Carbonnades à la Flamande Recipe
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 2 pounds beef, an extra-lean cut
1 to 1½ cups flour
Salt and pepper to taste
About 2/3 cup oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
6 medium-sized onions, sliced thin
1 - 12 ounce beer (dark beer is good)
Herb bouquet, tied in cheesecloth:
4 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoons thyme
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoons wine vinegar
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Directions: |
Directions:Cut beef into bite-sized cubes or slices. I prefer mini-slices, about 0.2" x 0.7" x 1.2", rather than chunks. It will be easier to cut into uniform pieces, if well chilled. Beef fat degrades the flavor of the gravy; the leaner the beef the better.Combine flour, salt and pepper. Dredge beef and sauté in oil in a big skillet in batches, do not crowd so all will brown. Remove beef as it browns. Sauté onions and garlic in same skillet, adding oil if needed, until they are limp and clear.Put beef and onions in a large casserole. Add beer, herb bouquet, and sugar. Bake in a slow oven (approximately 325° F) for 2½ to 3 hours. If liquid doesn't quite cover, add a bit more beer or beef broth. About 15 minutes before serving, stir in 1 tablespoon of wine vinegar and stir well. Serve with egg noodles or boiled parsley potatoes and a salad. |
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Number Of
Servings:6 generously |
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Personal
Notes: This traditional Belgian beef stew is one of those dishes that can be prepared for perennially late and unreliable relatives (we all have a few of those), because it’s a dish that is not hurt at all by cooking an extra 10 minutes or half hour. We recently served this to the daughter of some longtime friends and her new husband because we thought it would seem familiar to Frank, who is from northern Germany. Frank loved it – ate three helpings – but it was also a good choice because they got lost and arrived 45 minutes later than planned.
Our familiarity with this recipe actually antecedes our marriage by two weeks. It was served us by friends the night we announced our engagement, so has good memories associated with it. (Yes it was a two-week engagement.)
When our vegetarian friends in San Francisco found that it was their turn to prepare a meat dish for our wine-tasting dinner club, they asked Beverley for an easy meat recipe that could stand up to the powerful red wines we’d be sampling that evening, and she gave them this one. The night of the dinner, everybody noticed that Andy and Nell helped themselves to beef like everybody else. When teased about it, Andy protested, “But it smelled so good.” (It helps if you think that the smell of cooking onions ranks right up there with coffee brewing and bacon frying.)
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