COCIDO: A ROBUST MEAL FOR WINTER

 

The cocido Maragato is served in reverse order--a platter with all the boiled meats and chicken first, then the chickpeas and vegetables, and the noodle soup last. 

Contundente is a word that means “blunt,” or, when applied to dinner, “robust,” stick-to-the-ribs food. The cocido, a one-pot meal made in every region of Spain, a calorific power-house, fits the bill perfectly. 

Cocido reaches its apex in winter months. Supermarkets feature a special section with all the necessary ingredients to make this warming meal. Stewing beef and bones, salt-cured pork fat, chicken, sausages, chickpeas. 

Cocido is a meal cooked in an olla, a pot-bellied vessel made to sit in the embers of the hearth. Nowadays, many cooks use an olla expres—a pressure cooker. From the big cooking pot are served a soup course and a main course consisting of platters of meats, sausages, dumplings, chickpeas, and vegetables. 

The cocido Maragato is, arguably, the most contundente of them all! The Maragato cocido comes from the Maragatería in the province of León (northwest interior Spain), a region historically famous for its arrieros, muleteers. They were the truckers of yore, transporting bacalao (salt cod), barrels of pickled oysters, bolts of linen cloth, skeins of wool, wine, grains, chickpeas, and even gold and silver between the Atlantic coasts and Madrid in the center.

While the Maragato cocido shares many similarities with the famous Madrid cocido, it has one important distinction—it is served in reverse! A platter of boiled meats, sausages, and chicken precedes the vegetables and chickpeas and the meal finishes with noodle soup. Perhaps this was because famished muledrivers couldn’t wait through a soup course before attacking the meat. Or maybe it was for the convenience of the kitchen. Since the meat has to be strained out of the broth anyway in order to prepare the soup, why not just serve the meat and get it out of the way?

Ingredients for cocido Maragato.

Taking the cocido in parts, you will need two or three days to prep and cook. Day 1 to soak the chickpeas and any salted meats and to marinate the ribs. Day 2 to cook the meats and chickpeas. Day 3 to cook the vegetables, finish the soup, and serve the cocido. 

Shown in the picture are ingredients for a cocido Maragato, clockwise from bottom left, morcilla (blood sausage), stewing beef, beef bone, marinated ribs, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, chickpeas, pig's ear, pig's foot, chorizo sausage, panceta (bacon), and chicken.

Cooking the meat, chicken, and chickpeas a day before serving allows you to strain the broth and refrigerate it until the following day. Then it’s easy to lift off the congealed fat from the surface, leaving the broth ready for making the soup.  If cooking and serving on the same day, allow the strained broth to stand 1 hour and skim off the fat that rises to the top.

The chickpeas (garbanzos) need to be soaked 8 to 12 hours, so start them a day before you intend to cook them. If possible use a variety such as Pico Pardal, Pedrosillana or Fuentesaúco. Be sure to read the cooking directions on the label. Some of these chickpeas need 3 hours cooking time! Put chickpeas to soak in hot (not boiling) water. Drain them and add them to the cook pot after the water has begun to heat. If your tap water is hard, use a pinch of baking soda in the soaking water. You will need about 8 ounces dried chickpeas for 6 to 8 servings. However, I always cook twice that amount and freeze the extra for another meal. Same three hours cooking time, after all.

Codillo, substitute for lacón.

The meats. Lacón is pork shoulder that has been salt-cured and smoked. It has to be soaked to de-salt it then cooked slowly. If sold pre-cooked, it can be added to the cocido pot with the chicken at the end of the cooking time. If not available, use smoked ham, gammon or pork hock. (I didn't find lacón in my grocery store, so I substituted pre-cooked smoked codillo, or pork hock.)

Fatty pork spare ribs (costillas) that have been hacked into pieces and marinated go into the cook-pot along with fresh or salt-cured pig’s ear and foot. Whether or not you intend to actually eat the pig’s foot, you should try to include it. The skin and cartilage are rich in collagen that makes a rich, full-bodied soup. 

Gallina, boiling fowl or stewing hen, gives the broth a lot of flavor. Cook it for the full 2 hours. If substituting regular chicken, add it during the last 30 minutes of cooking. 

In bygone times, salt-beef (cecina), somewhat like beef jerky, was used in cocido. Nowadays, cocido usually contains a piece of stewing beef such as shin, brisket or chuck. Cecina de León IGP has become a very pricey gourmet product. Not for boiling, rather it is served, like ibérico ham, raw and thinly sliced. Add beef marrow bones to the pot too.

Chorizo and morcilla sausages are not always included in the Maragato cocido. If used, they are cooked in a separate pot so as not to color the soup with the red pimentón spices of the sausages. If possible, use smoked chorizo and morcilla. This is easily sourced in Spanish supermarkets as Asturian compango, the smoked sausages and panceta (pork belly) that go into fabada in nearby Asturias. 

The Maragato cocido, like the madrileño version, includes relleno, a kind of dumpling. The relleno can contain chopped meat or be made with only breadcrumbs. Unlike most dumplings, they are first fried then simmered in the broth. Serve the relleno with the meats.

Vegetables. Cabbage is essential for this cocido. Potatoes are fairly usual. Carrots are permitted, if not traditional. That’s it. Cook the vegetables in a separate pot from the meats. If you don’t have enough broth in the main pot for making 6 servings of soup, add some of the cabbage cooking water to the broth. After removing the vegetables, use the cooking water to cook the sausages, reheat the chickpeas, and poach the relleno (dumplings). Serve the vegetables with ajoarriero, mule driver’s garlic sauce.  

For the soup, it’s only necessary to cook fideo noodles in the strained and de-fatted cooking broth.

3-Course Meal-in-a-Pot, Maragato Style

Cocido Maragato

Day before cooking:

8 ounces (or up to 1 pound) dried chickpeas

Hot water

1 pound pork spare ribs or pork shoulder

2 teaspoons salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

½ teaspoon oregano

2 cloves crushed garlic

¼ cup wine vinegar

Pig foot and ear add body to soup.

To cook the cocido:

1 pound boneless beef chuck or shin

Beef marrow bones

1 pig’s ear, blanched in boiling water

1 pig’s trotter, split in half and blanched in boiling water

2-inch piece of fat-back pork (tocino), fresh or salt-cured

8 ounces cured panceta (pork belly) or smoked bacon

12 cups water

¼ of a large, bone-in chicken (about 1 ½ pounds)

12 ounces pre-cooked lacón, gammon, smoked ham or pork hock

1 tablespoon salt + more to taste

Cook vegetables in another pot.

For the vegetables:

1 ½ pounds cabbage (½ medium cabbage) 

6 medium potatoes, peeled

3 carrots, peeled

2 tablespoons olive oil

Ajoarriero sauce (recipe follows)

Chorizo and morcilla sausages

For the relleno (dumplings):

½ cup fine dry breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 clove garlic, minced

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil plus more for frying

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¼ cup finely-chopped cooked beef, ham, chicken or chorizo (optional)

For the soup:

8 cups strained cocido broth

3 ounces thin fideo noodles (¾ cup) 

Chopped parsley to serve

A day before cooking the cocido, place the chickpeas in a bowl and add hot water to completely cover the chickpeas. Let them soak until ready to cook the following day. If you are using salt-cured meats such as uncooked lacón put them in a separate container with water to cover. 

Make an adobo marinade for the ribs or pork shoulder. Separate the ribs. Use a cleaver to cut them crosswise into 2-inch pieces. If using shoulder meat, divide it into 6 pieces. Combine 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon pimentón, oregano and vinegar. Mix the marinade with the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. 

Skim the froth that rises.

Day 2, one day before serving the cocido. Place the piece of beef, bones, ear, trotter, pork fat, panceta and water in a large (6-quart or larger) soup pot. Place the pot on high heat. Keep skimming off the foam that rises to the top as the water heats. Drain the soaked chickpeas. If desired, place them in a net bag. Add the chickpeas to the pot. Continue skimming. Lower heat so the water bubbles gently. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Cover the pot and cook 1 hour. 

Taste the broth and add salt if necessary. Add the marinated ribs to the pot. Cook 30 minutes. Add the chicken and lacón or ham to the pot. Cook 30 minutes or until all the meats are fork tender (2 hours total). Use a large slotted spoon to remove all the meats, pieces of fat, and chicken. Test the chickpeas for doneness. If they are not completely tender, continue to cook the chickpeas 45 to 60 minutes longer. 

Pour the broth through a strainer into a clean pan or container. Once cool, refrigerate until the following day. Refrigerate the meats and chicken in a separate container. Cover and reserve the chickpeas.

Day 3, cooking the vegetables, preparing the relleno, and serving the cocido.

Remove the broth from the refrigerator. Lift the congealed fat off of the top of the broth. (Discard the fat or save for another use.) The broth will have jelled. Place it in a pan for making the soup and let it come to room temperature. There should be 8 cups of broth. 

Remove the container of meat from the refrigerator. Place all the meat in a pan with ¼ cup of the broth. Allow to come to room temperature. If you wish to add some of the meat, ham or chicken to the mixture for the relleno (dumplings), cut off a slice of the cooked meat, chop it finely (¼ cup) and reserve.

Mixture for dumplings.

For the relleno (dumplings):

Combine the breadcrumbs, parsley, and garlic in a bowl. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with the oil. Stir into the crumbs. Add the chopped meat or chicken, if using. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix thoroughly and shape into a ball. If preparing in advance, cover with plastic wrap and chill. 

Fry then poach dumplings.

Shape the crumb mixture into 8 (2-inch) lozenges. Heat oil in a skillet and fry the dumplings until they are golden-brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels. (They will cook further in the vegetable water.)

1 hour before serving. 

Place about 8 cups of water in a pot with 1 tablespoon of salt. Coarsely shred the cabbage. When the water boils, add the cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. Cook until they are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon. 

Add enough of the vegetable cooking water to the pan with the broth to make 8 cups. 

Reheat cooked chickpeas.

Add the chorizo and morcilla sausages and the relleno (dumplings) to the remaining vegetable water and cook 10 minutes. Reheat the reserved cooked chickpeas in the vegetable water and put them in a serving bowl.

Sauté cabbage.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a small skillet and sauté the cooked cabbage until it begins to brown slightly, 5 minutes. Place the cabbage in a serving bowl with the potatoes and carrots and spoon some of the ajoarriero sauce over them.  

Heat the meats and chicken. Place them on a platter. Remove bones from the chicken and separate it into large pieces. Use scissors to cut the ear and pancetta into pieces. Slice the beef and lacón or ham. Remove bones from the pig's foot and cut into pieces. Skim the chorizo, morcilla and dumplings out of the vegetable cooking water and place them on the platter with the meats. Cut the sausages into pieces. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. 

Bring the pot of broth to a boil and add the fideo noodles. Cook according to package directions, 2 to 3 minutes for thin noodles. Remove the pan from the heat.

Serve the platter of meats, chicken, sausages, panceta and dumplings. 

Serve the bowls of chickpeas, cabbage, potato, and carrots accompanied by the ajoarriero sauce. 

Serve the broth with fideo noodles sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Ajoarriero Garlic Sauce

This simple sauce from Castilla-León is similar to Galician ajada. Make double the quantity if you wish and serve it with simple grilled foods and with vegetables.

¼ cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 tablespoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

½ teaspoon pimentón de la Vera picante (spicy-hot smoked paprika), optional

2 tablespoons wine vinegar

2 tablespoons cocido broth

Heat the oil in a small pan. Add the garlic and fry until the pieces of garlic just begin to turn golden. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in one or both types of pimentón. Add the vinegar and broth from the cocido. Serve room temperature to accompany the cocido.

Regional cocidos:

Madrid-Style Boiled Dinner.

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

Andalusian Meal-in-a-Pot (puchero).

Catalan Soup with Meats and Vegetables (escudella).

Canary Islands Vegetable Pot

Leftover cocido? Go ahead and put the leftovers all together with the broth. Sensational soup.

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.