Carbonade Flamande
Carbonade flamande, is a traditional Belgian, French Flemish, Northern Brabantian and Zeelandic Flemish sweet-sour beef and onion stew made with beer, and seasoned with thyme, bay leaves and mustard.
In Belgium the carbonade will be served with chips/fries/frites. In Northern France, it will be served with either braised chicory in butter or red cabbage.
Ingredients
- 500 g beef (chuck cut into 1 inch chunks)
- 3 onions, roughly diced
- 4 garlic cloves
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, parsley, thyme)
- 2 bottles of Belgian strong brown beer.
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or apple vinegar
- 30 g butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
This stew is best marinated first, add the beef chunks in a large bowl with one bottle of beer, the vinegar and the herbs ether tied into a bouquet garni, or by themselves. Add the Dijon mustard and mix it all well. Let the meat marinate overnight, or at least for 4 hours.
When you are ready to start the stew, remove the meat from the marinade and add the butter to your stew pot. Set the heat to medium and add the beef chunks, when they start releasing juices its time to start sprinkling flour to keep it as dry as possible. When all the chunks are sealed remove them from the pot and put them back in the marinade.
In the same pot add the onions and the table spoon of brown sugar, set the heat to low and with a lot of patience let the onions caramelize. This takes time, but it is very important. You will have to stir occasionally to keep the onions from burning. When your onions are caramelized add the garlic and stir for another three minutes.
Next add the marinade with the meat and the extra bottle of beer. You can keep the heat on low and come back to stir every 25 minutes, check that the consistency is to your liking as very slowly the broth will thicken as the water evaporates. This part should take at least 2 hours, but the more you wait the thicker the stew. The ideal consistency would allow you to dip a potato in it and have the broth stick to the food.
Serve with a beer to your liking, and potatoes or pickled red cabbage.
This stew will feed 2 hungry stew lovers.