Côtelettes de Chevreuil Conti

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch heavy skillet
• •2 to 3-quart saucepan for the lentils
• •1½ to 2-quart saucepan for the poivrade
• •Food mill or food processor
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Warm oval serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Set the order

   Take the venison from the cold about 25 minutes before cooking. Cut each tongue slice into an oval resembling the eye of a cutlet, using a small cutter or a sharp knife, then cover and leave at cool room temperature. Save the trimmings for another meal. Finely dice half the carrot for the poivrade and leave the other half in a large piece for the lentils. Set a serving platter and a bowl for the purée in a low oven, about 200°F (95°C).

2. 2

   Cook the lentils

   Put the lentils in a saucepan with the onion, the large piece of carrot, bay leaf, 2½ cups of the stock, and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 25 to 35 minutes, until completely tender but not burst into sludge. Remove the aromatics, reserving any cooking liquor. Pass the lentils through a food mill, or pulse them briefly in a food processor, then beat in 4 tablespoons of butter and enough reserved liquor to make a light purée that falls softly from a spoon. If it becomes dense, add warm stock a tablespoon at a time; if it is loose, stir it over low heat for a minute. Ça se rattrape. Cover closely and keep warm.

3. 3

   Build the poivrade

   Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced carrot, celery, and shallot, then cook until deeply golden, about 8 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook until it smells nutty and turns the color of a hazelnut. Add the tomato paste and crushed peppercorns, cooking for another minute. Pour in the vinegar and reduce until only a moist glaze remains, then add 1½ cups of stock and the bouquet garni. Simmer gently for 25 minutes, skimming as needed, until the sauce is nappé, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain through a fine sieve and press lightly on the vegetables. Hold the poivrade over the gentlest heat. If it tightens, loosen it with a spoonful of stock; if it remains thin, reduce it further.

4. 4

   Prepare the cutlets

   Dry the venison thoroughly with paper towels, including around the bones. Season immediately before cooking with the remaining salt and the ground pepper. Wet meat cannot sauté properly because its surface must shed water before it can brown. Keep a rack set over a tray beside the stove so the cooked cutlets can drain without sitting in their oil.

5. 5

   Sauté the venison

   Heat a heavy 12-inch skillet over high heat, add the oil, and wait for the first clear wisp from its surface. Sauté the cutlets in two uncrowded batches, about 2 to 3 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second, until richly bronzed. Reduce the heat slightly if the crust races ahead of the center. Lift the cutlets to the rack when an instant-read thermometer reaches about 140°F (60°C), then rest them for at least 3 minutes and confirm they reach 145°F (63°C); if they do not, return them to the pan for 20 to 30 seconds per side. Blot only the beads of excess oil around their edges. If the pan fond turns black rather than mahogany, wipe it away before the next batch and add fresh oil. You lose a little fond, not the dinner.

6. 6

   Swill and finish

   Pour away the excess frying oil while leaving the brown fond in the skillet. Add the white wine and swill it around the hot pan, scraping up every mahogany speck. Reduce the wine by half, then strain this liquor into the waiting Sauce Poivrade and simmer for 2 minutes. Take the sauce off the heat and whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of cold butter, a little at a time, until it gleams. Do not boil after the butter goes in. If the sauce looks greasy, whisk a teaspoon of cold stock in a clean warm pan, then add the sauce back gradually. Ça se rattrape.

7. 7

   Build the crown

   Arrange the cutlets upright in a close crown on the warm platter, overlapping them slightly and placing one similarly shaped collop of salted tongue between each pair. Spoon the poivrade over the meat so it coats the cutlets and pools lightly beneath them without burying the tongue. Beat the lentil purée once more, loosening it with warm stock if needed, then send it alongside in its warmed bowl. Serve immediately. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask for rib cutlets from a venison rack, evenly cut and still on the bone. Venison is very lean, so equal thickness matters more than pedigree; mixed sizes force the small cutlets dry while the large ones finish.
• •Buy cooked salted beef tongue from a good butcher or delicatessen, plain rather than heavily smoked. Curing and simmering a raw tongue is excellent work, but it belongs to another cooking day and adds nothing to tonight's test of the Conti arrangement.
• •Poivrade should taste of brown stock first, then vinegar and pepper. If the vinegar strikes before the meat does, add a little stock and reduce again; sweetness is not the correction.
• •A supple Pinot Noir or a peppery northern Rhône red suits the venison and poivrade. Choose freshness over great weight, since the tongue and lentils already give the plate plenty of bass notes.

Advance Preparation

• •The poivrade can be made through straining up to two days ahead. Chill it promptly, reheat it gently, then add the fresh white-wine deglazing liquor and cold butter only after the venison is cooked.
• •The lentil purée can be prepared one day ahead. Press parchment or reusable wrap directly against its surface, chill, and reheat over low heat with a little stock before beating in a small knob taken from the measured butter.
• •Shape the tongue collops a day ahead and keep them covered in the cold. Bring them toward room temperature while the poivrade and lentils reheat so they do not chill the finished platter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 410g)