A Veal Feast

It has been a few years since I made this dinner, but I still remember it clearly. In January 2014, I was auctioned off as a chef to raise money for a good cause during the Spillerom festival. The trip took me to Oslo and a lovely dinner party with a great group around the table.

I was responsible for the starter, main course and dessert. The hostess made the fish course, and it was so good that it deserves a place on the menu even though the recipe is not included here.

The menu

• Starter: Langoustine gently cooked in Kviteseid butter, with avocado cream and langoustine oil
• Fish: Pan-fried trout fillet with cauliflower purée
• Main course: Sous vide veal sirloin, shallots, confit tomatoes, sweet potato purée, mashed potato, carrot, pickled beetroot and a soy and coffee sauce
• Cheese: A selection of cheeses with honey produced by one of the guests
• Dessert: My version of a mille-feuille with lemon and vanilla cream and raspberry coulis

The recipes below serve six.

Langoustine with avocado cream and langoustine oil

Ingredients

• 6 large raw langoustines
• 150 g Kviteseid butter, or another good salted butter
• 1 large ripe avocado
• 1 tbsp crème fraîche
• Juice of ½ lime
• Salt and pepper
• 300 ml mild olive oil

Method

1. Shell the langoustines and reserve the shells. Remove the intestinal tract from the tails.
2. Crush the shells lightly and fry them in a small splash of oil until they change colour and become fragrant. Add the rest of the olive oil and keep it at about 85–90°C for 20 minutes. Do not let it boil.
3. Strain the oil through a cloth or a very fine sieve. It can be made the day before and kept chilled.
4. Blend the avocado, crème fraîche and lime juice until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Cover directly on the surface and keep chilled until serving.
5. Melt the butter over low heat. Add the langoustine tails and cook them gently until the flesh is just firm and opaque, usually 4–6 minutes depending on size. Keep the butter at about 55–60°C.
6. Place a spoonful of avocado cream on each plate. Lightly drain the langoustine, leaving a little butter on it. Place it on the cream and finish with a few drops of langoustine oil.

Veal with shallots, two purées, vegetables and a soy and coffee sauce

Veal and vegetables

• 1–1.2 kg veal sirloin or tenderloin
• 12 large shallots
• 300 g carrots, cut into small, even dice
• 2–3 medium beetroot
• 6 small vines of cherry tomatoes
• Rapeseed or sunflower oil for the tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• A little neutral oil and butter for browning the meat

Pickling liquid for the beetroot

• 200 ml white wine vinegar
• 150 ml water
• 75 g sugar
• ½ tsp salt

Sweet potato purée

• 700 g sweet potato
• 30 g butter
• 2 tbsp crème fraîche
• Juice of ½–1 lime
• Salt

Mashed potato

Make half a batch of my mashed potato, or allow about 700 g potatoes when serving it alongside the sweet potato purée.

Soy and coffee sauce

• 200 ml good veal stock
• 100 ml light soy sauce
• 2 shallots, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 20 g fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 double espresso
• 100 g cold unsalted butter, diced
• Optional: 1–2 g soy lecithin if you want to foam the sauce

Method

1. Pickle the beetroot: Cut the beetroot into slices 2–3 mm thick, trimming them into even squares if you like. Bring the vinegar, water, sugar and salt to the boil. Pour the liquid over the beetroot and leave to cool. This can be done several days in advance.
2. Cook the shallots: Vacuum-seal the whole peeled shallots and cook them sous vide at 82°C for about two hours. They can be prepared earlier in the day and reheated. Carefully separate the layers before serving. Reserve the largest layers for filling with purée.
3. Cook the veal: Season the meat lightly and vacuum-seal it. Cook at 56°C. An evenly shaped piece about 4–6 cm thick will normally need 2½–4 hours. Base the time on thickness, not only weight. Remove it from the bag, dry it very thoroughly and brown it quickly in a smoking-hot pan with a little oil and butter. Rest for a few minutes before slicing.
4. Make the sweet potato purée: Peel the sweet potato, cut it into even pieces and boil in lightly salted water until tender. Let it steam dry. Blend until smooth with the butter and crème fraîche, then season with lime and salt.
5. Make the mashed potato using the recipe linked above. Both purées can be kept warm in piping bags in a water bath at about 60°C.
6. Cook the carrots: Vacuum-seal the diced carrots with a small knob of butter and a little salt. Cook at 82°C for about 45 minutes. Alternatively, steam or boil them until tender just before serving.
7. Confit the tomatoes: Place the tomato vines in a small ovenproof dish and pour over enough oil to cover them well. Cook at 90°C for 45–60 minutes, until soft but still holding their shape. Drain on kitchen paper before serving.
8. Make the sauce: Gently simmer the veal stock, soy sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger and espresso for 15–20 minutes. Strain and taste before reducing it any further. Just before serving, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the cold butter a little at a time. Do not let the sauce boil after adding the butter. For a foam, add the soy lecithin and run a hand blender across the surface.
9. To serve: Fill some shallot layers with mashed potato and some with sweet potato purée. If you like, quickly scorch the edges with a kitchen torch. Arrange slices of veal with carrot, pickled beetroot and drained tomato. Spoon the sauce around the meat.

The pickled beetroot matters. The dish has plenty of sweetness and richness from the purées, shallots, tomatoes and sauce, and it needs the acidity of the beetroot to bring it into balance.

Mille-feuille with lemon and vanilla cream

Ingredients

• 4–5 sheets puff pastry
• Icing sugar for rolling and seasoning
• 400 ml whole milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 75 g sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2–3 tbsp lemon juice, or to taste
• 3 gelatine leaves
• 300 g fresh or frozen raspberries
• 40–60 g icing sugar for the raspberry coulis
• Edible cornflower and calendula petals, if available

Method

1. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5–10 minutes.
2. Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Heat the milk, vanilla seeds, vanilla pod and lemon zest to just below boiling point. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for ten minutes.
3. Lightly whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Gradually pour in the hot milk while stirring, then return everything to the pan.
4. Heat the custard gently, stirring constantly, until it thickens slightly and reaches 82–84°C. Do not let it boil.
5. Remove the vanilla pod. Squeeze the water from the gelatine and stir it into the hot custard. Add lemon juice to taste.
6. Pour the custard into a shallow dish, about 1 cm deep if you plan to cut it into shapes. Cover the surface and chill until set. Alternatively, blend the set custard smooth with a hand blender and transfer it to a piping bag.
7. Roll the puff pastry thinly with a little icing sugar. Prick it evenly with a fork and place it between two sheets of baking paper with a baking tray on top to keep it flat. Bake at 200°C for about 15–20 minutes, until crisp and deeply golden. Leave to cool completely.
8. Blend the raspberries to a purée. Sweeten with icing sugar and strain out the seeds if you want a completely smooth coulis.
9. Cut three equal pieces of puff pastry for each serving. Cut matching pieces of custard, or use a piping bag.
10. Layer the pastry and custard. Finish with custard, raspberry coulis and a few edible flower petals.

Work plan

One to three days ahead

• Make the langoustine oil.
• Pickle the beetroot.
• Make the lemon and vanilla custard.
• Make the raspberry coulis.

Earlier on the day

• Bake the puff pastry.
• Cook the shallots and carrots.
• Make both purées.
• Confit the tomatoes.
• Prepare the veal and the ingredients for the sauce.

Just before serving

• Make the avocado cream and gently cook the langoustines.
• Brown and slice the veal.
• Reheat the purées and vegetables.
• Finish the sauce with butter.
• Assemble the dessert at the last moment so the pastry stays crisp.

This is still an extensive menu, but with as much as possible prepared in advance, it is entirely manageable for six people.