Blanquette de veau
Continuing with my lucky dip ...
I'm not sure I have ever made blanquette de veau à l'ancienne to give it its full title. Probably because I'm not much of a fan of veal. That and suckling pig and lamb are really just a bit too much for my sensibilities. And yes I know that's a touch hypocritical considering I eat other meats, but there you are. Proper veal that is, and it's hard to find here anyway. But you can make a blanquette with other meats - lamb is the most common, but really, to my mind it's a dish that is more suited to chicken and pork.
So what is it? Well it's a fairly plain veal stew, that is finished off with a velouté - the juices are thickened with egg yolk - in this instance with mushrooms and small onions. It's a classic dish and apparently the fourth most popular dish in France, so what has it got that is so appealing. Elizabeth David didn't like it much after all - she calls it insipid. Another person might call it delicate or light - well not light perhaps with all that cream and egg yolk. It's so classic that it's origins are lost in history although the first recipes appeared in the mid eighteenth century. But then there weren't many recipe books before then.
There is an entire website dedicated to the dish, and apparently there is violent debate about what should go into it. No carrots or other coloured vegetables for a start as these would detract from the whiteness of the dish. No wine. And you should add cloves. Well that's what the purists say, but everyone, of course, has their own version. And I have to say that although it takes a long time to cook - 2-3 hours it's dead simple.
Basically you put your cubed meat in a pot with stock (or water) - this is where the wine controversy comes in. Most modern cooks seem to like wine, but then others don't. Add a couple of carrots and an onion stuck with a couple of cloves, plus a bouquet garni. Bring to the boll and skim off the scum, then simmer for two hours or so until the meat is tender. An alternative is to just add water to the meat boil it, discard the water and then add your flavourings and the stock and/or wine and start again. When it is nearly done you cook small pickling onions in butter, sugar, salt and water (just to cover), and, separately, mushrooms with butter and lemon juice and water. Discard the carrots and onion from the stew, add the drained onions and mushrooms (keep the drained juices - which you whisk with an egg yolk and some lemon juice). Add this liquid to the stew, and continue to cook stirring all the time until it thickens to a cream. My guess is that if you have a lot of liquid at the end of the cooking it would be a good idea to boil this down before you add the egg yolk. It's traditionally served with rice, but these days pasta is often substituted.
The Cuisine Minceur version is a little different. The mushrooms are cooked with the meat, together with some carrots, leek and celery. A small portion of this is liquidised with some crème fraiche, tarragon and fromage blanc to make the sauce. No egg yolks. He also has a fancy garnish of carrots, turnips and cucumber. You can also add a truffle sauce to the final sauce, but this is an optional extra.
So there you have it. Give it a go. Well follow the technique anyway and try it with a meat, or fish of your choice. I will say that stews such as these are very tasty. Somehow if you don't sauté the meat first, the flavour goes into the liquid better. We had delicious stews like this when I was a child - beef - with carrots and dumplings, rabbit - a real favourite and good old Irish stew, which even Robert Carrier admits into his gallery of classic dishes.
Here are some other versions - the one at the bottom is the 'authentic' one from the Blanquette de veau website. They are all a little different from each other.
