Old kind vegetable stew: recipe 'Eternal classic'

It stands on the stove, tickles with appetizing aromas, winks and tempts to eat another spoon, and more, and more ... Riddle? By no means! It's just a vegetable stew! The recipe for this dish is simple to the point of insanity, the spent efforts are justified hundredfold. A praise is expressed, as a rule, a crunch behind the ears of feasting.

I suspect that initially this dish was invented by a very lazy person who was hungry, but he did not want to stand at the stove for a long time (options: near a fire, near a stove, near a fire, etc.). Most likely, it was a Frenchman. He had vegetables, he tried to grind them, put them all together, buttered them with vegetable oil and after half an hour the dish, which after that moment had survived the centuries, smoked aromatically in his plate.

Yes, actually the name itself - "ragout", translated from French means "to arouse appetite". So this is an amazing dish, the varieties of which in different nations of the world simply can not be counted: fricassee, Zurich stew, Bolognese stew, Finnish stag, Hungarian perkelt. By the way, all your favorite goulash and beef stroganoff are nothing but varieties of ragout. The British call this dish, and the most popular there is the Irish stew.

This dish is very easy to prepare, and provides an endless variety of variations. What is stew essentially? This is a set of vegetables, meat, fish, mushrooms - any products - braised together. Depending on the ingredients, the stew can be lean and greasy, with or without meat. The golden rule of stew: the more ingredients - the more delicious and rich the dish will turn out. In your refrigerator, a few potatoes, a couple of carrots, zucchini, eggplants? Waiting for his time the head of cabbage? Is not the first day a jar of beans is open? No problem! And worry about the fact that the products will remain unclaimed, it's not worth it. The easiest way to cook a stew is to add all the ingredients to the pan, add a little water, salt and pepper and leave to stew under the lid until ready (until the potatoes become soft). If desired, you can add a tomato paste or juice to give the taste a piquancy. This is the most lean and simple option.

Another way is to fry vegetables separately. Vegetables are cut and fried separately, slightly salted, until half cooked. Then everything is combined in a saucepan, flavorings are added to taste, tomato paste - and in 20-30 minutes 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 the already prepared dish, you will get a generally excellent vegetable stew! The recipe with chicken is no more complicated than a simple stew. The chicken is fried separately, and is added to the pan to the vegetables. The best option for a stew is a brisket (fillet), which has a mild taste and is easily digestible.

A wonderful lean variant is a vegetable stew with eggplants: the recipe is no different from the usual stew, however the pieces of fleshy eggplant melting in the tongue harmoniously complement the taste of the dish, forcing to forget about meat and fish. When preparing a vegetable stew, the recipe leaves a huge space for a flight of fantasy: you want to add zucchini? Great! Do not like carrots? Do not put it down! Cunningly winking from the shelf mushrooms? Please - they will only be happy with the stew-pan!

It is also important: stew can be served as an independent dish or garnish. A wonderful combination will be a piece of meat (roast or baked) and a portion of lean ragout - and easy, and delicious. If you cook ragout with meat or chicken - you will get a wonderful self-sufficient dish. From how you play with the spices, it depends on how the dish turns out: spicy, Mexican-sharp, or with a thin vegetable taste. Depending on the availability of tomatoes or tomato paste, the stew will be slightly acidic or slightly sweet. When you cook a vegetable stew - the recipe is not needed: the main thing is to feel the heart. In a word, a magic wand - you have in your hands, and only on you depends, than you will please your loved ones.