Côtelettes à la Provençale

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •10-inch / 25 cm ovenproof skillet
• •1-quart / 1-litre heavy saucepan
• •Heatproof liquid measure
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Warm oval serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Set the station

   Set an oven rack about 6 inches / 15 cm below the broiler and heat the oven to 450°F / 230°C. Pat the cutlets completely dry, but wait to season them until the sauce and garnishes are ready. Dry meat browns; wet meat merely cooks pale. Warm the serving platter with hot water, then dry it just before plating.

2. 2

   Reduce and bind

   Put the finished Béchamel sauce in the smallest heavy saucepan you own. Simmer gently, stirring often, until it measures 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons (40 ml / about 40 g), roughly one third of its starting volume. Check it in a heatproof measure rather than guessing. If it goes too far, whisk in cold water 1 teaspoon at a time until 40 ml remains. Remove it from the heat and cool for 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic paste. Whisk a spoonful of the warm sauce into the beaten yolk, then whisk that mixture back into the saucepan. It should form a thick cream that stays mounded on a spoon. If it turns grainy, pull it from the heat at once, whisk in 1 teaspoon cold water, and pass it through a fine sieve. Ça se rattrape. Keep it barely warm and never let it boil.

   The reduction is the dish. A loose sauce slides from the cutlet before the glaze sets, while a properly reduced one holds the mushroom and olive without heaviness.
3. 3

   Poach the olives

   Bring the water to a bare simmer in a small saucepan. Add the stuffed olives and poach them gently for 2 minutes, just long enough to warm them and soften their briny edge. Drain and blot them dry. Wrap one anchovy strip around the equator of each olive, overlapping the ends underneath so the strip holds without a toothpick.

4. 4

   Grill the mushrooms

   Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a 10-inch / 25 cm ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushroom caps, hollow side down, and cook for 2 minutes. Turn them and cook on the convex side until deeply golden and tender, about 2 minutes more. Season with a small pinch of the measured salt, then lift them out and hold them convex side upward.

5. 5

   Fry one side

   Season the cutlets on both sides with the remaining salt and pepper. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in the skillet over medium-high heat. When the foam settles and the butter smells nutty, lay in the cutlets with their best-looking side down. Fry without moving them until that side is deeply bronzed, 2½ to 3 minutes. Do not flip them. Lift them out with the raw side still raw. If the butter solids have turned black rather than brown, wipe out the skillet and add fresh butter from the reserve before continuing; scorched bitterness follows the meat all the way to the table.

6. 6

   Glaze and finish

   Take the skillet off the heat and coat its floor with 1 teaspoon fresh butter. Return the cutlets raw side down. Spread about 2 teaspoons of the garlic-and-yolk Béchamel over the browned side of each, taking it almost to the edges, then sprinkle each crown with a few drops of melted butter. Transfer the skillet to the oven and cook until the glaze is set and the lamb reaches 140°F / 60°C at the centre, about 5 to 7 minutes. If the surface remains pale, switch on the broiler for 30 to 60 seconds and watch without looking away. If it colours before the lamb is ready, turn off the broiler and finish with oven heat alone. Rest the cutlets in the skillet for 3 minutes; carryover heat will bring them close to 145°F / 63°C.

7. 7

   Build the circle

   Arrange the cutlets in a shallow overlapping circle on the warm platter, glazed sides upward. Set one grilled mushroom in the middle of each cutlet with its convex side uppermost, then balance an anchovy-girt stuffed olive on every mushroom. Spoon any clean melted butter from the skillet around the cutlets, never over their glaze. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose cutlets of the same thickness, with a broad eye of meat that can hold the glaze and mushroom. Uneven chops force you to choose between one underdone piece and another cooked past tenderness.
• •The ten-cutlet formula scales to four with 115 ml finished Béchamel reduced to 40 ml and 22 g yolk. That extra teaspoon from a second yolk looks fussy only until you remember what it protects: the original proportion and a glaze that sets cleanly.
• •The source assumes olives already stoned, stuffed, and ready to poach. Producing four bespoke filled olives is brigade scaffolding; a good pimento-stuffed green olive is the stated home replacement. It changes the filling, but keeps the filled shape and the essential olive-anchovy structure.
• •Serve with pommes fondantes or plainly buttered green beans. A red Bandol has enough dark fruit and savoury grip for the lamb, garlic, and anchovy without pushing Provence into postcard theatrics.
• •These cutlets are best the moment they are assembled. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and use them within 2 days; reheat gently at 325°F / 165°C until hot, knowing the yolk glaze will become firmer.

Advance Preparation

• •The finished Béchamel sauce can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Reduce and bind it with the yolk on the day you cook the cutlets.
• •The olives can be poached and wrapped with anchovy up to 4 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate them, then let them lose their chill while you cook the mushrooms.
• •Clean the mushrooms, trim the cutlets, and measure every sauce ingredient earlier in the day. Frying and glazing must wait until shortly before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 165g)