After purchasing some nice looking veal cutlets at the market, I thought
about making classic Veal Marsala for dinner. With the right ingredients,
this is one very quick and easy meal to prepare that’s usually a big
success in our house even with the kids. Problem was I didn’t have
one important ingredient – Marsala wine.

Hard to believe I couldn’t find any Marsala wine in the house but I
did find a bottle of Madeira, a fortified wine that comes from Portugal.
There are different styles of Madeira, from a pale blond color to a
deep tawny red and very dry to very sweet.

What is Madeira Wine?

Madeira’s are usually drunk as aperitifs and dessert wines depending on their
dryness and sweetness, but I typically use them only for cooking. In
my pantry, there were two bottles of Madeira. One was an inexpensive
California version and the other a more expensive Sandeman Fine Rich
product from Madeira Portugal.

There is no comparison in taste between the two. The Madeira from
Portugal is worth the extra bucks, but both will work for this recipe.
If you are interested in learning more about the various tastes of Madeira
wine, there is a good site called MadeiraWineGuide.

Another Important Ingredient

The other important ingredient to this dish is demi-glace, a richly
concentrated brown stock that has been reduced to a glaze. Also
used to make classic chicken and veal Marsala, demi-glace is one of
those ingredients that are hard to make at home because you have to
start with pounds of beef and veal bones that have been roasted and
then simmered for hours and hours in a huge pot. If you’re not careful
and you burn the stock while it’s reducing, you might as well throw
the whole batch out.

Not that I’m suggesting you don’t try making it yourself. You
can find a recipe for making demi-glace at home at GatewayGourmet.
I’ve made it at home a few times and it was an interesting experience,
but I’d much rather use one of the commercial products you can find
on the market today. One I really like is Demi Glace Gold and you may
have heard me rave about it in some of my other recipes.

Can you make this recipe without the demi-glace? Sure, I have a recipe
for Chicken Marsala that excludes the demi-glace and you can just
substitute the Madeira for the Marsala and the veal for the chicken.

The results are good but not the same as when you make it with
real demi-glace. And please avoid the fake stuff you can purchase in
an envelope at the supermarket. That artificial alternative is just beef
bouillon, salt, sugar and a bunch of chemicals.

Artichoke Hearts

This addition was my wife’s idea. The kids wanted sautéed artichokes
with their dinner so my wife opened up a can of artichoke hearts in
water, rinsed them well in cold water, squeezed out the excess water
and then sautéed them in a little olive oil and butter. We served the
artichokes separately to the kids but added them to the sauce for us.

Two points. One, only use jarred or canned artichoke hearts in water
not oil. You can’t get the unpleasant flavor of the oil out of the artichoke.
Second, be sure to rinse the artichokes well before using. We have
tried sautéing them without a good rinse and you could still taste the
preservatives in the water and the kids wouldn’t eat them. Fresh artichoke
hearts are better yet but a lot more work.

Chicken Marsala Perfected

By the way, I have written an eCookbook called Chicken Marsala Perfected
that you can download to your computer and might be interested in. It’s
more than a recipe for chicken Marsala but a cooking lesson for sautéing
anything just like a professional chef. The recipe was given to me from
Chef Ricco who you see in my blog and Ask A Chef feature. It’s filled
with tips and techniques for making this classic dish as well as veal and
steak Marsala and gives you the technique for making dozens of pan sauces.

Veal Madeira with Artichoke Hearts
Serves 2 adults and 2 kids

Ingredients

• 1-tablespoon butter
• 1-tablespoon oil
• 6 veal cutlets
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 - 14 1/2 oz. can artichoke hearts in water;washed, rinced and drained
• ¼ cup of Madeira
• ½ cup of demi glace
• Salt and white pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of butter for mounting

1. Have all your ingredients prepped before you begin to cook.

2. Pre-heat your sauté pan.

3. Dredge each cutlet in seasoned flour and shake off any excess.

4. Add one third of the oil & butter to the pan.

5. Sauté 2 of the veal cutlets, one minute per side, remove, & reserve.

6. Add another 1/3-tablespoon of butter and oil to the pan and sauté
the next two veal cutlets, remove & reserve. And then do the same
for the final 2 cutlets.

7. Reduce heat to medium, then add shallot, artichoke hearts, salt and pepper
and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, stirring constantly so nothing burns.

8. Remove the pan from the heat, add the Madeira wine and reduce by half.

9. Add demi glace; reduce until the sauce will coat the back of a spoon, taste
& correct seasonings.

10. Finish with the cold pat of butter.

11. Add the veal cutlets back to the pan for 1 minute to reheat it and serve.

I served this with my daughter’s favorite Near East rice pilaf, a staple in our
house. That girl could eat rice pilaf every night so you are going to see it in a
lot of my photographs. We also served a salad and I think a 2004 Chalone
Vineyard Syrah that was absolutely fantastic.

Danielle wrote and said, “I make this great stuffed pork tenderloin and I am looking for a sauce to go with it. It is stuffed with, spinach, pine nuts, goat cheese, garlic and sundried tomatoes.”

When I asked Chef Terrell about a sauce, he immediately wanted to know if the tenderloin was marinated. Why? Because if Danielle used a marinade, it could be incorporated as the base for her sauce. Chef would need to know what she used so the sauce won’t be in conflict taste-wise.

But since Danielle does not marinate the tenderloin but seasons it with salt and pepper, Chef Terrell came up with this simple but excellent base sauce for any pork tenderloin recipe that hasn’t been marinated.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup minced shallot
• 1-tablespoon butter or margarine
• 1/2-cup Port, Marsala or red wine.
• Drippings from baking pan
• 2 tablespoons balsamic or apple cider vinegar
• 1-cup good beef stock
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

How to Make at Home

1. In the pot or skillet in which the tenderloin was seared, melt butter and scrape up any fond left after searing using a wooden spoon, then sweat (to cook slowly over low heat in butter, usually covered, without browning) shallots and deglaze the pot with wine, pouring in any drippings left after baking the roast.

2. Add vinegar and stock and bring to a boil.  Turn heat down to a simmer and reduce by half.

Related Topics:

More Pork Recipes

Pork Tenderloin with Lemon, Capers & Olives

Last night my wife was out with some friends so I asked my daughters what they wanted for dinner. “Pasta Daddy, Pasta.”

I asked them if they wanted me to make a sauce but they just wanted butter and grated Parmesan cheese. I gave them what they wanted with some carrots and they were happy.

I wanted a sauce with my pasta but something extremely quick, easy and delicious. There was some sweet Italian sausage and sweet grape tomatoes in the refrigerator so I had the basis for a good sauce.  I was going to make my Quick Pasta with Tomato Sausage Sauce for the family but since the kids only wanted butter, I only needed sauce for one.

I remember a chef once telling me about making fast, delicious sauces, “Keep it stupid simple,” he said or maybe it was “Keep it simple, stupid.”   Not sure now. But I do remember him telling me that sometimes the simplest dishes he makes for his customers are his most popular.

This sauce is extremely simple but I was surprised how incredibly delectable a little sausage, a dozen or so grape tomatoes, some high quality extra virgin olive oil, some grated Parmesan cheese and a little salt & pepper can be.

The trick to this dish is the olive oil. You can purchase various qualities of extra virgin olive oil; I purchase a big jug of it at Costco that I use in lots of various ways but for this sauce, I wanted to use an extra special high-end extra virgin olive oil.

For this sauce I used a fresh Tuscan style olive oil. It is not cheap but I only use it sparingly as a dipping sauce or for sautés like this. You can find plenty of great olive oils at your own favorite market and one of these days I’ll work on an article about the differences between olive oils.

Penne Pasta with Simple

Ingredients

• Pasta – amount to be determined by your appetite and if you are feeding some to your kids with butter
• 2 sweet Italian sausages
• 10 – 12 sweet grape tomatoes cut in half
• 3 – 4 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt & pepper to taste

How To Prepare This Simple Sauce

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add a pinch of salt to the water and then your pasta. See my tips on cooking pasta.  When the water comes to a boil, add your pasta, stir immediately and cook to al dente. Be sure to stir frequently to prevent the pasta from sticking.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a saucepan over medium-high heat and squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausage skin into the saucepan. Break it up with a wooden spoon into bite size pieces. Brown the sausage meat until cooked through.

Add the tomatoes and cook with sausage meat for a few minutes. Add the olive oil and stir to coat the meat and tomatoes. Season with a little salt & pepper. Cook for an additional minute or two.

Drain the pasta and add some of it to the saucepan. It is easier to add more pasta if you have enough sauce than take it away if you don’t have enough sauce. It really doesn’t matter because the sausage and tomatoes are going to give the olive oil a lot of flavor and the oil should coat a decent amount of pasta.

Serve the pasta topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

You are going to be surprised just how good this simple pasta dish tastes. Your going to wish you made more for leftovers.