Carbonade Cantabrigian: A Cambridge twist on a Belgian Classic

At 4pm, the skies opened. All I could think was: "Thank god, that means I can cook again without making the house 100 degrees." The only question was what will I cook.

While we only spent a few hours in Brussels three things stood out: the beauty of the Grand Place, the Royal Palace and Carbonade Flamande. We ate Carbonades, awesome steak tips stewed in Belgian brown ale at a cafe on the Grand Place with fries and Charles V brown ale.

So, as I was excited to finally cook again - I created the Cambridge, MA twist on it. I took the stewed tips, floured them and then seared them before serving them with beer gravy. My roommate-for-a-month, Andrew, and I both loved it.

Carbonade Cantabridgian

Ingredients

1.75 lbs Top Round
2 small yellow onions
2 cloves shallot
1 22-oz Belgian brown ale. (I used Cambridge MA's own Pretty Little Things St. Botolph's Town)
1 12-oz Witte or Weiss (I "made mine a Smutty" with Portsmouth's Smuttynose Summer Weizen)
1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp Tumeric
1 tbsps Oregano
2 tbsps Worcestershire Sauce
Flour
3 tbsp taragon
Margarine
Salt
Pepper


1. put cubed beef in a crock pot set on low
2. atop the beef put diced onions, diced shallot paprika, tumeric, oregano, Worcester sauce, salt & pepper
3. Pour in entire bottle of brown ale
4. stew for 2 hours

5. in a bowl mix 1/4 cup of flour and taragon
6. with a slotted spoon pull out steak tips and toss in flour and targon
7. sear tips in a pan over medium-high heat on lite oil
8. put seared tips aside

Weiss Gravy
9. in pan that you seared tips, put in margarine and flour to start gravy
10. slowly stir in half of bottle of weiss beer over medium heat
11. drink other half of the beer
12. continue stirring until hot

I serve the Carbonades topped with Weiss Gravy next to roasted potatoes and sauteed leaks.