Veal fricandeau. Catalan recipe
Para 6 3 €/pers. 231 kcal/100g.
- 500g of beef topside steaks
- 3 ripe tomatoes
- 1 large onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 50 g of dried perretxicos (if we have fresh seasonal mushrooms, even better; 500 g would be needed)
- 1 bay leaf
- 150 ml of white wine
- 50 g of pine nuts
- 100 ml of extra virgin olive oil
- 6 g of salt (to each household's taste)
- Flour for coating the meat (can be corn starch or cornflour)
- 300 ml of water
- The original recipe uses seasonal mushrooms, depending on the time of year (but mainly in autumn and spring). You'll find everything from moixernons, perretxico, and Orduña mushrooms. Also, yellowfoot chanterelles (camagrocs), St. George's mushrooms (moixernons), and saffron milk caps (rovellons). The latter are perhaps one of my favorite autumn mushrooms. Saffron milk caps are harvested in autumn, generally from late September or early October, and the season can extend into December. You'll find plenty of recipes with saffron milk caps on the blog.
- Although in today's recipe we've prepared this stew with dried mushrooms, it's a way to make this dish year-round, regardless of mushroom season. We also enhance the stew's flavor with the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms. To do this, soak the dried mushrooms in water for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are completely softened. Set the mushrooms and the water aside.
- If it's the right season and we're lucky enough to have fresh perretxicos (stuffed mushrooms), this step won't be necessary. We'll just need to clean them thoroughly and set them aside.
- We asked our butcher to cut the piece of beef top round into steaks about 1 cm thick, ideal for stewing. Once home, we dredged each steak in flour and heated a generous amount of olive oil in a large pot that we would use for the stew.
- In that saucepan, brown the fillets on both sides. It's not necessary to fry them; the goal is to sear the meat well on all sides. Remove from the saucepan and set aside.
- In the same saucepan and with the same oil, sauté the diced onion and garlic. Keep it at a medium heat to soften the onion without burning it.
- Once the onion is ready, add the peeled and grated tomatoes. It's important that the tomatoes are good quality and ripe. Cook for 15 minutes over medium heat.
- While the stew is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for a few minutes. Be careful not to burn them, then set them aside.
- Once the sofrito is soft, add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the reserved beef fillets and the white wine.
- Let the alcohol evaporate for 2-3 minutes. Add the toasted pine nuts. Top up with the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms and a little more regular stock (you can substitute it with beef or vegetable broth), add the bay leaf, season with salt, and let it cook for 1 hour over medium-low heat until the sauce reduces.
- Marisol Vilá Casanova tells me that she never adds tomato, but the rest of the ingredients are the same as in your recipe (like her mother's); pine nuts, depending on how much money she has that week. She uses dried moixernons (a type of mushroom), rehydrated in warm water. When adding water to the stew, she uses the water from the moixernons, strained through a cloth sieve to make sure it's clear. The resulting aroma and forest flavor are fantastic.
- Like any good stew worth its salt, this fricandó will surely be even better the day after it is prepared.
- This is a perfect recipe to serve with fries or cooked potatoes or even with some white rice; with any of these options, it's a top-notch main course, a truly delicious recipe.
- We used beef steaks from the rump or sirloin end, and they come quite trimmed of sinew, but if we see any, we remove it. They usually have a little bit of fat, very little, which isn't bad for the recipe, but that's up to you.
- I recommend you try it sometime with Iberian pork shoulder or even with chicken breast, like the Belgians and French do; the result is just as fantastic. I don't think I need to tell you to make it; the photo speaks for itself. Let's get cooking, chefs!
This meat recipe is a classic in Catalan cuisine: the traditional beef fricandó, or fricandó with mushrooms. In my recent obsession with stews, this time I'm tackling one of the most popular recipes in Catalonia. A few years ago, I published a family-style fricandó on the blog, though it wasn't the traditional version. Today, I'm sharing the recipe from Alicia, a Catalan friend.
The word fricandó comes from the French "fricandeau" (a type of stew in French cuisine). It's a humble and popular Catalan dish, although it has French origins. In France, any type of meat is blanched, and it doesn't include mushrooms. In fact, the most famous version is usually chicken fricassee, not beef.
Fricandó is a beef stew cooked with mushrooms. It's primarily made with moixernó or perretxico (Calocybe gambosa), which you can find in Spain from mid- to late April until the end of May. Of course, you can use other types of mushrooms you like, such as fairy ring mushrooms (Marasmius oreades). These are also easy to find in spring, although they can appear in other seasons like summer and autumn as well.
Fricandó is a dish typically prepared in spring, although hearty meat stews and soups are best enjoyed in autumn, the ideal time of year to savor mushrooms like porcini or saffron milk caps. Dried mushrooms can also be used, allowing this stew to be prepared at any other time of year.
These types of dishes become popular again when temperatures drop. Here you can find more autumn recipes with legumes, mushrooms, pumpkin, and other seasonal produce.
Unlike other traditional dishes in our culture, fricandó is a recipe of urban origin, typical of people with higher purchasing power rather than peasants. The first time this dish appeared in a cookbook was in "Advice and Instructions for the Beginner Cook," around the beginning of the 18th century. From then on, it appeared in all Catalan cookbooks. As a good meat stew, it reaches its peak flavor a few days after it's prepared, so we can make it in advance, taking our time and enjoying the process.
Enjoy more recipes like this one in our collection of the best Catalan cuisine recipes.
Mushrooms. Before starting the fricandó
Preparing the base for the future veal fricandó
All that's left is to enjoy one of the most traditional recipes in Catalonia. Everyone, whether there or here, adds their own personal touch; there are dozens of different versions. I recommend you try this same preparation or even venture into making meatballs—they're fantastic.
Tips for a perfect fricandó
- Marisol Vilá Casanova tells me that "I never add tomato, but the rest of the ingredients are the same as your recipe (like my mother's); pine nuts, depending on how much money I have that week. I use dried moixernons (a type of mushroom), rehydrated in warm water. When adding water to the stew, I use the water from the moixernons, strained through a cloth sieve so it passes through clean. The resulting aroma and forest flavor is phenomenal."
