A CATALAN CHRISTMAS FEAST

 

A Catalan Christmas feast--soup followed by platters of several kinds of meat and sausage, vegetables and chickpeas.

Escudella--rich broth with giant pasta shells.

Fiesta means “feast,” the opposite of “fasting.” And Christmas is the grandest feast of the year, when families might regale themselves with sumptuous meals with meat. In Catalonia, the family Christmas Day feast is usually escudella I carn d’olla.

Escudella is a rich broth with the concentrated flavors of several kinds of meat. Embellished with giant pasta shells, the soup is served as the first course. The boiled meats, along with chickpeas and vegetables are served as the second course. It is, of course, the Catalan rendition of Spain’s national cocido, or boiled dinner. 

This year’s pandemic restrictions limit family gatherings to 10 people, rather than a customary 20 or more! The escudella, cooked in an enormous stockpot, is the perfect meal for the occasion.  Once all the ingredients have been gathered, the pot needs minimal tending.

About the ingredients:

Beef shank and ribs and stewing hen for the soup pot.

The beef, stewing hen and porky bits give the soup substance and extraordinary depth of flavor. The beef shank needs long, slow cooking to become tender. Allow 2 to 2 ½ hours. Once having contributed its essence to the broth, the boiled beef is pretty tasteless! The ham and pork bones and aromatic vegetables—celery, leek and turnip---add flavor. Discard the bones after cooking.

Chickpeas, put to soak the night before, need two or more hours to cook. Cooking them in a net bag or wrapped in cheesecloth makes it easy to remove them from the pot. Put the chickpeas in the pot once the water is hot. If you’re using gallina, stewing hen or boiling fowl, it can cook the full 2 ½ hours. If you’re using ordinary chicken, don’t put it in the pot until meat and chickpeas are partially cooked, after 1 hour. 

Beef bone, espinazo and ham; ear and trotter behind.

The pig’s trotter and ear add consistency and flavor to the soup, but can be omitted, if preferred. If using, after cooking, cut the cooked ear into pieces to serve. Remove bones from the trotter and cut into pieces. (I ended up leaving the trotter out, as my soup pot wasn’t big enough for all the ingredients.) Pig’s ear has a cartilage “stiffener,” with a layer of skin/meat around it. The cartilage is edible, but crunchy. 

Chickpeas and vegetables for the pot.

Use large carrots and potatoes, so they don’t disintegrate with long cooking. Cut them into halves or quarters before serving.  Like the chickpeas, the cabbage and carrots can be put into cheesecloth parcels or net bags to facilitate lifting them out of the stockpot.

Butifarra, white and black, are Catalan cooked sausages. Add them to the pot towards the end of the total cooking time. (French boudin blanc or any blood sausage can be substituted for the Catalan versions.) 

The Catalan cocido, in all its glory, includes pilotas, football-shaped meatballs. Mix them while the soup is cooking and add to the pot about 20 minutes before it’s done. Serve the meatballs on the platter with the other meats.

Galets, pasta shells.

Once everything is cooked—about two and a half hours—you’re going to strain some of the broth into another pot and cook pasta in it. For ordinary Sunday escudella, fideo soup noodles or rice might be cooked in the broth. But for Christmas, galets, jumbo pasta shells, are traditional. Sometimes they are stuffed with the meatball mixture, then poached, or, for a very fancy alternative, foie gras. (I’m going to use what’s left of the package to make a gratin of pasta shells stuffed with spinach and mushrooms.)

Day after--serve the soup and pasta with bits of leftover meat, chicken and vegetables.

Traditionally, leftovers from the great pot are used to make canelones (cannellonis) for Boxing Day (St. Esteve, San Esteban, Dec. 26). That recipe is here..I simply served bowls of that fragrant broth with everything—chickpeas, meat and vegetables. I served the boiled beef another day with a sharp salsa verde of parsley, garlic, capers, olive oil and a splash of vinegar. 

Catalan Holiday Soup with Meats and Vegetables

Escudella i Carn d’Olla

You’ll need your largest stock pot (minimum 6 quart-capacity, preferably much larger) plus a smaller soup pot in which to cook the broth with pasta. Have ready a strainer. Ladle the soup into a tureen to serve at the table.  Place all the meats and sausages on one platter; the vegetables and chickpeas on a second platter.  

Serves 6.

Day before cooking the soup

1 ½ cups (10 ounces) dry chickpeas

For the soup pot

3 ounces ham bone

2 ounces salted espinazo (spine bone)

1 pig’s foot, split (optional)

1 pig’s ear (optional)

¼ stewing hen or chicken (preferably leg), about 20 ounces

20 ounces boneless beef shank or shin

8 ounces boneless beef rib 

12-20 cups water (3-5 quarts)

1 tablespoon salt

1 stalk celery

1 white turnip, split

1 leek

3 large carrots 

2 large potatoes (18-20 ounces)

¼ medium cabbage (16 ounces)

6-8 ounces white butifarra sausage

6-8 ounces black butifarra sausage

Ground veal and pork, pork fat for meatballs. 

For the pilotas (meatballs)

1 slice stale bread, crusts removed

Milk

1 egg, beaten

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Grating of nutmeg

6 ounces ground pork

6 ounces ground veal

1 ounce chopped fresh pork fat (belly or fatback)

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

2 tablespoons pine nuts

Flour, for dusting meatballs

To finish the soup

3-5 galets (jumbo shell pasta) per person 

Olive oil

Chopped parsley to garnish

1. Day before. Place the chickpeas in a bowl and cover them with warm water. Allow the chickpeas to soak at least 8 hours. Before cooking, drain the chickpeas. If available, place them in a cloth bag so they’re easy to remove from the pot. (Leave a handful of chickpeas loose to make it possible to fish them out to test for doneness.) Set the chickpeas aside until the water in the soup pot is hot.

2. Blanch the salted pork bone and ham bone in boiling water, 2 minutes. Drain and leave them to soak in cold water while preparing the other ingredients.

3. Wash the pig’s ear and trotter, if using, under running water. Parboil them in salted water to cover with 2 tablespoons of vinegar for 5 minutes.  Drain and reserve them.

4. Place the blanched and drained pork bone, ham bone, ear and trotter in a large soup pot. Place the quarter-chicken, beef shank and rib meat on top. Add water so the pot is about ¾ full (at least 12 cups). Add salt. Put on high heat. Begin skimming off froth that rises to the surface.

5. Once the water is hot, add the drained chickpeas. Continue skimming the pot as it comes to a boil. Tuck the celery, turnip halves and leek in among the meats. 

Once the pot is boiling and all the froth has been skimmed off, reduce the heat so the soup bubbles gently. Partially cover the pot. Cook for 1 hour, skimming occasionally.

6. While the soup is cooking, prepare the meatball mixture. Break the bread into small pieces and soak it in milk to cover until softened. Squeeze out and discard the milk. Add the beaten egg to the bread and mash it until fairly smooth. Stir in the salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the two kinds of ground meat and diced pork fat and mix well with a fork. Add the parsley and pine nuts. Shape the mixture into 6 football-shaped meatballs. Dust them lightly with flour.

Keep adding water to keep pot filled.

7. After the soup has cooked 1 hour, add the carrots and whole potatoes. (If using regular chicken, instead of stewing hen, add it at this time.) Add additional water, as needed, so the pot is nearly full. Bring to a boil and skim again. Cook 30 minutes.

8. Cut the cabbage in two wedges and cut away some of the core. Add cabbage to the pot. Prick the two kinds of butifarra sausages with a knife point and add to the pot. Cook 15 minutes.

9. Add the meatballs to the pot and cook 15 minutes. 

10. Use a skimmer or slotted spoon to remove meat, poultry, bones, trotter, chickpeas, vegetables, sausages and meatballs to platters. 

11.Strain 8-10 cups of the soup into a smaller pot. Taste for salt. Bring to a boil and cook the pasta shells according to package instructions (16-18 minutes).

12. Cut beef into chunks. Cut chicken off the bones and discard bones. Cut sausages into pieces. Discard ham and pork bones. Use scissors to cut pig’s ear into 6-8 pieces. Remove bones from trotter and cut the rest into pieces. Arrange all the meats on one platter and spoon a little of the broth over them. Cut the potatoes into quarters, the carrots in half. Place them on another platter with the drained chickpeas, cabbage, turnip and leek. Drizzle a little oil over the vegetables.

Serve the soup and pasta garnished with a sprinkling of parsley. Follow the soup with the platters of meats, vegetables and chickpeas.

Bon Nadal!! That’s Català-speak for Merry Christmas or Feliz Navidad in castellano Spanish. 

More recipes for regional Spanish cocidos:

Madrid Style Boiled Dinner.

Sephardic Meal-in-a-Pot, Toledo Style.

Everyday Soup Pot, Andalusian Style.

Canary Islands Vegetable Pot.