I had only tasted Blanquette de veau one time before I made it the other night. I remembered a thick, white-sauced dish smothering rice, but I couldn’t quite recall the texture or taste with any precision.
Last weekend we tried it at home. We dug out an old recipe from grande-maman and gave it a go. It was, hands-down, the best dinner I’ve had the pleasure of eating at home since the homemade Paella. Loved it.
Given that American Thanksgiving is swiftly upon us, I thought about this recipe as an idea for the leftovers I’m sure all my American readers will have over the weekend or simply something other than turkey, stuffing and ham for the days that follow. Normally, this meal is veal based, but no reason why you couldn’t throw in your turkey bites instead. Either way, a scrumptious and simple recipe!
Recipe for 6 (30 mins prep, 1.5 hrs cooking time) served over rice
You’ll need:
– 250 g (8 oz) smoked bacon chunks (lardon)
– 1 onion chopped
– 1 kg veau cut into large pieces (shoulder or collar)
– 2 tbsp flour
– 1 cup dry white wine
– 1 carrot chopped
– 250 g (3 cups) white mushrooms sliced
– 1 egg
– 40 g butter
– 20 cl (1 cup) sour cream
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– salt, pepper, thym
- Chop the bacon into bits. In a deep frying pan or a casserole pot, sauté the bacon in the olive oil until golden. Put them aside.
- In the same pan, sauté the chopped onion. Put aside as well.
Still in the same pan, sauté the pieces of veal until browned. Dust them with the flour. - Pour the white wine over the browned veal and add the bacon and onion.
- Add the chopped carrot. Salt, pepper and add thym to taste. Mix well and cover with hot water until the whole is submerged. You can add a bouillon cube to the mix, if you wish.
- Cover and let simmer on low heat for 1.5 hours.
20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the sliced mushrooms. - Prepare your rice.
- Prepare the sauce: Heat the butter in a small sauce pan, add tbsp flour. Stir quickly.
- Add a large ladle full of the juice from Blanquette to sauce. Continue to mix until the sauce has consistency.
- Then, add sauce to the Blanquette.
- A few moments before serving and off heat, whip an egg yoke and the sour cream into the Blanquette. Serve hot.
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