CALDERETA—A TRADITIONAL LAMB STEW

 

Lamb stew with potatoes and herbs.

    I´ve been craving lamb stew, the sort of aromatic, slow-cooked meal that’s perfect for cold weather. 

    

    Shoulder meat would be ideal for stew, but I can never bring myself to cut up a gorgeous shoulder or leg of lamb for stew meat. So I boned out several lamb shanks, using the bones to make broth and cutting the meat into chunks. Other possibilities for stew are necks, lamb riblets, flank or breast meat. 

     Caldereta is a very traditional lamb stew, found all along the shepherds’ migratory routes from Aragon and Navarra to La Mancha, Extremadura and Andalusia. A caldereta is a “cauldron” or iron pot for cooking on a woodfire. In its rustic, shepherds’ versions, the stew, eaten with bread, is chunks of meat, lamb or young goat, braised with wine and wild herbs with the possible addition of wild mushrooms or wild artichokes. Domesticated, the stew usually has onions and peppers as well and is served with potatoes as well as bread.  

Typically, the stew is thickened with pieces of fried lamb’s liver, mashed to a paste with garlic. If you can’t get lamb’s liver, substitute chicken livers. Or thicken the sauce with a slice of bread, fried in oil and processed to a paste.     

Stew is brown. Maybe that’s what inspired me to scatter a handful of ruby-red pomegranate kernels on the finished dish. And, once that was part of the plan, why not add a spoonful of tangy-sweet pomegranate molasses to the stew? No, this is not authentically Spanish. Pomegranates are used in Spanish cooking, but the thick, dark syrup is a Middle Eastern product. 

Pomegranate adds a pop of color to lamb stew with a side of fried potatoes.

Lamb simmers with wine and aromatic herbs until very tender. The sauce is thickened with a paste made of lamb's liver blended with garlic and spices.  

Lamb Stew

Caldereta de Cordero

Fried liver (top) to thicken the stew.

Serves 4-6.

2 pounds boneless lamb

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup olive oil plus additional for frying potatoes

4 ounces lamb’s liver or a slice of bread, crusts removed

4 cloves garlic

1 ½ cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped red and/or green pepper

1 ½ teaspoons smoked pimentón (paprika)

½ cup grated tomato pulp

¾ cup white wine

3 cups lamb broth or water plus additional for the blender 

2 bay leaves

Sprigs of thyme

Sprigs of rosemary

Peppercorns

2 cloves

2-3 potatoes

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (optional)

Chopped parsley

Pomegranate kernels to garnish (optional)

Cut the lamb into 2-inch chunks, discarding excess fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet or stew pan such as a Dutch oven. Cut the liver into 1-inch pieces and fry it on moderate heat until browned. (If using bread instead of liver, fry the bread until crisped.) Remove the liver from the pan and put it in a blender..

Lightly crush the garlic, but do not peel the cloves. Add them to the oil with the lamb. Fry the meat on moderately high heat until nicely browned. Skim out the meat and garlic cloves. Peel the garlics and put them in the blender with the liver. Reserve the lamb.

Fresh herbs flavor the stew.

Add the onions and red/green peppers to the pan. Reduce the heat and sauté gently until onions are quite soft, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the pimentón and fry 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato pulp. Cook 2 minutes, stirring. Add the wine. Raise the heat and cook off the alcohol, 2 minutes. Return the pieces of lamb and any juices to the pan. Add enough lamb broth to almost cover the meat. Add the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary. Season with salt to taste. Cover and cook the stew 15 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary. Continue cooking the lamb until tender, about 25 minutes longer.

While the stew is cooking, crush the peppercorns and cloves in a mortar. Add the crushed spices to the blender with the liver and garlic. Add enough additional stock or water to allow the blender to function, about ¼ cup. Blend to make a smooth paste.

Potatoes fried in olive oil.

Liver blended to thicken sauce.

    Cut the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Heat oil in a skillet and fry the potatoes until they are browned and just cooked through. Drain the potatoes on absorbent paper. The potatoes can be finished right in the stew or served as a side.

Pomegranate molasses.

   When the lamb is tender, stir the blender mixture into the stew. Stir in the pomegranate molasses, if using. If desired, add the fried potatoes to the stew or serve them as a side. Cook the stew, uncovered, 10 minutes more until the sauce is thickened. Stir in a handful of chopped parsley.

Serve the stew with the fried potatoes, garnished, if desired, with pomegranate kernels.

More recipes for lamb stews and braises:

Lamb Stew with Red Peppers (Caldereta).

Lamb Stew with Peppers (Chilindrón).

Lamb Shanks with Prunes.

Lamb and Bean Stew.

Lamb Riblets with Garlic Sauce.

SALSA VIZCAINA—A VERSATILE SAUCE

Sauce gets its color from dried peppers.

Where I live, in southern Spain, in view of the Mediterranean, I’m a long way from the Bay of Biscay, the Basque province of Vizcaya (Bizcaia), and the city of Bilbao. But I like to revisit that region by recreating some of its iconic dishes. One outstanding preparation is Salsa Vizcaina, or Biscay Sauce.

The most famous dish prepared with vizcaina sauce is bacalao a la vizcaina, salt cod. But, the sauce is incredibly versatile. Use it to accompany grilled fish or as a cook-in sauce for fish fillets. (I used it with frozen cod fillets, baked in the oven.) It’s good with shrimp, mussels or octopus. With snails, tripe or pigs’ feet. With fried eggs. Potatoes in vizcaina sauce are terrific. Use leftover sauce with cooked pasta.

Three kinds of sweet--not hot--dried peppers. 

 The sauce is made with dried red choricero peppers, a type of sweet pepper grown extensively in the Basque Land, Navarra and La Rioja. After rehydrating, the pulp is scraped from inside the peppers and incorporated in a sauce that starts with onions and is thickened with bread. In Spain, the choricero paste can be purchased in jars.

If choriceros are not available, substitute ñora, another sort of dried red pepper. Or try the sauce with a mild chile such as dried red Anaheim peppers. (I used peppers grown and dried by friends in Granada, so perhaps they did not have an authentic Basque accent.) If none of the peppers are available, try stirring 2 tablespoons pimentón (sweet paprika, not smoked) into ¼ cup of water to make a paste. 

Tomato in vizcaina sauce? Traditionalists might say “ez!” (“no!”). The sauce gets its reddish color from the pulp of the red peppers. But, it’s usual to add some tomato as well. Tomato’s sweet-acidity adds a flavor dimension. Another flavor boost, bits of fatty serrano ham, might be included in the sauce, unless it’s being served for vigilia, Lenten meal, or, as at my house, for a vegetarian-pescatarian guest.  

Fillets of cod--not salt cod--sauced with vizcaina, ready for the oven.

Sliced potatoes a la vizcaina are terrific. I baked them, covered, with a little white wine, garlic, salt and pepper until tender, then added the sauce and baked another 10 minutes, uncovered. 

Baked fish with a side of potatoes.

Basque Vizcaina Sauce

Salsa Vizcaina

Makes 2 cups of sauce.

4-6 dried sweet peppers (or ¼ cup pulp)

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups coarsely chopped red onions

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped serrano ham (optional)

1 thick slice stale bread, crusts removed

½ cup grated tomato pulp

¼ cup red or white wine

1 ½ cups water or fish stock

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Remove stems and shake out the seeds from the peppers. Put the peppers in a saucepan and add water to cover. Let them soak 15 minutes. Then bring the water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the peppers are very soft, 20 minutes. Remove the peppers with a slotted spoon. Reserve the cooking water to use in the sauce.

Scrape pulp from peppers.

When peppers are cool enough to handle, split them open and use a spoon to scrape out the soft flesh. Discard the skins. Place the pulp on a cutting board and chop it finely. (There should be about ¼ cup of pulp.)

Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Sauté the onions on moderate heat until they begin to brown, 8 minutes. Add the garlic and ham, if using. Break the bread into pieces and add it to the onions. Add the tomato pulp and mix it in. Add the pepper pulp.  Add the wine and cook off the alcohol, 1 minute. Add the water from cooking the peppers and/or stock. Season with salt and pepper. 

Sieve the sauce.

Cook the sauce, stirring frequently and mashing up the bread, 20 minutes. Pass the sauce through a food mill or puree it with a blender, then press it through a sieve. 

The sauce keeps, covered and refrigerated, up to a week. Reheat it to serve or spread the sauce in an oven-safe dish with fish or another ingredient and bake.

More Basque cod recipes:

Bilbao Style Cod with Red Peppers.

Salt Cod in Garlic Pil Pil Sauce.

More sauces to serve with fish or vegetables:

Romesco Sauce.

Red Chile Sauce (Mojo Picón)

Galician Ajada Sauce.

Piquillo Pepper Alioli.

VEGETABLE SOUP—HOW TO STEP UP YOUR GAME

The secret to better vegetable soup: double the quantity of olive oil.

I’m big on soup. While the weather stays cold, I make a new pot of soup a couple times a week: Last week there were turkey-mushroom-barley; black bean-green chile-vegetable, and puree of broccoli, cauliflower and cheese. My go-to favorite soup is an all-vegetable soup, a Spanish take on minestrone, with beans, lots of different vegetables and either pasta or a grain. My soups, some vegetarian, some not, are delicious, satisfying.

But I just stepped up my soup game. I came across a recipe clipping for Niçoise Vegetable Soup (Gourmet, June 1977) that called for a half-cup of olive oil, eight cups of water and about 10 cups vegetables and legumes. The soup was finished with a pistou made with another ½ cup of olive oil. That’s more than twice as much oil as I’ve been using in vegetable soup. What a revelation! The results were about twice as good as my regular soup.

Picking kale from the garden for soup.

Today’s soup is made with vegetables I’ve got in the garden and the fridge. There’s always onions or leeks, carrots and celery. I’m picking kale from the garden. Towards the end of cooking time, I’ll add diced potatoes, squash and zucchini, vegetables that would turn to mush if cooked longer. At the very end, I add a handful of broccoli florets for a crisp finish.  

Slice, dice or julienne the vegetables? It’s your choice. If you shred or cut them in julienne matchsticks, you can call it sopa juliana. Personally, I like the veggies diced. I like to chop the onions finely (food processor avoids the tears) and melt them in the olive oil. 

Slice, dice or shred the veggies?

Vegetable choices. (8-10 cups of diced vegetables) Onions, Leeks, Carrots, Turnips, Celery, Celery root, Rutabaga, Squash, Zucchini, Shallots, Red and/or green bell pepper, Kale, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Escarole, Green beans, Fava beans, Peas, Chard, Spinach, Potatoes, Beets.

Legumes. I have cooked black-eyed peas in the freezer (cooked in quantity for New Year’s), so they’re the legume of choice. Any cooked (or canned) beans can be used: cannellini beans, butter beans, black or pinto beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, lentils. A Spanish home cook might use leftover chickpeas, vegetables and soup stock from a previous day’s cocido for a tasty and quick vegetable soup.

Herbs and spices. The Spanish manifestation of vegetable soup usually is flavored with pimentón (paprika), either regular, not smoked, or smoked pimentón de la Vera. Smoked pimentón is especially good in vegetarian soups. Parsley and maybe a bay leaf are the principal herbs. In the winter, when fresh herbs are slim pickings, I like to use dried basil. No, it’s nothing like fresh basil, but it gives an appetizing sweetness to the vegetable mélange. Herbs (fresh or dried) and spices to use: oregano, basil, sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, pimentón, chile powder, cumin, ras el hanout, curry powder—

Choose a carb. Vegetable soup needs a grain or another carbohydrate to make it more substantial. Whole grains such as barley or brown rice are terrific, because they don’t overcook. Or, double the quantity of diced potato. I like soup pasta such as small elbow macaroni. If the soup is going to be made and reheated over several days (perfect for a household of one or two persons), I cook the pasta separately and add it to each portion of soup.  

Add-ins. A big pot of soup is a good excuse to use up leftovers in the fridge. Cooked spinach, peas, green beans can get thrown in when the soup is nearly finished. Other add-ins: hummus, mashed potatoes, gravy, sausage, chorizo, ham, bacon, meatballs (raw or cooked)

Liquid. The vegetables cook in water, but, if available, chicken stock, bone broth, vegetable stock or tomato juice can be substituted for all or part of the water. 

Toppings. Finish the soup with flavorful add-ons or toppings. A few suggestions: garlic-pimentón oil (recipe below); grated cheese; alioli (garlic mayonnaise); pistou or pesto; fried garlic croutons; harissa (Moroccan chile paste); chopped hard-cooked eggs; chopped scallions; chopped fresh herbs; guindillas (pickled green chilies).

Use 1/2 cup or more of extra virgin olive oil for the soup.

And, don’t forget the secret ingredient for building a better vegetable soup: extra virgin olive oil, lots of it. Olive oil contributes flavor, texture, richness and, yes, calories. Good, healthful calories.

Serve soup accompanied by bread or toasts "buttered" with olive oil. 

Add a topping of olive oil with sliced garlic, chile, pimentón and parsley.

Vegetable Soup

Sopa de Verduras

Substitute stock or broth for all or part of the water. 

Top each serving of soup with a spoonful of spicy Golden Garlic and Pimentón Sauce. Accompany with bread or toasts. 

Serves 6.

½ cup (or more) olive oil

1 ½ cups chopped onions and/or leeks

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced celery

¼ cup chopped red bell pepper

1 teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

½ cup grated tomato pulp or crushed canned tomatoes

1 ½ cup cooked or canned beans or chickpeas

8 cups water, chicken stock or bone broth

1 ½ cups chopped kale, chard or spinach

1 bay leaf

Dried herbs, to taste

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup diced butternut squash

2 cups diced zucchini

1 cup diced potatoes

1 cup soup pasta, such as shells

Broccoli florets or sliced romano green beans

Golden Garlic and Pimentón Sauce to serve (recipe follows) 

Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the onions, leeks and garlic and sauté them on moderate heat until they begin to turn golden, 10 minutes. Add carrots, celery and red pepper and sauté 3 minutes more. Stir in the pimentón and immediately add the tomato pulp and cooked beans. Add the water, kale, bay leaf, herbs, salt and pepper. (If using water rather than stock, season with at least 1 teaspoon salt or to taste.) 

Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer, covered, until vegetables are almost tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Add the squash, zucchini and potatoes. Either cook the pasta in the soup or else cook it separately and add to the soup before serving. Bring the soup again to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are cooked, about 10 minutes. Add the broccoli or sliced green beans during the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Golden Garlic and Pimentón Sauce

Ajada para Sopa

Omit the diced ham for vegetarian soup.

¼ cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, sliced crosswise

1 red chile, sliced crosswise (or to taste)

1 tablespoon diced serrano ham

1 teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a small skillet. Fry the sliced garlic until it begins to turn golden. Do not let it brown. Add the chile and ham. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the pimentón and immediately add the vinegar. Keep the sauce warm. Immediately before using, stir in the chopped parsley. Use 1 or 2 teaspoons of the sauce for each serving of soup.

More vegetable soups:

Galician Soup with Beans and Greens.

Navarra Pork and Vegetable Soup (Garbure).

Pottage with Kale and Beans.

Mallorcan "Dry" Soup with Cabbage.

Tomato Soup with Bacon.