Blanquette de porc (2)

The blanquette made with pork shoulder turned out to be really good. The pork itself was very tender and tasty. I didn't have to cook it longer than I usually cook veal for a blanquette.

I'm still getting used to taking photos with my mobile phone. They come out very sharp, but I'm not sure about the colors. My Samsung A25 5G camera has a setting for food pictures, but I think that setting produces over-saturated colors. So I use the standard setting and tweak the colors in Photoshop.

Using standard settings, the blanquette sauce looked pale and too white. Using the phone food pictures setting, the sauce looked way too yellow. I tried to find a balance using Photoshop. By the way we served the blanquette with the vegetables that cooked with the meat, with mushrooms that cooked in the cream sauce, and with a side dish of a mixture of red and white rice.

Here's the recipe for blanquette that I like. This is my translation of a recipe in French that I've been using for 30 or more years.

2 to 2½ lbs. veal for stew
1½ cups dry white wine
1 carrot
1 onion
an herb bouquet (thyme, bay leaf, parsley, leek, etc.)
½ lb. mushrooms
½ lb. pearl onions
4 oz. cream
1 egg yolk
1 lemon
2 oz. butter
2 Tbs. flour

Put the veal in a big pot with the carrot (peeled and cut into four pieces), the peeled onion, the herb bouquet, and some pepper and salt. Pour in the wine and then add enough cold water to cover the meat by about an inch. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam that forms, and then let the veal simmer for two hours on low heat. Remove the veal from the pot and put it on a towel or in a strainer to dry.

In another pot, make a roux with the butter and flour. Pour in two or three cups of the veal broth to make a smooth sauce. Put the veal, the mushrooms (washed and sliced), and the little onions into the sauce and let it simmer for 20 minutes or more, until everything is cooked.

In a small bowl, mix together the cream, the egg yolk, and the juice of a lemon. Pour this mixture into the sauce, but don't let it boil or the egg yolk will scramble. Just let it thicken slightly on very low heat.

Serve the veal, the onions, and the mushrooms in a bowl, with just a little sauce over all. Serve the rest of the sauce in a gravy boat or bowl. Accompany with steamed rice (or pasta or boiled potatoes).

I usually skip the egg yolk thickening and just put a squeeze of lemon juice in the sauce at the end, along with the cream, to perk it up. And if I can't get tiny onions (pearl onions are harder to find here in Saint-Aignan than they were in California), I just cut up a regular onion and add it to the sauce along with the mushrooms.

You can make the same dish with chicken, turkey, or even lamb.