Blanquette de porc
This one pot pork Blanquette is the perfect autumn dish to try. A one pot dish that is relatively easy to make with a 1h 30 minutes cooking time. This recipe is quite versatile you can easily use various meat cuts and get wonderful results. The meat used are in France for that dish are veal, pork or chicken.
Cooking the meat in a veloute sauce not only keep your meat tender and moist but also has the benefit getting a veloute sauce infused with tasty meat flavours. That rich and creamy veloute then become the perfect partner for potatoes or rice as a side dish.
Ingredients for a blanquette: for 4 people
- 800gr of pork filet ( you can use veal too)
- 150 grams of pancetta (optional)
- 20 cl of white wine
- 500 ml of veal or chicken stock or water
- 2 small cubes of vegetable stock cubes
- 2 or 3 small onions
- 4 cloves
- 2 garlic cloves
- 150 gr of heavy cream
- 1 or two carrots
- 100 grams of white button mushrooms
- Salt, ground fresh white pepper
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon of oil (I use peanut oil)
- 25 gr of butter
- The juice of half a lemon
- 2 table spoons of capers
Instructions:
- In a casserole or Dutch oven, heat the butter and oil,
- Stir in and lightly brown the pieces of meat.
- When they are of a light brown colour,
- Sprinkle 2 tablespoons flour over the meat for coating and leave to cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the white wine and water and stock (or water) until the liquid barely covered the meat pieces.
- Add the carrots cut in small pieces, the onions pricked with cloves, and the bouquet garni,
- Add 1 vegetable stock cube in the pot, salt and pepper.
- Cover and leave to Cook on low heat for 1h30
- When the meat is cooked, remove the pieces of meat,
- Add the mushrooms and lemon juice and reduce the sauce until it thicken to napping consistency
- You can also thicken the sauce further by using a bit of “Beurre manié*
- Add the heavy cream and leave to reduce for 5 minutes then the meat back in the pot.
- Finally add 2 tablespoons of capers and leave to simmer until the meat is warm enough to serve
- Serve the blanquette as is in the pot on the table or individually in plates. Ideal side dishes rice or Potatoes
- Drink with burgundy pinot red or dry white wine.
Note: If you like at the end you can also filter the sauce through a chinois to get a cleaner sauce which you can pour on the meats. (It looks tidier when serving on plates)
*Beurre manié: a mix of equal amount of raw flour and plain butter that acts as an instant thickening agent similar to corn flour.
Usually 10 grams of butter and 10 grams of flour mixed together is enough to thicken any sauces. When using “Beurre manié”, thrown in little piece at a time in the sauce, bring your sauce to the boil whisk well, and see how thick the sauce becomes. If it is not enough you can always add more.
