The Belgian Cookbook Part 6

BEEF a LA BOURGUIGNONNE

Braise three pounds of beef upon twenty little onions, ten mushrooms, and two gla.s.ses of red wine, salt, pepper, thyme and bay-leaf; cook for one and one-half hours with not too hot a fire. After that, place the beef on an oval dish; keep it hot; stir two tablespoonfuls of demi-glaze into the vegetables and let it boil up. Cut some slices of the beef, and strain the sauce over all.

OX-TONGUE a LA BOURGEOISE

Braise a tongue with two gla.s.ses of Madeira, one carrot, one onion, thyme, bay-leaf, for two hours. Take seven tomatoes cut in pieces, four carrots cut in two and three in four, about one-half inch long, ten smallish onions, and braise them all together; then add two large table-spoonfuls of demi-glaze, some salt and pepper. Serve all very hot on an oval dish.

Braised tongue eats very well with spinach, carrots or sorrel.

BEEF a LA MODE

Take the raw beef, either rump-steak or fillet, and brown it in the pan in some b.u.t.ter. Then add a little boiling water. Add then six or eight chopped shallots, the hearts of two celeries chopped, a few small and whole carrots, pepper, salt, two cloves. Before serving, bind the sauce with a little flour and pour all over the meat.

[_V. Verachtert_.]

BOEUF a LA FLAMANDE

For this national dish that part of the animal called the "spiering" is used, which is cut from near the neck. What is called fresh silverside in England answers very well. Cut the beef into slices about half-an-inch thick and divide the slices into four pieces. This you can do with a piece of four pounds. For a piece of four pounds, cook first of all four large fried onions in fat. Put the beef in the hot fat when the onions are colored, and saute it; that is, keep moving the meat about gently. Take the meat out and place it on a dish. Add to the fat two dessert-spoonsful of flour and let it cook gently for five minutes, adding a good pint of water. Pa.s.s the sauce through a tammy, over the onions, and put the meat back in it, and it ought to cover them. Then add a dessert-spoonful of good vinegar and a strong bunch of herbs. Stew for an hour, take off the fat and remove the bunch of herbs. Heat up again and serve.

CARETAKER'S BEEF

The real name of this dish is _Miroton de la Concierge_, and it is currently held that only _concierges_ can do it to perfection. Put a handful of minced onion to fry in b.u.t.ter; when it is nearly cooked, but not quite, add a dessert-spoonful of flour, and stir it till all is well colored. Pour on it a little gravy, or meat-juice of some kind, and let it simmer for ten minutes after it begins to steam again. Then take your beef, which must be cold, and cut in small slices; throw them in and let it all cook for a quarter of an hour, only simmering, and constantly stirring it, so that though it becomes considerably reduced it does not stick to the pan.

BLANKENBERG BEEF

This is a winter dish; it is most sustaining, and once made, it can be kept hot for hours without spoiling. Make a puree of lentils or peas, and season it with pepper and salt. Mince your beef with an equal quant.i.ty of peeled chestnuts, add chopped parsley, a dust of nutmeg or a few cloves. If you have any cheap red wine pour it over the mince till it is well moistened. If you have no red wine, use gravy. If you have no gravy, use milk. Let all heat up in the oven for ten minutes, then sprinkle in some currants or sultanas. Take the dish you wish to serve it in, put the stew in the middle, and place the puree round it. If the mince is moist it can be kept by the fire till required, or the dish can be covered with another one and placed in a carrying-can, taken out to skating or shooting parties.

VEAL WITH TOMATOES

Grill some slices of fat veal; cook some sliced tomatoes with b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt, on a flat dish in a pretty quick oven. Garnish the veal with the tomatoes laid on top of each slice, and pour _maitre-d'hotel_ b.u.t.ter over, made with b.u.t.ter, salt, chopped parsley, and lemon-juice.

FRICANDEAU OF VEAL

A fillet of veal, larded with fat bacon, of about three pounds. Braise it one and one-half hours on a moderate fire. Dish with its own gravy.

This eats well with spinach, endive, sorrel or carrots.

VEAL CUTLETS WITH MADEIRA SAUCE

are garnished with potatoes and mushrooms, and the sauce is made of demi-glaze and madeira, worked up with b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt and chopped parsley.

GRENADINS OF VEAL

Cut your veal into fairly thick cutlets, lard them with fat bacon, and braise them in the oven, with salt, pepper and b.u.t.ter. Dish up, and rinse the pot with a little stock, and pour it on the meat ready to serve.

CALF'S LIVER a LA BOURGEOISE

Take a calf's liver, lard it with fat bacon, braise it with the _bourgeoise_ garnish--carrots and turnips. After it is cooked and dished, stir some demi-glaze into the sauce, pour it on to the meat and garnish with potatoes _chateau_.

VEAL WITH MUSHROOMS, OR THE CALF IN PARADISE

Take some slices of loin of veal, fry them in b.u.t.ter, with pepper and salt, for twenty minutes. Take two spoonfuls of demi-glaze and heat it with some mushrooms and a little madeira. Put the mushrooms and sauce on each slice and sprinkle chopped parsley over all.

This can also be done with _fines herbes_, mushrooms, chervil and parsley, chopped before cooking them in the b.u.t.ter.

BLANQUETTE OF VEAL

Take your veal, which need not be from the fillet or the best cuts. Cut it into pieces about an inch long and add a little water when putting it into the pan; salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, and let it simmer for two hours. When tender, stir in the juice of half a lemon, and then bind the sauce with the yolk of an egg, or, in default of that, with a little flour. Serve immediately. You will find that when you wish to bind a sauce at the last minute, egg powder will serve very well.

[_V. Verachtert_.]