Blanquette de Veau (French veal stew with white sauce)

We first had this classic French veal stew at Froggy’s Café – you know, that French place we rhapsodize about. We consulted with Julia Child on the recipe and experimented a little on our own to come up with the recipe here.

While this is technically a basic stew, it's upscale enough for a fancy dinner party. The lovely creamy sauce and tender, buttery veal are a treat for special friends. 

We’ve noticed that some classic French recipes can be rather one-note. For example, the original recipe called for cooking the veal with a carrot, celery stalk and onion, but then discarding everything. The result is the stew contains just meat, mushrooms, and the very flavorful gravy. We switched it up a bit so that we keep all the vegetables in the stew. You might want to play around with this too – but perhaps experiment on something cheaper than veal!

Ingredients

For the Bouquet Garni (Herb bundle)

3” cheesecloth square

Kitchen Twine

1 tbsp parsley leaves

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 tsp fresh thyme

6 black peppercorns

For the Stew

2 lbs. boneless veal shoulder, cut into 1″ chunks

2 stalks of celery cut into 1″ pieces

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup pearl onions

1.5 cups baby carrots cut in half

10 oz. of mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, white, crimini, and oyster, sliced

¼ cup sherry

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

2 ¹⁄₂ tbsp. flour

½ cup heavy cream

Salt and white pepper to taste

Cooked white rice, for serving

Parsley leaves, to garnish

Instructions

Wrap the herbs in the cheese cloth and tie with the twine. In a large pot, place the veal, onions, carrot, celery, broth and enough water to partially cover the food. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat, and simmer one hour. Skim off the scum as it forms. Be careful not to overcook the veal as it will turn to mush!

Add the mushrooms and sherry and cook until the vegetables are tender. Remove the meat and vegetables to a platter and keep warm; return the broth to the pot.

 In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and stir in one cup of the veal broth, stirring until smooth. Slowly stir the white sauce into the large pot, add salt and pepper to taste, and simmer gently until it is thickened. Stir in the cream. Return the meat and vegetables to the pot and heat through. Sprinkle with parsley after plating.

Serve over white rice, noodles, or alone with crusty bread.

Serves 4.