Veal Birds Paprika (Page 458)

RECIPE #1034

• Date: Saturday, September 19, 2009 -- 6pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

It seemed appropriate on a day like today (see below) to post about a recipe from The Book that came from a long-ago issue of Gourmet Magazine. This recipe was published in the magazine in 1959. My special gentleman and I made this dish together. We cooked chopped onions and mushrooms in butter, then added bread crumbs, basil, salt, and pepper. We then pounded veal cutlets to 1/8 of an inch thickness then spread them with filling, rolled, and tied them. I seasoned the veal rolls and browned them in butter. I removed them from the pan and cooked onions in the pan until golden. Then I added veal stock, water, tomato puree, and paprika. I returned the veal to the pan, covered, and simmered for 35 minutes. I whisked sour cream into the sauce, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and served the veal and sauce with buttered noodles. In a word: Yum! This recipe clearly came out of a time before health-consciousness was all the rage. It had more than a stick of butter and a cup of sour cream -- and although it claimed to serve 6 my special gentleman and I ate most of it in one sitting! So it was unhealthy, but man was it good! The veal was perfectly tender, with a nice brown on it. The filling complemented the meat very nicely both in flavor and in texture. Veal and mushrooms are always a winning combination, and that was certainly true here. At first I wasn't sure that I cared for the sauce -- it was certainly paprika intense. But after a few bites I really came around to it. Ironically the tang from the sour cream seemed to cut some of the richness (although of course the sour cream itself was only making it richer...). It was one of those dishes where it was hard not to make happy noises while eating.

The recipe is here.

Six or seven years ago I was receiving a wide variety of cooking magazines. Each month I got Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Cooking Light, Cooks Illustrated, etc... I didn't have time to read them all, so I decided to cut back to just one. The choice was obvious. Gourmet is the premier food and cooking magazine. Long before I started the Gourmet Project, I read the magazine from which The Book was compiled. I don't remember when I first subscribed, or how many issues I have read. But in the pre-project days I would carefully tear recipes out from the magazine, make them, write comments on them, and file the recipes in my special folder. Gourmet magazine and I have a long history. The magazine itself has an even longer history -- dating back to 1941. So I was shocked -- no, completely floored -- to hear the announcement today that Conde Nast is closing Gourmet Magazine. November will apparently be the last issue.

I will (hesitantly) admit that I cried when I heard the news. Not only do I feel a kinship to the magazine, but strangely, I feel kinship with the people who work there. Aside from the people in the Gourmet test kitchen, I have probably made more recipes from their magazine than just about anyone. More than 1000 recipes into this project, I feel a connection with the people who wrote and tested the recipes I cook every day. And now, presumably, many of those people are losing their jobs. Jobs that they were very good at. It's sad. The magazine is an institution in the culinary world. And a couple months from now it won't come in the mail. I can't seem to get my head around that. Of all the culinary magazines, why does it have to be the best one that is closing?

It's just shocking.