Blanquette de veau is the ultimate French comfort food, made with stewed veal and a creamy sauce. It can be made with cheaper cuts of meat and enhanced with mushrooms, leeks, and white wine. Cooking it slowly over low heat with veal and stew bones creates a velvety texture. It freezes well and can be reheated on the stovetop.
Most everyone describes comfort food the same way: its flavors are smooth, it’s often pale in color, and it envelops the tongue in velvety smoothness. For the French, the ultimate comfort is blanquette de veau, a well-mannered, even shy dish packed with cream. Unlike its beefier cousin, veal ragout, the meat is cooked in such a way that no browning occurs.
While veal is more expensive than other cuts of beef, blanquette can be made with stewed cuts such as veal shoulder or stomach. If cost is an issue, a higher proportion of the creamy sauce and a little less meat is just as delicious. Adding mushrooms adds a secondary meaty texture, and serving the blanquette atop some steamed, fragrant jasmine or basmati rice helps a little veal go a long way.
La Blanquette de veau begins with stewed veal, then creates a blanket of tender taste with cream and egg yolk to which a roux of butter and flour is added; some cooks prefer to use crème fraiche. While other stews and ragouts sport their stuff with strong flavors like garlic, ginger, or a blend of fresh herbs, this dish favors the virtue of modesty. The simplest blanquette de veau could perfume its creamy jacket with the subtlest aroma of thyme.
For the home cook who thinks that while a true blanquette would never draw attention to itself with strong layers of flavor, it can still show off a little individuality; there are ways to make it special without losing its comfort food status. Strong-flavored onions wouldn’t serve the blanquette well, but adding a leek or sweet onions can give the dish resonance. A couple of splashes of white wine is another flavor enhancer that doesn’t rob the blanquette of center stage. Textural interest with a slight tinge of flavor can be achieved by blending certain types of mushrooms, such as shitake, oyster or mushroom.
There are a couple of tricks that will help a home cook create a truly French blanquette de veau. First, it’s important to cook the dish for a long time over a relatively low heat. Second, the use of veal and stew bones enhances a long-cooked blanquette with a texture so velvety it could bring diners to tears. This is because when collagen breaks down, it smooths and thickens the sauce.
It’s comforting to know that veal blanquette freezes beautifully in self-sealing freezer bags. Veal retains its best flavor and texture if you remove as much air from the freezer bag as possible by squeezing it or sucking it through a straw. It can be heated in the microwave, although slow and gentle heating on the stovetop is preferred.
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