BEAT YOUR MEAT:Veal milanese

Well, Annalena apologizes for being away from her ragazzi. She had her first surgery in her life two days ago, gang. Not something she wants to repeat, and that's a promise. But we go on. We go on with something special in this, our 400th entry together! What a ride it has been. This calls for something special, with a special title....



Veal milanese is a dish that can terrify you. If you order it at a restaurant, the presentation is spectacular. You have this enormous "thing" on your plate that is somewhere in between a veal cutlet and a veal chop, and it's crispy, and it has salad on it. This is a truly spectacular dish, but if you thought that you had to go to a restaurant to have it, well, you are wrong. And if you thought that the recipe for preparing it was uniform, well, you would be wrong again. And... if you thought that Annalena was going to follow the canon on the recipe, well, you'd be sort of wrong again.

Let me say up front that this is a dish of extravagance. Veal chops are expensive. Making a less spectacular version with veal cutlets is hardly less expensive. You could do this with pork chops if you can find the right cut, or with "turkey chops, " if you can find them. Please, though, if you have the scratch , make it the first time with veal.

The list of ingredients you are going to need is somewhat long: flour and salt and pepper. Eggs. Bread crumbs, the flavored kind. Veal chops. (We'll come back to this). Oil and butter. Tomatoes, preferably cherry tomatoes, more preferably , red and yellow ones in equal proportion. Arugula, preferably wild arugula. Balsamic vinegar. The cheap kind.

Start by turning our oven to 400. Then, go to the part that inspires the title: you are going to beat your meat.
If you tell the butcher what you are going to do, if he looks at you like he has no idea what you are talking about, tell him you need chops that you will be flattening. If he still looks at you like you are nuts, go to another butcher. The ideal chop is not very thick, and has a long bone. That bone is not going to add much to the flavor of the dish , but it does make it spectacular, somewhat flinstonian in its nature.

To make four of these, start with (duh), four chops. Lay down a piece of plastic and then one chop, and cover it with another piece of plastic. Get a heavy weight, like a meat pounder (NOT you know what...), and start hitting the meat portion of the chop, HARD. Push the pounder away from you, so that as you pound, you are also trying to push the meat away. It is possible, indeed, likely, that you will break the meat when doing this. Not a problem. You should be able to increase the size of the "eye" of meat by about twice the original size. Do this for all of the chops .

Clean away the plastic and make up what we call a "fry station." Have three bowls or wide plates. One should hold flour mixed with salt and pepper. The middle one should hold 2-3 large eggs , beaten. The third, the flavored bread crumbs. Have a baking sheet at the end.

Take each chop and first dredge it in the flour shaking off the excess. Then dip it in egg , coating it completely. Finally give it a dredge in bread crumbs to coat it. Take your time. Then put the chops on the baking sheet.

When you have it all done, get rid of the excess. If you pour the flour into your sink, be ready to clean it with cold water. Hot water will create an impenetrable paste and you will curse the whole night. Trust me on this.

Now, get equal amounts of unsalted butter and olive oil in a pan, and heat at medium, until the butter has melted. Use a big pan, but even a really big pan will hold only two chops at a time. Lay them in, "69" position (if you don't know what that means, you should not be reading this blog). They will sizzle. When the sizzling has abated a bit, check, and if it's nice and brown turn them and do it to the other side (in my opinion, many restaurants opt to not do this long enough and the chops are not as tasty as they could be).

Repeat this with the other two chops, and then put the whole sheet in the oven and let the chops cook for ten minutes.

Now, here is where Annalena goes heterodox. Traditionally, you mix up a cold salad of chopped tomatoes and arugula, with a balsamic vinegar dressing and use it raw. Not me. I leave the tomatoes whole, and put them right into that hot fat from the veal cooking. In a few minutes, the tomatoes will collapse. Let them cook a minute or two more. I use about a pint in all, of mixed colors. Then add big handfuls of arugula, a handful at a time, and watch it reduce. Stir in about a quarter cup, or less, of balsamic vinegar, and then take this off the heat.

After ten minutes in the oven, the veal will be cooked through. Remove it carefully, and get one chop to each plate. Spoon some cooked salad over each one. Maybe put some slices of lemon o the plate as well.

Any "gloriously green" vegetable goes with this. Asparagus say "sophisticated," peas say "comfort," broccoli says "nutritious," squash says "Annalena's favorite." I almost always serve this with pastina or orzo , but I have seen it with rice (I approve), and mashed potatoes (I do not). But go with what you like.

To those of you who like the idea, but blanch at all those carbs , you can go directly to the pan with the beaten chops. Just salt and pepper them, since you don't have the benefit of the flour. I have had it this way, but I much prefer the traditional crusted one.

Yes, it is a budget buster, especially if you get real fancy and decide to shave truffles over it, as I once did. HEAVENS was it good. At that time, Annalena was much heavier, and while she dreamed she could have had any man at the table with the dish, alas, that was far from true. Now, however, it may be time to revisit this proposition

Incidentally, when you eat this dish, do not be polite. Pick up that bone and EAT IT. GNAW IT . Finish it off. Sophistication does not mean you waste food.

And this, with appreciation, fondness, and love, is dedicated to Jonathan.