Veal baked in hay

Name: Veal baked in hay
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 x 1.5 kg rib or rack of veal; 1 new-season garlic bulb or a few normal garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced; A little vegetable oil, for frying; A couple of good handfuls of clean hay, soaked in cold water for 15 minutes and drained; 10 small sprigs of rosemary

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mark Hix on Baking

By Mark Hix

Published 2012

About

Cooking with hay is an old technique — the hay keeps the heat in and gives the meat a fantastic grassy taste. It’s important to soak the hay before using though, because if it smoulders it will give the delicate veal a flavour you don’t want. Pet shops and garden centres sell clean hay.

Ingredients

1 x 1.5 kg rib or rack of veal
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A little

Main course
Gluten-free

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

Season the veal with salt and pepper. Heat a little vegetable oil until almost smoking in a large, heavy frying pan, add the meat and seal on all sides until nicely browned. Remove from the pan.

Using a sharp knife, make about 10 in