Making Veal Fit For A Prince!
It’s one of the funniest scenes from my favorite TV show – more on that later – so of course I had to make “Veal Prince Orloff” – while also honoring one of my favorite TV dramas!
Week #29 of my “52 In 22” cooking challenge decided to go “unofficial” with “Downton Abbey” – and “Mary Tyler Moore” as well!
I had the “unofficial” cookbook for the TV series / movie series “Downton Abbey” on my stack, and when I saw there was a luxurious “Prince Veal Orloff” dish in the cookbook, I knew I had to make it!
To celebrate the release of the new film “Downton Abbey: A New Era”, I decided to cook a feast that would make Lord Grantham proud!
“Veal Prince Orloff” is a Franco/Russian dish that involves layer slowly cook veal with onion and mushroom stuff, and a decadent Mornay sauce on top!
Here’s the recipe from this fun cookbook:
Making Veal Prince Orloff!
It’s a three part process, and a four page recipe! Let’s tart by pepping the Veal: here are those ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 4-lb boneless loin of veal
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbp vegetable or olive oil
2 tbp butter
1 garlic clove minced
2 celery heart chopped
1 large carrot chopped
fresh parsley
fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
Turn on your oven to 350 degrees as you prepare your Veal. Mix the flour and garlic powder in a bowl and dredge the veal. Heat the olive oil in an oven-proof pan and cook your onions and garlic for 5 minutes..
Sear the Veal on all sides in the pan of garlic and onions…I added the butter here as well for a bit of caramelization – this should take ten minutes or so.
After 10 minutes, remove the veal and add in the diced celery and carrot – these will be aromatics to help the Veal when it goes into the oven:
After cooking the carrots and celery, place the Veal back in the mixture, and create a bouquet Garni with the parsley, thyme and bay lead…then, put the oven-proof pan in the oven covered for 1-1/2 hours…
Next up, time to make two very unique stuffings!
The Prince’s Onion Rice Stuffing!
Since the Veal will be in the oven for the next hour and a half, it’s time to make the two stuffings that are an important part of the dish.
Here are the ingredients for the onion stuffing:
1/3 cup long-grain basmati rice
2 tbl. butter
3 cups onion, sliced vertically
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup chicken stock
Cook the rice in boiling water for 5 minutes…this obviously won’t cook it, but you’ll see how it gets finished in a moment.
Cook the onions in the butter for 5 minutes, adding the salt as well…then, pour the partially cooked rice in, along with the chicken stock.
Now, it’s time for this dish to join the Veal! Put a lid on the pan and put the entire thing into the oven along with your veal for 35-40 minutes.
Now, onto the Mushroom stuffing!
“Magic” Mushrooms!
Well, this sauce is magical to be sure – and also very easy…here are the ingredients:
1 pound finely diced mushrooms
1/4 cup half-n-half
4 tbl. butter
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Saute the diced mushrooms in butter and then add the cream…let it absorb as you stir it for 5 minute or so and it is ready to use as stuffing!
Finally, time to make a Mornay sauce:
This Mornay sauce is a classic:
1-1/2 cup whole milk
4 tbl butter
6 tbl flour
1/3 cup grated Gruyere cheese
14 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Melt the butter, stir in the flour for a minute, then slowly drizzle in the milk…yes, it’s a simple roux…
The key of course is to stir and stir and stir – when thicker, pull from the heat and stir in the nutmeg and cheese and set aside…oh, and I decided to smash some roasted potatoes and steam some Chinese Long Beans to put under the Veal Prince Orloff dish…
Now, time to take the Veal out of the oven and put this dish together:
The “stuffing” is really a layer of both the onion and the mushrooms between each slice of Veal…one last thing to do is cover the dish with the Mornay sauce:
Here’s Veal Prince Orloff!
The dish tasted delicious, but for some reason I didn’t get a very good shot of it!
I think in hindsight I should have plated it by itself so it would pop more, but the side dishes worked really well with the richness of the dish…
When I plated it separately it stood out a bit more – the onion rice mixture on the bottom left and the mushrooms on the upper right…so now, let me tell you how this was inspired by the legendary Mary Tyler Moore!
You see, in one memorable episode of the classic TV series, Mary has Congresswoman Geddes over for dinner – but Sue Ann Nivens cooks and rushes everyone through the meal, which turns disastrous when Lou Grant see the Veal Prince Orloff – and this happens!
Yes, that was a very young Henry Winkler who was relegated to the kid’s table – Rhoda invited him without telling Mary!
Of course, I have cooked from the “Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook” before when I made this dish that the downstairs staff enjoys:
It’s a classic Lancashire Hotpot and you can see the entire recipe for this delicious feast here:
This was a fun and easy dish to make, but one I made was even more delicious:
I LOVED this “Pulled Pork Pasta In Almond Cream Sauce” from my “Cooking Under Fire” TV series cookbook – see how much fun it is to make by clicking on the recipe here:
Chef / Author Michael Ruhlman was one of the Judges on “Cooking Under Fire” and he has a slew of cookbooks himself!
His “Crispy Mollet Egg In Asparagus Sauce” was amazing, and you can see the entire recipe by clicking on my story here:
I have also had a great time making food from different cultures, like this traditional Italian Gravy:
Not only “gravy” but “Gangsters” too!
See this traditional Italian family recipe by clicking on my story here:
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This is a very interesting recipe, John. A big of work, but well worth it. Loved Alex’s comment about it looking classy. Very true!
Robbie, thanks so much for commenting..it didn’t look as “grand as I hoped, a mistake for me to have put it on the longboats and smashed potatoes I think..but it tasted great and I rarely cook with Veal so it was a nice change of pace!