MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Cocido
 Categories: Spanish, Stews, Beef, Bacon, Sausage
      Yield: 6 Servings
 
      1 lb Good stew meat in one piece
    1/4 lb Bacon in one piece
      1    Chorizo
      1    Soup bone 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 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 potatoes. 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.
  
  Note: 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 and half a chicken. The proper service 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 (cooked separately) such as string
  beans, cabbage, or spinach 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.

  But 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 transferring to the
  serving dish or pot.
  
  Source: The Peasant Cookbook, by Marian Tracy, 1955
 
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