11th Ruta de Cocido Madrileño
If you say “Madrid” you say COCIDO MADRILEÑO!
You can’t live or visit Madrid without tasting its most traditional dish: a rich and tasty stew made with meat, vegetables, and chickpeas.
It may not sound that special, stews are usually not complicated recipes, but the experience is something else!
For the months of February and March, Madrid is putting away its worries and putting on the stove in celebration of it´s most emblematic and famous dishes for the 11th “Ruta De Cocido.”
This chickpea based stew has origins going back to the middle ages and possibly of Sephardic origins as a Shabbat evening meal.
The Castilian version would use ample amounts of pork by using lard, bacon, chorizo and morcilla to make it one of the most recognisable and staple parts of Madrid cuisine by the 19th and 20th centuries and remains popular to this day.
The Ruta del Cocido Madrileño is the best plan to combat the cold in Madrid, which is being held from February 1 to March 31.
A gastronomic route that takes in many restaurants that specialise in the dish in the capital and the wider region.
This year the Route´s ambassador for Cocido Madrileño is Luis Suárez de Lezo, President of the Madrid Academy of Gastronomy.
A total of 24 establishments are featured in the route and include some of Madrid´s most celebrated of traditional restaurants including La Bola, Casa Carola, Los Galayos and Lhardy in Madrid and others in the province including Alpedrete, Alcalá de Henares, Lozoya and Alalpardo.
For each diners will be able to enjoy each establishment´s version of the stew , generally served in portions of three parts (soup, chickpeas and vegetables, and meats).
Diners will then have the opportunity to vote for their favourites and the winners announced in April.
The Madrileño Cocido Route is the perfect plan to enjoy our most typical dish and fight the cold with the blow of a spoon.
How To Prepare the Perfect Cocido Madrileño by Isotta
Ingredients for 4 people
300 gr. Chickpeas
- 1/4 chicken
- 250 gr. Morcillas (beef black pudding)
- 1 tip of ham
- 1 ham bone
- 1 veal bone with marrow
- 1 veal knee bone
- 150 gr. beaten bacon
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 potatoes
- 1 chorizo
- 1/2 cabbage
- 150 gr. pasta noodles
- Water
- olive oil
- Salt
- 2 cloves
Recipe:
- Soak the chickpeas the day before, then drain and reserve.
- Remove the skin from the onion and pierce it with the cloves. Clean the vegetables, veal, bones, and chorizo.
- Place the meat, bones, chicken, and ham in a big pot. Cover with cold water, a little salt, and cook over medium heat. When it starts to boil, skim and let it cook for about an hour, removing the foam with a slotted spoon.
- Then add the chickpeas, the onion with the cloves, cover, and cook for another hour. Then add chopped potatoes and the carrots, cover again and let it cook for the last half an hour.
- In a separate pot, cook the cabbage.
- Strain the broth from the stew (and reserve the rest), add the noodles, and cook.
Serve the soup first and, on a separate plate, serve the chickpeas with the meat and vegetables.
- IMPORTANT: While cooking the stew, make sure you also add water as it evaporates so that the stew doesn’t dry out.
- TIP: If you don’t like a very fatty broth, cook the morcillas (black pudding) and sausages in a separate saucepan.
- PRO TIP: put the chickpeas in a cooking net before adding them to the stew, so you can remove them easily at the end and serve them separately as tradition wants.
- VARIATIONS: Don’t be afraid to change the tradition and personalize your cocido: don’t you like noodles? Skip them and enjoy a plain broth, or substitute them with rice, bulgur, or quinoa.
