France or Belgium? The Carbonade Flamande

Pic from here

French and Belgian people are always kidding each other, but they really like each other, maybe just like kiwis and Aussies (?) ... Well, humour is just a way to show affection, isn't it?

Grand Place of Bruxelles, Belgium (Pic from here)

Anyway, to avoid some huge debate about the origin of the dish that I am going to introduce to you today, let's say that Northern France and Belgium share at least one famous dish: the Carbonnade Flamande. This is a beef casserole cooked in a beer sauce that is lovely with fries and a pinte of beer, of course! A very easy but tasty dish to make for family or friend events!

Grand Place of Lille, France (pic from here)

Ingredients (6 servings):

1,5kg beef, e.g., blade steack, gravy beef, chunk beef (you can even mix various cuts of the beef)

5-6 onions

40g of butter

3/4 cup of soft brown sugar

3/4 cup of flour

1 liter of blonde beer, e.g., leffe (the better the beer is, the better the dish will be)

6 slices of ginger bread (pain d'épice)

French mustard of Dijon

salt, pepper, baie leaves, thyme

Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time: 2h30 (the longer it cooks, the better it is!)



Method:

Cut the beef into cubes (4 cm).
Slice the onions.
Heat the butter into a large pot and fry the beef briefly on each side. Then take the meat out of the pot and rest it.

 

Fry the onions into the rest of the butter. When gold, add the soft brown sugar and caramelize a little bit. Then stir the flour in and pour the beer gradually. Do not stop stiring to get a smooth sauce.

Slow down the heat and add the meat, salt, pepper and herbs. Stir and let cook on a very low heat for 45 minutes.

Spread the mustard onto the slices of ginger bread and put them on the top of your casserole after the first 45 minutes, and let cook for 90 minutes, at least. Sti occasionnally, when the slices of ginger bread will be wet enough, they will dissolve into the sauve, giving it a great flavour.
Remember, the longer you let the casserole stew, the smoothest the meat will be. It's even better when reheated the next day.



Serve with french fries or pasta. Enjoy this very friendly dish with the same beer you used for the sauce or with a red wine!

Sorry for this awfull picture! I have messed up my photos ;-)

I'll download a new one the next time I do this recipe! Click here to see nice pictures of the Carbonnade Flamande.

Red cabbage and beef casserole

Automn is here in NZ, sunny as ever but winter is coming. It's time for dishes that warm you up! Let's go around the Franco-German border, the Rhine Valley, the Vosges and Alsace in France and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) in Germany.

Farm in the Schwarzwald, Germany (pic found here)

Riquewihr, medieval village, Alsace, France (pic found here)

Farmhouse Ostein, Alsace/Vosges, France (pic found here)

Roasted chestnuts (pic found here)

Around there, automn brings a lot of delicious food that can bring you some comfort during the hard winter time... Chestnuts, which are rosted in the streets, are particularly enjoyed to warm up your hand.



 

Pic found here

Automn is also the time eat various pork deli food freschly made, e.g., bacon, blackpudding sausages, wieners, pâté... In France, we name it the "Cochonnailles". This is fat but delicious food that gives you everything you need to face the cold winter time.

Pic found here

Today, I propose you to use these ingredients in a red cabbage and beef casserole perfumed with chestnuts and smoked bacon and wieners.

Ingredients (5-6 servings):

1 big red cabbage

1 onion

1 big apple

1+1/2 bowl of fresch chestnuts (or 1 can)

2 smoked wieners (facultative)

250g pieces of bacon (off cuts are very good, but streaky bacon also work)

1kg of chuck steak

25cl of red wine (preferrably Pinot Noir)

15cl of water

1+1/2 Tbsp sugar

3 baie leaves

Thym

Coarse salt

Pepper

Method 

If you are using fresch chestnuts, start preparing the chestnuts. This is a long and fastidious work, so it's preferrably you use a can of already prepared chestnuts, if you can. I have been unable to find one here in NZ, so I used fresch chestnuts. Here is the preparation method:

1. Incise the shell of each chestnut (make a cross)
2. Put them into boiling water for at least 20 min
3. Peel when still warm.

• At this stage, the chestnuts are only precooked. They will cook with the cabbage later.

 Precook the red cabbage:

Raw cabbage

• Slice the red cabbage as thin as you can, or it may be better to use a food processor
• Wash it
• Put it in a large pot and add water (to cover the cabbage) and 2 pinches of coarse salt
• Bring it to boil and let it boil for about 20 min. The color will change from flashy purple to dull purple, but the cabbage is still a bit hard.
• Drain it
• At this stage, the red cabbage is preccoked.

Precooked

The casserole:

• Slice the bacon, the onion and the wieners
• Cut the apple into quarters
• Cut the steak into 2 or 3 large pieces
• Heat a large pot with a little bit of oil
• Stir fry the bacon, the onion and the wieners into. Add some pepper.
• Add the apple when the onions are brown (not black! hehe ;-))
• Then add the meat but do not allow it to fall on the bottom of the pot, let the bacon, onion, wieners and apple; 4-5 min each side. Add 2 pinches of coarse salt

• Add the precooked red cabbage, the herbs, the sugar, the water and the red wine, mix together
• If using fresch precooked chestnuts: Stew on a low heat for about 20 min, then add the chestnuts and let stew for 40 more min
• If using a can of chestnuts: Stew on a low heat for about 40 min, then add the chestnuts and let stew for 20 more min
• Stir occasionnaly and make sure it does not sitck on the bottom of the pot. Add some more water if too dry.

Serve when still hot and enjoy with a glass of your favorite Pinot Noir!

Personnally, I like to eat the meat with a pinch of coarse salt on the top or with some horseradish condiment. But some other people like it with mustard.

Note that the red cabbage can be cooked the same way but without the beef that can be replaced by a roast beef or pork.