Blanquette de Veau

Name: Blanquette de Veau
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: Veal shin; Unsalted butter; Cornflour; Dry white wine; Chicken stock; Carrot; Celery; Onion; Chestnut mushrooms; Half-fat creme fraiche; Egg yolk; Lemon juice; Flat-leaf parsley

Blanquette de Veau, plated as one serving.

672 kcal a serving, against 902 for the traditional version. That is 230 kcal off, or 25%, with 53.5g of protein. Serves 6. 2 hours 30 minutes.

What the traditional version is

Veal simmered slowly without colouring. The cooking liquor is turned into a thick sauce using a butter and flour roux, then finished with a heavy liaison of double cream and egg yolks for a velvety texture.

What changed, and what each change costs

100g of butter and 50g of plain flour down to 15g of butter and 20g of cornflour

The traditional roux adds massive amounts of fat and starch. Boiling the liquor down and using a little cornflour gives you a thick base for a fraction of the cost.

What it costs you. Cornflour leaves a slightly glassy finish compared to the matte velvet of a butter roux, but the dairy at the end hides the worst of it.

200g of double cream and 60g of egg yolk down to 100g of half-fat creme fraiche and 15g of egg yolk

This cuts the fat drastically. The creme fraiche brings a sharp lactic tang that cuts through the rich meat, and 1 yolk is enough to provide colour and bind the sauce.

What it costs you. You'll lose that heavy, mouth-coating weight that only double cream provides. The sauce is thinner, though it still coats the meat well enough.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Veal shin
Unsalted butter
Cornflour
Dry white wine
Chicken stock
Carrot
Celery
Onion
Chestnut mushrooms
Half-fat creme fraiche
Egg yolk
Lemon juice
Flat-leaf parsley

How it starts

Cut the veal shin into large chunks.
While the meat cooks, quarter the mushrooms.
When the veal is tender, strain the liquid into a wide pan.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish French.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	902	672
Protein	56.2g	53.5g
Fat	63.2g	40.1g
Saturated fat	30.4g	16.6g
Carbohydrate	21.1g	17.3g
Protein per 100 kcal	6.2g	8g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish French prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. celery, eggs, milk, sulphites.

The method is in the book

A heavy compromise, but a successful one. You're giving up the dense, fatty richness of the original cream sauce, but you keep the tender meat, the pale colour and the delicate flavour.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish French, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback