Cocido madrileño (Madrilene stew)




Cocido madrileño
is a traditional chickpea-based stew from Madrid, although we can find cocidos in other parts of Spain. It´s prepared with vegetables, potatoes and meat and it´s quite popular during winter, but served year-long in restaurants.

The dish was probably created during the Middle Ages as an evolution of a Sephardic -Spanish Jewish- dish called adafaina. The importance of the Spanish Inquisition -during the 15th and 16th centuries- modified substantially the dish because people wanted to prove themselves as christians eating pork in their meals. As a result bacon, chorizo (pork sausage) or morcilla (blood sausage) were added to the dish.

The main ingredient is the chickpea -garbanzo- along with potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and turnips. Usually bone pieces are added to enrich the stew. The final touch is the bola, a meatball-like mix of ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley and other spices, which, it is said, was created as a substitute of the eggs used in the adafaina.

Foto wikipedia.org

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