Globecooking recipe : Blanquette de veau - creamy veal stew (France)

First things first, this is not a traditional version of blanquette de veau - the potatoes should be cooked separately and it should be left to bubble away on the hob for an hour or so with the carrots in with the meat, so if you're looking for a classic recipe, move along ! This is a #KitchenClearout version that was designed to wind down the fridge and use up all the perishables before we went on holiday. I would have loved to have added leeks and mushrooms to the meat, but I didn't have any in the fridge. If, for ethical reasons, you don't like the idea of cooking with veal, you could use chicken or pork instead and it wouldn't change the dish much.

Blanquette de veau

ingredients :

knob of butter

1 onion

400g veal/chicken/pork, cut into strips

salt, pepper, garlic granules

(2-3 mushrooms/ 1 leek if you have them)

2 carrots

4 potatoes

30cl crème fraîche

2 egg yolks

squeeze of lemon juice

It's way too hot to be slaving over a stove for hours on end, so to speed things up, I started off by chopping the potatoes and carrots into smallish pieces and boiling them in salted water for 10-15 minutes, while I prepared the meat.

Melt a large knob of butter (salted is best) in a pan and gently fry the onions until they start to go soft and translucent.

Add the meat chopped into thin strips and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through. If using, add the mushrooms and leeks at this point. Season with salt, pepper and garlic granules.

Whisk the egg yolks into the crème fraîche and add the lemon juice.

Drain the carrots and potatoes and add to the meat. (Or keep separate if you want to be more traditional, but reduce the amount of cream.) Toss through the meat.

On a very low heat (to avoid the eggs scrambling), pour in the cream mixture and heat through, stirring, until it just warms up and starts soaking into the potatoes.

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as it used up all my fresh veg, cream and eggs.