Cocido Madrileno

Photo: Adora's Box

Ingredients

1 pound Chick-peas presoaked in water for at least 10 hours

11 cups Water

pound Veal or beef

4 ounces Ham

5 ounces Bacon or salt pork in one thick slice

4 mediums Potatoes cut in two

4 ounces Pork sausage (one sausage)

small Cabbage head chopped coarsely

Stewing chicken optional

1 Marrow bone

3 Carrots

1 Leek

1 sprg Mint

1/3 cup Raw rice (or 1/2 cup fine noodles)

Salt to taste

3 tablespoons Olive oil

1 Garlic clove

Preparation

Bring 11 cups of water to boil in a large pot. When it boils, add the presoaked chick-peas, drained and tied in cheesecloth. Add veal, ham, bacon, chicken, marrow bone, carrots, leek, and mint. When soup boils again, skim it well and cook on low flame for 2 hours. Add potatoes and salt to taste. Cook approximately 1 hour longer.

In the meantime, prick the pork sausage with a needle so that it will not burst, and put it in a separate pot with the cabbage and water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer.

A half hour before serving, stir the pot containing the meat, ham, chicken, etc., and strain out 6 cups of broth. Heat it to boiling, put in the raw rice or noodles and cook until tender.

When the cabbage and pork sausage are cooked, drain well and fry in 3 tablespoons olive oil in which a garlic cloce has been previously browned and removed.

Serve the broth containing rice or noodles as a first course. For the second course, put the chick-peas, well drained, in the center of an oval serving dish with the potatoes at either end and the slices of carrot along the sides. Slice the meat, ham, bacon, and chicken and put it on top of the chick-peas. Serve the cabbage in a vegetable dish with the pork sausage chopped fine on top. On the side, serve a thick tomato sauce ("Tomato-Onion Sauce" or "Tomato-Garlic Sauce") or a parsley sauce ("Parsley Sauce"), the recipes for which are included in this data

While not indispensable, "Meat Dumpling - (Pelota)" is an agreeable addition to this dish. The 'pelota' recipe is also included in this database.

Comments: While the "Caldo Gallego" uses white beans, chick-peas are the foundation of the cocidos of central Spain. The "Cocido Madrileno" is a hearty dish, suited to the cold, dry winters of Madrid.