Zürcher Geschnetzeltes

Ingredients

• Veal — in strips700 g
• Mushrooms300 g
• Shallots3
• Dry white wine150 ml
• Cream250 ml
• Veal stock150 ml
• Butter60 g
• Flour1 tbsp
• Lemon1
• Parsley30 g
• Potatoes for rösti800 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cut the veal into fine strips across the grain and pat them dry.

   15 min

2. 2

   Heat a pan with butter and sear the meat in batches for thirty seconds, moving it onto a plate.

   10 min

3. 3

   Fry the shallot and mushrooms in the same pan until their water has gone.

   10 min

4. 4

   Stir in the flour, cook it a minute and add the wine, reducing it by half.

   8 min

5. 5

   Add the stock and cream and reduce the sauce to a coating consistency, about eight minutes.

   10 min

6. 6

   Return the meat with its collected juices, warm it a minute without boiling, and add lemon.

   5 min

7. 7

   Scatter with parsley and serve with rösti set alongside rather than under the meat.

   8 min

About the dish

The veal is seared in batches for half a minute and lifted straight out. It finishes in the sauce, and held too long in the pan it turns tough beyond recovery.

The juices that gather under the resting meat are always returned to the sauce at the end. They hold the flavour, and pouring them away is the commonest loss.

Classically kidney goes in as well, but veal alone is sufficient, and restaurants more often serve it without. That is an accepted version rather than a shortcut.

Worth knowing

• — Do not crowd the pan. All the meat at once drops the temperature and the veal starts stewing in its own juices.
• — Reduce the sauce to the right thickness before the meat goes back. After that it must not boil, so there is no reducing it further.
• — The rösti sits alongside so it does not go soggy. Under the sauce it loses its crunch within a minute, and in Zürich that counts as a serving error.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

720 kcal

Protein

46 g

Fat

42 g

Carbs

38 g

More from Switzerland

• Cheese fondue — Gruyère and Vacherin melted in white wine with starch. The acidity of the wine keeps the cheese from seizing.
• Rösti — A potato cake of coarsely grated potato fried crisp on both sides. The potatoes are boiled the day before.
• Bircher muesli — Oats soaked overnight with grated apple, cream and nuts.