Name: Veal Cubes Braised with Onions in the Style of the Bearn (Veau à la Béarnaise)
Yield: Serves 3 or 4
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives; Salt (optional); 1¼ to 1½ pounds large white onions (see Notes below); Freshly ground pepper; 4 anchovy fillets, rinsed and crushed to a puree; 1 tablespoon rendered ham, duck, or goose fat; 1¾ to 2 pounds boneless rump of veal, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes; 1½ ounces jambon de Bayonne, prosciutto, or Serrano ham, slivered (about ⅓ cup)

Preparation info

Serves
3 or 4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Cooking of South West France

By Paula Wolfert

Published 1987

About

The secret of this simple, tasty family dish is in the cutting of the onions: They must be halved lengthwise and then hand-diced. If they are chopped in any sort of machine, they will end up acrid and mushy. Diced by hand, they retain their body while slowly exuding their sweet moisture. It is this liquid that provides the cooking medium for the cubed lean veal.

The onions and ham slivers are first sweated in a small amount of fat on top of the stove; then the veal and crushed ancho