Zurich-style veal (Zürcher Geschnetzeltes) is thin strips of veal in a mushroom and cream sauce, served with rösti. Done badly, the meat is grey and tough. Done right, it's tender and the sauce tastes of the fond. It all comes down to how you sear.
For two
- 350 to 400 g veal, cut into thin strips
- 200 g button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 80 ml dry white wine
- 150 ml heavy cream
- 1 tsp flour (optional)
- Parsley, salt, pepper, a little butter and neutral oil
The rule that changes everything: small batches
400 g of veal in a pan at once is too much: the pan cools, the meat releases its water and boils. It turns grey and tough in two minutes. Sear in two or three batches, in a single layer, and take each batch out as soon as it's golden.
Pat the meat dry first, and dust it with the flour if you like: it browns better and the sauce will be smoother and thicker.
The cook
- Empty pan, high heat, until the water drop test works. A spoon of neutral oil.
- First batch of veal: 1 minute untouched, then 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring. Take it out onto a plate. Repeat with the rest.
- Medium heat, the mushrooms with a knob of butter, in a single layer, until golden — golden mushrooms, not grey.
- The shallot, 1 minute.
- Off the heat, the white wine, then back on the heat, scrape the base with a wooden spoon and reduce by half.
- The cream, 1 to 2 minutes at a simmer until it coats the spoon.
- Heat off, return the meat and the juices it released, stir for 30 seconds. Salt, pepper, parsley.
Why off the heat?
The veal is already cooked when it goes back in. If it boils in the sauce, it toughens. It only needs to warm through in the hot cream.
The three mistakes
All the veal at once. It boils instead of browning and turns tough.
Letting it simmer in the sauce. A few minutes is enough to make it rubbery.
Washing the pan between meat and sauce. The veal's fond is the base of the flavour: keep it.
What to serve it with
Traditionally rösti, started in a second pan before you begin the veal: it needs 25 to 30 minutes — Swiss rösti in a pan. Otherwise pasta, rice or crispy sautéed potatoes. The sauce follows the same principle as every pan sauce — deglazing: a sauce in 30 seconds, and the mushroom and cream sauce is in the 10 pan sauces in 3 minutes booklet.
High heat to sear, then a fond for the sauce: exactly what a stainless pan does. The pan we film with is 304 stainless with no coating, with the 25-recipe book free.
