VEAL RAGOUT IN POBLANO PEPPERS with Ricotta Cream
This is like an Italian version of chiles rellenos. Hike the soothing, simple creaminess of ricotta as a counterpoint to the heat of the chiles.
Serves 6
% cup olive oil or duck fat A 1-inch piece slab bacon
2 pounds veal shoulder, cut across the grain into pieces 1 inch long by ¥2 inch wide
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced in half
1 cup white wine
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper 1 tablespoon butter
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, white part only, cleaned and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 fennel bulb, stalk discarded, cleaned
and finely diced ¥2 cup marsala IV2 cups heavy cream.
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 12 basil leaves, roughly chopped ¥2 cup pine nuts, toasted ¥2 cup dried currants or raisins, roughly
chopped Salt and pepper to taste
6 large, evenly shaped poblano peppers,
roasted, and peeled
RICOTTA CREAM
Vh cups ricotta (see page 211 if you want 1 cup cream
to make your own) ¥2 cup sour cream
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat a large, heavy, flat, ovenproof saucepan. Add the olive oil or duck fat and bacon. Working in batches so as not to overcrowd the meat, brown the veal on both sides and remove to a platter.
2. Add the onion to the pan and cook briefly. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Return the veal to the pan and add white wine, bay leaves, and black pepper. Cover the pan and place it in the oven.
3. Stew the veal for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until it is tender. Do not cut any fat off the meat. You will note that veal has very little fat; because of this, it progresses from being tight and tough to almost magically tender when it is done. This is the point at which you should remove the meat from the oven.
4. Lift the meat from the pan and put it into a bowl. Strain the pan drippings through a fine-mesh strainer into a large, clean saucepan and allow to settle.
5. Heat another saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter and olive oil and allow to heat briefly. Add the leek, carrot, and fennel and saute about 2 minutes. Add the marsala and reduce by three-fourths.
6. Skim any fat off the pan drippings and add them to the working sauce (the veal broth). Add the cream and reduce by half. Add the Dijon mustard and remove from the heat. Add the chopped basil leaves, season with salt and pepper, and pour the sauce into a bowl.
7. Roughly chop up the veal and return it to a bowl. Add the pine nuts and currants, reserving a few for garnish. Now add just enough of the cream sauce to the meat so that it is moist and flavorful. Chill.
8. Prepare the peppers: Make a tiny incision in each pepper and carefully remove the "head" of seeds by cutting it off with a thin, sharp knife. If you have a tear in your pepper, make your cut there to mininuze the number of holes. Gently dip the peppers in a bowl of water and shake out the remaining seeds.
9. Combine the three ingredients for the ricotta cream. Keep at room temperature.
10. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Stuff the peppers with the ragout.
11. Put the stuffed peppers seam sides down on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes. (Placing the peppers seam sides down helps keep the ragout inside the peppers.)
12. Spoon the ricotta sauce onto 6 plates. Top with the peppers and serve, garnishing with reserved currants and pine nuts.