France and the Alps · Volume 14, The Duck and the Border
Axoa
French Basque Country
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 1 hour 30
- Researched
- 20 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
The Basque word means chopped or hashed; the veal is traditionally knife-cut rather than minced, to preserve texture.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, household method varies.
Ingredients
- 600 g veal, knife-cut into small pieces
- 2 large onions
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tomatoes, peeled and crushed
- 2 to 3, mixed red and sweet green peppers, thin strips
- 2 to 4 tsp total Espelette pepper, ½ to 1 tsp per diner, added near the end
Method
- Sweat the large onions and garlic, add the red and sweet green peppers and tomato.
- Add the veal, cook covered; timing genuinely varies by household, from a quick smothered 15 to 20 minutes to a slower, softer 1.5 hours.
- Add the Espelette pepper at or near the end, per Rung 6.
What a modern chef changes
The veal's texture protected by treating it more like a quick sear than a stew.
Rung 6
Method
- Sear the knife-cut veal briefly and hot before it joins the pepper base, rather than letting it cook entirely inside the sauce from raw, for a more distinct texture against the soft peppers.
- Hold the finished pepper base warm separately and combine only at the very end, a short final simmer of a few minutes rather than the traditional longer joint cook.
- Finish with Espelette pepper in two stages, a small amount early for base seasoning and the rest right at serving, a considered departure from the single late addition tradition specifies.