Flemish Foods For Lando Norris!
Unless you count Capri Suns, Lando Norris didn't give me all that much to work with
Welcome to Grand Prix Gastronomy! In 2024, this series is dedicated to cooking the favorite dishes of every driver on the grid.
The Foods That Lando Norris Loves
McLaren's Lando Norris may race under the British flag, but ask him about his favorite foods, and he'll reference his Belgian heritage by choosing Belgian chocolate and fries with mayonnaise.
Fries are one of the many foods that multiple drivers selected, so I got a little creative with Lando's answer. His mom has Flemish roots, so one could perhaps assume that he'd have eaten some traditional Flemish foods growing up. So, I did a little digging to see what Flemish cuisine entails, and there's one dish that really stands out: carbonnade. This is a beef stew made with beer, the kind of hearty, down-home food I could see Lando's mom throwing together and letting simmer on a busy day. It's a banger when served with fries, too.
While it'd definitely make sense to whip up this dish during the Belgian Grand Prix, I'm afraid that that slot has been taken by a different driver with Belgian roots! Instead, we'll be making carbonnade during the Austrian Grand Prix to celebrate his first-ever podium, which came
This Week's Recipes
I came across a lot of different carbonnade recipes. At its base, this is a beef stew that features Belgian beer and lots of onions, but I saw a lot of different interpretations that included different combinations of veggies, starches herbs, and other flavors — but because I knew I wanted to serve my carbonnade with frites, I knew I didn't really need to include a hearty mix of potatoes and carrots in the stew. I also wanted to keep it fairly simple and down-home — so that meant no hard-to-find spices or tomato paste. I turned to Diversivore for a recipe that contained the core of all the other recipes I came across, while also featuring cooking instructions for the stove top, pressure cooker, and slow cooker!
You can use any french fry recipe you like, but I've included a link to my favorite take on pommes frites, which are deliciously thick.
Core Recipes:
Cooking Carbonnade
For most Grand Prix Gastronomy recipes, I try to avoid using any specialist equipment that the average person wouldn't have at home, but for my carbonnade, I did use one piece of special equipment: A mandolin! This enabled me to get really super-thin slices of onion — but if you don't have one, make sure that your knife is nice and sharp for really precise cuts.
Anyway, this recipe is super easy to assemble, in the same way any stew should be pretty chill. You'll start by coating your stew beef in flour, salt, and pepper, then sear it off in batches in a nice big pan. You want that browning to add in lots of delicious flavor.
When you've done that, add in some finely chopped bacon slices and let that render slowly over a low heat; it might take a little while, but it's worth the wait! When the fat is rendered and the bacon meat is crisp, remove the meat and then add your onions to the pan. Again, this will be a slow process, since you want those onions to caramelize on a nice low heat. My only big deviation from the recipe comes with the garlic; I added mine just at the end of the onion caramelization rather than at the beginning, since I didn't want the garlic to burn.
Onions and garlic cooked up, you'll add in your beer and let that simmer until it's reduced, then fill up your cooking pot with the beef, beef stock, brown sugar, vinegar, thyme, parsley, and your bay leaf. If you're cooking it on the stove like me, bring it to a boil, then drop the temperature to a simmer. The longer this dish sits on the stove, the better. It's basically done whenever you're happy with the texture!
For the fries, wash, peel, and cut up your potatoes, then leave your uncooked fry slices in a cold bowl of water for a few hours. Drain the water before cooking and then pat the fries dry. You'll want to fry them in 325°F until they're cooked through, then when you've finished cooking all the fries for the first time, crank the heat to 375°F and fry again until the fries are nice and crisp. Salt them immediately when they're out of the fryer, and serve in a big heaping pile alongside a hearty bowl of your carbonnade.
The Wine List
Conventional wisdom would suggest that you should pair your hearty beef stews with a red wine, but I don't abide by conventional wisdom. I wanted to try a white wine with this dish — and a big, rich Chardonnay was an incredible choice.
An oaked Chardonnay from California is a damn powerful wine. It's got a lot of robust flavor that can actually stand up to the richness of the beef — and Chardonnay also tastes great with caramelized onions, which compose the base of carbonnade.
As I'll mention below, I also used a fruited beer in my carbonnade, which afforded some citrus-y, tropical flavors that paired really well with Chardonnay. Let this be your sign to try something a little different and a little unique the next time you want to pair a wine with dinner! There are honestly no wrong answers, and if you're willing to experiment, it'll pay off for you. (And, if the wine doesn't pair particularly well with the dish, then great news: You can always eat your food first, then sip your wine separately!)
Lando also loves his Capri Suns, so… I guess you can have those, too.
So, What's The Verdict?
Of all the dishes I lined up for 2024's edition of Grand Prix Gastronomy, I think this one is the biggest stretch. Lando Norris really didn't give me a whole lot to work with, and I can't even express to you how desperately I didn't want to want to make pizza, fries, and Capri Sun. I mainly pulled a popular Flemish dish and assumed his family would have made it — so I'm not totally sure if I should thank Mr. Norris, since I'm not totally sure he's even eaten this.
Nevertheless: carbonnade rips, and I'm absolutely taking cues from this dish to add to my own ever-evolving stew recipe.
I love a good beer-infused beef stew, but this version was especially fun thanks to the beer I chose. I wanted to stick with a Belgian Tripel, but the only option available in my grocery store was a fruited Tripel; it actually turned out to offer a really fun, delicious flavor. You probably don't want, say, strawberry fruit flavors, but the citrus and pomegranate flavors in the beer I chose worked so well with the rich stew that I really hope y’all take this as your sign to try something especially fun and tasty.
Plus, the pairing of stew and fries is S-tier cuisine. When I was putting together this dish, my husband asked where all the potatoes were; in his mind, stew should either include cubed potatoes in the stew itself, or it should be served with mashed potatoes. Either option is great, but I really wanted my side to be Belgian frites — and it was a winner. Cut your fries nice and thick for this recipe, and don't be afraid to dip ‘em in your stew. It's an absolute winner.
Ready… Set… COOK!
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