Old-Style Veal Blanquette (Blanquette de veau à l'ancienne)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Put both cuts of veal in a 6 litre heavy stainless steel or enamelled pot (avoid bare cast iron or untreated aluminium, which dull a white sauce to grey), cover with cold water by 3 cm and bring to the boil over medium-high heat, which takes 15-20 minutes for this weight of meat and water; boil for 2-3 minutes, by which point a thick grey scum will have risen, then drain into a colander and rinse every piece under cold running water until the surfaces feel smooth rather than gritty, and scrub the pot before the meat goes back in. Do not skip this blanching and plan to skim later instead — skimming alone leaves the broth cloudy and the finished sauce beige, and blanching is the whole reason a blanquette is white.
2. 2 Return the rinsed veal to the clean pot with the clove-studded onion, carrots, leek white, celery, bouquet garni, peppercorns and the 12 g coarse salt, pour over enough cold water to cover everything by 2 cm — about 2.5 litres — and bring it slowly up over medium-low heat to a bare simmer, 90-95°C/194-203°F, where a bubble breaks the surface only every second or two. Water rather than stock is correct here and is what every French home uses, since the veal and its bones make the stock as they cook, but a rolling boil at any point shreds the surface of the meat and clouds the liquor beyond rescue.
3. 3 Simmer with the lid ajar for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, lifting off any pale foam in the first 15 minutes and adjusting the heat so the surface never does more than shiver; the veal is ready when a skewer slides into a cube with no resistance at all but the cube still holds together when lifted on a spoon and does not fall into shreds. Pull the pot off the heat and leave the meat to stand in its broth for 30 minutes so it relaxes and reabsorbs liquid instead of drying out; take the egg yolks and cream out of the fridge now, because cold yolks chill the sauce and are far harder to temper, and cook the onions and mushrooms below while the meat stands.
4. 4 Lift the meat into a bowl with a slotted spoon, picking out and discarding the vegetables and bouquet garni (they have given everything they have), and strain the liquor through a fine sieve lined with damp muslin into a jug, then measure out 1.1 litres for the sauce. You will normally have several hundred millilitres more than that, which is expected — keep the surplus for soup, or reduce a little of it in a wide pan if the broth tastes thin — and if you are short, top up with hot water. Ladle a few spoonfuls of broth over the meat and cover the bowl, because exposed cubes dry and toughen within minutes.
5. 5 Cook the small onions à blanc: put them in a 20 cm saucepan with 20 g of the butter, the 1/2 tsp sugar, a pinch of salt and enough water to come halfway up them, about 250 ml, press a circle of baking parchment down onto the surface and simmer over medium-low heat for 18-20 minutes, until the water has cooked down to a glossy film and a knife tip enters without resistance. They must stay ivory — if the pan runs dry before they are tender, or they begin to catch and colour, add a tablespoon of water immediately, since a single browned onion is visible in a white sauce. Frozen peeled pearl onions are used without apology in French home kitchens and need only 12-14 minutes.
6. 6 In a second pan, cook the mushrooms à blanc with the remaining 20 g butter, 100 ml water, the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt, covered, at a brisk simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, shaking the pan once; they are ready when they have slumped slightly and gone translucent at the edge but are still white. The acid and the covered steam are what keep them ivory instead of grey, and cooking them uncovered in butter alone would brown them and colour the sauce; drain them and pour their cooking liquid into the measured broth, which brings it to about 1.2 litres.
7. 7 Melt the 70 g butter in a 24 cm heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, scatter in the 70 g flour and stir with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes, until the paste looks like wet sand, smells faintly of biscuit and has gone barely blond. Stop there: a roux taken to hazelnut is right for a brown sauce and wrong for this one, and it will tint the blanquette beige before a single spoonful of cream goes in.
8. 8 Take the pan off the heat for a minute so the roux stops sizzling, then pour in the warm broth in three additions, whisking each one perfectly smooth before the next, return to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook at a lazy simmer, around 90°C/194°F, for 20-25 minutes, whisking every few minutes and skimming the skin that gathers at the edge; the velouté is ready when it coats the back of a spoon thickly enough that a finger drawn through leaves a clean line, and tastes of veal rather than of raw flour. Left to sit unwhisked over a high flame it catches on the base and the whole sauce tastes scorched.
9. 9 Slide the drained veal, the glazed onions and the mushrooms into the sauce and warm through over low heat for 5 minutes, no hotter than about 75°C/167°F, turning them over gently with a spatula so nothing breaks up. Everything from this point happens below a simmer.
10. 10 Whisk the 3 egg yolks and the 200 ml crème fraîche together in a bowl, then ladle in about 200 ml of the hot sauce in a thin steady stream, whisking constantly, until the mixture is slack and warm to the finger. This tempering is not optional and is not a chef's affectation — yolks poured straight into hot sauce set instantly into threads, and there is no way back.
11. 11 Take the pan off the heat, let it stop bubbling for 30 seconds, stir the liaison in, then return it to the very lowest heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly in figure-eights with a wooden spoon, and take it to no more than 83°C/181°F — the sauce visibly thickens, turns glossy and clings to the spoon. The moment it approaches a bubble the yolks curdle, so if your hob will not go low enough, leave the pan off the heat entirely; the residual warmth of more than a litre of hot velouté is enough to set the liaison on its own.
12. 12 Off the heat, sharpen the sauce with lemon juice — add 1 tbsp, taste, then more up to about 2 1/2 tbsp, roughly one whole lemon's worth: it should read bright rather than lemony, and it is this acidity, not more salt, that stops the cream tasting heavy. Grate over a little nutmeg, season with white pepper and fine salt, and correct until it tastes clean and lifted; left under-seasoned here it will taste flat and floury however good the broth was.
13. 13 Let the pan stand 5 minutes with a lid on so the sauce settles and the meat comes up to temperature all through, then scatter with the chopped parsley and serve in warmed shallow bowls with riz pilaf (the standard partner), steamed new potatoes or buttered fresh tagliatelle. It is genuinely better made a day ahead: stop before the liaison, chill the meat in its velouté overnight, then reheat gently to a bare simmer, take the pan off the heat and add the yolks and cream at the last minute; never reheat a finished blanquette above 80°C/176°F, or the sauce splits.

// CLASSIFICATIONS