Title: Cocido (Spanish)
Categories: Ethnic Soup
Yield: 1 Servings

1	lb	Good stew meat in one piece
1/4	lb	Bacon in one piece
1		Chorizo
1		Soupbone with marrow
1	lb	Chickpeas or garbanzos,
		Soaked overnight
4	lg	Or 5 tomatoes, peeled
		Saffron
		Salt and pepper
		FOR THE LAVISH VERSION:
1/2	lb	Uncooked ham in one piece
1		Blood sausage in one piece
1/2		Chicken in one piece
SAUCE
5	md	Tomatoes, cut in quarters
2		Fat cloves of garlic
2	tb	Olive oil
1/2	ts	Cumin, comino, seed, or
		1 ts. oregano
		Cooked rice for the broth
		Cooked green vegetables:
		String beans, cabbage,
		Spinach

Wash all the meats and soupbone with hot water. Put all the meats in a pot of boiling water and let come back to a hard boil. Skim off the unsavory foam. Turn the heat down so the pot just simmers. Continue to skim off the foam until there is none. After 3/4 hour add the soaked chickpeas, which have been just rinsed with hot water. Simmer for about 3 hours or until the garbanzos are tender. This will vary according to the age of the garbanzos and it is impossible to tell that until they are cooked. About 1 hour before the end add the ppotatoes. Remove the soupbone, leaving the marrow in the stew. Add the salt.

To make the sauce, simmer together all the ingredients until thickened and saucelike, at least 3/4 to 1 hour. Strain and serve separately. Serves 6-8.

Note: In Spain, as elsewhere, the ingredients of a cocido, or stew, vary from family to family and depend much upon the tastes, finances, and even the whim of the individual cook. Julio de Diego, who likes to cook as much as he likes to paint, says that this is a good, everyday version. For occasions when one wishes to be more lavish add uncooked him in one piece, a blood sausage (available in groceries selling foreign foods and not half so revolting as it sounds to the squeamish), and half a chicken. The proper servish of this dish is very impressive. First the broth, strained from the stew and flavored with saffron, is served with a spoonful of cooked rice in each bowl and garnished with croutons fried in olive oil. The second course consists of the garbanzos drained from the stew, accompanied by a vegetable (coooked separately) such as string beans, cabbage, or spinache dressed with hot olive oil flavored with garlic. (The garlic clove is heated in the oil and discarded before pouring on the vegetable.) As the last and most important course, all the meats are arranged decoratively on a platter, the chicken in the center surrounded by the cut-up pieces of meat. A bowl or small, fat pitcher of tomato sauce is passed around so that each may add it to whatever meat is desired. In this servantless country and period the stew may be served all at once from a tureen or great casserole into large, deep bowls. If served this way the meats should be cut up in the kitchen before stransferring to the serving dish or pot.

Menu: Cocido, French bread (for mopping up juices), fruit, coffee

Source: The Peasant Cookbook, by Marian Tracy, 1955

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