently so the sauce stays smooth and the loin does not tighten.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the beurre d'écrevisse up to three days ahead and refrigerate it tightly covered, or freeze it for up to one month. Bring the measured portion just to cool room temperature before whisking it into the Béchamel.
• •The mushroom filling and braised fennel can be prepared one day ahead. Reheat the mushrooms over low heat with a spoonful of cream, and warm the fennel in its reduced braising glaze.
• •The Béchamel base can be made one day ahead without the beurre d'écrevisse. Press parchment directly against its surface, chill it, and reheat slowly with a splash of milk before completing the final emulsion.
• •Braise and carve the saddle on the day it will be served. Reheating a whole cooked loin from cold risks tightening the very meat this elaborate construction is meant to protect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 750g)