He stands on the stove, tickles with delicious aromas, winks and is tempted to eat another spoon, and more, and more ... A riddle? Not at all! This is just vegetable stew! The recipe for this dish is simple to the point of insanity, the expended efforts are justified handsomely. And praise is expressed, as a rule, with a crunch behind the ears of those who feast.
I suspect that initially this dish was invented by a very lazy person who was hungry, but he did not want to stand by the stove for a long time (options: by the fire, by the stove, by the hearth, etc.). Most likely, it was a Frenchman. He had vegetables, he tried to chop them, put everything together, flavored with vegetable oil, and after half an hour the dish that had survived centuries after that smoked fragrantly in his plate.
Yes, the name itself is “stew”, translated from French means “to stimulate appetite”. And this is an amazing dish, the varieties of which among different peoples of the world simply cannot be counted: fricassee, Zurich style stew, Bologna stew, Finn stew, Hungarian perkelt. By the way, everyone's favorite goulash and beef stroganoff is nothing but a variety of stew. The British call this dish stew, and the most popular is Irish stew.
This dish is very easy to prepare, and provides an infinite number of variations. What is stew in fact? This is a set of vegetables, meat, fish, mushrooms - any products - stewed together. Depending on the ingredients, the stew can be lean and fatty, with or without meat. The golden rule of stew: the more ingredients - the tastier and richer the dish will turn out. In your refrigerator were several potatoes, a couple of carrots, zucchini, and eggplant lying around? Is the cabbage head waiting in the wings? Not the first day a jar of beans is open? No problem! And worry about the fact that the products will remain unclaimed, is not worth it. The easiest way to cook stew is to put all the ingredients in a pan, add a little water, season with salt and pepper and leave to simmer under the lid until cooked (until the potatoes are soft). If desired, you can add tomato paste or juice to give flavor to the piquancy. This is the fastest and easiest option.
Another way is to fry the vegetables individually. Vegetables are sliced and fried separately, slightly salted, until half cooked. Then everything is combined in a pan, seasonings to taste, tomato paste are added - and after 20-30 minutes the vegetable stew is ready. The recipe, as you can see, is absolutely not complicated.
If you add garlic and greens of dill or parsley to an already prepared dish, you will get an excellent vegetable stew! The chicken recipe is no more complicated than a simple stew. The chicken is fried separately, and added to the pan to vegetables. The best option for stew is the brisket (fillet), which has a mild flavor and is easily digestible.
A wonderful lean option is vegetable stew with eggplant: the recipe is no different from ordinary stew, however, pieces of meaty eggplant melting in the tongue harmoniously complement the taste of the dish, making you forget about meat and fish. When preparing vegetable stew, the recipe leaves a huge space for a fantasy flight: do you want to add zucchini? Wonderful! Don't like carrots? Do not put it! Cunningly wink mushrooms from the shelf? Please - the stewpan will only be happy with them!
It is important: stew can be served as an independent dish or side dish. A wonderful combination will be a piece of meat (fried or baked) and a serving of lean stew - both easy and tasty. If you cook stew with meat or chicken - you get a wonderful self-sufficient dish. How you play with spices depends on how the dish turns out: spicy, Mexican spicy, or with a delicate vegetable taste. Depending on the presence of tomatoes or tomato paste, the stew will be slightly acidic or slightly sweet. When you cook vegetable stew - the recipe is not needed: the main thing is to feel with your heart. In a word, the magic wand is in your hands, and it depends only on you how you will please your loved ones.