Hey Hive 🍽️😋
In France, certain dishes transcend the status of mere recipes to become an integral part of our history and culture. Blanquette de veau is one such culinary treasure.
For me, this dish evokes childhood memories, times spent at my grandparents' house where my grandmother would prepare this specialty. My grandfather's light-hearted saying:
'Don't marry until your partner can cook a blanquette de veau'
Not only added a familial touch to the dish but also embedded it deeply in our traditions.
Recently, on the anniversary of my grandfather's passing, I found myself reminiscing about this 'famous Blanquette de veau,' prompting me to finally take the plunge and make it myself.
Having never cooked blanquette de veau before, I reached out to my grandmother for her recipe, conveniently handed down to my mother in an old book of traditional French cooking—a book that's a treasure in itself and might inspire more culinary adventures in the weeks to come.
Ingredients for 4 servings:
- Veal (cut into pieces), approximately 1 kg
- Lemon, 1/2
- Carrot, 1
- Onion, 1
- Clove, 1
- Bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf)
- Salt, pepper
- For the sauce:
- Butter or margarine, 30 g
- Flour, 30 g (1 heaping tablespoon)
- Veal cooking stock, 1/2 liter
- Preparation and Cooking Time: 1h30
Instructions:
- Rub the pieces of meat with lemon to keep them white. Place them in a pot of cold water with the carrot, an onion studded with a clove, bouquet garni, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover. Let simmer gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Skim during cooking.
On my part, I had asked my girlfriend to chop the onion, but she misunderstood and chopped it into small pieces. I only realized this halfway through.
So be careful, you just need to peel the onion, stick the clove into it, and immerse it in the water. That's it!
- Sauce: 30 minutes before the end of the meat's cooking time, mix on low heat 30 g of butter or margarine and 1 heaping tablespoon of flour. Add 1/2 liter of the blanquette stock.
Stir until boiling with a wooden spoon. Let simmer for 10 minutes on low heat.
- Drain the meat well and then place it on a warm dish. Cover with the sauce. If possible, sprinkle with a little chopped parsley (I didn't have any).
Notes:
You can serve with plain rice cooked for 17 minutes in boiling salted water or potatoes cooked for 30 minutes in the blanquette's broth, at the same time as it.
I made rice. 🍚
In the recipe book, the author writes this (I didn't do it, but you can try):
For my sauce to be particularly delicious, once it is cooked and removed from the heat, I incorporate 1 or 2 tablespoons of crème fraîche, 1 egg yolk, and a dash of lemon juice. This sauce has a small drawback: it cannot be reheated, as it might spoil under direct heat. The only solution to keep it warm is to hold it in a non-boiling bain-marie.
Contrary to my expectations, I discovered that making blanquette de veau isn't as difficult as I thought. The key, I learned, lies in selecting quality veal, preferably shoulder cuts, from a trusted butcher.
The result?
A delightful evening where I cooked for my girlfriend and her parents, introducing them to a dish that, while familiar to her parents, hadn't been tasted in over 15 or 20 years, and was entirely new to my girlfriend, who was initially skeptical but ended up loving it.
