Fennel Veal Stew
Ingredients
- 1 big shallot sliced
- 3 cloves garlic sliced
- 2 bulbs fennel sliced include the fronds, if you have them!
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 1 carrot diced
- 1 parsnip diced
- 24 oz cubed veal for stew
- 4 cups beef stock enough to cover
- juice and zest of 2 mandarin oranges
- 1-2 tablespoons Herbs de Provence
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a medium, Dutch or French oven saute the vegetables in butter until the vegetables begin to soften.
- Toss meat with flour. Add meat to the vegetables. Stir until the meat is lightly browned. Add the stock to just cover the mixture. Add the zest
- Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered, 45 minutes or until the meat is tender, stirring occasionally.
- Serve immediately, with an optional sprinkle of more zest!
I don’t eat a lot of veal and I admit sometimes I feel a little conflicted about it even though I am a meat eater but Lidl had veal stew meat as a special and I went for it. I always feel like I have to try and get the more unusual specials at Lidl (and Aldi) so they keep selling them! Largely it’s been lamb but recently they’ve had the veal stew meat and cutlets. The prices are great and our regular supermarkets seem to have less and less variety over the years.
Lidl also sells fennel which is also often difficult to find. I love fennel in stews so it seemed like the obvious choice. Fennel and orange are so so good together so I tossed it all in, along with some root veggies and ended up with this really satisfying, aromatic stew. Now that I’m writing this up, I’m blanking on what we had with it–bread? Corn muffins? I can’t recall. But it didn’t need much to feel like a full meal.
My favorite part of stew is the vegetables so I like to keep my vegetable to meat ratio very high–feel free to tweak it a little bit if this isn’t you.
