Kalbscoteletten à la Saint Cloud

(Veal Cutlets St. Cloud)

September 7: Feast Day of St. Cloud

We do not have an association with Saint Cloud except for Islander’s college classmate, Barbara D., who was from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Even long after graduation, Islander, Barbara and a few of their other classmates would run into each other at national conferences, where they caught up with their career and life’s paths. We later learned that Barbara and her husband, John, had also honeymooned in Scotland like we did!

For the feast day of Barbara’s hometown patron saint, we cooked veal cutlets with gravy (Kalbscoteletten à la Saint Cloud). Now this traditional German dish will always remind us of Barbara and John, their hometown and St. Cloud.

Recipe

(Adapted from Cooking With the Saints by Ernst Scheugraf)

For the veal cutlets

• 4 veal cutlets, about 5 ounces each
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 bacon strips

Directions

Tenderize the veal cutlets by pounding them thin with a meat hammer.  Season with salt and pepper. In a skillet, melt the butter and brown each side of the veal cutlets but do not cook through. Transfer to a baking dish and top with a bacon strip. Make the gravy.

For the gravy

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons sherry

Directions

In the same skillet where the veal cutlets were browned, melt the butter. Stir in the flour. Pour in the chicken stock, scraping the brown bits from the sides. Keep stirring until thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix in the sherry. Pour the gravy over the veal cutlets. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until the veal cutlets are cooked through yet tender. Serve the veal cutlets immediately with a side of rice or potatoes, spooning the gravy over them.

Notes

• We halved the original recipe to feed just the two of us. But we followed the original measurements of the gravy because we like sauces with our meats.
• The author suggests inserting small pieces of truffle or a flavorful mushroom into the cutlets for a unique taste. However, truffles are expensive and not readily available in most areas like ours.
• St. Cloud is the patron saint of nail makers in France. So our final food photo above features the large nails that Highlander used to build our backyard deck.