Name: Slow-Cooked Veal Grillades
Yield: Serves 68
Ingredients: 4 pounds boneless veal shoulder, sliced into thin cutlets; Salt; Freshly ground black pepper; 2 cups flour; 2 teaspoons Basic Creole Spices; 1/4 cup rendered bacon fat; 1 large onion, diced; 1 stalk celery, diced; 1/2 bell pepper, diced; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 cups canned whole plum tomatoes, drained, seeded, and diced; 2 cups Basic Veal Stock; Leaves from 1 sprig fresh thyme; 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes; 1 bay leaf; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire; Tabasco; 2 green onions, chopped

Image may contain Plant Food Vegetable and Produce

Slow-Cooked Veal GrilladesDitte Isager/EdgeReps

Editor's note: Serve this veal with Chef John Besh's Jalapeño Cheese Grits .

Grillades is a Creole version of pot roast; the meat is sliced or pounded thin, then slow-cooked in a pungent sauce. If veal shoulder isn't available, substitute boneless, sliced Boston butts of pork. Sure, you can use a leaner cut of veal (and if you do, you'll want to cut the cooking time down by half). But I encourage you to find those cheaper cuts of meat that have much more flavor than either the loin or the leg.

Recipe notes

Sofrito Bolognese

An ex-boyfriend’s mom—who emigrated from Colombia—made the best meat sauce—she would fry sofrito for the base and simply add cooked ground beef, sazón, and jarred tomato sauce. My version is a bit more bougie—it calls for caramelized tomato paste and white wine—but the result is just as good.

Smothered Italian Sausage

This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.

Chicken Croquettes

Rather than breaded and fried as you might expect croquettes to be, these are something more akin to a seared chicken salad patty.

Mississippi Mud Cake

This cake was created from thrift and was supposedly named after its appearance, which reminded people of the muddy Mississippi River bottom.

Beef Stroganoff Ramen

This traditional dish of beef, sour cream, and mustard may have originated in Russia, but it’s about time for a version with ramen noodles, don’t you think?

Wampanoaug Clam Fritters

The clams’ natural briny sweetness serves as a surprising foil for the tender fritter batter—just be sure to pull off the tough outer coating of the siphon.

Smoky Tofu Shakshuka

This vegan version of the classic North African scramble uses soft silken tofu instead of eggs without any sacrifice of flavor.

Fufu

Fufu is a dish that has been passed down through many generations and is seen as a symbol of Ghanaian identity and heritage. Making fufu traditionally is a very laborious task; this recipe mimics some of that hard work but with a few home-cook hacks that make for a far easier time.