Flemish Beef Carbonnade - serve over egg noodles
The title sounds kind of pretentious, doesn’t it? Well, it really isn’t. The Belgians aren’t noted for very much in their cuisine (except chocolates, perhaps) and this dish. If some of you readers are Belgian, my apologies to your cuisine, but I’ve just not heard about much else. Oh, well, maybe Belgian Endive. That is certainly something worth remembering.
I first had this dish back in the 1960’s, and was dutifully impressed with the flavor. It comes from the dark searing of the meat and the addition of beer. But in actuality, it’s not much more than a beef stew with beer. I wasn’t able to put my hands on the old-old recipe I used to use, but had two others that were very similar (beef, beer, onions), so I just used a combination of 3 different recipes. One called for thyme. Another for bay leaves, and the third for thyme and nutmeg. I used the latter combo.
We were taking dinner to our adult kids who live nearby, and I only had a few hours, so decided to make this in the pressure cooker. It was scrumptious, if I do say so myself. You don’t have to own a pressure cooker to prepare this, though. Just cook it longer on the stovetop (or oven), that’s all. I added mushrooms to it, although it’s not traditional. I did not include them in the recipe below, but you can certainly add them into the pressure cooker if you like them.
First you render a bit of bacon, then sear the beef cubes in the bacon fat (or some added butter and olive oil) until they’re all nice and brown on many sides. It took me three batches to brown 3 pounds of beef. Meanwhile I chopped up one heck of a lot of onions. I must say, although I’m certainly an experienced cook, 3 pounds of onions is a LOT, and I decided not to guess, but to weigh them.
Once you add the onions and cook the whole thing, the onions nearly disappear into the sauce. I cooked the whole thing in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, then did the last fillip of adding the butter/flour mixture (to gravy-ize the liquid) while it bubbled on the stovetop. We served it over noodles, because that’s the Flemish way, but you could serve it over potatoes too if you’d prefer them. And in case you’ve never cooked with beer, there is absolutely no TASTE of beer. Just a rich sauce. This is a homey kind of dish, but would be perfectly acceptable for guests.
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Flemish Beef Carbonnade
Recipe: A combination of several recipes.
Servings: 8
2 slices bacon — minced
3 pounds chuck roast — cut into 1″ cubes
3 cloves garlic — minced
3 pounds yellow onions — sliced thinly or chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon dried thyme — crushed
3 tablespoons beef concentrate (Trader Joe’s little sticks)
20 ounces light beer
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons soft butter
1/4 cup Italian parsley — minced
1. Add the minced bacon to a heavy duty lidded pan and render until the bacon is brown. Remove bacon and drain. To the drippings in the pan add the pieces of beef. Do not crowd the pieces as you don’t want them to steam, but to brown. Keep the heat moderately hot while you brown the meat. Turn the pieces over at least once and brown one more side before removing to a plate and reserve. Repeat process until you’ve browned all the meat.
2. If there is no more fat in the pan add a little butter and olive oil as needed. Add the sliced onions and stir and cook until the onions have begun to brown just a bit. Don’t burn them. Cook about 5 minutes or so. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the salt, pepper, Worcestershire, nutmeg, thyme, beef concentrate, sugar and beer. Bring to a boil, add a lid, turn down heat and simmer for about 2-3 hours. Test the meat occasionally to see if it’s tender. Do not overcook it.
PRESSURE COOKER: If using a pressure cooker, for step 3 bring the pot up to pressure and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool down gradually. Continue on without using pressure.
4. For either method of cooking: Mix the soft butter and flour together in a small bowl and drop by small bits into the stew. Turn on the heat and allow to simmer just until the flour/butter mixture has disappeared and stew is thickened. Serve over egg noodles and garnish with a generous amount of Italian parsley.
Per Serving: 494 Calories; 31g Fat (58.3% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 108mg Cholesterol; 1019mg Sodium.
A year ago: Pork Chops with Apple Cider Sauce
My old – and I mean OLD – crockpot dating from the early 1970’s finally bit the dust a few days ago. I’d noticed a hairline crack developing in the ceramic bowl/insert, but thought perhaps it wouldn’t grow. Well, it did. Actually, I was gleeful, since it gave me the reason to buy a new one. And because I have heard my friend Cherrie talking about how much she loves her All-Clad stainless insert slow cooker so much, I knew what I’d be buying. I called her to verify she was still happy with it (yes) and I snooped on the internet hoping to find a better price (uh, no).
It’s only available from Williams-Sonoma. There are other models of the All-Clad Slow Cooker, but the one with the nonstick coated aluminum insert is only available from Williams-Sonoma. (Well, e-bay had a couple, but I decided I wasn’t up to the game of bidding on them – I never seem to get what I want.) New, at Williams-Sonoma, it’s $279. I really needed to WANT this thing to pay that for a crockpot. But oh, is it ever fun. There are two important reasons to buy this: (a) you can brown food in this insert – it’s a metal pan. It can go right on the stovetop and can stay on the stovetop if you want; and (b) the crockpot housing has a programmable control on it – for high heat, low heat and warm, and can be changed to cook for as many hours as you want it to. Well, maybe there’s an upper limit, but if so I don’t recall reading it. It has a lighted LCD control panel on it so you know when it’s on. Once you’ve cooked for as many hours as you’ve selected, it switches to the warm setting for awhile in case you’re late.
guesstimate, as the original, pencil-scribbled recipe said one spoonful. Well, how big a spoonful is that? In a Namibia kitchen for a much larger quantity that could have been a huge soup spoon. Or, who knows. The curry flavor, however, was quite prominent, so 1 1/2 tsp. may be quite insufficient to your tastes. Use your own judgment on how much to add and taste it as you go! I’ve cut down the sauce part by half to make it a bit more manageable for a home kitchen, but still the quantity of curry powder is up to you. So is the quantity of pasta to sauce mix, but Joan uses the below proportions.
Above left is a photo of the resort itself. The photo at right shows the evening entertainment. Thanks, Scott, for the photos!
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