Sous vide veal chops with mushrooms and rosemary cream sauce

 

Some time ago, when I visited Tampere and Alanya market, I couldn't resist their chunky veal chops that were on display together with top quality chicken and lamb. Seldom have I seen such huge veal chops.  Best and cheapest meat in town by the way! The weight of the chops varied between 400 and 500 grams each, the bone included. The chops went into the freezer for the time being and now came in handy for this dish. The instructions for making this melt-in-your-mouth dish come from the blog "Savoring The Good", so lazy me once again chose to write in English instead of translating the recipe into Finnish. I hope you don't mind my doing so.

Ingredients:

2 veal chops bone-in

8 ounces/225 grams mushrooms

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon rosemary

1/2 cup=1,2 dl white wine

1/2 cup=1,2 dl cream

Instructions:

1. Season both sides of the veal chops with salt and black pepper.

2. Place them in a vacuum seal bag or in a freezer-safe zip-top bag. I also added some fresh rosemary.

3. Heat the sous vide water to 130 F/54 C and place the sealed chops in the water or lower the partially opened zip-top bag into the water, allowing the pressure of the water to force the air out before closing the bag.

4. Cook for 2 hours.

How to finish off the veal chops:

1. Remove the cooked veal chops from the bag and pat dry with paper towels. Save the liquid in the bag (for the sauce).

2. Heat a cast-iron pan until it is smoking hot. Literally smoking.

3. Brush the veal chops with a light layer of mayonnaise.

4. Sear in the hot cast-iron skillet for 1 minute per side to bring colour to the meat. Do this just before you are going to serve them.

5. Cut thick slices of the meat.

Mushroom and rosemary cream sauce:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a cast-iron skillet and brown the mushrooms.

2. Turn the heat to medium high, add the chopped rosemary to the pan and stir to combine.

3. Add wine, heavy cream and liquid from the bag to the pan. Bring to a boil, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

4. Reduce to thicken the sauce.

5. Serve over the veal chops.