In The Silver Chair, the fourth of the Narnia novels, the giants of Harfang Castle particularly enjoy children en croûte, a dish traditionally served during the Fall Feast. In the absence of any obliging infants, however, you can use veal.
Ingredients
- 1 lb 10 oz 1 veal roast
- Olive oil
- 6 basil leaves
- 3½ oz buffalo mozzarella
- 9 oz puff pastry (from your bakery/ cake shop)
- 6 slices Parma ham
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes
- Pepper
- 1 glass milk
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Sear the veal roast in oil on all sides in a very hot frying pan, then let it rest.
- Rinse the basil leaves, dry them with a clean dish towel and, while you’re at it, you might like to dry last night’s crockery as well.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the mozzarella not your fingers! into ¼-inch slices.
- Grab a large rolling pin, flatten the puff pastry on your work surface as you would an enemy, and roll it out to a large circle 1/8-inch thick.
- The next step is crucial focus! Three-quarters of an inch inside one edge of the pastry, place a row of Parma ham slices across the middle of the pastry to ¾ inch inside the opposite edge. Place the slices of mozzarella on top, then the dried tomatoes and basil. It all needs to form a neat, regular row not be higgledy-piggledy like a bunch of slovenly mountain giants.
- Season with pepper atchoo! but do not add salt. Lay the roast on your beautiful neat row. Lightly moisten the edges of the pastry and fold the bottom and top over the veal, then fold over the sides. Press down gently on the pastry so the roast is snugly wrapped. Turn it over, dip a brush in the milk and brush all over.
- Make two holes in the pastry on top and at each end so that the steam can escape. Bake for 45 minutes before the king and queen of the mountain giants are ready to dine.
