October Meat Shares

This is the last meat share of the season. This week you will (or have) receive a whole chicken (4-5 pounds), 2 pounds of ground beef or veal, a pound of veal round cutlets, and about a pound of veal stew meat from the chuck (some of this will be in the form of steaks and a little larger to compensate for the bone; just chop the meat up and add it to your soup or stew). The veal is a new product for us so please let us know what you think of it. And we'd love to get any feedback in general on the meat shares (more/less frequent deliveries, different variety of cuts, anything at all really).

Preparation Tips/Recipes:

Ground Veal: Veal generally is going to have a more delicate flavor than beef and this holds true with the ground veal too. While you certainly can make burgers with it, ground veal also is great in meatloaf or in meatballs (for a great meatball recipe, try the one from Maggie's grandmother that I posted a couple months ago - just use ground veal instead of beef).

Veal Cutlets: Like the ground veal, the cutlets will have a delicate flavor that goes well with a sauce. To prepare the cutlets, cut them into smaller pieces, removing any pieces of fat. Then place them on a cutting board and pound them (I don't have a meat tenderizer so I just use my fist; you might feel weird doing this and others in the kitchen might be alarmed but this will help tenderize the meat). Then I usually prepare a sauce, sauteeing some shallots (or red onion) and a little garlic in butter then adding some white wine and cream and reducing it. In the meantime, I dredge the cutlets in a little flour then sautee them quickly in some butter (probably about a minute on each side - be careful not to overcook them) ) and pour the sauce over the cutlets. Serve with rice or pasta (something to help soak up the sauce!).

If you've got any great recipes of your own for veal, please pass them along!