WEATHER FORECAST: COOK UP A STORM

The TV weather persons are on a roll. Their shivers of excitement are palpable as they announce “historic snowfalls,” “minus-15ºC temperatures” (centigrade),” “gale-force winds” and, in the south where I live, “aviso naranja” (orange alert) for heavy rainfall. Considering that most of the year the weather in Spain is so benign—blue skies and warm temps, day after day--that the forecasters might play a tape and go home early, they might be forgiven for thrilling to the extremes.

I’m shivering, too, just viewing the meter-long icicles hanging from weathered roofs in northern Spain and heaps of snow blocking the Puerta del Sol in the center of Madrid. So I looked to the northern cuisines for what to cook to ward off the chill. Zamora, a province in northwestern Spain in the Castilla y León region, is known for a robust rice dish chock full of meat and sausage. A far cry from sunny paella, arroz zamorano contains sausages, pork, ham and not a bit of saffron.

Zamora-style rice,  with pork and sausages, bakes in a cazuela. Just the meal for wintery weather.

When the rice is made for the annual matanza, or hog slaughtering, when hams are salted for curing, sausages hung to air-dry and fresh pork loin conserved in confit of lard, it might contain various pig parts—belly, feet, ears, snout—boiled to make a flavorful broth in which to cook the rice. An everyday version, without the feet and ears, can be made with pork loin, ham and sausages 

Pork belly (panceta) is fresh, unsalted, unsmoked bacon. It adds unctuousness to the rice. Chorizo adds more fat as well as color—ruddy pimentón with which the chorizo is seasoned. 

I started with a thick shoulder pork chop (chuleta de aguja). I cut out the bone and used it to make pork broth for cooking the rice. The meat I cut in bite-sized pieces and cooked with the rice instead of loin. The shoulder stays juicier than loin, in my opinion. 

A cazuela—earthenware cooking vessel—can be used, with great care, on a gas flame or, rustic style, in the hearth on a wood fire. Since I switched to an induction cooktop, I can no longer use my clay cazuelas on the stove. Two alternatives—cook the rice in a metal pan (such as a paella pan) on top of the stove or fry the meat and make the sofrito in a skillet and transfer them to a cazuela to bake in the oven. On this cold and rainy day, I’m opting for turning on the oven.

Calories to keep you warm! Pork belly and shoulder meat, link sausages and chorizo cook with the rice. A simple sofrito is the starting point.

A Tempranillo wine from D.O. Toro, Arribes or Tierra del Vino (wine regions of Zamora) would be perfect with the heart-warming rice dish.

Rice in Cazuela, Zamora Style

Cazuela de Arroz a la Zamorana

 

Use Spanish medium-grain, round rice, the same type as for paella, preferably the Bomba variety. Bomba rice is forgiving, cooking “al dente” without becoming mushy as other varieties can do if not carefully timed. Use double the quantity of liquid to the volume of rice, e.g., 3 cups broth to 1 ½ cups rice to produce a “dry” rice. If you prefer the rice a little juicier, meloso, add another ½ cup of broth during the last 5 minutes of baking. Don't stir the rice once it is distributed in the cazuela.

Vary the quantities of meat and sausage to suit yourself. Use loin instead of shoulder, if preferred. Include ham, if you like. Pieces of cooked and deboned pigs’ feet are authentic. 

Use either regular pimentón (paprika) or smoked pimentón. (I used ½ teaspoon sweet (dulce) smoked pimentón and ½ teaspoon hot (picante) smoked pimentón.)

If fresh tomatoes aren’t available, use 2 tablespoons of canned tomato sauce (tomate frito) or 2 teaspoons of concentrate stirred into ¼ cup of water. Canned pimiento can be substituted for the red bell pepper.

Serves 4-6.

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 links fresh pork sausage (6 ounces)

2 semi-cured chorizos (5-6 ounces), sliced

1 ½-inch slab of fresh or unsmoked bacon (panceta) 

1 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

8 ounces boneless pork shoulder

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

¼ cup white wine 

½ cup grated tomato pulp

1 ½ cups rice

3 cups pork bone broth or chicken stock (+ additional if needed)

Spigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

Brown sausages and panceta.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Fry the pork link sausages and sliced chorizo until they are browned. Remove them and reserve.

Slice the panceta crosswise into ½-inch strips. Fry them in the fat remaining in the skillet. Skim out when they are browned. 

Add the onion, garlic and red pepper to the skillet and sauté on medium heat 2 minutes. Cut the pork shoulder into 1-inch pieces and season with salt and pepper. Add the pork to the skillet. When the pork is browned, stir in the pimentón. Immediately add the wine. Let the alcohol cook off. Add the tomato pulp. Cook the mixture 5 minutes, until most of the liquid has cooked away. 

Sofrito of onions, garlic and  red pepper.

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Bring the pork broth to a boil.

Stir the rice into the sofrito and pork in the skillet and cook 1 minute. Scrape the rice, pork and sofrito into an oven-safe cazuela. Spread it out. Tuck the link sausages, sliced chorizo and strips of panceta into the rice. Pour in 3 cups of the hot broth. Taste the liquid and add salt if necessary. Add sprigs of thyme and bay leaf to the cazuela. Very carefully transfer the cazuela to the oven.

Bake the rice, uncovered, 20 minutes or until most of liquid is absorbed. If you taste the rice it should be tender, but al dente. Remove the cazuela from the oven. Cover it with foil and allow it to set 5 minutes before serving.

More recipes for rice in cazuela:

Baked Rice with Sausage and Egg Crust.

Baked Rice with Seafood.

Everything you need to know about chorizo here.

More about cazuelas and clay pot cooking here.

SPINACH--A BREATH OF SPRING

Where I live in southern Spain, spinach grows through mild winter months and is harvested in early spring. So I’m enjoying it in many different ways (see links to recipes at the end of this post). Today it’s eggs baked in “nests” of spinach.

So green and fresh, spinach is a delight in early spring.

Spinach is so deceptive. It looks like lots and lots, then cooks down to nothing. Even knowing this, I miscalculated. I figured a pound of spinach leaves—a heap—would be enough for four half-cup servings. It made only enough for three servings. I’ve adjusted the recipe to serve four.

The “nesting eggs” are best prepared in individual ramekins, but they can also be baked in a single oven pan, then scooped out to serve at table. If using earthenware cazuelitas, remember that clay holds the heat, so the eggs will continue to cook after you remove them from the oven.

Ready for the oven. Cooked spinach makes a nest. Egg is dropped in the center. Grated cheese on top. The white ramekin is enameled metal; the other two are earthenware.

Strips of fried bread are a favorite accompaniment, but toast or fried potatoes are good too. Serve the eggs and spinach for brunch, as a starter for a spring dinner or as a light supper dish.

You can use bunches of fresh spinach or bags of washed, ready to use leaves. Spinach you wash will cook with the water clinging to it, but dry, bagged leaves will need a little extra water to cook. If you choose to use the optional chopped ham, you may not need additional salt. Taste before seasoning. Use regular or smoked pimentón (paprika) for the dash of finishing color on top of the eggs. I like smoked picante—spicy-hot—pimentón on the eggs. 

Ready to bake. Remember that clay ramekins hold the heat, so the egg will continue to cook after removing it from the oven.

After baking, white is set, yolk still runny, cheese is melted.

Serve the baked egg and spinach for brunch, as a starter or a light meal. Tirangles of bread fried in olive oil are a good accompaniment.

Just right--yolk is still runny. Will you dip the fried bread in the egg? Or mix it all up with the spinach?

Eggs Baked in Spinach Nests
Huevos al Nido con Espinacas

Serves 4.

1 ½ pounds spinach (to make 16 cups chopped)
¼ cup olive oil plus additional for oiling and drizzling
¼ cup chopped green onion
¼ cup (1 ounce) chopped serrano ham (optional)
Water, as needed
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated fresh nutmeg
4 large eggs
¼ cup grated cheese
Pimentón (paprika), smoked or plain
Fried bread, toast or fried potatoes, to serve

To chop: roll spinach and slice it.

Wash the spinach, if necessary, and trim away stems. Chop or shred the spinach.

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Sauté the chopped onion on medium heat until softened, but not browned, 4 minutes. Add the ham, if using, and sautée 1 minute. Add all of the chopped spinach. Stir to mix with the onion. Add a little water, if necessary. Cook the spinach until wilted and tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. If there is liquid remaining in the pan, raise the heat to cook it off. 

Spinach fills a deep pan, but will cook down a lot.

Preheat oven to 400ºF/ 200ºC. Lightly oil 4 oven-safe ramekins or custard cups. Place them on an oven tray.

Divide the spinach into four portions. Press each into a lightly oiled cup. Invert it into the ramekin. Push open a hole in the center of the mound of spinach, widening it enough to contain a whole egg. Make sure there are no breaks in the rims of the spinach ring, so egg white cannot seep out. 

Break an egg into a cup and carefully slip it into the hole in the center of the spinach ring. Drizzle a little olive oil over eggs and spinach. Spread grated cheese on the tops and sprinkle them with pimentón.

Bake until the whites are set, but yolks still runny, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately with fried bread.

A breath of spring--eggs, spinach and freesias.

More recipes with spinach:

Spinach with Raisins and Pine Nuts.

Chickpeas and Spinach with Cod Dumplings.

Turkey Roulade with Spinach Stuffing.

Spinach Fritters.

Spinach with Chickpeas.

Spinach in Pastry Cups.

Spinach and Cheese Pie.

MOROCCO—DINNER IN THE DESERT

In the desert, late afternoon sun turns the dunes to gold.

The late rays of sun turn the dunes golden orange. We are trekking by dromedary through the Erg Chebbi desert (southeastern Morocco), heading towards a camp of jaimas, for dinner, a night under stars and dawn on the Great Dune. As the sun descends, shadows grow long. The day’s radiant heat abates.

Shadows grow long. Selfie with camel.

Camp for the night--tents in a watering hole set amongst the dunes. Camels wait outside the enclosure.

The caravansary is a group of tents enclosing an open area with low tables and carpets spread on the sand. A few trees ring the enclosure that is tucked in the folds of a sea of dunes. The camels are parked outside for the night.

What's for dinner? Tagine bubbling on a rustic cooker inside a tent.

In a rustic kitchen, our dinner is bubbling away. Dinner is tagine. Tagine is the word for both the finished dish, a stew of meat and vegetables, as well as the cooking vessel, which is an earthenware or metal pot with a shallow base and conical lid.

Morning. First rays of sun break over the dunes.

Salutation to the sun. We've climbed a short way up the Grand Dune.

In a week travelling in Morocco, I ate tagine every single day. There was beef with prunes (twice); kefta meatballs with eggs (twice); chicken with carrots, eggplant and potatoes, and chicken with preserved lemon and olives.

Tagine has long been one of my favorite dishes to cook for family and for guests. I love the simplicity of its preparation—ingredients are layered in the tagine with spices and a little liquid is added. Grated onions in the bottom provide flavor and substance. On top, pieces of meat or chicken and vegetables simmer slowly beneath that conical lid. The lid traps steam and keeps it circulating, resulting in tender food, full of flavor. There’s no browning, no stirring.

However, since I converted last year to an induction cooktop (requiring only steel pans), I haven’t prepared tagine at all. I decided that, instead of getting rid of the clay tagine, I would try it in the oven!

Tagine with kefta meatballs, eggplant, spices and eggs. This version has been cooked in the oven.

Kefta Meatball Tagine with Eggs
Tagín con Albóndigas con Huevos

Kefta are very small (1 inch) meatballs, well-seasoned with spices and simmered in a spicy tomato sauce. Ground lamb is best, but beef or chicken can be used instead. Neither bread nor egg is added to the meat, so the kefta are quite dense. (The seasoned meat can also be pressed onto skewers and grilled as kebabs.)

A clay tagine is heavy. Take care in lifting it in and out of the oven. Remove lid first, taking care not to release steam towards your face. Then lift out the bottom. Place each on an insulated board, never on a cold surface.

If you don’t have an earthenware or ceramic tagine, use an oven-safe lidded pan or shallow lidded casserole.

Use a food processor to finely chop together the onion (2 or 3, depending on size) and garlic. Use it for both the meatballs and the sauce. Spices, too, are divided between meatballs and sauce.

Bread for dipping into spicy sauce.

How to serve tagine. In a  Moroccan home, the tagine is served on a low table. Family members sit around the table and eat right out of the tagine, using fingers and bread to help themselves to the delicious nuggets of meat and vegetables. As part of a meal, the tagine might be served with soup or a selection of salads or an additional meat or chicken dish. It is not customary to serve rice or cous cous as a side with tagine. However, if tagine is the main dish, you may want to accompany it with more than just bread. 

Serves 4 to 6 as part of a meal.

1 pound ground lamb
1 ½ cups finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cumin
Pimentón (sweet paprika)
Hot pimentón or cayenne
Grated fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups eggplant cut in 1-inch cubes
1 ¼ cups grated fresh tomatoes
¼ teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
¼ cup hot water
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of turmeric
Sprig of fresh parsley
Sprig of cilantro
Chile pepper (optional)
3 eggs
Bread, to serve

Place the meat in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the chopped onion and garlic. Add 1 teaspoon each of salt, cumin and sweet pimentón. Add ¼ teaspoon each of black pepper and hot pimentón. Add a grating of fresh nutmeg. Add the chopped parsley and cilantro. Using hands, mix the meat and spices until they are combined very well.

Shape the meat mixture into small (1-inch) balls. Place them on a sheet pan and refrigerate until ready to cook the tagine.

Place kefta on a base of finely chopped onions.

Place 2 tablespoons oil in the bottom of tagine or alternative lidded casserole. Spread the remaining chopped onion and garlic in the bottom of the pan. Place the meatballs in a single layer on top of the onions. Tuck the cubes of eggplant in among the meatballs. Spread the grated tomato pulp on top.

Add the crushed saffron to the hot water in a small bowl and let soak 5 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon each of salt, cumin and sweet pimentón to the bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon each of black pepper, hot pimentón and cinnamon to the bowl. Stir in a pinch of turmeric. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.

Drizzle the spice-oil mixture over the tomatoes. Place sprigs of parsley and cilantro in the center and chile, if using, on top. Cover the tagine or casserole.

Ready to cook--tomatoes and spices on top of the meatballs and eggplant cubes.

Place the tagine in a cold oven and set temperature to 350ºF (180ºC). Let the tagine cook 1 hour.

Very carefully, lift off the tagine lid. Remove the tagine from the oven to check if it needs additional liquid. Do not stir it. Return the tagine to the oven. Replace the lid.

Cook 45 minutes more. Remove carefully, as before. Tomatoes should be thickened and eggplant very soft. Use a spoon to make indentations in the surface. Break an egg into each. Return the tagine to the oven and replace the lid. Cook until whites are set, but yolks still liquid, 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the tagine from the oven. Eggs will continue to cook from residual heat. Serve the kefta from the tagine, removing the lid when the tagine is placed on the table. Accompany with bread.

Place the tagine right on the table. Not one egg per person--expect to break up the eggs when serving.

Bread is the essential accompaniment to tagine.

Another recipe for tagine: Chicken Tagine with Olives and Lemon.

Salads to accompany a tagine meal: https://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2017/10/morocco-salad-tour.html

Moroccan Bread.

More about clay-pot cooking in the oven: Baked Rice and Seafood Cazuela.

Erg Chebbi, desert near Merzouga, Morocco.

 

COOKING WITH NEW APPLICANCES!

My kitchen: new induction cooktop and electric oven!

Oh no! I burned the lentil soup! In an instant, the lentils and carrots at the bottom of the pot scorched, ruining lunch and a perfectly good pan.

This happened on my brand-new induction cooktop. I hadn’t intended to use it until learning more about how it works. But, as luck would have it, when I turned on the big old gas stove to heat up lunch, the burner sputtered out—an empty butane tank. Ben called some burly friends and they, unceremoniously, moved the old stove out. Bye-bye, bombonas (butane tanks).

I put the pot on the new cooktop, turned up the heat dial and touched “P” for power. By the time I turned to get the soup bowls ready, the soup had scorched.

I felt like a dolt. Or, anyway, a novitiate in the kitchen. There’s going to be a learning curve here, as I adapt to a new way of cooking. So, “P” for power is great for bringing a pot of water to a boil to cook pasta—but not for anything with solids that rest on the superheated bottom.

Smaller oven, but 11-pound turkey just fits!

My new eye-level electric oven presented no orientation problems, other than needing to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius for temperature settings. I put in an 11-pound stuffed turkey, basted it with olive oil and white wine every 30 minutes. The turkey was roasted in less than three hours. While I made the gravy, I popped mashed potatoes with pimentón and roasted Brussels sprouts in the oven to reheat.

Roast garlic under broiler/grill.

I’m using the oven way more than I did the oversize one on the old gas stove. It is radically more efficient. Plus, I need it to do a few things that I used to do on an open gas flame—like roast a head of garlic (to add to lentils or black-eyed peas) or roast bell peppers.

Cut peppers in half and flatten them to roast under broiler/grill.

And, I can’t use my clay cazuelas and earthenware tagine on the cooktop (only pans with ferrous content, that a magnet will stick to, work on induction), so, until I get a special induction plate, I am using the oven for clay-pot cooking too.

My first experiment—arroz marinero, seafood rice in cazuela—was a little off on the timing. Although I know from experience how earthenware holds the heat, I still managed to overcook the rice in cazuela!

Note to self: stand back when opening the oven to avoid an eye-level blast of steam.

Baked Rice with Seafood in Cazuela
Cazuela de Arroz Marinero al Horno

Rice and seafood, baked in an earthenware cazuela.

Bring cazuela right to the table to serve.

A touch of saffron gives rice a golden hue.

An earthenware cazuela takes a long time to come up to temperature, but once the liquid starts to bubble, the cazuela holds the heat for a long time. Take the rice out of the oven before it is completely tender and allow it to finish cooking in a 10-minute waiting time. 

 
Bomba is a variety of Spanish rice that doesn’t readily overcook and turn mushy. If not available, use medium round-grain paella rice or Italian risotto rice. 

If you can get whole shrimp with the heads on and you don’t mind peeling them, they’re best because the shells add flavor to the oil for cooking the sofrito. If whole shrimp are not an easy option, just skip the first step in this recipe.

Serves 4-6.

Par-boiled artichokes and frozen peas.

1 pound whole jumbo shrimp
1/3 cup olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped red or green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
¾ cup grated tomatoes (2-3 plum tomatoes)
¼ cup dry Sherry or manzanilla
½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
Saffron (optional), crushed
2 tablespoons hot water
2 cups round-grain rice, preferably bomba variety
½ pound cleaned squid, cut in rings
12 ounces monkfish fillet, cut in 1 ½ -inch cubes
5 cups fish or chicken stock
Salt
1 cup frozen peas
Artichoke bottoms, frozen or par-boiled
Sprigs of fresh mint or chopped parsley

Fry heads and shells to flavor oil.

Peel the shrimp, keeping the heads and shells. Reserve the bodies. Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the shrimp heads and shells and fry them on medium heat until they change color. Remove from heat. Tilt the pan so oil runs to one side and carefully skim out the shrimp heads and shells. When they are cool, discard.

Cook tomatoes until jammy-thick.

Add the onion, pepper and garlic to the oil and sauté on medium heat until softened and beginning to brown, 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes. Turn up the heat and cook until reduced to a thick sauce. Add the Sherry and cook until evaporated. Stir in the pimentón.

Dissolve the saffron, if using, in the hot water. Stir it into the sofrito tomato sauce. Scrape all of the sauce into a 12-inch cazuela. Add the rice.

Add the cut-up squid and cubes of monkfish to the skillet and sauté them very quickly. Add to the sofrito and rice in the cazuela.

The cazuela can be prepared up to this point at least 1 hour in advance.

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Bring the fish stock to a boil. Taste it and add enough salt to season the cooked rice. Stir the hot stock into the cazuela. Add the peas and artichoke bottoms.

Bake the rice uncovered. Careful of escaping steam when opening the oven!

Carefully place the cazuela, uncovered, in the oven. Bake until the liquid just begins to bubble, about 20 minutes. Carefully slide oven rack partially out. Add the reserved shrimp to the cazuela and stir the rice. 

Lower oven temperature to 350ºF. Return the cazuela to the oven and cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed, but rice still has a kernel of hardness, about 15 minutes. Remove the cazuela from the oven and allow it to set 10 minutes. Garnish with sprigs of mint. Serve the rice from the cazuela.

Earthenware cookware holds the heat for a long time.

Complementary recipes:

Simple fish stock.

Black-eyed peas with roasted garlic.

"Before" pictures of the kitchen. http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2016/12/my-kitchen-in-spain-gets-revamp.html 

 

CLAY POT—THE ORIGINAL SLOW COOKER

My olive picking is finished for this season. I was outside picking a few hours every day that it didn’t rain. My son, Ben, cut down branches that I couldn’t reach.  We took 150 kilos of olives to the mill and came home with 14 liters of new oil.

On picking days, I didn’t have much time to think about cooking. So I turned to some traditional dishes from rural Spain, such as this slow-cooked beef stew from the province of Ciudad Real, in the southern part of Castilla-La Mancha. 

Beef and vegetable stew is slow-cooked in a clay pot.

All the ingredients are put to cook together—thus the name, tojunto, a contraction of “todo junto”, meaning “all together”. Supposedly this allowed the women of Almagro to get on with their lace-making (they make very pretty bobbin lace); the shepherd to keep the cheese-making going (Manchego cheese comes from here), workers in vineyards (Valdepeñas and La Mancha wines) and olive groves to keep working right up until dinner and the hunter in the fields to have a meal ready when he returned to camp.

In rural Spain, a sturdy dish such as this stew is served for the main meal of the day, around 2 pm.

Everything goes into the stew pot—preferably a clay pot, or olla de barro—at the same time and cooks a fuego lento—on a slow fire, without stirring, until the meat is tender. Clay-pot cooking is a lot like today’s slow cookers that keep a low and steady heat. A clay pot also keeps the food warm for an extended time, meaning a meal that can wait.

This stew is not thickened. Put the potatoes in whole, so they don’t break up with long cooking. Vegetables such as fresh green beans get very-well cooked. But, that’s sort of comforting.

Flank steak or chuck, cut into cubes, is a good cut for this slow-cooked stew. (Tojunto is also made with lamb, pork, chicken or rabbit.) Saffron is grown in this region of La Mancha. It adds subtle flavor and color to the stew. You can use regular sweet pimentón (paprika) or smoked pimentón.

I served the stew with pickled red onions and my home-cured olives.

Meat, potatoes and vegetables cook together.

“Altogether” Beef Stew

Tojunto

Serves 4 to 6.

1 onion, quartered and sliced

1 green bell pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces

1 large tomato (or 3 plum tomatoes), peeled and cut in eighths

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 large carrot, peeled and quartered

4 medium potatoes, peeled

1 ½ pounds beef, cut in 1 ½-inch pieces

Pinch of ground cloves

Freshly ground black pepper

2 bay leaves

Sprig of thyme

¼ teaspoon saffron threads, crushed

1 teaspoon sweet pimento (paprika)

¼ cup hot water

4 ounces green beans, cut in 1-inch lengths (1 cup)

2 teaspoons salt

¼ cup olive oil

½ cup white wine

1 cup water

Chopped parsley to serve

Place the onion, pepper, tomato, and garlic in a cazuela or stew pot. Add the carrot, potatoes and veal or beef. Sprinkle the meat with cloves and pepper. Tuck the bay leaves and thyme around the meat. 

Add ingredients all together.

Combine the crushed saffron and pimentón in a small bowl. Add ¼ cup hot water and stir to dissolve. Pour the liquid over the meat. Place the green beans on top. Sprinkle with salt. Pour over the oil and wine plus 1 cup of water.

Cover the cazuela or pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, without stirring, until meat is very tender, about 2 hours. Allow to stand 15 minutes before serving with chopped parsley.

 

I hand-pick olives.