The recipe for mountain stew (cocido montañés in Spanish) is known in the whole country, but it is especially common in Cantabria. The main difference between this stew and the others is the ingredients that it uses: beans instead of chickpeas and the use of cabbage. The great calories that it contains make it perfect for the winter days and furthermore, it is delicious! To complete this dish we are going to use Appellation of Origin chorizo from La Rioja. Shall we start?
- The first thing we should do is to leave the previous day the beans in cold water so they wet.
- The next day we will include in a big pot the beans, the chorizos, bacon, ribs and knuckle. We should add water covering the whole ingredients but not exceeding because this could hide the flavor of the aliments.
- Before it starts to boil (we will notice because of the vapor) we should add a glass of clod water to stop it. We will repeat this action two more times.
- After these three breaks, we will let the stew to boil for an hour and thirty minutes, so the meat tenders.
- By the other side we should start cleaning the cabbage leaf by leaf. Then we will remove the stems, we will only use the leaves. We will roll them and cut them in small slices.
- We will also square the potato.
- We will add these two ingredients and the black pudding into the pot and let it boil for 30 minutes more.
- During this time we will start cooking the fried sauce. In a pan we add few spoons of olive oil and leave an squared onion to poach. Once it is golden we include the garlic and a small spoon of paprika.
- After the 30 minutes we will include the pudding and the fried sauce. We will leave it for 30 minutes more.
- We serve it warm.
Advise: It is better to let the stews to settle for a day so they reach a greater taste. We suggest you to eat it a day after cooking it.
