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Blanquette de veau with carrots and mushrooms in a blue casserole.

Beef, veal, steak & offal

Blanquette de Veau

By Jill Colonna

Lemon lifts the richness of this gentle veal stew, with a little nutmeg warming its pale cream sauce. Carrots, mushrooms and small onions give each spoonful sweetness and substance around the tender meat. Jill Colonna's family recipe finishes with egg yolks and crème fraîche, making a sauce that clings to the veal and runs into the rice beside it. Add crusty bread: this is a dish for enjoying every last drop.

Prep
25 min
Cook
2 hr
Total
2 hr 25 min
Serves6
Nutrition
Jump to recipe ↓Mad About Macarons ↗

Ingredients

Veal and broth

Mushroom and onion garnish

Sauce

Method

  1. Stud the onion with cloves. Put veal, carrots, onion, leek, bay, thyme and parsley in the casserole. Add wine and water to cover.
  2. Bring to the boil; skim for ten minutes. Cover and simmer gently about two hours.
  3. During the final 45 minutes, dry-fry mushrooms until their juices release. Add butter and pearl onions; cook until golden, then add lemon juice (see note).
  4. Discard bay and herb stalks. Lift meat and vegetables into the serving dish; add the garnish. Keep warm in a cool-moderate oven.
  5. Reduce the broth slightly. Whisk crème fraîche, yolks, lemon zest and juice, nutmeg, salt and pepper separately.
  6. Whisk three tablespoons hot broth into this mixture, then whisk it into the casserole. Stir until spoon-coating, without boiling. Pour over meat and vegetables.

Equipment

Heavy casserole with lid; Non-stick frying pan; Slotted spoon; Mixing bowl and hand whisk; Serving dish and oven for keeping warm

Notes

  • Meat and simmer: shoulder and breast make a useful mixture of veal cuts. Keep the simmer gentle and omit browning. Jill also makes blanquette with chicken or turkey when veal is unavailable; those are separate versions with their own cooking needs.
  • Garnish: cook the mushrooms first in a dry non-stick pan until their moisture evaporates, then add the butter and pearl onions. Frozen pearl onions save peeling, or use fresh spring onions. Girolles or other wild mushrooms make a special-occasion variation.
  • Thickening: reduce the broth only slightly. In her answer to Margot, Jill gives no more than about a quarter; the yolks do most of the thickening. Whisk three tablespoons of hot broth into the yolk mixture, then return it to the casserole. Keep whisking over medium-low heat for a few minutes, without boiling, until it coats a spoon.
  • Lemon allocation: half a lemon supplies all the listed zest and juice. Juice is used in both garnish and sauce, but the source gives no division between them. Divide that original total between the two stages rather than assuming two separate half-lemons.
  • Prepare ahead: make the meat and vegetables, cool and chill, then prepare the garnish and final sauce on the day of serving. Freeze the stew before the yolk sauce is added; the completed sauce loses its delicate flavours in the freezer.
  • Cream alternative: Greek yoghurt can replace crème fraîche.
  • At the table: serve with long-grain rice and crusty bread, or fresh noodles for a less traditional accompaniment. Jill suggests Riesling, Pinot Gris or white Burgundy with the creamy sauce.
  • Slow-cooker option: prepare the veal, vegetables, wine and herbs as in step 1, then cook for 3–4 hours on High or 6–8 hours on Low, until the veal is tender. Strain the cooking liquid, prepare the mushroom garnish and finish the egg-yolk and cream sauce separately in a saucepan on the hob. Combine with the meat and vegetables before serving.

Photos

13 photos
cubed veal laid out with other blanquette ingredients of mushrooms, carrots, lemon, egg yolks, a bouquet garni, crème fraîche, pearl onions and an onion studded with cloves.IngredientsVeal, vegetables and sauce ingredientsenamel pot with veal chunks, chopped leeks and carrots and fresh herbs plus an onion studded with 3 clovesStep 1Veal and aromatics in the casserolepouring white wine over veal chunks, carrots, leek and an onion studded with clovesStep 1Adding wine to the vealmeat, carrots and onion studded with cloves in a big black potStep 2Bringing the stew to a simmerblanquette recipe method - a French veal stew bubbling in potStep 2Gentle simmer without browningFrying mushroomsStep 3Cooking the mushroom garnishfrying mushrooms onions and preparing a sauce with lemon and yolks for a blanquette de veauSteps 3–5Mushrooms and liaison preparationhow to make blanquette sauceSteps 4–6Garnish and sauce finishingtender veal in a white sauce with vegetables known as a French Blanquette de Veau stewFinished dishVeal in the finished cream saucelarge casserole dish with a veal stew, best known as Blanquette as the meat is cooked without browning in white wine and vegetables and finished with a creamy sauceFinished dishFinished casseroleBlanquette de veau, a creamy French veal stew, bubbling in a pot with carrots, mushrooms, pearl onions and topped with parsleyFinished dishBlanquette with parsleypot of French Blanquette veal stew with carrots, mushrooms and pearl onions next to a side dish of fluffy riceServingBlanquette and riceBlanquette de Veau Recipe (French Veal Stew)ServingRice with veal and sauce

Blanquette de Veau

Recipe photos

About this dish

Blanquette has changed as French home cooking has changed. Earlier preparations dressed cooked veal in a white sauce; Julie Andrieu points to Jules Gouffé's 1867 recipe for the familiar approach of starting with raw meat and making the broth as it cooks. A pale stew, tender meat and a carefully finished sauce remain at its heart.

In Jill Colonna's family version, that final sauce deserves particular attention. Her father-in-law Jean-Pierre always asks for more of it. Egg yolks and crème fraîche give it body without a flour roux, while lemon zest, juice and nutmeg keep its richness fragrant. Tempering the yolks with a little hot broth lets them blend into the cooking liquid before gentle heat thickens it.

The mushrooms get their own treatment. Cooking away their moisture before adding butter concentrates their flavour, and the pearl onions join them for colour. This separate garnish brings depth to veal simmered without browning, while keeping the character of a white blanquette.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Mad About Macarons.