Veal Birds with Olives

The autumn weather put me in the mood for some serious cooking. After some back and forth, I decided to cook veal birds. Under one name or other--Fleisch Rouladen (meat roulades) in my case, and oiseaux sans tête, (birds without a head) in George’s case—veal birds were part of our respective culinary background.

Menu

Veal Birds with Olives

Mashed Potatoes*

Wine: Willm Riesling 2009

Dessert: Fresh Pineapple

Madeira

Veal birds appear in many different guises. Looking at various recipes I came up with the following composite. The dish takes longer in the telling than in the making, particularly since  I prepared as much as possible in advance.

Prepping 

2 thin large veal scallops, evenly pounded

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 thin slices of boiled ham

2 ¼ pickle, cut lengthwise

I spread the mustard on one side of the veal scallops and topped each scallop with a slice of ham and the pickle. Then I rolled the scallops up and secured the jelly-like role with kitchen twine. I wrapped the birds in aluminum foil and refrigerated.  

Cooking 

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 shallots, peeled and chopped

¾ cup grape tomatoes, cut in halves

2 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

1/4 cup pitted Picholine olives

Salt, black pepper, and a few flakes of crushed red pepper

Optional: A plash of Madeira

I heated the oil in a skillet, added the shallots, and cooked to color lightly, about 5 minutes. When done, I removed the shallots with a slotted spoon, raised the heat and added the veal birds to the pan, browning them on all sides. 

I returned the sautéed shallots to the skillet, added the tomatoes, and the garlic. I lowered the heat and cooked everything through for 10 minutes. Next, I removed the veal birds, tossed in the olives, raised the heat, added a splash of Madeira, and seasoned to taste.  

I removed the strings from the veal birds and cut George’s portion into small slices. I arranged the slices on a plate and surrounded the meat with the vegetables.  

*Store-bought and warmed in the microwave oven with a generous portion of butter.