(not veal) pork marengo {ffwd}
It makes me sad to say it, but with this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie, we begin the countdown of the final 10 recipes in the book. I won’t get overly reflective yet, but it is hard to believe the end of this journey is in sight.
This week, spring’s been in the air. There are still huge mounds of melting filthy snow, but the air is different. I think I can smell the lovely scent of dirt. In the transition from winter into spring, a bowl of stew can still be satisfying if it’s not too heavy or light. Veal Marengo fits that bill.
Marengo is an old French classic, created by Napoleon’s chef to celebrate victory in the Battle of Marengo. It might be classic, but I’d never had it before. I made some adjustments to it to suit our tastes, but I think it probably tastes close to the original.
We seldom eat veal, so first thing, I swapped out the veal, using chunks of pork tenderloin instead. I also thought the recipe was stingy on the vegetables. Come on, 12 pearl onions, 8 mushrooms, and 8 potatoes for a dish that serves four? I added about a pound of onions, a pound of mushrooms, and over a pound of fingerling potatoes.
To start, the meat is tossed in seasoned flour and browned in oil. Then, onions are sautéed then simmered briefly with diced tomatoes, tomato paste, white wine, and a bouquet garni. The meat is added back and cooked in a low oven until the meat is tender.
In the meantime, the onions are glazed in butter, the mushrooms are sautéed, and the potatoes are boiled, then glazed in butter. Finally the onions and mushrooms go into the skillet for the flavors to meld for a few minutes.
The Marengo is served with potatoes on the side (or in our case, around), sprinkled heavily with parsley.
We both enjoyed this meal. Howard said it reminded him of something else I’d made, but couldn’t remember what. Maybe he was thinking of the osso buco, which was tomato-based, though had different seasonings and vegetables?
To see how the other Doristas interpreted this recipe, check out their recipes here. You can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. If you haven’t bought the book yet after all this time, what are you waiting for?
Posted on 13 March 2015, in French Fridays with Dorie and tagged French Fridays with Dorie, pork, stew. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
A Plateful of Happiness 
This was good, and oh my – you did the vegs good – by the pounds!
Good to know this works with pork too! And Final 10? I can’t even start to think about how sad I will be…
Dear Betsy, though I came across your blog through the Cottage Cooking Club, I was actually a bit sad seeing your intro now being down to the final ten recipes, I’ve really enjoyed yours, and some of the others adventures along the journey. I look forward to seeing what transpires next with the group. Meanwhile, your dish looks good, including increasing the amount of vegetables, and substituting with the pork tenderloin.
Looks great, Betsy! I also did pork. :) Glad to hear that spring is on its way out there. I think that’s one thing I really miss about living on the East Coast: the smell of the changing seasons, particularly around the equinoxes (spring and fall). Here, those cues are incredibly subtle, but there…oh man, is it evocative. Enjoy Florida!
Lucky you to be out of the muck in MA… we have dirt roads closed in our town because they are saturated. I think I do agree with Howard it does have a similar flavor to mostly likely the osso bucco. Enjoy your time with dad.
We’re hitting Florida next week – I am SO over winter :-) Enjoy your visit.
Agree with you on the stingy vegetables – I doubled the baby onions and mushrooms.
Glad you enjoyed.
Enjoy every minute of warm sunshine and bring some home with you. Your recipe looks great. Can’t believe we are down to the wire on this wonderful experience.
I cut the meat in half and more than doubled up on the veggies. Shh, don’t tell my husband:-)
Hope you are enjoying a little sun down in Florida. March was always my most hated month of the year when I lived in Vermont. It’s called “mud season” and it was always the month when anyone who could would flee for a quick warm up in southern climes.
I definitely wanted more onions and mushrooms! Great executive decision! Enjoy your getaway, Betsy!!!
I agree that this was delicious – I could eat a stew like this all year round.
The big question is whether you felt you had enough sauce. I suspect you increased your ingredients when you doubled down on veggies but my stew was totally lacking in sauce. Maybe it was that I cooked my beef marengo longer and, despite the parchment paper, lost sauce to evaporation. I will make this again but will tweak the recipe. Diane’s slow cooker looks very inviting. There were too many steps to this stew, perhaps. I hope, hope, hope you are enjoying your warm weather and your families and come home to a touch of spring in the North.
I think it’s a great idea to increase the vegetables for this recipe, especially if you’re going to go to the trouble to butter-glaze them. I suspect I might throw them in with the stew to begin with next time and serve them with Dorie’s butter-glazed carrots.
Hope you’re having a wonderful, warm vacation!
I hope you are enjoying your time in Florida. Since I joined so late I am sad about the final 10 but at least I still have the book.
Looks wonderfully delicious, Betsy! This one was a hit in my house, too! Although, I cooked the onions and mushrooms (I used 12 oz.) in the pot with the meat! There were too many fussy things going on with this one…way too many pots! That said…we loved it!
Hope you are enjoying Florida!! It must be nice to get away from all that snow!
Pork was a good idea for a substitution. I did not add more mushrooms because they aren’t a favorite of my husband’s (though I love them!), but I did think the amount of veggies was stingy too.
I used over a pound of potatoes too. 8 small potatoes seemed silly! I’m glad you enjoyed this one.