This is a white coloured stew made from béchamel sauce. It’s so colourful with the chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions and green peas in it. This stew is also called ‘Cream Stew’ although no cream is added to the sauce and it is not as heavy as it might look.
Add oil to a large pot over medium low heat. Add chicken, salt and pepper and sauté for about 1 minute until surface of the chicken pieces are cooked.
Add onions and carrots. Sauté further 1 minute, then add potatoes.
Stir quickly to mix potatoes with other ingredients, then add stock to the pot. Add bay leaves and bring it to a boil over high heat.
Turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 10 minutes (note 4) until carrots and potatoes are cooked through.
Pour the béchamel sauce into the pot and mix gently. Add peas and mix.
When the stew starts boiling, turn off the heat. Serve while hot.
Melt butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Add flour and constantly stir with a wooden spatula so as not to burn.
Remove the saucepan onto a wet towel to reduce the heat of the pan quickly.
As it starts thickening, add another ¼ of the milk and mix. You may want to use egg beater if you see lumps of flour at this point.
Add ¼ of the milk again and mix ensuring there are no lumps. Add the rest of the milk, salt and nutmeg and mix well.
1. My carrot was not very thick so I cut it into discs. If your carrot is fat, cut it in half or quarter vertically, then chop.
2. My potatoes were medium size potatoes. I cut them into quarters lengthways, then cut each quarter into three perpendicular to the first cut. This made 12 large bite size pieces from each potato.
3. You can use fresh peas if you like. Fresh peas need to be precooked so that you can add them at the end. Quickly cool down the peas after boiling to retain the bright green colour. If you cook them together with other vegetables, the bright green colour will be lost.
Alternatively, you can use broccoli florets or chopped green beans. They should also be pre-cooked.
4. Time taken to cook varies depending on the size of the vegetables.