Serves: 4

Gowings at its best, is a loud, brash and great Friday-afternoon steak joint in the middle of Sydney.

I mean, its food won’t win any awards, though that is sort of the point: t is just a bloody comfortable place to be after a bottle of red!

Nat and I had one memorable lunch where she ordered a veal schnitzel with a mushroom paste and a poached egg on top. My goodness, it was great.

Accompanying it was this cracker of an iceberg salad with ranch dressing.

This veal recipe isn’t their recipe though it is our recreation of it. I promise, it is absolutely on point.

Decant a good bottle of red and enjoy.

(And yes, the recipe does ask for a poached egg and the photo above is of a fried egg, though we were preparing a several courses for a Mexican-themed feast the next day, so mea culpa!)

Ingredients

For the veal

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 veal schnitzels
1 cup panko crumb
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs, beaten with 1 tbsp milk
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 eggs
1 tbsp white vinegar
Lemon wedges to serve

For the mushroom paste

3 tbsp butter
750 mixed mushrooms
20gm porcinis
1/2 cup red wine
4 garlic, finely chopped
5 sprigs majoram, leaves finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Commence the mushrooms: put the porcinis in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for 30 minutes. Draining, reserving the liquid.
2. Meanwhile, remove the stalks from the mushrooms and pulse in a food processor toegther with the porcinis until well ground.
3. Heat two tablespoons of butter over a medium heat in a heavy saucepan and add the mushrooms. Sauted for 10 minutes and then add the red wine and reserved porcini liquid.
4. In a small saucepan, heat 1tbsp of butter over a low heat and then add the garlic. Fry until soft and then add the majoram and cook together until the garlic starts to golden. Add the garlic mixture to the mushrooms and season.
5. Continue to cook the mushroom mixture, stirring regularly until almost all of the liquid as evaporated and you are left with a think, mushroom paste. Season.
6. For the veal: Place flour, panko crumb and egg/milk mixture in three separate bowls. Season the panko. Flour the first veal schnitzel, then into the egg/milk wash and then finally into the panko crumb, ensuring that it is well coated. Repeat with the remaining veal schnitzel.
7. Heat a pot with water until boiling and add the white vinegar: this is for poaching the eggs.
8. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan over a medium-high heat: you want to flash fry the veal rather than cooking it slowly. Commence pacohing the eggs as you cook the veal until golden on both sides.
9. Plate the veal, pasting a think layer of the mushroom paste on top and finishing with the poached egg.