We are in Milan today
in the kitchen of GialloZafferano
to prepare an evergreen of Lombardy cuisine
The MILANESE STEAK!
A dish everyone likes!
In order to prepare the Milanese steak
we will need:
veal loin
clarified butter
grated bread
eggs
salt
and a bit of Maldon salt.
Let’s cut the meat.
The steak must be cut a bit thick
as to get a classical cut
I’ll slice two.
Average weight of each steak is about 250gr.
It is a fair amount of meat
although you have to consider
that it also includes the bone.
This bit of the bone, and where all the nerves are,
it’s going to release during cooking a very interesting taste,
round and full.
Now
I’m going to clean the bone from all
this extra flesh
which otherwise during cooking
would become brown
whereas like this the butter
will make the whole bone bit beautifully clear.
Here it is!
Let’s take everything off nicely.
Let’s put aside all the waste
and let’s do also the other steak,
let’s scrape it properly like this
Let’s also try to reduce
the bit of the bone
so that it will cook faster
and better.
So here
Let’s get rid of this little bit.
Please be careful with the knives
and bear in mind it’s always better to have properly sharpened knives
because
they help cut better and consequently
they don’t slip
and they're less likely to cut you.
So have your knives properly sharpened.
Now I'm going to pound the meat only to make it
homogeneous
so a very very light pounding.
I’ll get rid of the superficial nerves
that during cooking might make the steak shrink
and here
we have the two steaks ready to be
battered.
Here we are, perfect!
So let's batter our steaks now.
Let's crack two eggs
in a big bowl
without
breaking the yolk too much.
The eggs should preferably be fresh, ok?
Then we put the bread in a broad and large dish
Do not put salt nor flour on the steak
Because salt would dehydrate the meat,
would produce a liquid film around it
and would prevent the bread from sticking on it
and not even flour
because the flour
would then fall off during cooking.
So let's dredge it once and then,
using the bone as a handle to move the steak
from one thing to the other,
we do this action, carefully
squeezing it
like this
and then again a second drenching.
You need to squeeze very ‘accurately the
meat without flattening it too much.
There are several different ways to make a
Milanese steak.
I'm making it thick which is the one I like
most
because I like savouring the meat's taste
rather than the crispy fried bread,
but also the thinner one
which children like a lot
my daughter for instance, who is 28, still
eats the thinner one
because that's the one she likes
so I cook it both way!
The choice is yours!
Ok let's start again with the second one.
When preparing the Milanese steak
you must remember to sing
"Oh my beautiful little Madonna"
("O mia bella Madonnina").
That's it.
In order to make the bread stick to the meat more,
we are going to pound it with the carving knife
and here
we have made the thick Milanese
steak.
Now, if you wish,
you could slice the steak
across in two
and open it wide by pounding it
you could make the so called "elephant
ear"
which is a big Milanese steak
with the bone in the middle
and the two famous elephant ears on the sides.
That's very nice too; that has to be served
thin.
Let's draw some lines like this.
If you make a Milanese
the batter is very important:
it should be prepared very close to preparation
and cooking so that
the bread
doesn’t get damp.
If you don't have enough time and need to
make it in advance,
remember to give it another layer of grated bread
before cooking it:
It will dry the humidity
and the batter will result crispier.
Now let's move to the preparation of the potatoes!
We need Ratte potatoes,
clarified butter,
rosemary,
garlic,
salt
and a little bit of pepper.
Let's take the Ratte potatoes:
The Ratte potatoes are small new potatoes,
that you don't need to peel
as it would produce a lot of waste.
You simply have to wash them properly in some
water and baking soda.
They are very useful because they cook extremely
quickly.
We slice them with this mandolin slicer.
Mind your fingers!
And we put them in some water
to avoid oxidation.
Let's slice them
keeping the middle part
and chucking the two ends.
Let's store them in water a little bit.
They'll lose some of their starch even if
the Ratta potato is not that full of starch.
Then we drain them a bit
and dip them in a
casserole
full of salty boiling water to blanch them.
Leave them to boil,
they will cook a little
and then we will proceed cooking them
either in oil or in butter as we prefer.
The potatoes boiled for about 1 - 1 and a
half minutes.
Let's drain them.
Here I'm going to cool them down a bit
and then I'll dry them with a tea towel
to prevent splattering
when dipped in the hot clarified
butter.
Let's move to cooking:
let's increase the temperature
the pan must be fairly hot
let's add the clarified butter.
If you don't want to use butter
you can easily use extra virgin oil.
It doesn't change much:
it is only slightly more sour.
I prefer butter because we have the two tastes
in the steak and in the potatoes that match.
While cooking the potatoes we can also start
preparing to cook the Milanese steaks.
In this case the butter must be abundant.
We are not deep frying, but still,
it has
to be rich in fat.
The clarified butter for the potatoes is already hot enough
so that we can stir fry them nicely, ok?
Let's add a garlic clove
if you like to have this flavour
but only cutting it and leaving it unpeeled.
A bit of rosemary to give it a nice smell
and cook it in lively and consistent heat
as if it was frying;
in fact if you have a frying machine
and would like to fry them in oil
you can fry them directly.
The stir fry potato is the typical side dish
for the Milanese steak.
Let's dip in the clarified butter
the steaks on the lined side.
The butter must be hot
but not intensely,
because it must not immediately fry,
otherwise the inside cooking
won't be perfectly even.
So a good temperature, but not extreme, eh?
The ratta potato absorbs very little fat
so it is also lighter.
Let's now turn the steak:
it's nicely golden coloured
and also the lines are beautifully vivid.
Scoop with your spoon some of the cooking
fat
and pour it on the bone handle
in order to make it a nice light colour
and cover those blood streaks
which were still a bit too intense.
Very well!
Cooking time is about 8 minutes
which is the
same time required by the potatoes to cook
so we get to cook both things at the same
time
and reach the maximum result
because fragrance is the key element of this dish.
Firm batter
perfect sauté
also the lines
are very nice
crispy potatoes.
The inside must be slightly pink
not too well done,
to be more juicy.
Last touch:
remember we never put salt.
Let's put some "Maldon Salt"
which is in flakes.
A lot!
To give a lot of taste to the meat,
the meat inside will be very sweet.
We are looking at a masterpiece of Milanese cuisine,
an absolute dish!
A dish that, thanks to my suggestions,
you'll be able to prepare at home
as a great chef!
