Camino Recipe: Potaje Gallego – Galician Stew
Missing the flavours of the Camino de Santiago? Looking for a tasty recipe for Easter? This week, our friends from FoodFiesta.ie share the recipe for a delicious Galician stew with cod, chickpeas and spinach. It is a meat-free dish, perfect for Good Friday!
What you will need:
(Serves 6 people)
– 600g chickpeas (100g per person)
– 2 fillets of fresh cod with skin on (approx 300g)
– 300 g spinach (frozen)
– 2 medium onions, chopped and 1 small onion, whole
– 3 large carrots, chopped and 2 small carrots, whole
– 1 courgette
– 1 clove garlic
– 1 teaspoon hot paprika
– 4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
– 2 teaspoons flour
– 1 bay leaf
– 2 boiled eggs
Method:
Soak chickpeas overnight (at least 12 hours) in cold water. After soaking, strain chickpeas and place in a tall saucepan of warm water (approximately 2 inches above level of chickpeas) with the bay leaf, the whole clove of garlic (unpeeled), the small whole onion and two small whole carrots. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Test the chickpeas –they should still be firm, not hard– as they will be cooked more later on and will soften up then. Remove from heat and let sit.
In a separate saucepan (where the “potaje” will be cooked), add extra virgin olive oil (enough to cover base of pot) and warm slightly. Then add the finely chopped garlic (remove from heat if browning) and finely chopped onion, diced carrots and diced courgette and sauté for 5 minutes over a low flame.
In the same saucepan, add the hot paprika powder and stir. Stirring continuously, add the flour and pour in some stock from the boiled chickpeas. Keep stirring and add most of the remaining chickpea stock (set pot of chickpeas aside) until the liquid is smooth and creamy in texture. Cook over a medium flame and add cod (cut into chunks of 2 to 3cm, with skin on).
Increase to high heat and boil for 5 minutes –checking constantly– taste and add more salt if necessary. If the mixture thickens at this point, add more stock.
Add the spinach and leave it to boil on medium heat for a further 3 minutes. Then add the diced, boiled eggs and continue to simmer (still medium heat) for a couple of minutes more.
Then add the chickpeas to the main pot and keep on a low heat for a final 10 minutes.
Remove from heat. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
*Notes:
To speed up the first part of the process, if you like, you can cook your chickpeas in a pressure cooker or use a couple of jars/tins of shop-bought cooked chickpeas. Looking for authentic Spanish hot paprika and good quality dried chickpeas? Check out the pantry and pulses sections of the Food Fiesta online shop.
¡Felices Pascuas! Happy Easter!
