VEAL (OR CHICKEN) MARSALA

Once, long ago, several friends and I rented an apartment over a garage at the beach. It seems crazy now but then it was no effort at all to drag ourselves there every weekend, rushing to the beach on Friday night, and rushing back to work early on Monday morning. We almost always ate in and took turns cooking. (We were too poor to eat out.) Once, when we had decided on veal marsala for dinner, the supermarket was out of veal and Bob and I substituted chicken No one ever knew. So chicken works, but veal is better. We never had a demiglaze at the beach. As a matter of fact, we'd never heard of it. If you don't have any lying around, use chicken broth or beef broth. Both work but chicken is better.

VEAL (OR CHICKEN) MARSALA

serves 4



3 T unsalted butter

1 lb mushrooms, stems discarded, caps quartered

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 T chopped, fresh flat leaf parsley

1 1/2 lb veal cutlets, 1/4 inch thick

1/2 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

1/4 t dried thyme, crumbled (that releases the oils)

1/4 t dried oregano, crumbled

1 1/2 T olive oil

1/3 C all purpose flour

2/3 C sweet Marsala wine

1 C beef or veal demiglaze

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until foam subsides, then saute mushrooms, stirring frequently until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated and mushrooms begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and parsley and saute, stirring, 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl and wipe skillet clean.

2. Pat veal dry, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and oregano.

3. Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil with 1 teaspoon butter in skillet over moderately high heat unti hot but not smoking. While fat is heating, quickly dredge 2 or 3 pieces of veal in flour, shaking off excess, then saute until just cooked through, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes on each side (meat will still be slightly pink inside). Transfer to a platter with tongs and keep warm, loosely covered, in a 200 degree oven. Saute remaining veal in 2 more batches using remaining oil and butter.

4. Add Marsala to skillet and deglaze on high heat by boiling, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until reduced by half. Stir in demiglaze and simmer, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes. Stir in mushroom mixture and any veal juices accumulated on platter, then season with salt and pepper if necessary. Simmer 2 minutes more and spoon over veal. Serve at once.

Note: If you're using chicken, ask the butcher for chicken cutlets 1/4 inch thick. If you can't find these, buy chicken breasts and pound them to 1/4 inch thick between two pieces of wax paper. I usually take the tenderloin out of the breast before doing this; it's a little hard to make the breasts consistently thin with this flange in the way. You can pound with a rolling pin but never being able to find mine, I went to the hardware store and bought a rubber hammer that makes a perfect tool for this operation.