La carbonade à la Flamande / Stoofvlees

La carbonade à la Flamande
Stoofvlees op Vlaamse wijze

It seems my evil, daemonic Doppelgänger has been writing on Belgian cuisine in Italian. Why? Exactly.

Anyway, we have noticed that, somewhat disconcertingly, he has gotten a hold of the same Dutch oven and Mexican plates as Amata and I have.*

der heilige Antonius (Bonus)

* Some notes in English explaining Evil Antonius' recipe appear inserted in the text by the Good Antonius. Behold.
_________________

Qualche giorno fa, motivato dalla nostalgia per il tempo che ho passato in Belgio, ho fatto la carbonade à la Flamande (in neerlandese stoofvlees op Vlaamse wijze). Questo è uno stufato di manzo molto semplice che si fa colla birra. Il ‘sugo’ dello stufato si rende più spesso e saporito per l’addizione di qualche fetta di pane che si spalma con senape. Gli ingredienti sono tipicamente solo:*
olio o/e burro
carne, tagliata in pezzi
cipolla
birra, preferibilmente una bruna da Belgio
pane, una o due fette
senape (tipo Dijon) da spalmare sulle fette di pane
sale, pepe
timo e lauro

A very traditional and tasty dish from the northern, Dutch-speaking ‘Flemish’ half of Belgium is the simple meat stew known in Dutch as Stoofvlees op Vlaamse wijze (‘Flemish style stewed meat’) and in French as La carbonade à la Flamande (also Les carbonnades flamandes). In the old days it was often made with horsemeat, and I’ve had it that way, most memorably at a restaurant in Antwerp some years back, but nowadays it’s most often made with beef. A cheap but flavourful cut will do, for the long cooking will render any tough cut tender. These are the ingredients:
oil and/or butter
meat, cut into cubes for stew
onion, chopped
beer, preferably a dark Belgian ale
bread, a couple of slices, fresh or stale
mustard (Dijon style or, if available, Flemish style)
salt, pepper
thyme, laurel

Questa volta ho fatto un paio di addizioni che non sono tradizionali ma, almeno secondo me, non hanno toccato troppo il carattere essenziale del piatto. Ho aggiunto il polpo di un pomodoro grattugiato alla cipolla da soffriggere un po’ (per rendere il colore dello stufato più scuro). Più tarde, ho aggiunto dei funghi (avevo dimenticato di usarli la sera prima e non li volevo ‘invecchiare’ più nel frigo).

1) rosolare bene i pezzi di carne in olio (e/o burro) e poi toglierli dalla padella.
2) soffriggere la cipolla tritata (dopo qualche minuto ci ho messo il polpo del pomodoro).
3) tornare i pezzi di carne alla padella.
4) aggiungere la birra.
5) aggiungere un po' di timo, e il lauro, le fette di pane spalmate di senape, sale, pepe (ho aggiunto anche i funghi tagliati a metà),
6) coprire e fare cuocere a fuoco lento per qualche ora.

This time I made a couple of additions to the traditional recipe, neither of which disturbed the basic character of the stew: I added the pulp and juice of a fresh tomato to the frying onions and later added some halved crimini mushrooms that I had on hand and didn’t want to let go bad. The steps in the preparation were:
1) brown the meat in oil (and/or butter) in a Dutch oven or similar style pan; remove the meat.
2) fry slowly the chopped onion (I added the tomato after the onion had fried a bit).
3) return the meat to the pan.
4) pour in a bottle of ale.
5) add some thyme, laurel, salt, pepper and one or two slices of bread which have been smeared with mustard ( I also added at this stage the halved mushrooms).
6) turn down the heat, cover and let cook slowly for a few hours.



In genere, si mangia questo stufato con le patate fritte (les frites) (o le patate bolite; anche buono è il purè di patate). Ogni tanto, quando non ho voglia di fare les frites, preferisco fare le patate fritte in padella alla Tedesca, Bratkartoffeln, come questa volta. Come contorno ho fatto i fagiolini, cotti a fuoco lento con cipolla e un po’ di noce moscato.

The carbonade is typically served with Belgian style ‘freedom fries’ (comme on dit en Amerique) or boiled potatoes; clearly mashed potatoes would be a nice choice too. On this occasion, I had neither the time nor the energy to make full-blown frieten orfrites or ‘freedom fries’, so instead I made the easy and ever delicious German-style fried potatoes (Bratkartoffeln). As an accompanying vegetable, I made green beans in a manner I’ve had in Belgium, namely, cooked slowly with butter, onion and a touch of nutmeg.



Una buona cena per una sera autunnale.

Eet smakelijk!
Antonius Malus


* Naturalmente, con una ricetta come questa ci esistano tante variazioni. Talvolta si aggiunge dello spek, dell’aceto, dello zucchero, o si usa le pain d’épices invece del pane di campagna. L'addizione di un po' di pomodoro fresco, che ho usato io, ho visto in una ricetta dagli anni '40 da Chip Elkon (Trente cinq recettes de cuisine belge).


Links to other recipes and cooking notes by this writer: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55649#55649

Thanks for the recipe, that will be cooking in my house in the next week. Do you think that one of my St. Bernardus' abt 12 would be good in this? I shudder at the idea of not drinking it but if it's for a good cause it will go in.

Octarine wrote:Thanks for the recipe, that will be cooking in my house in the next week. Do you think that one of my St. Bernardus' abt 12 would be good in this? I shudder at the idea of not drinking it but if it's for a good cause it will go in.

Octarine:

Hmmm... I'd drink that... To be honest, any decent beer should give you good results, including light (in the sense of not dark!) beers... I've made it with German beers such as Warsteiner or Spaten and it's turned out just fine. Perhaps the best thing to do is, however, to buy a big 750ml bottle of Chimay or something of that ilk, pour 1/3 or so into your carbonade and the other 2/3 into you while you're cooking.



By the way, I forgot to mention above that the idea of putting the bread in is that it eventually dissolves and renders the juice of the stew nice and thick. It's a very simple and very tasty dish.

Antonius

A:

Thanks for the recipe (fantastic photo of plated dish). I've printed this out to make sometime after T-day.

Can you please recommend a specific cut of meat? I seem to have the remarkable skill of picking out the wrong cuts for the wrong techniques -- repeatedly. I understand the logic of it, its the execution that escapes me.

-ramon

Ramon wrote:A:
Thanks for the recipe (fantastic photo of plated dish). I've printed this out to make sometime after T-day.
Can you please recommend a specific cut of meat? I seem to have the remarkable skill of picking out the wrong cuts for the wrong techniques -- repeatedly. I understand the logic of it, its the execution that escapes me.

-ramon

Thank you, Ramon. Whatever cut you like to use for beef stew will work here. I think the usual cut of choice would be 'chuck' but again, it would be hard to go wrong, short of using something like filet. I think I mentioned above that traditionally this dish was made quite often with horsemeat, which can be tough, but after a couple of hours of cooking in the beer, anything will be 'fork tender'.

I realise now that I didn't translate or paraphrase the footnote above which mentions some possible variations on the recipe:

* Naturalmente, con una ricetta come questa ci esistano tante variazioni. Talvolta si aggiunge dello spek, dell’aceto, dello zucchero, o si usa le pain d’épices invece del pane di campagna. L'addizione di un po' di pomodoro fresco, che ho usato io, ho visto in una ricetta dagli anni '40 da Chip Elkon (Trente cinq recettes de cuisine belge).

Sometimes one adds some bacon or salt pork, vinegar, sugar, or pain d'épices instead of plain (country) bread. I do favour adding a little tomato (which is not typically found in Belgian recipes but which I have seen in the Elkon book mentioned above and perhaps in some other source or two). Now that fresh tomatoes are no longer as inviting as they were some weeks back, a little shot of passata di pomodoro or Pomì tomato puree would do the trick. But just a little. The beer/mustard/bread combination is what the 'sauce' is about and the thyme and laurel/bay element should be there without being assertive.

Let us know how it turns out.

Antonius

Antonius,
I have made this many times it is one of my husband's favorites. I haven't seen any recipes calling for the bread but it sounds right. Next time I make it I will try it. I prefer to make this with a dark beer and usually use either Guiness or Oatmeal Stout.
Paulette

paulette wrote:Antonius,
I have made this many times it is one of my husband's favorites. I haven't seen any recipes calling for the bread but it sounds right. Next time I make it I will try it. I prefer to make this with a dark beer and usually use either Guiness or Oatmeal Stout.
Paulette

Well, if it's carbonade à la flamande, the bread smeared with mustard seems to me to be de rigueur; in any event, I think that's the really distinctive element to the dish. Of course, there are other ways to render the 'sauce' thick but I love the simple, old-fashioned cucina povera aspect to that method.

Stout sounds like a fine beer to use. I'll try that next time, in honour of the Irish College at the university in Leuven (good times drinking with those guys back in the day)... Thanks for the suggestion!



A

Antonius:

Thanks for the recipe. I love the thought of casually tossing in some mustard smeared bread. I think we need even more recipes here and I beseech those hesitating to do so to get on with it! I promise to share soon.

I've made plenty of beef stews but never with beer and bread. I made this over the weekend avoiding T-day leftovers. I used a Czech dark beer, pumpernickel bread (from Val's), and medium hot mustard from Germany -- a smorgasbord of European ingredients that negated any regionality of your recipe.

The pumpernickel was very assertive in the final flavor of the stew. The beer, bread, and mustard all combined to create a tight but layered melange of tastes that was harmonius. The family snarfed it up greedily.

The thing I love best about slow cooked food is the constant oppurtunity to taste and adjust seasoning -- the chance to tinker. This time though, I resisted the urge to toss in a little garlic , splash in a little balsamic, or rip open an orange packet of Sazón Goya®. I will certaintly play with the ingredients in the future, but the first time I wanted to try and keep the flavors pure.

I am thankful to I have this technique in my culinary repertoire.

-ramon

Ramon wrote:Antonius:

Thanks for the recipe. I love the thought of casually tossing in some mustard smeared bread. I think we need even more recipes here and I beseech those hesitating to do so to get on with it! I promise to share soon.

You're welcome, Ramon! And I'm glad you liked it!

I also heartily agree that it would be nice to see more intensive activity on the cooking and shopping and recipe front -- not that the other stuff isn't interesting and fun, but...

I've made plenty of beef stews but never with beer and bread. I made this over the weekend avoiding T-day leftovers. I used a Czech dark beer, pumpernickel bread (from Val's), and medium hot mustard from Germany -- a smorgasbord of European ingredients that negated any regionality of your recipe.
The pumpernickel was very assertive in the final flavor of the stew. The beer, bread, and mustard all combined to create a tight but layered melange of tastes that was harmonius. The family snarfed it up greedily.

I suspect Evil Antonius really likes the idea of using pumpernickel; actually, I do too, though in this dish I always just use a white 'country bread', be it French, Italian or (not available here) Belgian... The hot mustard and Czech dark beer sound very good...

The thing I love best about slow cooked food is the constant oppurtunity to taste and adjust seasoning -- the chance to tinker. This time though, I resisted the urge to toss in a little garlic , splash in a little balsamic, or rip open an orange packet of Sazón Goya®. I will certaintly play with the ingredients in the future, but the first time I wanted to try and keep the flavors pure.
I am thankful to I have this technique in my culinary repertoire.

Ramon, if you put garlic and balsamic and Sazón in your stew, I trust it will be to good effect... But just don't call it Carbonade à la Flamande!*



A

P.S. I'm hoping Octarine will report back on his version.

*Quizás La Carbonada a la Latina?

I just had this for the second time. Tonight I used a St. Bernardus Tripel and I omitted the laurel as I didn't have any. I used more onion this time and I cooked them down till they were deeply caramelised.

I served it with spinach and sliced boiled potatoes which I finished in the pan with some butter and a splash of wine and parsely.

Very very nice, I imagine that it makes fantastic leftovers, if you happen to have far more self control than I do:)

Octarine wrote:I just had this for the second time. Tonight I used a St. Bernardus Tripel and I omitted the laurel as I didn't have any. I used more onion this time and I cooked them down till they were deeply caramelised.

I served it with spinach and sliced boiled potatoes which I finished in the pan with some butter and a splash of wine and parsely.

Very very nice, I imagine that it makes fantastic leftovers, if you happen to have far more self control than I do:)

Octarine:

I'm delighted to hear that you liked the recipe so much...

About leftovers, there is no doubt in my mind that the stew improves with a second and even third reheating/recooking. Some of the fritkoten I knew in Belgium back when I lived there made pretty good carbonade which they would serve poured over a mountain of freshly, perfectly made fries. A buddy (need I say 'drinking-buddy'?) of mine and I used to try to keep track of when one of the frituurs made their stoofvlees. The second or third day it was at its peak of flavour, the fourth day it was gone...

So, yes, it's definitely worth making more than you can comfortably eat at one sitting, though the risks are apparent...

Antonius

Antonius
I definetly agree with you on leftovers. This is one of my husbands favorites as are almost any pot roast I make, so I always buy extra meat to have leftovers for lunches or another dinner.
Paulette

I do in fact have a small amount leftover from the other night, it's sitting in a ziploc container waiting for an opportune moment, I'm thinking tomorrow nights' dinner will be good.

Was out with some beer-drinkin' buddies last night, and somewhere about my 2nd or 3rd Chimay, the thought of carbonade hijacked my brain. After about three too many Belgians, I woke up wounded, the thought of a comforting carbonade even more appealing.

Fortunately, the mise is a joke. I pretty much adhered to the Antonius protocol above, even down to the 'shrooms. Was also particularly enamoured of the idea of tossing in a slice of mustard-schmeared bread (to very nice effect).

My beer of choice was a brown from Brasserie de Rocs:



Served simply with boiled spud and carrots:



And after the rest of my orujo (Spanish grappa), I was officially no longer hungover.

(To the Mods: Is it possible to have the Antonius recipe compendium moved to the top of the S&C page ?)