Culinary School Chronicles - Beef

Today we learned about dry heat and moist heat cooking methods.  Dry heat cooking refers to your basic broiling, grilling, baking, roasting and sauteéing.  Moist heat refers to boiling, simmering, poaching, steaming, braising and stewing.  

I am not a serious meat eater - I like it sometimes maybe once or twice a month - but I get confused as to what type of meat cut to use for the different types of cooking applications.  Mostly we eat grilled steak.  For years I thought eye of the round was supposed to be a nice oven roast but apparently not.  It is for stewing, which explains why I never got it quite right.  This Meat Chart gives a great explanation of the various cuts and their applications.  

Chefs demo today was a dish called Vegetable Macédoine.  Not really sure why it was called that but it is just a combination of diced turnip, rutabaga and carrot.  Turned out nice the way he did it, blanching the vegetables one after an other, adding 2 heads of roasted garlic and finishing them in a sauté pan with browned butter.  Quite a yummy snack combined with the beef he had come in early to stew for us.

Most of the focus today was on learning about Sauce Espagnole and making Carbonnade a la Flammande.  Chef said that it was a beef stew in the style of Holland but I am pretty sure he meant Flemish, which equals Belgium.  That added to the fact that the tenderizing liquid in the stew was a Leffe Brun (a Belgian dark beer), I am pretty sure this was the case.

This recipe makes the Espagnole Sauce in the stew pot, but if you would like a view at making it by itself for a gravy, check out my little experiment from back in February where I did veal stock from scratch, then turned it into Espagnole Sauce  and then into Demi Glace.

Carbonnade a la Flammande

10 oz top sirloin or flank steak, cut into large pieces
1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 litre beef or veal stock
1/2 bottle Belgian beer, such as Leffe Brun
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped for garnish
Flour for dusting meat
Salt and pepper

Season meat with salt and pepper and dust with flour, shaking off excess.  Heat a large sauté pan with about 1/8 inch of oil in it.  When hot, add meat and brown for about 2 minutes per side.

Remove meat from the pan ans set aside.  Remove any excess oil from the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon.

Add in onions, carrots and garlic and sautée.  After about 2 minutes, stir in tomato paste and continue to cook.

Add in the beef stock and a bouquet garni.  The bouquet garni is made by tying together a few sprigs of thyme, parsley and oregano.

Place in a preheated 375 degree oven and cook for about 1.5 hours until meat is soft and stock is reduced.

Remove any excess fat on the surface and the bouquet garni.  Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and garnish with chopped parsley.

Cook's Note:   One thing I did to this stew was to thicken it at the end by adding a Beurre Manié like I used to thicken the sauce for the poached fish I did a few weeks ago.  I really like the richness that finishing a sauce with a tablespoon of butter brings and the flour thickens the sauce just enough for my tastes.  I like a fairly loose gravy.....just perfect for pouring over potatoes.   Strain and freeze any left over Espagnole Sauce for a roast or other meat application.

Beurre Manié

1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Combine both ingredients using a wooden spoon until the butter absorbs the flour, resulting in a toothpaste like consistency.