Côtelettes à la Murillo

Côtelettes à la Murillo (lamb cutlets Murillo style) teach the discipline of a composed cutlet: one browned face, a topping dry enough to stand, and fierce heat that finishes meat and glaze together. The one true thing is this: the mushroom hash must surrender all its water before the reduced béchamel, a milk sauce tightened with a pale roux, binds it into a dome. Leave that mixture wet and it slides from the lamb while everything underneath grows damp.

The original stood in a kitchen with a saucier tending béchamel, a stockpot never off the fire, and a salamander waiting to glaze each order. This entry actually asks for no stock, so the honest home translation leaves the stockpot alone. A small saucepan does the saucier's work, while a blazing broiler and a preheated metal tray replace the salamander. Eight lamb cutlets feed four. The paper frills are brigade scaffolding and can go; the one-sided frying, mushroom dome, Parmesan glaze, and ring of butter-tossed capsicum and tomato are the dish and must stay.

Done properly, the cutlets arrive in a proud crown, their Parmesan caps bronzed, the lamb juicy beneath, and the red and gold vegetables gleaming around them. Cooking well is not cooking fancy. Dry the mushroom hash completely before it meets the béchamel; that is the step that decides the dish.