French · Main
Blanquette de Veau
The white braise — veal poached without colour, finished with a cream-yolk liaison; the gentlest, most consoling dish in the repertoire
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 120 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- Veal shoulder and breast, 5 cm cubes — 1.5 kg
- Water/white chicken stock — 2 L
- Carrots, chunks — 300 g
- Onion, clove-studded — 1 (150 g)
- Leek — 100 g
- Celery — 60 g
- Garlic — 8 g
- Thyme — 4 sprigs; bay 1
- Pearl onions — 250 g
- Button mushrooms — 300 g
- Unsalted butter — 60 g
- Double cream — 200 ml
- Egg yolks — 3 (60 g)
- Lemon juice — 25 ml
- Fine salt — 14 g; white pepper 1.5 g; nutmeg 0.3 g
Method
- Blanch veal from cold water; boil 3 min, drain, rinse — no browning anywhere.
- Cover with fresh stock; add carrots, studded onion, leek, celery, garlic, herbs, salt. Simmer at 90 °C, skimming, 90–105 min until fork-tender.
- Glaze pearl onions in 30 g butter with 100 ml water, 12 min, no colour; stew mushrooms in remaining butter with a squeeze of lemon, 5 min, no colour.
- Strain the liquor; reduce 800 ml of it by half.
- Liaison: whisk yolks with cream; temper with a ladle of hot liquor, return to the pan, and stir at 80 °C until it coats a spoon — never boil.
- Season with lemon, salt, white pepper, nutmeg.
- Fold in veal, onions and mushrooms; warm through gently 5 min.