Gordon Ramsay veal chops are flattened with a rolling pin, then marinated in oil and rosemary for two hours. They sit on celeriac and baby onions bound in a Dijon cream, with spinach spooned around, and it serves four.
The recipe comes from A Chef for All Seasons, page 194, where Ramsay calls veal’s unpopularity in Britain a shame. He rates it for flavour and versatility, pointing to blanquette de veau on the cream side and osso bucco on the tomato side. This one he pitches as a midweek dinner, meat and vegetables in a single pan.
What makes it work as a weeknight dish is that the marinade does its job while you are elsewhere. Two hours in oil and rosemary, then the chops need seven or eight minutes in the pan and nothing more.
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Gordon Ramsay Veal Chops with Creamed Winter Vegetables
Course: MainCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium4
servings20
minutes25
minutes790
kcal2
hours2 hr 45 min
A winter main from A Chef for All Seasons, where the chops are beaten flat and left in rosemary oil for two hours, then pan-fried and set on celeriac and baby onions stirred through with Dijon and cream.
Ingredients
4 veal loin chops, about 200g each (7 oz each)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
8 to 12 baby onions
150g celeriac (5½ oz)
25g butter (2 tbsp), plus a knob
200g baby leaf spinach (7 oz)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
200ml double cream (scant 1 cup heavy cream)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Flatten and marinate: Trim the chops, then lay them flat on a board and beat the loin lightly with a rolling pin to flatten slightly. Brush both sides with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the rosemary, then leave to marinate for about 2 hours.
- Peel the onions: Blanch the onions in boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain and rinse in cold water, and the skins should slip off easily. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small pan and sauté them for 5 to 7 minutes until golden brown, then lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Cook the celeriac: Peel the celeriac and cut into dice. Heat the remaining oil and the butter in the same pan and sauté the celeriac for about 5 minutes, turning once or twice. Season nicely, return the onions to the pan and set aside.
- Blanch the spinach: Blanch the spinach in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain and refresh under a cold running tap. Drain well again and press out as much water as possible, which Ramsay does by squeezing the leaves in a clean tea towel.
- Make the cream: Stir the mustard and cream into the celeriac and onions and bring slowly to the boil. Check the seasoning and keep warm.
- Fry the veal: Heat a heavy-based non-stick frying pan and, when hot, put in the chops. Season as they cook, allowing 3 to 4 minutes on each side, and baste once or twice with the pan juices or any leftover marinade.
- Serve: Reheat the spinach with the knob of butter. Divide the celeriac and onions among four warmed plates, sit the chops on top and spoon the spinach around.
Notes
- The two-hour marinade is inactive, so the actual work is closer to 45 minutes. Ramsay gives no doneness cue for the chops beyond the timing, so go by how firm they feel rather than cutting into one. Calories are calculated from the ingredients since the book gives none.
FAQs
Why flatten the veal chops with a rolling pin?
Ramsay says only to beat the loin lightly and flatten it slightly, without explaining why. My guess is evenness, since a chop that tapers cooks unevenly, and the thin end overcooks while the thick end is still catching up.
Whatever the reason, it also brings the cooking time down, which suits a lean meat. He does the same to chicken in the chicken piccata, where thin cutlets let the middle cook before the outside toughens.
Why such a plain marinade?
Oil and one teaspoon of rosemary, and nothing else. The oil holds the rosemary against the surface over two hours. Because it stays on the meat, it goes into the pan with the chops rather than being wiped off first.
Compare that with the grilled pork chops, where honey, two mustards, Worcestershire and soy go in together and get scraped off before grilling. Different meat, different job entirely.
What does celeriac taste like?
Somewhere between celery and parsley with a nutty edge, and it sweetens as it cooks, which is why it sits well under cream. Under the knobbly skin the flesh is dense and pale, so peel it thickly and dice it evenly.
It turns up a lot in Ramsay’s winter cooking for that reason. The celeriac soup leans on the same sweetness, though there it thickens the pot on its own with no cream at all.
Why Dijon rather than wholegrain mustard?
Dijon dissolves completely into the cream, so it sharpens the sauce without leaving anything to chew. Given the vegetables underneath are already soft, that keeps the chop as the only thing with texture.
Grain mustard does the opposite, which is why it shows up in the rabbit fricassée, where the whole seeds burst against the cream. Same ingredient, opposite reason for reaching for it.
How long do veal chops take to cook?
Three to four minutes a side in a properly hot pan, once they have been flattened. Ramsay gives no doneness cue beyond that, so go by feel rather than cutting in.
Basting is the part not to skip. Spoon the pan juices or leftover marinade over once or twice while they cook, which keeps the surface from drying while the middle comes up.
What can you use instead of veal?
Pork loin chops are the closest cut and take the same treatment, though I would give them a little longer. Chicken breast works if you butterfly and flatten it, but the sauce loses the meat it was built against.
Escalope is really this same cut once flattened, which is where the naming gets confusing. The chicken schnitzel page works through schnitzel, milanese and escalope if that is the bit tripping you up.
