Whisk Wednesdays—Grenadins de Veau au Coulis de Celeri-Rave (Veal with Celery Root Cream Sauce)

It seems these last recipes in the curriculum are strictly a review of techniques already learned. They don't contain much history or interest but are good practice for the impending exam. Grenadins de veau are thick veal fillet steaks laced with pork fat. After sprinkling the meat with salt and pepper and searing them on the stove in a bit of butter, I placed (I should have larded!) the pork fat on top of the veal and set it aside while I worked on the vegetables.



Next, I sautéed the carrots, onions and garlic, threw in the thyme and bay, and let this mixture cook a bit. After adding the stock and wine (and a bit more salt and pepper), I returned the veal to the pan and finished it in the oven set at 425°F for about 25 minutes.

As for the sauce, I just chopped up celery root (or celeriac as it can be called) and boiled it as I would potatoes, until tender. Then, I puréed them in my food processor, stirred in cream, seasoned it with salt and pepper and the sauce was done.

Recipe

Serves 6


For the Celery Root Cream:
¾ pound celery root, peeled and cut into chunks
Salt
1/3 cup heavy cream or crème fraîche

For the Veal:
6 boneless veal loin steaks (1¼ inches thick), 5 ounces each
5 ounces pork fatback
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium carrots, diced fine
2 medium onions, diced fine
1 clove garlic, diced
1 sprig thyme or ¼ teaspoon dried
1 bay leaf, crumbled
1/3 cup Brown Veal Stock
1/3 cup dry white wine

Chervil or parsley sprigs, for garnish
You can find the recipe for Grenadins de Veau au Coulis de Celeri-Rave (Veal with Celery Root Cream Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
The veal was tender, but but in my opinion, the celery root didn't make for a very delicious sauce. It was just meat with something wet on top of it. I prefer a more classical sauce, like mushroom to enhance the flavor of the dish. However, we found the veal was very tasty on its own.

Next Class
• Pets de Nonnes (Choux Pastry Fritters with Apricot Sauce) pages 130-131

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Running total: $1,540.21 + $22.87 = $1,563.08
($3.81 per serving)

Butter used so far: 13 pounds, 2 tablespoons

93% complete Basic Cuisine (on blog) 13% in real life

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::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

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