Caldo Gallego Galician Stew Recipes

CALDO GALLEGO

Steps:

• In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and add the ham hock, onions, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until slits of ham hock have begun to open and vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaf, 1 teaspoon of the salt, pepper, to taste, and paprika and cook for 1 minute longer. Add 9 cups of water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 1 hour. Drain the white beans and add them to the pot. Return to a simmer and continue to cook at a simmer until beans are just beginning to get tender, about 1 hour longer. Remove the ham hock and, when cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the hock and shred into bite size pieces. (Discard skin and bones.) Return the meat to the pot along with the remaining salt (or to taste), potatoes, turnip greens, and chorizo and continue to cook until beans have broken down slightly, potatoes and greens are very tender, about 1 hour longer. Remove the bay leaf and serve hot.
• Note: you may have to add a bit more water if the soup gets too thick during the lengthy cooking time.

CALDO GALLEGO (GALICIAN STEW) RECIPE

Steps:

• 1)Soak beans and smoked ham hock overnigh atleast 12 hours in lots of water in a large pot. (2)Next day pour out water and rinse beans and ham hock well, leave beans in the large pot, in a seperate pot boil ham hocks for 30 minutes, drain and rinse (this is to get rid of excess saltiness). (3)Now put ham hocks together with beans, add the "salted pork", add enough water to submerge the ham hocks and "salted pork", bring to a boil, add pork or beef meat if using cover and lower heat to medium low and simmer for 50- 60 minutes. DO NOT UNCOVER! OR IT MAY TAKE LONGER. When done turn off heat until your ready to add everything else. (4)Mean while prepare everything else that you'll need later, wash and peel potatoes, cut into large pieces, leave in cold water so they don't discolor, (5)Wash swiss chard well, cut into pieces, remove any ugly parts set aside. (6)Take the casings of the chorizo and cut into semi-thick slices, set aside along with garlic, bell pepper, onions, tomatoes and have spices on hand. (7)When stew has been cooking 50- 60 minutes, turn off like I said before (you don't wanna overcook the beans) , until ready to do the rest. (8)Make "sofrito" heat generous amounts of extra-virgin olive oil on medium heat, add chorizo slices when oil sizzles with it a bit, wait until the chorizo releases some of it's fat and infuses with the oil. Now add bell peppers and onions sautee until translucent and caramelized. (9)Add garlic and sautee until garlic is fragrant and sweet DONT LET IT BURN! Now add the grated tomato (optional) and bring to a boil, now add to the stew. Stir well, add ground cumin, extra-salt if necessary, and potatoes. Bring to a boil for 20 mintues until potatoes are tender. (10) Stir in "Swiss Chard" boil for about 5 mintes or wilted, turn of heat. (11)Here is the final stuff, take out ham hocks, and with a fork, knife and even hands, seperate into bite size pieces, so you can add some ham pieces to the stew when serving (we do this because my Dad doesnt like the soft texture of fatty ham and chewy skin neither does my sister but me, my mom, and my grandma do!) or leave whole and there and 3 lucky people can eat one all to themselves (12)Now pull out salted pork, cut into small chunks, you can throw it back in the pot for some tasty chewy fatty pork or throw it out or heat a pan with nothing on medium add it to the pan, cover with something, move around every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes until it renders it's fat, drain some fat after the 1o minutes and so on, until it is crispy. Set aside and garnish stew with this when serving. HOPE YOU ENJOY MY GRANDMOTHERS "CALDO GALLEGO! Serve with a raw salad, some crusty bread or instead of bread a nice bowl or plate of white rice on the side. Oh and if desired some dessert to top this hardy meal.

GALICIAN SOUP ( CALDO GALLEGO )

Steps:

• Cut Veal and Ham Steaks into Chunks.
• Mince Onion and Garlic
• Peel and Cut Potatoes into Cubes.
• Skin and cut Choizo into 1/4 inch round slices.
• In a Large Soup pot
• Add the beans with their liquid.
• Then place all remaining ingredients.
• Mix well and let Cook over low flame for about 3 hours.
• Serve in Soup Bowls with Toated Italian Bread for dunking on the side.

CALDO GALLEGO (GALICIAN BEAN, MEAT AND BIG LEAF SOUP)

Steps:

• Soak white beans overnight. Next day, drain and refill with cold water to cover by 4cms.
• In a large pot add a little EVOO, med heat up, and add pancetta slab and bone. Cook until bone and slab look like they are rendering juices and starting to brown a bit.
• Add bay leaves, ham knuckle, and fill with water to cover the smoked knuckle. Bring to boil and leave on rolling boil/simmer for about 75mins or less (check ham knuckle to make sure it stays submerged, add more water if needed).
• In the meantime bring to boil the white beans and cook on moderate heat for just 15mins. Drain and set aside (This is to give the beans a helping start as they won't cook quickly later when added to the salty/meaty broth that will become from above).
• Back at the big pot (after about 75mins), remove all the meats and bone and set aside.
• Add the white beans to the big broth pot, bring to the boil and simmer at a medium-high flame. How long to cook? This is the most important step! The beans must be cooked to nearing al-dente. Any further they will turn to mush, too early and they will remain bullets. Judge well because the final step will be to add the vegetables/potatoes and chorizos at the right time because there are 30 more minutes left of cooking. So keep checking!
• Whilst the beans are simmering grab a frying pan, add some EVOO and start frying the onion/leek slices, add the ñora peppers and after 10mins add the chopped garlic, turn down heat and continue cooking on low heat until onion/leeks are nearing to brown, but not there yet. Turn off heat, allow to cool then stir in the paprika. Remove ñora peppers, pull off stems. In a blender add the ñoras and a cup of the broth from large pot (cooled) and whizz up into a thick sauce. Add this back into the frying pan and stir to mix.
• When the removed meats have cooled slice off any excess meat, chop up into bite sized pieces and leave aside for the mo.
• When the beans are nearing al-dente, add the chopped carrots, the fried onion or leek/garlic/ñora/paprika sauce from the frying pan, and the whole chorizos to the big pot. Cook on moderate heat. After 10 mins add potato chunks. Add the turnips (if using) 5 mins later then after another 5 mins add chopped greens and the chopped meats and continue to cook until potatoes, and turnips (if musing) are cooked, but not falling apart.
• Check the beans, are they now cooked? If so turn heat to a bare minimum uncovered and hook out the chorizos. When cool enough to handle chop into chunks and add back into the pot for a few mins.
• Ladle into individual bowls and serve with country bread