SAN ANTÓN AND THE MUTATION OF A STEW

 

(Photo by Mijas Comunicación)

How did a hermit-saint who consumed nothing but bread and water come to be associated with lusty stews replete with pig’s trotters, ears, tripe and belly? Such is the commemoration of the day of San Antón Abad (January 17). Many towns, including Madrid, mark the saint’s day with mass and festivities, often including giant stew pots of pork and garbanzo stew. 

San Antón was known as the protector of all animals, so, in many locales, the priest concludes the mass with blessings for household pets brought to the shrine by villagers. 

San Antón, whose torments by wild beasts have been depicted by artists from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dalí, is often shown accompanied by a pig. The pig in the picture derives from a legend that a wild sow approached the hermit in the desert with her blind boarlets. The saint cured their blindness and, henceforth, the sow accompanied him, fending off all threats. 

The stew, called Olla de San Antón in the Granada and Almería region, contains chickpeas and/or beans and/or dried fava beans, wheat berries, wild fennel, and pig’s ears, trotters, ribs, bacon, plus morcilla, blood sausage. 

  

Interestingly, a recipe for a similar stew, with chickpeas and wheat berries, appears in a 13th century cookbook written by an anonymous Moorish cook—made with beef instead of pig parts! That recipe has survived to the present day in the Sephardic Moroccan-Jewish recipe for oriza, a stew with chickpeas and wheat cooked with beef. 

No pig parts in this stew! It is a Sephardic recipe, similar to the San Antón stew, but with beef instead of pork, chickpeas and wheat kernels.

Wheat berries.

Wheat berries are the whole wheat kernels without husk. Soak them overnight before cooking. Even with slow cooking, they remain quite chewy. Whole-grain rice or pearl barley could be used instead of the wheat.

Wild fennel shoots.

In Granada, it is customary to pick the first tender green shoots of wild fennel to cook with this stew. As most city folk will not have that ingredient, use chopped cultivated fennel bulb. 

Pork and Wheat Stew with Fennel, Granada Style

Olla de San Antón, Estilo Granadino

Pork belly and blood sausage go into this stew with chickpeas, wheat berries and vegetables. The authentic version would also include pig trotters and ears! 

 

If wild fennel shoots are not available, use a bulb of cultivated fennel.

1 cup wheat berries

4 ounces pancetta or bacon

1 cup chopped wild fennel stems or fennel bulb

1 carrot, sliced

2 teaspoons salt

8 ounces morcilla de cebolla (blood sausage with onion)

2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas

2-3 potatoes, cut in pieces

1 thick slice bread

1 tablespoon vinegar

3 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

Fennel leaves for garnish

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the wheat berries and let them soak for 12 hours.

Drain the wheat and add to a soup pot with the pancetta, fennel, carrot and salt. Add 6 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, skim off froth that rises. Lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Add the morcilla, cooked chickpeas, and potatoes. Simmer 30 minutes more, skimming off excess fat occasionally.

Place the bread in a bowl and sprinkle it with the vinegar. Let it set until vinegar is absorbed. Place the bread in a mortar or blender with the garlic and pimentón. Ladle in enough of the liquid from the soup pot to soften the bread. Blend until smooth.

Stir the mixture from the blender into the soup and cook another 15 minutes. Remove the piece of pancetta and the morcilla from the soup. Use kitchen scissors to cut them into pieces. Return to the soup.

Allow the soup to settle for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped fennel leaves.

Boiled Beef with Wheat Berries

Olla de Trigo con Añojo (Oriza)

This Sephardic stew with beef often has sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes.

Smash cooked garlic on toasts.

Use stewing beef such as shin, brisket, chuck, cheeks, or breast for this recipe. Both the wheat berries and the chickpeas need to be soaked overnight before cooking.

A whole head of garlic cooked with the meat flavors the broth. After cooking, the softened cloves of garlic can be served spread on toasted bread with olive oil to accompany the stew. 

A net bag is useful for cooking the chickpeas, so they can easily be removed from the cookpot. Also, you can cook double the amount of chickpeas and save some for another use.

1 cup wheat berries (6 ounces)

1 ¼ cups dry chickpeas (8 ounces)

Hot water

1 pound boneless stewing beef

1 onion

3 cloves

2 carrots

1 sweet potato, cut into pieces

1 whole head of garlic

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

1 tablespoon salt

Fennel or mint sprigs to garnish

Day before cooking the boiled beef: Put the wheat berries in a small pan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook gently for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Put a lid on it and wrap the pan in a kitchen towel. Let the wheat soak 12 hours.

Place the chickpeas in a bowl. Add hot water to cover them by 3 inches. Allow the chickpeas to soak 12 hours. 

When ready to cook: Drain the chickpeas and the wheat. Cut the beef into three or four chunks. Place 10 cups of fresh water in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Stick the onion with the cloves and add to the pot with the peeled carrots. Slice the top off the head of garlic and add to the pot. When the water begins to bubble, add the pieces of beef, the wheat berries and the chickpeas. As the water comes to a boil, skim off the skum that rises to the top. Add the bay leaf, peppercorns, pimentón, and salt. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer, cover the pot, and let it cook 60 minutes. 

Taste for salt and add more, if needed. Add the sweet potatoes and cook until meat and chickpeas are very tender, 30 minutes more. 

Skim out the chunks of beef. Cut them into bite-size pieces and return to the pot. Skim out the carrots, slice them and return to the pot. Discard the bay leaf. Skim out the head of garlic to serve separately. 

Remove the pot from the heat and allow the contents to settle 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with sprigs of fennel or mint.

Pictured at left, one of several pots of Potaje de San Antón as made in my pueblo, Mijas. It contains chickpeas, tripe and blood sausage, but not wheat berries.

More photos and a recipe for San Antón Day: The Saint and the Pig.