Braised Veal Shoulder Chops with Baby Onions, Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives on Lemon Pepper Pappardelle
Yowee. Power was finally restored to our community this Halloween day mere hours before the traditional Trick or Treat time in the neighborhood.
My giant silver tin pumpkin with the black metal handle overflowing with assorted candy was all ready for the usual flurry of around a hundred children arriving in costume.
I then set to the task of preparing the annual Halloween Dinner. We have shared the Halloween dinner tradition with our neighbors for let us see, nineteen years now, even before first moving into our house where they hosted the first evening event that year.
Other neighbors who have since moved away used to participate too. One year one of the neighbors thought it would be funny to arrive at my kitchen window, you know, as the old axe murderer routine dressed in a frightening mask and costume. It was too late to realize the trick before I made a complete fool of myself screaming and running around the kitchen like a mad woman.
Each Halloween brings a new menu, wine and dinner served as soon as all of the neighborhood children that you watch grow up over the years have settled into their homes for the evening. With my Grandson the J-Dude here I am now on my second generation of enjoying new groups of neighborhood children grow up (and schoolmates at Halloween Parades) too.
Hosting the Halloween Dinner event this year, given the circumstance of the week’s extremely horrible Power Shortage enabled preparing only one dish, but it was an excellent choice nevertheless with Braised Veal Shoulder Chops, Baby Onions, Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives on Lemon Pepper Pappardelle.
Pre-Storm I had toasted some slices of stale baguette brushed with olive oil and topped with pepper and some dry Parmesan cheese for dipping into the gravy.
The meal was perfect served with robust flavored red wine. The evening also evoked a true appreciation of light and warmth in the house, it sure was great to have the Power restored.
Braised Veal Shoulder Chops with Baby Onions, Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives on Lemon Pepper Pappardelle
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons, plus one tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Veal Shoulder Chops, about three quarter to one pound each
- 15-20 baby onions, approximately, scored at the bottom, blanched in boiling water for one minute, refreshed in cold water, then outer skins easily slipped off
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1-pound Fresh button mushrooms, wiped clean, halved or quartered
- 8 dried Porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1/2 cup hot water, strained liquid reserved
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/8 cup sweet vermouth
- 1-cup dry white wine
- 2 cups beef stock
- 6 plum tomatoes, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 10-12 Kalamata olives, chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- few pinches coarse kosher salt, plus more to taste
- few pinches fresh cracked pepper
- 2 Packages Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Noodles, cooked in salted boiling water to el dente, 2 small ladles of the cooking water reserved
Instructions
- Heat large enameled pot on medium temperature
- Add in 2 Tablespoons butter and 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, swirl to cover the bottom of the pan
- Season Veal Shoulder Chop with salt and pepper then sear and brown meat on both sides, remove meat and transfer to a platter
- Reduce heat to low
- Topple in the baby onions cooking slowly to brown while caramelizing the outside of the onions, around fifteen minutes, remove onions from pan and transfer to a small bowl
- Add another tablespoon butter to the pan
- Sprinkle in the garlic and add the mushrooms, sauté a minute or two
- Scrape in the porcini mushrooms (keeping strained liquid reserved) cook one minute
- Stir in the tomato paste, mixing with the pan ingredients
- Return the meat and baby onions back to the pan
- Increase heat to medium high
- Pour in the sweet vermouth, reduce by half
- Add in the white wine and again reduce to half
- Add in two bay leaves and the strained liquid from the dried porcini
- Pour in 2 cups of beef stock, stir
- Add in the chopped plum tomatoes with liquid
- Stir in the Kalamata olives
- Place lid on the pot and simmer veal with vegetables on very, very low heat around two hours, until meat is tender enough to cut with a fork.
- Add in salt and pepper, stir, check seasoning and adjust to taste
- Stir through fresh chopped parsley
- Before serving, transfer meat and vegetables to a bowl
- Add a couple of small ladles of the Pappardelle cooking water to the stew pot and heat through for an additional few minutes
- Add the drained Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Noodles to the sauce, stir through, check seasoning
- Transfer Noodles in Sauce to a serving platter
- Top with the veal, vegetables and Kalamata olives
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