The Blanquette de Veau, or the fantastic white veal stew from once upon a time

by Pam, Sydney (Australia)

After the controversial Choucroute, now let me introduce you to a dish that is French only. I’d even say quintessentially French. The Blanquette de Veau (or creamy white veal stew).
The only whisper of its name resonates in French minds with mouthwatering sensations of bliss. This dish could be served just about anytime, any season, any occasions, as a homely dinner or as main dish at grand restaurant. Yes! This dish is truly extraordinary!
Indeed, originally from the Lyon region, the Blanquette is probably one of the most ancient French dish around today. It is one of the few dishes recorded to have been served in Parisian restaurants at the time of the Revolution, over 200 years ago! And it’s still going…

Here is my own recipe for you to find out why the Blanquette has such a central place in French cuisine.

• Servings: 4
• Preparation times:
  • Active: 1 hour
  • Cooking: 1.5 hours
• Ingredients:
  • 500g of veal, preferably shoulder meat., diced in approx 3cm x 3cm x 3cm cubes
  • 2 small carrots
  • 1 branch of celery
  • 150g of small button mushrooms
  • 1 small leak
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 100ml of Chardonay wine
  • 20g of butter
  • 1 full tbsp of plain flour
  • 1 egg, yolk only
  • 100ml of thick cream
  • half a lemon
  • 4 bay leaves
  • mixed herbs
  • half a bunch of fresh parsley
  • salt, pepper
• Steps:
  1. Add the veal in a big pot and simmer in cold water for 30 minutes.
  2. In the meantime, chop the onion, leak and celery thinly.
  3. Cut the parsley branches away from the leaves, chop the leaves thingly.
  4. Quarter the carrots (cut length-wise and accross length-wise) and slice approx 5cm long.
  5. Clean the mushrooms to get rid of the remaining earth.
  6. Bring the water to high heat and leave the veal to boil for approx 10 mins. This is to get rid of the impurities and foam that ay come out. After that, throw away the water and rince the meat.
  7. Add all vegetables in the pot, except the mushrooms. Also add the branches of parsley, not the leaves, clove of garlic, bay leaves, mixed herbs, and veal.
  8. Add the wine and some water until the food is all covered.
  9. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  10. Put the mix to low boiling temperature and leave it for 1 hour over low heat. The pot should be covered.
  11. After 1 hour, add the mushroom in the mix.
  12. In another pot, melt the butter under low heat.
  13. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and mix to create the sauce base.
  14. When the flour has become an homogenous mix with the buttern, add in 3 laddles of the veal boiling stock. Keep mixing.
  15. When the mix is homogenous, remove from heat.
  16. In a large bowl, mix the egg yolk with the cream and juice of squeezed lemon. Use a whip to ensure it’s mixed well.
  17. Slowly add the sauce mix into the bowl. Keep whipping. When all sauce is added, leave the mix to rest.
  18. Add the veal and vegetables in a large bowl. Remove the herbs, bay leaves, branches of parsley and clove of garlic.
  19. Add the white sauce to the veal and vegetables and stir to mix.
  20. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley leaves before serving.
• Notes:
  • Serve with rice or pasta.
  • In this recipe, the vegetables are fully part of the meal. However, if you don’t like any of them, you can remove them at the end. In this case don’t chop or cut and instead leave as a big piece in the stock so it’s easier to take out.
  • For a more meaty effet, you can also use veal osso bucco (see picture). In this case, have 4 bone cuts, or 600g.

Ist es Sauerkraut? Nein Monsieur, ist Choucroute!

by Pam, Sydney (Australia)

For the whole world, Sauerkraut is the symbol of German food, along with the bratwurst. Indeed Sauerkraut is very much believed to be the base for all types of central European food, from the Baltic to the Alps, with its origin mainly in German cuisine. For the whole world… except the French…
For the French, Sauerkraut, or rather Choucroute, in its finest, most accomplished form as a full meal comes from Alsace. Alright weither Alsace was French or German has been much debated throughout History, but these days it is French, and so is the Choucroute!

Again I’ll admit that my recipe for the beloved kraut may not be the authentic one found in a proper Alsacian restaurant with enough meat in it to inflict a stroke to anyone who is brave (or big) enough to finish the plate.
Indeed here I make a heavy usage of speck and smoked pork.
(Hence the darker colour of the kraut on the picture, in case you’re wondering)

• Servings: 4
• Preparation times:
  • Active: 20 minutes
  • Cooking: 1.5 hours
• Ingredients:
  • 500g of sauerkraut
  • 4 smoked pork chops
  • a slab of speck (approx 5cm x 20cm)
  • 4 thin sausages (eg. Frankfurter)
  • 8 medium potatos
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 100ml of Riesling wine
  • approx 10 juniper berries
  • salt, pepper
• Steps:
  1. Rince the sauerkraut under cold water.
  2. Chop the onion and crush the garlic.
  3. Heat the oil in a large pot over low heat.
  4. Add the onion and garlic into the pot and stir gently until they become translucent.
  5. Slice the speck into 8 chunks.
  6. Add the speck into the pot and stir gently until it gets a nice brown colour.
  7. Add the sauerkraut in the pot.
  8. Add the juniper berries and pepper (possibly whole).
  9. Add the wine and some water until the food is all covered.
  10. Put the mix to low boiling temperature and leave it for 1 hour over low heat. The pot should be covered.
  11. In the meantime, cook the pork chops and sausages in boiling water and peel the potatos
  12. After an hour add the peeled potatos and pork chops on top of the sauerkraut.
  13. Add the water used boiling the chops and sausages into the sauerkraut up to sauerkraut level.
  14. In the meantime, cook the saussages in boiling water.
  15. Leave to cook for another 30 minutes.
  16. Serve together with a sausage.
• Notes:
  • This sauerkraut is not as bitter as the usual one.
  • Speck brings a very interesting smoky flavour to the kraut. I really like that but I don’t think I’ve experienced that in Alsacian cuisine. If anyone knows where it could be a tradition of, please feel free to comment.
  • Unfortunately, while speck brings in a lot of flavour, it also brings in a lot of fat… I don’t really mind a bit of fat, but if you dislike it you should cut it off the speck while slicing it.
  • Riesling makes a fantastic addition to the food. You can also use Sylvaner, or I think that any dry white wine could do.
  • If you feel like it you can add any other type of pork meat you like, bacon, knuckle, blood sausage, etc. One suggestion I have is to precook the meat in boiling water and later add it to the sauerkraut while it finishes its cooking to soak in the flavours. Sausages don’t need to be added to the kraut as it won’t absorb flavours as well.

Basque Chicken

by Nancy, Paris (France)

Famous in South of France, this meal is one of my boyfriend’s favorite

• Servings: 6
• Preparation times:
  • Active: 20 minutes
  • Cooking: 1 hour
• Ingredients:
  • 1 Chicken, choped in 16 (or 2 chicken breast or fillet cut in 1 inch cubes, 2 Chicken wings, 2 chicken legs)
  • 4 green & red pepper, minced
  • 1 kilogram tomatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 2 onion chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 250 ml white wine
  • 1 bouquet garni or dried provence herb
  • olive oil
  • paprika
  • cayenne pepper
  • salt
  • pepper
• Steps:
  1. Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat.
  2. Add the chopped onions, the minced garlic cloves and the minced green and red pepper into the pot and stir gently for about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the chopped and peeled Tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cover the pot and cook at low for 20 minutes.
  4. In the meantime roll the chicken in the paprika and then have it stirred in a pan.
  5. Add the Chicken, white wine, the bouquet garni and little cayenne pepper into the vegetable pot. Cover again and cook for 30 minutes at low heat.
• Notes:
  • This meal can be served either with rice or pasta.

Soupe à l’oignon or the French onion soup story

by Pam, Sydney (Australia)

This week end, I went camping with friends on a beach of the New South Wales central coast. While the scenary was breathtaking and the adventure fantastic, for food, we resorted most of the times to the casual picnic snack. In particular, someone had brought a series of crackers, same crackers, different flavour: bbq, pizza, cheese & bacon and french onions. French onions?! I knew that Frenchs have a tendency of taking over anything which is good about food, but I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a particular french species of onions. A taste of the cracker gave the answer. It was a French onion soup flavoured cracker! Soupe à l’oignon!

Tossing my 2 cents worth of recipie.

• Servings: 4 serves
• Preparation times:
  • Active: 30 minutes
• Ingredients:
  • 2 big onions
  • 1.25l of water
  • 0.25l of white wine
  • half a baguette (or any other thick-crusted bread)
  • cheese, grated
  • butter
  • salt, pepper
• Steps:
  1. Pre-heat oven at 250 degres Celsius.
  2. Cut the onions into thin slices.
  3. Heat butter in a pot over medium heat.
  4. Add the onions in the pot and stir gently until they caramelise into a nice golden brown colour.
  5. Add the wine and water. Bring to boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
  6. While the soup is simmering, cut the baguette bread into 8 thick slices (about 3cm thick).
  7. After simmering, the soup should have a nice brown colour. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
  8. In each bowl, place 2 slices of bread and pour the soup on top.
  9. Spread the grated cheese over each bowls. The more cheese the better.
  10. Put the bowls in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
  11. If you have a griller in our oven, action it to termostat 5 for the last 5 minutes to give the cheese a nice golden colour.
• Notes:
  • I like the silkiness of thicker slices of bread in the soup. However, some people prefer thiner slices of bread.
  • Frenchs often use Swiss cheese such as Emmentaler for baking, however any firm mountain cheese (eg. Parmesan) could do.
  • You can turn the above recipie into a main course. It will then serve 2. It will go well with a salad and a glass of white wine.

Crêpe please, not crap

by Pam, Sydney (Australia)

The most popular dessert in France is undoubtly the crêpe. In Paris, you will find a crêpe stand almost everywhere, in the same way you would expect to find hot dogs in New York. You will also find a myriad of crêperies, these restaurant serving crêpes only, sweet or savoury.
Although many regions in France have their own version of crêpes, the most famous one is the crêpe bretonne, from Brittany.

While every household in France would have its own recipie for crêpes, let me present you mine, made with the addition of beer. Yes… beer.

• Servings: about 15 crêpes
• Preparation times:
  • Active: 20 minutes
  • Rest: 2 hours
• Ingredients:
  Here ingredients are “mug-based”. So take your usual mug, not a huge one, just the usual standard mug.
  • 1 mug of plain white flour
  • 1 mug of light beer
  • 1 mug of milk
  • 1/2 mug of eggs (around 4 eggs, depending on the size of your eggs)
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • butter (to grease the frying pan)
• Steps:
  1. Mix the flour and eggs in a large salad bowl.
  2. Add the milk and beer and mix until the paste is nice an uniform. No chunks.
  3. Add the sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved in the paste.
  4. Cover the paste with a plate and leave it to rest for a couple of hours (or half a day if you have time, the longer the better).
  5. After resting, mix the paste again until it is nice an uniform.
  6. Heat a thin slice of butter in a frying pan over medium heat. You will know the pan is at best temperature when the butter is sizzling, melting fast but not burning.
  7. Wipe the butter over the pan’s surface using a paper towel. Now the pan is ready.
  8. Using a laddle in your right hand, pour the paste over the edge of the pan on the top right (at 2 o’clock). Your left hand holding the pan should bring motion to the paste in a counter clock-wise manner so that the paste quickly covers most of the pan. Quickly maneuver the pan to the paste to fill all gaps.
  9. After a minute of cooking, you will notice that the paste starts to unstick from the pan. Using a spatula, gently help unstick. Then flip over.
  10. While it is still on the pan, add a slice of butter and spread gently over half of the crêpe. Also spread sugar on the same surface. Leave it to caramelise.
  11. Fold the crêpe in half, and then in three to make a nice triangle.
• Notes:
  • You can use any filling for the crêpe. However, simple is sometimes better and the crêpe beurre-sucre, with only butter and sugar, is French people’s favourite.
  • Don’t be shy of using butter. Its flavour is irreplaceable.
  • Beer in this recipie gives a lighter texture to the crêpe. If you don’t want or have beer, you can replace it by a similar amount of water.
  • Crêpe making can sound a bit esoteric at the beginning, but once the gist is understood, it become very easy.