Recipe: French Bouillon Eateries, Part 4: Blanquette de Veau
Part 4 in my French Bouillon series. The prologue for what the series is follows in bold. The recipes comes after.
One thing I find fascinating is that in countries such as France and Italy, there are specific classes of restaurants that serve specific types of cuisine as well as having a set décor and style of the restaurant itself. When I say cuisine, I don’t mean other ethnic cuisines, but rather, in France that serve different types of French fair or in Italy certain types of Italian food. In America, you can, of course, go to a Chinese restaurant or an Indian or a BBQ joint, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate the price point or the type of restaurant within those culinary traditions. In France, there are the small corner restaurants, Bistros, that generally serve French staples as well as moderately priced wine and other alcoholic beverages. In Italy, the cuisine I am the most familiar with there are the local small cheap restaurants, Osterias, and then the more formal, but still reasonable Trattorias, and finally the Ristorante, much more formal with secondi as well as pasta and antipasta. The closest thing we have to the French Bistro, or Italian Trattoria, is “the diner,” although even that changes names depending on your place in our nation. On the east coast, indeed they are called diners, but on the west coast we call them coffee shops, etc. When you visit a diner, you generally know the type of food available: breakfast all day-any way, burgers, and sometimes other blue-plate dinner specials: fried chicken, meatloaf, etc.
When you visit a French Bistro, generally you know you are going to be eating Bistro food at a restaurant that caters to the middle class / local neighborhood. French Bistros have caught on in America compared to other French eateries. Some of the Bistro staples have become commonplace: steak-frites, soupe a l’oignon, braised lamb shanks; however, in France, a “new” culinary wave is taking place: the revival of French Bouillons. I recently became aware of this because of an article by the New Times chronicling the revival and reviewing six of their favorite restaurants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/travel/affordable-dining-in-paris.html
The term Bouillon comes from the French word for broth and certainly bowls of this simple comfort food would be expected in Bouillons. The restaurants started in the late 19th or early 20th century and were known for “a bargain-priced meal that promised to be surprising for both its quality and reasonable price: less than 20 euros, or about $23, for a three-course dinner with a glass of wine.” They are traditionally housed in large halls which allow them to serve a lot of people at lower prices with high turnaround. These Boullions were “working-class restaurants that thrived in Paris during the 19th century. ‘In an age of globalization, eating a meal at a bouillon is an affirmation of Gallic identity, since the comfort food we serve is so traditionally French,’ said Christophe Joulie, director of the Groupe Joulie, which owns and runs a number of brasseries in Paris, along with Bouillon Chartier, the 1896 vintage bouillon the company acquired in 2006.
By ‘traditionally French,’ Mr. Joulie was referring to dishes like marinated leeks, canard confit (duck preserved in its own fat) and choucroute Alsacienne (sauerkraut garnished with pork and sausage). ‘Everyone loves a bargain, especially at a time of economic uncertainty.’ he said. ‘A three-course meal of freshly cooked, on-the-premises food for 20 euros served in 30 minutes — has never been more popular.’ (So popular, that Mr. Joulie revived the original second address of Chartier near the Gare Montparnasse on the Left Bank in February.)”
And so, with that, I have decided to start my first cooking series on Gourmand Film Writer. Inspired by this article, I have decided to dive into French country food typically served at Boullions. As a means of saving money, many of the recipes use tough cuts of meat or reduce the amount of a protein in a meal to level out the cost. The food has been truly delightful. Fresh, complicated, and dare I say, new to me. It is indeed simple food, which in some respects remind me more of Italian cuisine, but there’s no mistaken that the flavor profile is truly French. Some of these recipes I have taken and altered from greats like Jacques Pepin; others I have been inspired by the recipe and tried my own editions.
Blanquette de Veau (Veal in Cream Sauce)
It must be white! - Julia Child.
One of my earliest inspirations for wanting to cook was watching PBS cooking shows: The Frugal Gourmet, the Galloping Gourmet, Lidia Bastianich, Jacque Pepin, and of course, Julia Child.
Julia introduced most Americans to the greatest of French cuisine, showing it could be made at home, and teaching the importance of technique. Sometimes, she goes a little nuts with her demand for tradition. She once told a story about how to properly blanch vegetables which involves buying a large iron that you heat on the stove and after the vegetables are placed in boiling water, the temperature drops, so it stops boiling. The faster you bring it back to a boil, the less cooked the vegetables will be in the blanching method. Problem solved! You take the huge heated iron and plunge it into the water, immediately bringing the temperature back up so that your green beans are the perfect green.
Not only for taste, but aesthetics as well, don’t even think about using ground black pepper in mashed potatoes because the little black specs ruin the visual. And so, I remember this dish and being intimidated by it, and so I never really tried to make it. Julia says that this dish must be pure white! If there is any color, you’ve made a mistake in cooking. Even with that emphasis on white, I can tell you, it is really tasty.
Not necessarily a summer dish, but a dish to be made in the winter to be enjoyed next to a fireplace. The veal, normally an expensive cut of meat is instead veal shoulder or veal stew meat. Inexpensive if you can find it as it is tough and so it needs to cooked low and slow.
The resulting stew is creamy and earthy with a little sweetness from the onions and the nutmeg adds the perfect little spice in the background. A wonderful dish.
Ingredients:
1 lb of Veal Shoulder meat cubed or veal stew meat
2 cups of homemade chicken stock (store bought will do, but remember to make chicken stock without browning the bones. You want the broth light and clear as possible)
1 onion halved with cloves in it.
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs of thyme
1 lb small yukon gold or fingerling potatoes
1 package of frozen pearl onions (you can use fresh, blanch, peel and cook them yourself but… why bother? They are annoying to work with, haha)
1 pint of white button mushrooms
1 cup of white wine
2 cups of cream
2 eggs
White pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Fresh ground nutmeg
Begin with cold chicken stock poured into a large skillet with a lid. Also mix in the white wine. Place the onion (not the pearl onions) with the cloves in it into the stock along with the carrot, celery, sprigs of thyme, garlic, bay leaf. Finally add the veal. In a weird twist, you are not supposed to brown it. I know that caramelizing meat usually creates the rich flavor we’re looking for, not in this case. Just keep remembering Julia Child’s mantra: It must be white!
Bring the stock with all of the veggies and meat to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover for 2-3 hours until the veal is tender.
In the meantime, place a pot with water on the stove. Wash and dry each potatoes and then using a paring knife cut a little “X” into the bottom of each potato. This is to help with peeling. Then place them in the water. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to simmer and let the potatoes cook for 12-15 minutes until they are soft. Strain into a colander and allow to cool just slightly. The potatoes need to be peeled while they are still warm. Then with a knife, find the “X” you cut into the potato and using the knife grip the peel and peel back. Place the cooked, peeled potatoes aside.
Next, cut the white button mushrooms into 4ths. Then toss with a squeeze of lemon to prevent them from oxidizing. Keep it white!
Once the veal has been cooked. Strain out the vegetables, herbs, and meat, keeping the liquid in the pan. Remove the meat and keep, while discarding the cooked vegetables and herbs. In the pan with the strained stock, add the mushrooms and bring back to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue cooking without a lid for 5-7 minutes until the mushrooms are done. At this point, add in the frozen pearl onions and cook until the onions are thawed and warmed through. At this point strain them out as well.
In a large pot, add the meat, the mushrooms, potatoes, and onions, as well as the two cups of cream and bring to a simmer. While it is coming to a simmer, crack two eggs in a bowl and whisk until homogeneous. Add a little bit of cream or milk to make smooth. Then, when the cream and meat are simmering, add in the eggs and turn off the heat. Using the residual heat cook until the sauce thickens. Serve immediately.
