Attereaux de Ris de Veau à la Villeroy

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1¼ to 1⅓-inch (3.2 to 3.4 cm) round cutter
• •12 food-safe bamboo skewers, each 4 inches (10 cm) long
• •Two rimmed trays and a 2 lb (900 g) pressing weight
• •Deep heavy saucepan or Dutch oven with at least 3 inches (7.5 cm) of headroom
• •Clip-on deep-frying thermometer
• •Wire skimmer and wire draining rack
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •12 clean cocktail picks for serving, optional silver

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the sweetbreads

   Put the sweetbreads in a bowl of cold water and soak them for 1 hour, changing the water twice, until they look pale and the water remains nearly clear. Trim away visible blood vessels and loose fat without tearing into the lobes. Keep your knife modest here; the outer membrane comes away more cleanly after blanching.

2. 2

   Blanch and press

   Bring 2 quarts (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) of the water to a bare simmer with 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g) of the salt. Add the sweetbreads and hold the water just below a boil for 8 minutes, then transfer them immediately to very cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel away the membrane and any remaining sinew. Set the sweetbreads between two trays, weight the top with about 2 lb (900 g), and chill for 45 to 60 minutes. Pressing gives you the close, even texture needed for clean roundels.

3. 3

   Cut equal roundels

   Cut 24 sweetbread roundels about 1⅓ inches (3.4 cm) across and ⅓ inch (8 mm) thick. Cut 24 mushroom roundels and 24 truffle roundels to roughly the same diameter, making both slightly thinner than the sweetbread. Pat everything thoroughly dry, then season the sweetbread and mushrooms lightly with the remaining salt and the white pepper. Save the trimmings for another sauce or forcemeat; trimming is the price of the classical shape, not permission to waste good food.

4. 4

   Thread the attereaux

   Thread two roundels of each ingredient onto every 4-inch (10 cm) bamboo skewer, alternating sweetbread, mushroom and truffle, then repeating the sequence. Keep the pieces close enough to form a neat cylinder but don't crush them together. Make 12 attereaux and chill them for 15 minutes so their surfaces are cold and firm.

5. 5

   Mask with Villeroy

   Bring the finished Villeroy sauce to a cool, thick but fluid consistency. Holding each skewer by its bare end, dip and turn it until every round is completely masked, then lay it on a parchment-lined tray and spoon sauce over any exposed seam. If the coating runs into a puddle or leaves the ingredients showing, stop. The sauce is too warm or the skewer too wet. Chill both for 10 minutes, lift away the pooled sauce and mask the bare places again. Ça se rattrape.

6. 6

   Chill until solid

   Refrigerate the masked attereaux for at least 2 hours, until the Villeroy sauce is solid and no longer yields under a light fingertip. Lift each one from the tray and clear away the skirts and drips of excess sauce with a small knife, shaping the coating into a tidy cylinder. Patch any bare spot with cold Villeroy sauce and chill that skewer for another 20 minutes. Don't proceed while any coating remains soft. Cold now makes the crust secure later.

7. 7

   Bread à l’anglaise

   Pour the finished Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) into a shallow dish and spread the fine fresh breadcrumbs in another. Dip each cold attereau in the Anglaise, coating it completely, then roll it in the crumbs. Turn and press it gently between your fingers to restore the small cylindrical shape. The entry calls for Anglaise and crumbs over the firm sauce, so no flour is needed here. Chill the breaded attereaux for 30 minutes while the frying oil heats.

8. 8

   Fry the parsley

   Warm the finished Périgueux sauce gently and keep it covered. Heat the frying oil in a deep, heavy pot to 350°F (175°C), leaving at least 3 inches (7.5 cm) of headroom. Put the completely dry parsley in a wire skimmer, lower it carefully into the oil for 10 to 15 seconds, then drain it on a rack and season with a small pinch of salt. Any water left on the leaves will make the oil spit, so dry means dry.

9. 9

   Fry until bronze

   Begin frying about 8 minutes before you intend to serve, which is the source's timing for service, not an instruction to cook each skewer for 8 minutes. Fry three or four attereaux at a time for 2½ to 3½ minutes, turning once, until the crumb is evenly bronze and the sweetbread reaches 160°F (71°C) at the centre. Let the oil return to 350°F (175°C) between batches. If the first coating splits or shows a pale streak of sauce, remove it, restore the oil temperature and chill the remaining attereaux for 15 minutes before continuing. Hot fat and a cold coating must meet decisively.

10. 10

    Drain and serve

    Drain the fried attereaux on a wire rack rather than leaving them on paper, which traps oil beneath the crust. Carefully withdraw the frying skewers and replace them with clean cocktail picks, silver if you own them and ordinary ones if you don't. Arrange three per person on a warm oval platter with the fried parsley gathered in the centre, and serve the finished Périgueux sauce separately in a small sauceboat. Bring them to the table at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask a good butcher for throat veal sweetbreads and order them ahead. The source prefers the throat kind, whose elongated lobes provide several neat roundels; heart sweetbread is finer-grained but less obliging under a circular cutter.
• •Fresh black truffle is magnificent when its season and your purse agree. At other times, use whole black truffles preserved in their own juice, drained and sliced. The classical pantry solved seasons sensibly. Truffle oil cannot supply the required roundels and doesn't belong here.
• •Fry one attereau as a test before committing the whole tray. If it colours slowly, raise the oil temperature; if the sauce escapes, chill the remaining skewers longer. The test piece is tuition, and the cook is entitled to eat it.
• •Serve with a medium-bodied red Burgundy or a mature claret whose tannins have softened. The wine needs enough structure for sweetbread and Périgueux sauce, but not so much force that the truffle disappears.

Advance Preparation

• •Blanch, trim and press the sweetbreads up to 1 day ahead. Keep them covered and refrigerated, then cut the roundels while they are cold.
• •Prepare the finished Villeroy and Périgueux sauces up to 1 day ahead. Rewarm the Villeroy only until thick and fluid enough for masking, and warm the Périgueux gently just before serving.
• •The skewers can be assembled, masked and chilled overnight. Bread them with the finished Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) up to 4 hours before frying, keep them uncovered in the refrigerator until the crumbs feel dry, then cover loosely.
• •Prepare the finished Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) on the day of breading, keep it refrigerated until needed and discard what remains after contact with the sweetbreads.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 605g)