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| Blanquette de veau |
On Monday, I boasted the goodness of simple French
cooking. Simple is good, but I also
enjoy the other end of the spectrum: the classic dishes that have a list of
ingredients an mile long and take all day to make. Of the known classics, my favorite is blanquette de veau, or veal stew. It’s classic French country cuisine, using
common vegetables and finishing in the dish off with a rich sauce; in this
case, its cream based. What’s amazing
about this dish is not that its popularity partially comes from it being the “ultimate
French comfort food”, but in my view, the variations of this dish. I’ve seen it served with capers, Roquefort
cheese, and all sorts of vegetables.
Every working French chef has revisited this recipe, swapping out one
cut of meat for another while trying to modernize it or tweaking the list of
ingredients of the usual suspects one comes to expect in this dish. Nothing strays too far from the original,
which is telling. There is a lot to be
said for the weekday dinners that take a short time to make, but there is also
a choral of songs to be sung for the Sunday lunches that need to be started
around 9am to be on the table at a reasonable time. Complicated can be good too, really good, and
when that comes in the form of a slow cooked veal, a plethora of vegetables,
and a hint of dried herbs covered in a rich cream sauce, I’m in.
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