Veal and Eggplant Bake

I think I have a slight addiction, evidenced by the no less than fifty high-quality cookbooks gracing our bookshelf and one of my favourite things is to search second-hand stores for highly renowned cookbooks that are selling for next to nothing to add to the collection. What I have recently discovered is that the decades-old, unnasuming Women's Weekly magazines accrued by my mother and grandmother can be gold mines. You may have to flick past the many pages of interesting pates, terrains and jellies and plenty of aged photographs and take a risk to see which recipes pass the test of time. Last weekend I was rummaging through a pile of cookbooks I had put away in a drawer and found 'Women's Weekly Best Ever Recipes' from 1990 and placed the 'Veal and Eggplant Casserole' on the weekly shopping list. We tried it last night and oh my goodness - genuinely one of the best meals I've had. How easily that recipe could have remained in its dust-collecting recipe book and never have been discovered.

Ingredients:

6 veal steaks

flour

salt and pepper

60g butter

1/4 cup oil

60g butter, extra

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 medium eggplants

oil for shallow frying

250g mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Tomato Sauce ingredients:

470g can whole tomatoes

1 large onion

1 clove garlic

30g butter

salt, pepper

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup water

2 chicken stock cubes

1/2 tsp sugar (Bob put in about 2-3 tsp)

Method:

Tomato sauce:

1. Heat butter in pan, add peeled and finely chopped onion and crushed garlic and sauce gently until onion is tender.

2. Add undrained mashed tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, tomato paste, water, crumbled stock cubes and sugar and stir until combined.

3. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20minutes or until mixture is thick.

1. Pound veal out thinly (if not already) and cut each steak in half. Coat veal with flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Heat b utter and oil in frying pan until very hot. Add veal, a few pieces at a time and cook very quickly on both sides until light golden brown. Remove from pan. Repeat with remaining veal.

2. Place veal steaks in large shallow ovenproof dish in one layer. 

3. Add wine, salt and pepper to pan drippings and bring to boil. Stir until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from pan, add extra butter and stir until combined. Spoon wine mixture over veal.

4. Spoon prepared Tomato Sauce mixture evenly over veal.

5. Cut eggplant into 1cm rounds. Coat each side lightly with flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Shallow-fry eggplant on each side for 1 minute in hot oil, drain on paper towel.

6. Overlap eggpant slices on Tomato Sauce. Cover eggplant with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake in moderately hot oven for 20-30minutes or until golden brown.

Serves 4-6

***The Australian Women's Weekly Best Ever Recipes 1990 page 30***