Other than in the pursuit of becoming cultured gourmand, I have some reservations about veal, not least because it is freaking expensive. It has a bad rep in terms of cruelty. I ran this past my vegan buddy Colin Auckland, who was happy to walk through the laundry list on veal. Most interestingly he pointed to vegetarians for being equally responsible for its existence as carnivores as it is a by-product of the Dairy industry, since male calves aren’t much use in terms of milk.

So all that time I spent eating lentil bolognese sprinkled with cheese I was creating veal. Time to taste my own medicine.

The veal is seared in butter then roasted until medium rare. Pretty straight forward. The magic is the sauce which starts with mushrooms sauteed until golden brown then joined by sliced shallot, then Madeira. The roasting pan also gets deglazed and the sauce added to the mushrooms. Sherry vinegar, stock and heavy cream find their way in too.

Slicing through the crispy golden surface into the juicy tenderloin, all swimming in the rich, mushroomy sauce is second only to devouring it, greedily.

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