A RUSTIC STEW FOR OLIVE PICKERS

 

I’ve invited some friends to come round and help me with the olive picking. I plan to serve a merienda de aceituneros, olive pickers’ lunch. In advance, I’m trying out some easy, rustic dishes that I can serve to a crowd. 

In bygone times, when transport was on foot or by mule, olive pickers would spend the whole day in the olive groves, pausing for a midday meal cooked outdoors. Cured foods such as sausages and dry salt cod were packed along with bread and oil. 

That’s what inspired this potato stew. The traditional La Mancha version of this stew is made with salt cod. 

I’m going to serve ibérico ham as the centerpiece of the lunch, so I want this dish to be vegetarian. I sure don’t want to be stirring the pot while everybody is out picking and drinking wine, so I’ll cook the potatoes the day before and reheat them at lunch time. This is my rehearsal. What do you think?

Potatoes cook in a sofrito with onions and peppers. Eggs are added right before serving.

A bowl of vegetarian potato stew. 

Olive Pickers’ Potato Stew

Pote Aceitunero con Patatas

Let whites set, then cut eggs into the potatoes.

On my first attempt at this dish, following the original recipe, I stirred the eggs into the hot potatoes. They thickened the sauce nicely, but I didn’t think they looked very appetizing. I liked the presentation better when the eggs were allowed to set on top of the potatoes, then broken up to serve (as for huevos rotos, if you’ve ever tried that terrific tapa dish). The runny yolks combined with the broth of the stew create the sauce. 

The best potato for this dish is para freir, a variety best for frying such as Agria, Kennebec and MonaLisa. You don’t want potatoes that will fall apart with reheating. Take care not to overcook them, as they will cook 5 minutes longer when the eggs are added.

Serves 4 as a main; 8 as a side.

2 pounds potatoes

1/3 cup olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced onions

1 cup green pepper, cut in strips

4 cloves garlic

1 dried red chile (optional)

1 teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

½ teaspoon cumin

½ cup peeled and diced tomato

¼ cup white wine

2 cups water or stock + additional for reheating

Pinch of chopped fennel leaves or fennel pollen

Sprig of thyme or pinch of dried thyme

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3-4 eggs

Chopped parsley to garnish

Chopped scallion greens to garnish

Peel the potatoes and cut them in bite-size chunks. Place them in a bowl and cover with cold water. Soak the potatoes 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Drain them well and pat dry.

Fry potatoes in olive oil.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet on moderately high heat. Add the potatoes and carefully turn them in the oil. Allow them to fry without turning until they begin to brown on one side, about 1 minute. Turn and fry until slightly browned on the other side. The idea is to fry just enough to make a crust on all sides of the potatoes.

Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lift the potatoes out of the oil and into a cazuela or pot. Add the onions and green pepper to the oil. With the side of a knife, lightly crush the cloves of garlic and add them, whole and unpeeled, to the oil with the chile, if using. 

Sauté the vegetables until onion is softened, 4 minutes. Stir in the pimentón and cumin. Immediately add the tomato. Let the tomato cook until it releases its liquid. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol. Add the water, fennel, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce heat and let the potatoes bubble gently, uncovered, until they are nearly tender, about 10 minutes. There should still be some liquid left.

Break eggs on top of the potatoes.

If the potatoes are to be served the following day, transfer them to a covered container, cool and refrigerate. Let them come to room temperature before finishing the cooking.

Place the potatoes in a pan, adding enough water or stock so they are juicy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly heated. Carefully break 3 or 4 eggs on top of the potatoes. Cover the pan and continue cooking until the whites of the eggs are set, but the yolks still runny, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. 

Sprinkle the eggs with a little salt and pimentón. Garnish with chopped parsley and scallion greens. Immediately before serving, use a knife and fork to cut up the eggs. Let the yolks mix with the potatoes. 

The stew is accompanied by cracked, brine-cured olives with garlic, fennel and thyme. These are the last of the previous year's olives. This year I haven't yet picked any for curing because I'm still waiting for a good rain to plump them. It may not happen---- The olives to be picked by my invited crew will be taken to the mill and exchanged for new oil. 

Related recipes:

Olive Mill Breakfast (Desayuno Molinero).

Olive Pickers' Stew with Cod.

Curing Olives.

THE FAMILY THAT PICKS TOGETHER STICKS TOGETHER

Last weekend, with glorious fall weather, my son, Ben; grandson, Leo; visiting friend, Donna, and hired man, Juan, gathered to help me pick the olive crop. Donna and I had already filled one gunny sack with pickings from several small trees, but that day we gathered the olives from a single big tree.

With a tarp spread on the ground to catch fallen olives, Ben clambered up the tree to cut down high branches with a chain saw. The tree badly needed pruning anyway and it’s way easier to hand-pick the olives once the limbs are on the ground. Donna could sit on a chair, “milking” (ordeñar) the olives right into a bucket.

I picked from limbs within reach—great stretching exercise! Leo, six, rolled olives on the tarp into a bucket, then happily used twigs to make fantastical play creatures.

Olives on remaining high branches were brought down by vareo, thrashing the branches with a cane pole (cane grows wild in the arroyo, free for the picking) and rastrilla, raking through branches to drop olives onto the tarp. Later, limbs will be cut up and stacked for next year’s firewood.

We loaded four big sacks of olives into the trunk of my car, the fruits of two-days picking. On Monday I drove to the almazara, oil mill, in a nearby town.

Dumped into a hopper on a scales, my olives weighed in at 143 kilos (315 pounds). The going price was a very low 24 centimos per kilo and the price of new oil, 3 euros a liter (quart). Nevertheless, I was smiling as I loaded 11 liters of fruity, fragrant, cloudy extra virgin olive oil to take back to my kitchen and to share with the people who helped me. (Thanks, Donna!)

Picking olives together on a sunny day with family and friends was actually fun. However, it's not easy work. I’m glad my livelihood doesn’t depend on it! 

I still have several trees to be picked. Maybe when Ben and Leo come for a visit over Christmas holidays.

I made an olive pickers’ stew to feed my crew. This recipe is taken from my book COOKING FROM THE HEART OF SPAIN—FOOD OF LA MANCHA. The stew comes from the Montes de Toledo, an area famous for its olive oil. Groups of pickers work all day in the olive groves. They make a roaring fire, to warm the hands and cook the midday meal. The traditional version is made with bacalao, dry salt cod that has been soaked for 24 hours to de-salt it. In this recipe I have used fresh cod, which needs only minutes to cook. If you use salt cod, cook it very gently with the potatoes. I like the addition of something green—in this case asparagus.

Olive Pickers’ Cod and Potato Stew
Pote Aceitunero

Serves 4.

1 pound cod fillets, cut into ¾-inch cubes
Salt
2 pounds potatoes, cut into ¾-inch cubes
¼ cup olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 dry chile, such as cayenne
2 cloves garlic
1 whole, medium tomato
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
¼ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon sweet pimentón (preferably smoked)
½ teaspoon hot pimentón or pinch of cayenne
1 cup sliced, cooked asparagus (optional)
1 egg

Sprinkle the cod with salt and let stand at room temperature.

Place the potatoes in a soup pot or deep skillet with the oil and sauté 2 minutes. Tuck the bay leaf and chile into the potatoes and add 2 teaspoons salt and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil.

Cut a small slit in one, unpeeled, clove of garlic and add it to the potatoes with tomato and onion. Cover and simmer the potatoes until almost tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf and chile. Skim out the clove of garlic and tomato.

Remove skin from cooked garlic and tomato and place them in a blender with 1 clove peeled raw garlic, cumin, sweet pimentón, hot pimentón, and ½ cup of liquid from the potatoes. Blend until smooth. Add this sauce to the potatoes and cook 5 minutes.

Add the cod to the pot and cook until it just flakes, about 3 minutes. Stir in the asparagus, if using. Raise the heat so the liquid bubbles. Break the egg into the pot. Use a fork to stir it into the cod and potatoes, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow the stew to rest 5 minutes. Serve in shallow soup bowls.