Fricasse is a traditional French dish, translated into Russian sounds like "all sorts of things." This dish is usually prepared from chicken, veal or rabbit, but modern cooks have slightly expanded the boundaries of the classics and currently use not only different types of meat, but even shrimp and fish. Boiled rice is usually served as a side dish to the dish. True foodies prefer to cook Fricassee with pigeon.
The recipe for cooking is quite simple: small pieces of white meat are fried in butter, sprinkled with flour, sprinkled with cream and stewed in the resulting broth.
The Legend of the Dish
A true legend has been written about fricassee, which says that during the reign of Napoleon, one cook did not know that the emperor did not like chicken meat, and prepared chicken fricassee for him. Because of this, Napoleon wanted to remove the cook from his post, but he nevertheless persuaded the royal lady to try aromatic food, after which he was pardoned. Moreover, the emperor even ordered to include the dish in his menu, so he liked it. According to legend, it was after the generosity of Napoleon fricasse began to enjoy great popularity on the tables, not only French but also European nobility.
Cooking technology
According to standard technology, meat for fricassee is washed and dried before cooking, then it is cut into small pieces, sprinkled with flour and fried over medium heat. At the final stage of cooking, spices, herbs, vegetables are added to the meat and pour all the cream.
In fact, fricassee is the usual white meat stew, which is cooked in a white sauce with cream. The only difference is that for fricassee the meat is not fried until golden brown, it should remain light. Some chefs claim that fricassee is not a dish at all. In their opinion, this is just a way of cooking, and it is not necessary to adhere to all the subtleties.
Below you can familiarize yourself with the most common ways to cook fricassee and, based on personal taste preferences, choose for yourself a more interesting option.
Chicken fricassee: a classic recipe
Ingredients:
- Chicken breast.
- Bulb.
- Cream - 100 ml.
- A pair of eggs.
- White wine - 100 ml.
- Chicken bouillon.
- Butter.
- Juice ½ lemon.
Stages of preparation:
- Cut the breast into pieces, sprinkle with flour and fry in butter on all sides.
- Fry chopped onions in another pan.
- Pour wine into a pan and boil it up to 50 ml. Then lay the chicken, add spices and broth, cook for 25 minutes.
- Beat the yolks with cream, pour into a pan with meat, add lemon juice and mix.
Rabbit stew
This fricassee is also considered a classic recipe that has real French roots. The food is tender and tasty, and besides this, also dietary.
Stages of preparation:
- Salt small pieces of rabbit meat, pepper, sprinkle with flour and fry in butter on all sides for fifteen minutes.
- Pour in meat broth and simmer until tender.
- Beat 2 egg yolks with 50 ml of sour cream, add the mixture to the meat and simmer for a couple of minutes, avoiding boiling.
- Sprinkle with chopped herbs before serving.
According to the same recipe, you can cook turkey fricassee.
Rapanese fricassee
A very interesting recipe for true gourmets.
Instruction:
- Grind any mushrooms and fry in olive oil with half rings of onions.
- Rapana cut into pieces and fry with chopped garlic and chili peppers (2-3 minutes).
- Put the onion mixture in the raps, add a bunch of spinach and mix.
- Pour the cream into the pan and keep it on fire for another 2 minutes.
Fricassee with mushrooms
According to this recipe, fricassee is prepared from pre-cooked chicken and without cream. The cooking process is very different from the classic, but the taste remains the same gentle and pleasant.
Ingredients:
- Chicken carcass.
- 100 g of champignons.
- 200 g asparagus.
- 1/2 packet butter.
- 2 tbsp flour.
- 0.5 cup chicken stock.
- 100 ml of white wine.
- Spice.
Cooking:
Boil chicken, remove from broth, remove skin and cut off legs. Cut the remaining meat into pieces.
Boil fresh asparagus in salted water and cut into pieces. When using canned or frozen asparagus, preliminary cooking is not necessary.
Rinse mushrooms and cut into 4 parts.
Warm the pan with ½ part of butter, add flour and pass, stirring constantly. Then pour in a thin stream of broth, after wine. Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce until thick, add spices.
In another skillet, stew the asparagus and mushrooms in the remaining oil.
Put chicken and mushrooms in the sauce, simmer for 5 minutes and serve.
Shrimp fricassee
Despite the fact that the classic version of cooking involves the use of chicken or rabbit meat as the main product, shrimp fricassee is currently gaining more and more popularity. It is prepared quickly and easily, and the taste is extraordinary.
Products that will be needed for cooking:
- Shrimp - 400 g.
- Onion (red) - 1 head.
- Two carrots.
- Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
- Mushrooms - 3 pcs.
- Garlic (a couple of cloves).
- Wheat flour - 1 tbsp.
- Half a glass of wine
- Cream - 100 ml.
Getting started:
Step 1. Boil the shrimp in boiling salted water, cool and clean.
Step 2. Carrot, peel and three on a coarse grater.
Step 3. Peel the onion, wash the pepper and free from seeds, cut into half rings.
Step 4. Pass the garlic through the press.
Step 5. Wash the mushrooms and cut into strips.
Step 6. Preheat the pan, add a spoonful of vegetable oil and fry the chopped vegetables over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Step 7. Add shrimp, flour, spices, wine and cream to the pan. Stew for about 5 minutes and serve.
Fish fricassee
This fricassee is especially tasty if you use white or red fish, but in principle, any variety will do.
Structure:
- Pike perch fillet - 300 g.
- Trout fillet - 300 g.
- Bulb.
- Champignons - 200 g.
- Cheese - 100 g.
- Cream - 1 cup.
How to cook?
The cooking steps are very similar to those indicated in the recipe for chicken fricassee:
- Cut the fish, sprinkle with spices, roll in flour and fry.
- Separately overcook mushrooms with onions.
- Put the fish in a mold, spread the mushrooms on top, sprinkle with grated cheese and pour cream.
- Next, cook in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for about fifteen minutes.