Veal with Cranberry Port Sauce

Dinner last night was inspired by a recipe I pulled from the cookbook Dave bought me over the weekend... William Sonoma's Healthful Cooking. The original recipe calls for venison, but I spied some huge lovely veal chops at Publix, so I used them instead. It was my first time making a sauce by reduction instead of flour or cornstarch without it seperating or doing some other strange things, or just flat out tasting BAD... this was wonderful and thick, and I was pretty darn proud of myself!

Be warned this is a two day ordeal! I started on Sunday afternoon, when I had the time to play in the kitchen.

While the cranberries were plumping up, we had a little treat of mushy stinky soft Saint Andres cheese and a few slices of that kick ass olive bread from Publix.

INGREDIENTS
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
2 plum tomatoes, quartered
4 tsp canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large shallot, chopped
1 cup beef or veal broth
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire (say it with me... Woostasheer Sauce)
6 fresh Italian parsley springs
3 cardamom pods, crushed
2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf

2 veal chops
1/3 cup dried cranberries (I kinda thought this was too many)
1/3 cup Port
2 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into 8 equal pieces
salt and pepper to taste

METHOD
Saute garlic, shallot, carrot in oil over medium high heat until shallot starts to soften. Add broth, cranberry juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, parsley, cardamom, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes. Let cool to room tempurature. Place in a non-reactive bowl with veal, cover, and marinade for 24 hours.

Next day
Place the cranberries in port and let them plump, 20-30 mins. Have some cheese.

Strain the marinade into a large bowl, setting the veal aside. Discard the chunks from the marinade... unless you can think of something fancy shmancy to do with them... I was lazey... so it was dinner for the gargage disposal.

Preheat oven to 200. Pan fry the veal chops over medium high heat, turning once, about 10-15 mins total depending on the thickness of your chops. Place them on a plate, cover with foil, and stickem in the oven.

Pour the reserved marinade into the pain to deglaze, and reduce for approx 10 mins. Add the cranberries and port and cook until the liquid is reduced by one-fourth, about 5 mins. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Whick in butter until melted and blended into the sauce.

Then the fun part.. EAT! =D