Off with the Veal

With beef you enter a labyrinth of sensations

I've always said that had I not found Mr Right, I'll like to mature with a different man on my arm when I attend a live theater performance. Yes, I drew inspiration for this from renown local author Catherine Lim as I'd personally, at the Victoria Theater, spied her splendidly dressed, and being escorted by an equally dishy gent. And it would  be a different gentleman each time for her, some as mature as vintage wine, and others newly bottled. And that is where she and I differed: I've always had a distinct preference for bottles taken out of the cellar and dusted before uncorking it. It makes for more interesting dinner conversation.

So is it any wonder then that I'll pass the colourless veal by anytime?

Fortunately, I didn't throw the baby out with the bath water. No, I'd simply swapped the youthful cuts for the more robust flavours of a full bodied medium rare steak. And I can do so without twigging the ingredients that accompany the veal as the original bland cut of meat needs spicing up with rather strong seasonings in the first place.

So to my delight the fresh slab of beef's mature twang simply adds greater pinkish depth after it's been roasted with a delightful repertiore of French herbs and spices, as instructed. The same can be said when the richly red chunks of chuck tender is finely minced with a company of fragrant ingredients the Italians use to whip up a polpette - in this case, a beef polpette worthy as the piece de resistance when hubby brings work mates home for dinner.  

Now before you start thinking that all veal recipes require a battalion of herbs and spices, the meat exchange does as well when the recipe calls for the addition of only a few simple ingredients. You can still "chase the yum" when you serve up a sugared cherry tomato and roughly chopped basil sauce for the grilled slab of ribeye. As you can entice guests to "oo la la" by tossing beautifully aged balsamic vinegar with julienned streaky bacon, very woody porchini mushrooms and French shallots for smothering the pan-fried fillets of beef.

So leave the veal where it belongs: in the chorus line. The humble butcher is getting the mature grass-fed bovine ready as the new stars of your cooking show.