Post by TasunkaWitko on Apr 30, 2010 14:30:59 GMT -5
NOTE - i tried posting pictures, but had no success. if you would like to see the components of this recipe and a picture of the finished product, you can click here.
i am posting this as a belgian dish, but truth be told, the method seems to be equally at home in belgium, holland, germany or france, as it is a regional specialty of the intersection of those areas. this is a very old, very basic, farmers dish from that northern, cold region. plain, rustic fare that is in keeping with the people and their ways - farming, beer making, not much time for fuss and frivolity.
wikipeida.org describes carbonade flamande as:
my own experience is that it goes very well with oven-roasted potatoes. you can click here for an excellent, tasty recipe that is, in my opinion, the best way to prepare oven-roasted potatoes.
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carbonade flamande
prep work: pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. slice onions thickly (perhaps 1/2 inch) into disks. trim of most of the fat from beef and cut into approximately 3-inch by 2-inch chunks. measure out flour into a bowl or cup. pour 2/3 cup of red wine vinegar into a bowl or cup and de-cap beer bottles. crush and peel garlic cloves and put them into a bowl with the thyme, bay leaves, bullion cubes, salt and pepper. heat 3 to 4 tablespoons butter and/or olive oil in a wide skillet or sauté pan to high, but back off a bit of it starts to burn. (alternately, this recipe can be made entirely within a cast-iron dutch oven).
summary: toss onions into pan and sprinkle a pinch of salt on them to help release moisture. sauté until well-browned and caramelized on both sides; if the disks come apart into rings, don't worry. remove from heat and place 1/2 of the onions in the bottom of an earthenware crock, reserving the remainder.
add a bit more butter and/or olive oil to the pan. when hot, add meat and sear on all sides, it will take some time to cook the moisture down; stick with it! just when you are about to give up, the real majority of the moisture will get cooked out and the meat will get well-browned on all sides. place meat on top of the bottom layer of onions and sprinkle the flour over the meat.
de-glaze the pan with the red wine vinegar, stirring well to lift all the brown bits from the pan. when the vinegar has reduced down to a thick, caramelized liquid, drizzle it over the beef in the crock. add the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, bullion cubes, salt and pepper. spread remaining onions on top and pour in the two bottles of beer.
cover crock (do not seal tightly; you want some steam to escape) and place in oven at 325 degrees for half an hour, then reduce heat to 300 degrees for two-and-a-half hours.
remove from the oven and remove the cover. sauce should thicken while standing. if necessary, heat uncovered until it thickens to desired consistency. serve with potatoes cooked your favorite way and your favorite vegetable. don't forget to have some sliced, crusty warm bread for sopping up the sauce!
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reception of this simple-yet-exquisite peasant dish was very good all-around and ranged from "wonderful!" to "perfect!" speaking for myself, i just flat-out LOVE it when a person can take such simple, easy and basically CHEAP stuff and turn out a work of art. this was absolutely one of the best meals i've had in quite a while - probably since the poulet i first made last fall.
the family loved it. my mom was out of town, so we had invited my dad to dinner. he arrived just in time for serving the feast. when i described what i was fixing for supper, he gave me a hard time for using "fancy" beer (wasting it, in his mind), but he had to admit the results were outstanding. the only real complaint that i heard that evening was that there wasn't enough for a 3rd helping!
the oven-roasted potatoes described above and mixed vegetables made the perfect side dishes for this feast, and the toasted, crustey bread that we served with it was perfect for sopping up the rich, thick gravy. the chuck was fork-tender - fell apart with just a little pressure on the chunks. the meat had a rich, red colour from the braising - even the few chunks of bottom round steaks that i added were very, very tender. not quite as much as the chuck, but still able to cut with a fork. the tartness of the red wine vinegar worked perfectly with the onion, thyme, garlic and beef flavors. the belgian beer had been made with orange peel and coriander, and even though i couldn't specifically pick those flavors out, i knew they were in there and i think they blended with the other flavors perfectly. this was a home run out of the park.
the only problems i saw were these:
i only had 3 onions - a fourth would have been perfect and even a fifth wouldn't have been excessive.
i used a little too much oil/butter to brown the meat, and threw it in the saute pan at a bit too low of a temperature. it took me a while to figure this out, so it didn't quite get seared the way i would have liked, but it did not suffer in moisture, tenderness and flavor, all three areas were great. also, when the juices reduced down, some good browning did finally ensue. caution to anyone who makes this dish: it seemed like forever to get the initial moisture out of there, but it was worth it when it finally boiled off and the serious browning began, the incredible beefy good news was all there. stick with it and you will be rewarded!
the extra oil made the deglazing with the vinegar a little weird, like there never really was anything to deglaze, even though there was a LOT of thick, concentrated beefiness in there - i poured in the vinegar and boiled it off and reduced it down and the results were very good, but not quite the same as if they would have been the browned/caramelized/lifted-from-the-bottom-of-the-pan bits. in spite of this, everything turned out fine, though.
when i took it out of the oven, i sat it on top of the stove still covered and the burner on the lowest setting; but even after about half an hour while the potatoes finished up, the sauce/gravy seemed way too thin. so i did mix another quarter cup of flour and a little water to thicken it. not sure if extra cooking time and/or resting time would have thickened it anyway, but the meat was so tender it certainly didn't suffer at all. i will definitely add a bit more flour before braising and/or provide an escape for some of the mositure while braising next time.
i am posting this as a belgian dish, but truth be told, the method seems to be equally at home in belgium, holland, germany or france, as it is a regional specialty of the intersection of those areas. this is a very old, very basic, farmers dish from that northern, cold region. plain, rustic fare that is in keeping with the people and their ways - farming, beer making, not much time for fuss and frivolity.
wikipeida.org describes carbonade flamande as:
A carbonade flamande[1] (or à la flamande[2]), in Dutch Vlaamse Stoverij or Vlaamse stoofkarbonade, is a traditional Belgian sweet-sour beef and onion stew made with beer, and seasoned with thyme and bay.
The type of beer used is important, and traditionally an Oud bruin, Brune Abbey beer or Flanders red is the beer of choice with a somewhat bitter-sour flavour.[3] In addition to this and to enhance the sweet-sour flavour, just before serving, it has a small amount of cider or wine vinegar and either brown sugar or red currant jelly stirred in.[4][3]
It is often accompanied by frites or boiled potatoes.[5][3]
The type of beer used is important, and traditionally an Oud bruin, Brune Abbey beer or Flanders red is the beer of choice with a somewhat bitter-sour flavour.[3] In addition to this and to enhance the sweet-sour flavour, just before serving, it has a small amount of cider or wine vinegar and either brown sugar or red currant jelly stirred in.[4][3]
It is often accompanied by frites or boiled potatoes.[5][3]
my own experience is that it goes very well with oven-roasted potatoes. you can click here for an excellent, tasty recipe that is, in my opinion, the best way to prepare oven-roasted potatoes.
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carbonade flamande
- butter and/or extra virgin olive oil for frying
4-5 large onions
3 to 4 pounds beef chuck, bottom round or other cheap cut of beef
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
6-10 cloves garlic
1 tbsp dried thyme, or 2 tbsp fresh thyme
4-5 bay leaves
3-4 beef bullion cubes, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
2 bottles belgian-style beer
prep work: pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. slice onions thickly (perhaps 1/2 inch) into disks. trim of most of the fat from beef and cut into approximately 3-inch by 2-inch chunks. measure out flour into a bowl or cup. pour 2/3 cup of red wine vinegar into a bowl or cup and de-cap beer bottles. crush and peel garlic cloves and put them into a bowl with the thyme, bay leaves, bullion cubes, salt and pepper. heat 3 to 4 tablespoons butter and/or olive oil in a wide skillet or sauté pan to high, but back off a bit of it starts to burn. (alternately, this recipe can be made entirely within a cast-iron dutch oven).
summary: toss onions into pan and sprinkle a pinch of salt on them to help release moisture. sauté until well-browned and caramelized on both sides; if the disks come apart into rings, don't worry. remove from heat and place 1/2 of the onions in the bottom of an earthenware crock, reserving the remainder.
add a bit more butter and/or olive oil to the pan. when hot, add meat and sear on all sides, it will take some time to cook the moisture down; stick with it! just when you are about to give up, the real majority of the moisture will get cooked out and the meat will get well-browned on all sides. place meat on top of the bottom layer of onions and sprinkle the flour over the meat.
de-glaze the pan with the red wine vinegar, stirring well to lift all the brown bits from the pan. when the vinegar has reduced down to a thick, caramelized liquid, drizzle it over the beef in the crock. add the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, bullion cubes, salt and pepper. spread remaining onions on top and pour in the two bottles of beer.
cover crock (do not seal tightly; you want some steam to escape) and place in oven at 325 degrees for half an hour, then reduce heat to 300 degrees for two-and-a-half hours.
remove from the oven and remove the cover. sauce should thicken while standing. if necessary, heat uncovered until it thickens to desired consistency. serve with potatoes cooked your favorite way and your favorite vegetable. don't forget to have some sliced, crusty warm bread for sopping up the sauce!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
reception of this simple-yet-exquisite peasant dish was very good all-around and ranged from "wonderful!" to "perfect!" speaking for myself, i just flat-out LOVE it when a person can take such simple, easy and basically CHEAP stuff and turn out a work of art. this was absolutely one of the best meals i've had in quite a while - probably since the poulet i first made last fall.
the family loved it. my mom was out of town, so we had invited my dad to dinner. he arrived just in time for serving the feast. when i described what i was fixing for supper, he gave me a hard time for using "fancy" beer (wasting it, in his mind), but he had to admit the results were outstanding. the only real complaint that i heard that evening was that there wasn't enough for a 3rd helping!
the oven-roasted potatoes described above and mixed vegetables made the perfect side dishes for this feast, and the toasted, crustey bread that we served with it was perfect for sopping up the rich, thick gravy. the chuck was fork-tender - fell apart with just a little pressure on the chunks. the meat had a rich, red colour from the braising - even the few chunks of bottom round steaks that i added were very, very tender. not quite as much as the chuck, but still able to cut with a fork. the tartness of the red wine vinegar worked perfectly with the onion, thyme, garlic and beef flavors. the belgian beer had been made with orange peel and coriander, and even though i couldn't specifically pick those flavors out, i knew they were in there and i think they blended with the other flavors perfectly. this was a home run out of the park.
the only problems i saw were these:
i only had 3 onions - a fourth would have been perfect and even a fifth wouldn't have been excessive.
i used a little too much oil/butter to brown the meat, and threw it in the saute pan at a bit too low of a temperature. it took me a while to figure this out, so it didn't quite get seared the way i would have liked, but it did not suffer in moisture, tenderness and flavor, all three areas were great. also, when the juices reduced down, some good browning did finally ensue. caution to anyone who makes this dish: it seemed like forever to get the initial moisture out of there, but it was worth it when it finally boiled off and the serious browning began, the incredible beefy good news was all there. stick with it and you will be rewarded!
the extra oil made the deglazing with the vinegar a little weird, like there never really was anything to deglaze, even though there was a LOT of thick, concentrated beefiness in there - i poured in the vinegar and boiled it off and reduced it down and the results were very good, but not quite the same as if they would have been the browned/caramelized/lifted-from-the-bottom-of-the-pan bits. in spite of this, everything turned out fine, though.
when i took it out of the oven, i sat it on top of the stove still covered and the burner on the lowest setting; but even after about half an hour while the potatoes finished up, the sauce/gravy seemed way too thin. so i did mix another quarter cup of flour and a little water to thicken it. not sure if extra cooking time and/or resting time would have thickened it anyway, but the meat was so tender it certainly didn't suffer at all. i will definitely add a bit more flour before braising and/or provide an escape for some of the mositure while braising next time.
