escudella Catalana
Although the recipe is titled Escudella Catalana , this stew is a classic in Spanish cuisine, except that it varies in ingredients depending on the region. Today we will talk about the escudella i carn d'olla classic Catalan.
Forms of stew appear throughout the Spanish geography: the Basque stew, the Extremadura stew, the variations of the Galician pots, the Rioja stew, the Andalusian stew or the pringá , the one of jack, horse and king , from Burgos, the soup or bullit from the Balearic Islands, the wedding stew of seven Canarian meats, the Catalan escudella and carn d'olla , l´olla de tres abocás Valenciana, the gypsy pot of Murcia, the Madrilenian stew , the preacher dam of Aragon, all of them varieties of the same idea, although with different accents.
The Dictionary of the Royal Academy of Language defines the word pot as follows: “Vianda prepared with bacon meat, legumes and vegetables, mainly chickpeas and potatoes, to which some sausage is sometimes added and everything is cooked and seasoned together. It is in Spain the main dish of the daily meal” .
WHAT DOES THE ESCUDELLA AND MEAT D'OLLA CONSIST OF?
It is especially characterized by using a pilota , which is a large elongated meatball that once cooked is cut into slices to be distributed among the diners, made with minced meat mixed with bacon, beaten egg, breadcrumbs or breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley, and passed through flour and it browns a little before being cooked in the water that will give the broth. In addition, to make the broth, vegetables are used (carrots, turnips, celery, leeks, green cabbage, etc.) and possibly other ingredients, such as chickpeas, potatoes, black or white sausage, or different types of meat and bones that can vary depending on the the family, the region where they live, the season of the year and the occasion.
The escudella is the soup, a broth obtained by boiling all the ingredients, straining and in which some noodles and a little round rice are cooked. A variant is the escudella barrejada (mixed soup), in which some ingredients are added in small pieces to the broth. In another variant, instead of a pilota, tiny meatballs are made, the size of grapes, which are placed in the broth. The most humble variants had only a ball of butter and at most a few bones, while the richest are those reserved for major festivals, especially Christmas, which is made with galets (formerly with macaroni). In Cadaquès, bell peppers cooked over embers (escalivados) are added.
CHRISTMAS BOWL
A variety of this dish, the Galets soup either Escudella de Nadal , is the usual first dish of the Christmas meal (the second is usually capon, or stuffed turkey). In its preparation, a paste called cookies (her younger sisters are called conches either sharks depending on the commercial brand) that stands out for being of a considerable size. Contains a pilot minced meat, four evangelists (four types of meat: pork, beef, lamb and chicken or capon) and the seven sacraments : chick peas or beans, potatoes, turnips, carrot, celery, green cabbage and parsnip.
A classic is to fill the gallets with the pilota meat (minced beef) and cook them with the meat inside. They can also be cooked with cheese inside.
And now let's go with the recipe for the escudella (this is my family's version and I'm sure that some ingredient or method of preparation varies in each house)
Escudella Catalana
Ingredients
For 10 people:
VEGETABLES
- 2 leeks
- 200g carrots
- 1 or 2 turnips
- 2 sticks of celery
- 400g potatoes
- 150 g dried chickpeas (soaked overnight)
- some cabbage leaves
- a piece of parsnip
MEAT
- a chicken carcass
- 1 chicken neck
- 1 chicken leg (before you have to scald them in boiling water to clean them well, they will give a lot of gelatin to the broth)
- 1/4 chicken
- 1/2 pork foot
- 1/2 pig ear
- 2 pork backbones
- ham bone (not rancid)
- 300 g of black sausage and white sausage
- Calf leg bones
- Knee
- 250 g beef brisket
- 200 g beef (shank)
FOR THE PILOT
- 200 g minced beef
- 200 g minced pork
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 1 garlic
- parsley
FOR THE GALETS SOUP
- galets or shark pasta
HOW THE ESCUDELLA IS MADE
- We put about 10 liters of cold water in a very large pot .
- We add the biggest bones and we put to boil, as soon as it breaks the boil we lower the fire so that small bubbles come out but do not boil in spurts.
- Let's go foaming the surface with the help of a slotted spoon, removing all the impurities that rise from the bones.
- Add the small bones (chicken, veal, ear and leg) , when it comes to a boil again, add the drained chickpeas (remember that they must have been soaked overnight.
- We also add the clean and peeled vegetables except potato and cabbage .
- We cover the pot but not completely, and leave boil for 3 hours over medium heat.
- In the meantime we can prepare the pilot:
* Mix the pork and beef, the slightly beaten eggs, the breadcrumbs, the garlic, a little salt and pepper and the parsley, make two or three balls and coat them lightly in flour. We booked.
- We add the potatoes and cabbage to the broth
- We add the butifarras but remove them after 3-5 minutes and reserve .
- Add the meat balls and let them cook for about 20 minutes. We will have the broth ready!
- Carefully remove the meat and vegetables and place them in a bowl.
- The ideal is to prepare the broth a few days in advance so that it can rest in the fridge (a layer of upper fat will form that we must remove and discard).
- To boil the pasta, the ideal is to do it in a little broth, although it can also be boiled in running water.
- We serve the galets soup with the broth very hot and in a separate source we arrange the meats and in another the vegetables.
- A little trick to avoid having to go fishing for the chickpeas is to wrap them in a tied gauze to cook them.
- You can also freeze the broth if it is left over.
Merry Christmas!