Fricandó: the Recipe from Cándido's Book (Catalan Veal Stew with Mushrooms)

A key book in my mother's kitchen is "La Cocina Española" by Cándido, Mesonero Mayor de Castilla. For as long as I can remember I've seen it open in my mother's kitchen, the last time this weekend.

My mother cooked us a classic Catalan recipe from Cándido's book: veal fricandó. It's in the section of the book called HOMAGE OF THE MASTER CHEFS, and it's an original recipe by A. Juliá, from the "Reno" restaurant in Barcelona.

• Ingredients (serves 6)
• 1 kg stewing veal
• 100 g moixernons (St George's mushrooms)
• 1 onion
• 1/2 kg tomatoes (or crushed tomato)
• 6 almonds
• 2 garlic cloves
• saffron
• chopped parsley
• oil

Method

Prepare the veal, cut into thin slices about 10 cm long, dredge in flour and half-fry in oil. Make a sofrito of onion and chopped tomato, combine the sofrito and the veal and cover with stock, adding a bunch of aromatic herbs.

In a mortar, pound the almonds, garlic, saffron, chopped parsley and a few drops of oil into a paste, and add this picada to the veal. Sauté the well-cleaned moixernon mushrooms in oil and add them to the fricandó too. Cook everything slowly until the veal is tender.

Serve with mashed potatoes.

A 10, truly incredible. It makes the difference between a good stew, which you'd give a 7 or an 8, and a top-honours one: it couldn't be any better.

🌐 Llegeix aquesta recepta en català