France and the Alps · Volume 12, Choucroute, Bière de Garde and the Double Border
Carbonnade Flamande
The Nord
Illustration
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- 10 sources cited
Florent Ladeyn's own verdict on an early version of this dish at his restaurant, made with Spanish onions, Polish beef and German beer, was that it was "Flamand seulement de nom", Flemish only in name: proof that the recipe alone does not make the dish, the ingredients do.
As tradition built it
Serves 6. About 2.5 to 3 hours.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg braising beef (paleron, macreuse or shin), cut into chunks
- 3 onions, sliced
- 1 tbsp vergeoise or brown sugar
- 1 tbsp wine vinegar
- 500 ml bière brune or bière de garde
- 100 g pain d'épices, slightly stale, sliced
- 1 tbsp strong mustard
- 25 g butter
- 2 bay leaves, to taste bay, salt, pepper
Method
- Sear the beef well in the butter, in batches, remove.
- Soften the onions in the same pot, add the vergeoise and let them caramelise gently.
- Deglaze with the vinegar, return the beef, add the beer and bay.
- Spread the pain d'épices thickly with the mustard and lay it on top of the braise.
- Cover and simmer gently, 2.5 to 3 hours, until the meat is completely tender and the bread has dissolved into the sauce.
- Season, and rest overnight if possible; it is better the next day.
What a modern chef changes
Every one of the three points where an export version fails, corrected in turn.
Rung 4.
Method
- Use a genuine braising cut and nothing leaner. The sauce's body comes from rendered collagen over a long braise, not from the beer or the bread alone.
- Use a real bière de garde or bière brune, named and bought properly, not a generic lager. Beers of Europe and similar specialists stock Trois Monts and Jenlain; the malt depth these actually contribute is not optional flavouring, it is most of the sauce.
- Do not omit the pain d'épices and mustard step. It is the dish's actual thickener, not a garnish, and a carbonnade without it is a different, thinner dish.