Belgium is known for many things: Renaissance artists, fries (fries area actually Belgian, NOT French!), waffles, diamonds, chocolate and beer.
With thousands of types of beer, just simply drinking them can get boring! What's the next step, then? Cooking with beer.
Yesterday was the first day that felt like winter to me. Yes, with the Black Friday sales and almost overnight Christmas decorations in stores, it started to
look like Christmas, but weather-wise, it felt like winter as well.
On the train home, I decided to make my first stew of the season: The Carbonnade Flamande, a Belgian speciality. Like many dishes, though, I decided to tweak the traditional way and turn it into my own. Know that this meal takes about 30 minutes to put together, but then cooks for up to two hours. It is a great meal to make while multitasking: watching a movie, doing homework or doing laundry.
You will need:
- 1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil (peanut works too)
- 1.5 pounds of beef (either a top round steak that you cut into cubes yourself OR pre-cut packaged meat)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 large Spanish onions OR 4 regular onions (sliced in half lengthwise and then in thin slices widthwise)
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 3 celery stalks (thinly sliced)
- 2 medium carrots (diced)
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1 pint of beer (I didn't have any Belgian beer offhand, so I used Newscastle. You can really use any dark ale or stout beer you want. )
- A few sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tin of tomato paste
- 4 cups of stock (I used a home-made chicken + veggie stock)
- 3 cloves of garlic (minced or crushed)
- salt/pepper
- 1 pound of fingerling potatoes (washed and sliced into quarter-inch pieces)
What to do:
1. In a dutch oven (enameled cast-iron pot) OR the largest pot you have, on medium to high heat, add 1 tbsp of oil. When oil is hot, in batches, brown pieces of meat. Set aside in a bowl.
2. Add the butter and onions. Lower heat to low-medium. Put lid on to steam the onions through. Stir every few minutes. When onions are soft and are starting to stick to the bottom of the pan (or are turning golden) add the sugar. Stir and recover. It is important that you let the water (steam) that is collecting on top of the lid fall back into the pot. Cook until onions are done. You essentially want a golden brown, caramel pile of soft onion slices. This should take around 20 minutes.
3. Add the carrots and celery to complete the mirepoix. Stir and let cook 2-3 minutes. Add the flour, stir until everything is coated in the flour. Turn the heat on high and add the beer all while stirring quickly, making sure no clumps of flour remain. Bring that to a boil.
4. Add the thyme, bay leaves, tomato paste, stock and garlic. Bring that to a boil.
5. Add the meat (and all of the juices that have collected at the bottom of the bowl). Bring to a boil and then turn heat the heat down, bringing it to a simmer. Re-cover and let simmer for minutes.
6. Stir the pot. Do a taste test and add salt and pepper accordingly.
7. The meat should soften at about 1 1/2 to 2 hours into simmering. When the meat is nice and tender, add the potatoes. They will cook in 30 minutes. By that time you will have enough time to slice up some nice crusty bread and enjoy your meal!
