Sunday, July 1, 2012

Nina's blanquette de veau

With all our visitors that we have had the French traditional dishes didn't stay behind, as we love introducing our visitors to the French culture.
Shortly after my mom arrived Nina came to visit us for the weekend and offered to make a blanquette de veau (veal stew) for the Sunday.  We were happy to hand to kitchen over to her and have some time off.  Blanquette de veau is one of the most popular traditional dishes in France.  I first had it in Fouras when JL's sister cooked it for us.
It is a dish that takes long to cook (and long to prepare as you need to remove the fat from the meat), but is absolute worth it.  We had an excellent meal and I'll hand the kitchen over to Nina in the future at any occasion!  She took a recipe of the internet, but changed it based on her past experience, so I am happy to share her recipe with you!  It is an ideal dish to have in the winter!!

For 6 people:
Ingredients:
1.5 kg of veal (if you have the benefit of a butcher close to you, ask him to cut the veal pieces that are not too fatty)
1 marrow bone
1 bouquet garni (thyme, rosemary, parsley, laurier, pepper - we buy bouquet garni in a spice bottle instead of making a fresh one and she used almost a full bottle!)
2 carrots
300 g white mushrooms
1 leek (that is one good thing of buying vegetables in France - you can buy 1 leek and even if you buy celery, you don't have to buy the bush, but can ask for only one stem!)
young onions (the ones with the long green stem and a small white bulb)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 soup spoons of flour
2 soup spoons of butter
250 ml of cream
1 egg yolk
salt
cloves

Put the meat, salt, bone, bouquet garni, carrots (cut in round slices) and the onions (put 3 cloves in the onions) in a casserole.  Cover with cold water and boil that it is foaming.
Simmer for 2 hours, add the mushrooms and simmer for another 30 min.
On a low heat, whisk the butter and flouer for 5 min in a casserole and remove from the heat.
Once the meat is cooked, pour it through a sieve and throw away the onion and the bouquet garni.  Put the meat, carrots and mushrooms in a dish.
Incorporate the veal stock with the butter and flour and whisk to acquire a smooth sauce.  Put back on stove and cook for 5 min while continuing to whisk (it won't be thick, but cover a sppon). Add the lemon juice and cook another 2 min.
At the same time beat the cream and egg yolk together, add salt and pepper if required. Then mix with the sauce.
Add the meat, carrots and mushrooms to the sauce that it is cover, for about 2 min.
Enjoy!

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