VEAL IN CARROT PUREE

If you object to cooking veal or live somewhere like the UK where it is ridiculously expensive, you'll just have to skip this post - as I do with "fishy" recipes!

I adapted this recipe from a magazine.  You are supposed to steam it all and, when I decided to try it, I thought I'd be able to steam everything in my wok, for which I have a rack.  But could I find the rack?  No way!  So the recipe became a roast instead and was probably the better for it.

First you pound together a few thin slices of Italian lardo - which is a kind of mostly white bacon - with some chopped, fresh herbs.  I used the ones I had, which were rosemary, sage and thyme.  The lardo will soften and can be mixed well with the herbs.  Then you are supposed to use this mixture to lard an 800 gr piece of boneless veal topside [magatello].  Now, I don't have a larding needle so I started to make holes in the veal with a skewer but soon realised that they weren't going to go deep enough and that it would take all day.  Nothing for it but to plunge in with a knife.  Then I stuffed the herb mixture in as best I could, using the skewer to jab it down.  Then you chop up some carrots, a couple of sticks of celery and 2 small onions in a processor.  Put the veal on a piece of foil in a roasting tin and put the chopped vegetables around it.  I brushed some olive oil over the veal , then chucked a glass of water and a glass of white wine over it.  I also seasoned the purée.  Cook at 200 C for an hour , then for half an hour at 150C.  Cover with foil if it's getting too brown at any stage. When the veal is cooked, let it rest while you purée the vegetables.  I used a hand blender for this.  Then slice the veal and serve.