veal

I had some veal shoulder sitting in the fridge since this weekend and I really had my heart set on making a Blanquette de Veau. It's a french veal stew with a white sauce made of eggs, cream, and stock. it's always served with white rice, usually with button mushrooms and onions and without colorful garnishes, making it an uniquely mono-chromatic dish. Unfortunately I didn't have any cream and with the roads covered with 1/2" of ice, I had to go to plan B, which was whatever I had in the pantry and fridge. The result was a veal stew with carrots, parsnips, shiitake mushrooms, small potatoes and onions. For the braising liquid I simply used water. To get flavor into it, I really browned the veal chunks, caramelized the onions, used dried shiitakes, and used a little flour to thicken it all up. The result was a a really delicious brown gravy/sauce. After a couple hours of cooking the meat, I added the fresh veggies - only cooking them 25 minutes, so they wouldn't fall apart. Another very brown dish, but trust me it was fantastic.