It begins. #cookstr #foodstr.
It begins. #cookstr #foodstr.
"Fricandó de vedella amb bolets", that is, veal "fricandó" with mushrooms. I keep the Catalan denomination instead of the gallicized "fricandeaux" because the Catalan dish has little to do with the French one, even the current Occitan one. Nevertheless, veal recipes are very uncommon in Catalonia, so it may well be the case that this came over from across the mountains in any of the successive Occitan migrations during the late Middle Ages and the end of Catalan sovereignty in the 18th century.
No matter what, this is a very ancient dish. It's found on all Catalan cookbooks since at least the 18th century in its current form, and the fact that it's one of those recipes lacking any type of American ingredient (tomato, potato, bell pepper...) also points at a pre-16th century origin.
Today I'm committing a transgression against the Nation then, because I'm using tomato for the base. I decided to do so only after realizing that I was overdoing the sweet section: onion, parsnip, turnip, leek, celery, garlic. Tomato helps to deglaze all those sugars and to raise a bit the acidity and the umami.
The bundle of herbs contains the usual local mix of bay leaf, thyme, rosemary.
I'm also using a mix of dehydrated mushrooms which I'm reviving for one hour in cold water. I'm too lazy to try to figure out the names in English, if they even exist. Those DO NOT go with the base, they come in at the end.
The key points for the base are:
1. to chop everything (never grate!) into dice as little as your knife skills allow you (not much in my case as you can see)
2. to use barely enough (extra virgin olive) oil to barely coat the pot
3. to keep the flame at the bare minimum your stove allows
4. to begin with the onion by itself until it is starting to "sweat out", then add all the other vegetables, and only add the tomato (half as much as you used onion, peeled and chopped)
5. Do not fry, sauté, make golden, or anything like that. If you're roasting the vegetables, there is too much oil and the heat is too high 
