Roasted Veal and Broad Bean Salad with Fresh Hazelnuts and Lemon Thyme

On New Scandinavian Cooking, we prepared this wonderful cut of beef in a Viking-style ground oven.

INGREDIENTS:

Number of servings

Serves 4 to 6

List of ingredients

One 4 ½ lbs. (2 kg) rack of veal

Crowberry heather (or other sort of heather) and dock leaves (or rhubarb), enough to wrap the meat

2 lbs. (900 g) fresh broad beans

2 small red onions, thinly sliced

1 small apple, thinly sliced

½ cup (a little more than 1 deciliter) peeled and halved fresh hazelnuts

1 to 2 tbs. finely chopped lemon thyme

3 tbs. rapeseed oil

2 tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. heather honey

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

PREPARATION:

It is a made by digging a hole in the ground and filling it halfway up with stones. After lighting a log fire on top, the stones are hot enough for the hole to serve as an oven, with the soil and turf on top. Use a cooking thermometer, as checking the meat for doneness is rather inconvenient. However, it is perfectly possible to make this recipe in your own kitchen, using a normal stove.

• For the veal: Let the meat sit at room temperature for at least one hour before starting to cook. (If using a regular oven, preheat to 400 Fahrenheit [200 Celsius]). Rub the meat with generous amounts of sea salt, and wrap it first in heather, then in dock leaves, and close tightly with string. Place in a ground oven and cover with hot stones, soil and turf. Leave to cook for 3 to 4 hours, or until core temperature has reached 135 Fahrenheit (57 Celsisus).

• Alternatively, bake in the oven until the core temperature reaches 135 Fahrenheit [57 Celsius]. Leave to rest in a warm place for 10 minutes before carving it.

• For the salad: Mix rapeseed oil, apple cider vinegar, heather honey, and stir until smooth in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Using your fingers, break the pods open and pick out the beans, discarding the pods. In a large bowl, combine beans, hazel nuts, apple, red onion and lemon thyme. Add the dressing and fold together until mixed well.

• To serve, carve the meat thinly and arrange with broad bean salad, sprinkle with sea salt.