Oniony roast lamb

Posted on February 22, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Not only does our little fireplace keep us warm throughout winter, but it also furnishes us with an extra oven, which I use constantly in the cold months for pizzas, rice and meat dishes and roast veggies. Today I cooked a Iaia-style leg of lamb with caramelised onions in it, and it behaved beautifully, staying really hot for the first half an hour or so and then gradually dropping down to about 160ºC by which time the lamb was perfect.
Our Iaia is not a fan of cold roast meat, but I am, so I cook a leg for 2 people to make sure there is plenty left over for salads and sandwiches. And always use more onions and garlic than seems necessary, because they caramelise down to so little and taste so good that there is never enough!

What you need:
1 leg of lamb
6 onions
a head of garlic
a little white wine
a little olive oil
salt and pepper

What you do:
Heat your oven to about 210ºC. Roughly chop all of the onions into your baking dish. Break up the head of garlic into cloves without peeling them and chuck them in too. This way, the garlic cooks inside its jacket, and you get an amazingly fragrant paste to squish over your meat or mix into the juices for gravy deluxe.

Lay the leg of lamb on its oniony bed and season well with salt and pepper; add any herbs you fancy too. Pour about ¾ glass of white wine into the tray and drizzle a little olive oil over the lamb – if your joint has been (sadly) deprived of its fat, add extra and massage into the meat.
Cover with foil and pop into the hot oven. After half an hour, reduce the heat to about 170ºC (the exact temperature will depend on how fiercely your oven burns – you want the lamb to cook for two hours without frazzling, so adjust as you see fit).

I take the foil off after the first hour and spoon some onion/wine/lamb juice over the meat. If the onions appear to be either burning or sticking, it means you have not put in enough liquid, so add some quickly.

We like our lamb brown right to the bone, and the two-hour roasting time ensures both that and the scrummiest onions ever. They will be gloriously golden, the garlic softly squishy and the meat tender, with a darkened crusty exterior.

Leaving it to rest is always the best, but there are times (like today) when hunger gets the better of me, and it goes straight to the plate.

Serve with: greens and a red

Putxero Day 2 – arros al forn (oven-baked rice)

Posted on February 8, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Although this rice uses exactly the same ingredients as yesterday, it has it’s own distinct character because everything dries out a little more in the oven and the flavours intensify.

First off then, pop your oven on to about 180ºC. It needs to be hot by the time you have the rice ready to go in so the stock doesn’t get a chance to go off the boil.

Because we want dry (but not horribly dried out,) rice today, we have to measure the next bit pretty carefully. If you are cooking this in a ceramic or terracotta dish, the stock-to-rice ratio is exactly 2:1. If you use a metal baking dish, you will need a little more stock, and if you cook wholemeal rice, you should increase it to 3:1. I used one and a half glasses of rice and 3 glasses of stock today. It is also really important to heat your stock to boiling before pouring it over the rice; otherwise, it will all take a good while to start cooking, and things will go all gluggy. Best to get your stock in a pan and on the heat while you deal with the rice and other bits.

Pour your rice into the base of a large, shallow terracotta dish (or a baking tray) and cut however much leftover meat, veg, chickpeas and pork fat you want to decorate your rice with and into bite-sized pieces, slicing the meatball into large rounds.

Sprinkle them about however you like, but make sure that the meatball slices and the dices of fat are on top – they will brown and melt beautifully and are the bits everyone always fights over.Once you have everything ready, season to taste and pour your boiling stock over the top. Into the oven for 30 or 40 minutes – until the stock has been absorbed by the rice and the top is looking goldenly fabulous.

Serve onto plates or, if you are friendly enough with your dining companion, eat it straight from the dish, following the paella etiquette rules.

Putxero (an unashamedly omnivorous yet thrifty boil-fest) Day 1

Posted on February 7, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

January 1^st 1993: As a recent arrival to this part of the world, I had kindly been invited to celebrate the new year by eating Putxero – a very traditional, very communal meal – with the family whose apartment I was renting. Unfortunately, I was shockingly hung over, so it will come as no surprise that the sight of a very large, very wobbly lump of boiled pork fat sitting on the table in front of me, waiting to be spooned onto my own plate and then into my mouth had a somewhat adverse effect on my delicate tummy. I was gently (thankfully!) ushered to a nearby sofa and furnished with a pillow, a blanket and a cup of mint tea to recover from the shock.

Of course, Putxero (or Cocido in Castillian) is not just boiled pork fat. It is the Valencian version of the well-known Italian Bollito Misto, or the French Pot au Feu and as such has a great number of other ingredients which, when all boiled together, make the most fantastic stock I have ever tried. I have become used to the idea of eating a little fat and now fully appreciate the incredible flavour it gives to the other meat and vegetables. I always take a small piece and smoosh it into the rest of my plateful as though it were butter in a mash.

Oscar’s grandmother cooked putxero every Thursday of the year. Most families will do so once a week or at least every fortnight. And it is Iaia’s Christmas Day lunch of choice. Like paella, there are many variations to the ingredients, but unlike paella, these variations occur from house to house, not town to town. I tend to put a lot more vegetables in than Iaia, and she will now always pop at least a turnip in if she knows I am eating with her. It is a long, long cook, but you don’t really have to do anything except make sure nothing boils over. This morning I started cooking at 8 a.m., went out for two hours mid-morning, leaving the heat on very low, then came back and finished everything off for lunch at 1:30. This extended cooking time ensures tender meat and a broth which has had time to draw all the rich flavour out of the stock-bones.

The other wonderful thing about putxero is that it provides (at least) three excellent meals for very little money. I will show you all three over the next couple of days.

DAY ONE:

What you need:
MEAT
a piece of garreta (beef calf muscle)
several stock bones (pork and beef, include a shin bone with some meat on it)
a piece of broiler chook
a generous piece of pork back fat
a putxero meatball, which is made of:
minced pork
lard
breadcrumbs
cinnamon
egg
salt
parsley
VEGETABLES
cardoon
potatoes
swede
carrots
flat beans
sweet potato
(some people add parsnip, but I don’t like it)
OTHER STUFF
chickpeas (soaked overnight)
salt
rice
water

What you do:
Place the chickpeas, bones, beef, chook and cardoon in a saucepan large enough to hold everything and boil comfortably (mine is a heavy-based, 8-litre, stainless steel beauty). Leave the fat, meatball and veggies until later so they don’t disintegrate. Cover generously with water – I used 3 litres today, but sometimes go up to 5 – and bring to a boil. Skim all rising scum off the surface at least twice until your water boils cleanly, then turn the heat down to a minimum, cover and leave to simmer for three or four hours.
I usually put about a tablespoon of salt in while the bones and meat are boiling, but you can add it after everything is cooked to make sure it isn’t too salty if you prefer.

After about two hours, add the peeled and halved turnip, the fat and the meatball. Then, when there is about an hour to go before lunch, peel your other vegetables and add them. Chop the sweet potato, but leave everything else whole. Add water if things are poking out and salt to taste. If you have read other posts, you may remember that white rice is not very popular here, so we also add a little orange food colouring at this point. Optional of course!

When you are almost ready for lunch, you need to decant enough stock to cook the first course of rice. For three people, I use about a glass and a half of rice (six of the handfuls you can see in the photo above, plus one for the pot) and roughly three times that of stock. Actually, this recipe is absolutely imprecise and relies wholly on your judgment – remember that the rice ought to be served in broth, not dry. Add a touch of cinnamon and a little parsley if you have it, and boil away for about 17 minutes, or until cooked. Place in bowls and set on the table to cool slightly while you get the rest of the lunch ready.Strain off the rest of the stock for tomorrow and arrange the meat and vegetables on a large platter. Once you’ve eaten the rice, each person serves themselves what they like most. The shot below shows what I chose today (note, no chickpeas – Oscar eats them all!). You should be aware that it is perfectly polite to mash things up a bit, mixing the fat into the potato and getting a good bit of everything into each mouthful. Delicious and fun.Once you’ve finished eating, store the stock and leftover pieces somewhere cool overnight (in the fridge if it’s summer), separating and discarding the bones and making sure the stock is well-strained.

Serve with: when Oscar was a teenager, he would eat bread with this! Nowadays, we settle for a glass of wine.

Potage (thick vegetable and chickpea soup)

Posted on February 2, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

One of Iaia’s great winter staples, this thick vegetable soup can take just about anything you throw at it. She often puts small pieces of diced Serrano ham, or whichever vegetable looks good at the greengrocers. You can use vegetable stock for a vegetarian soup, but I happened to have chicken stock in the freezer so this recipe was made with that.

Chickpeas are somewhat contentious in our household. Oscar loves them but I am a little less enamoured and tend to add far fewer than he would like (occasionally omitting them altogether, by accident, of course). However, they really do make this soup properly filling and really satisfying. We buy dried chickpeas and soak them overnight in a heap of water before adding them to any slow-cooked stew or soup for a full couple of hours at least. If you are using the canned version, pop them in at the same time as the haricot beans to heat through and absorb some of the flavours. As with most stew-like dishes, this one improves after sitting quietly overnight.

What you need for four people:
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 large (3 small) pear tomatoes
2 carrots
1 stick of cardoon if you can find it
4 medium young artichokes
250g chickpeas (pre-soak if dried)
1 small jar of white haricot beans
600ml or so of good stock
2 hard boiled eggs
salt
olive oil

What you do:
I prefer to do all the washing, chopping and grating before turning any heat on as it saves me the frustration of watching my base veggies burn because I can’t peel or chop something quickly enough (and yes, I learnt this the hard way). So, finely chop your onion and garlic, then chop the carrot and cardoon into smallish pieces and wash your spinach thoroughly. Now grate the tomatoes, discarding the skin, and last of all, peel the tough outer leaves off the artichokes, slice off the base and the leaf tips so that only tender pale artichoke, which you will cut into eighths, remains.
When everything is ready, put a generous tablespoon of good olive oil into a large, heavy-based saucepan and gently fry the onion and garlic. Once they have softened, add the tomato and stir for a couple of minutes so that it gets a bit of a fry, too – this brings out a deeper flavour than just letting it boil along with everything else. In go the carrots, cardoon and artichoke with a stir. If you are using pre-soaked chickpeas, pop them in now too.
The amount of stock you use will depend on how large your vegetables are. I used about 600ml for this particular potage. The idea is to just cover everything so that you end up with a really thick broth. Once you have put the liquid in, you can add some salt to taste and then you have to turn everything down to the lowest heat possible and let it simmer very gently for at least 2 hours. Iaia says, “fes-ho poquet a poquet” which means “do it little by little”.
Towards the end of the cooking time, add the spinach, beans and canned chickpeas, which will be happiest (and tastiest) with about 20 minutes of gentle simmering. Just before serving, roughly chop your two boiled eggs and let them sink into what should be a very good-looking pan of potage.
Serve with: bread and red

Iaia’s braised lamb shanks

Posted on January 22, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

I’ve got exams starting next Monday, so this week’s cooking is all about minimum time investment for maximum flavour. Iaia’s lamb shanks fit the bill perfectly and are what we had for lunch today. It’s true, they do require slow cooking, but you can pop them on the stove and forget about them for a couple of hours while you do something else (like study). Once cooked, they can be left off the heat in the pan to develop their flavour for hours, or even overnight. A quick reheat is all that’s needed before serving.

What you need for two people:
two lamb shanks (get the butcher to nick them like these ones here, so they cook evenly)
a head of garlic
2 well-sized onions
a large potato
salt, pepper and any herbs you fancy
a generous half glass of white wine
the same of water
a couple of tbsp of olive oil
a spoonful or so of flour

What you do:
Season your flour generously with salt and pepper, then lightly dust your lamb with the mixture. Heat the oil in a heavy-based (preferably oven-proof) saucepan or casserole dish and brown the lamb well.
While the meat is colouring, take the head of garlic apart but don’t peel the cloves, they will steam into a lovely mild pulp in their pink jackets. Peel the onions and cut them in half, then into slices (not too thinly, or they’ll burn).
When you think the meat is well browned, remove it from the pan and set aside while you toss the onion and garlic in the hot oil to soften without colouring. You will need to stir things about because you don’t want the onion colouring or burning. Adding a little salt to the onion will encourage it to release water and help avoid burning too.Pour the wine and water into the pan, settle the lamb shanks comfortably into their oniony bed, cover tightly, turn the heat down and leave everything to simmer quietly for a couple of hours. You may want to check the liquid levels every now and then, depending on how well your saucepan seals.
After about an hour and a half, peel and cut your potato into smallish pieces, dropping them around the lamb. Cover and simmer again until the totties are cooked through. Then switch everything off until about 20 minutes before you want to eat (or continue straight onto the next step).While you are steaming any accompanying vegetables, finish the lamb off by putting it under the grill, making sure it isn’t too close to the heat source. This will brown the potatoes and give your melting meat a nice dark crusty exterior.

Serve with: steamed greens

Paella

Posted on January 20, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Ask anyone about Spanish food and it is pretty likely they will wax lyrical about paella. It is a fantastic dish and even though we eat it just about every Sunday, I never grow tired of it. Seasonal and regional varieties abound. Near the coast it is usually cooked with seafood but we live inland, so our typical ingredients include chicken, rabbit and locally produced vegetables. In January, cauliflower is at its best, so we do a cauliflower, spring garlic and pork version. In March the broad beans are just tender little blips and mix beautifully with artichokes for our favourite spring paella.

The way paella is cooked varies slightly from town to town – even from house to house. For example, just a kilometre away from where we live, they fry the rice before adding the stock, something we never do. The one thing that everyone agrees on is that you need a good, heavy caldero or paella dish like the ones pictured here, and plenty of experience to be able to produce a perfect paella, especially if you are cooking it over an open fire.
Some say that it is impossible to make a decent paella anywhere but here in Valencia (the local giant paella makers Galbis go so far as to take everything – even their own water – with them wherever they go to try to emulate the local flavour as closely as possible), but you can have a pretty good go and with a bit of practice will be enjoying a truly fabulous rice dish, even if it doesn’t taste exactly the same as what we have here.
Cooking over an open fire can be really tricky, even for seasoned paella cooks, so see if you can get your hands on one of these paella rings – they plug into a gas bottle and give really good control over the flames. For two people you might get away with cooking the paella in a large frying pan, but ideally you need a caldero.
Although serving paella on plates is perfectly acceptable it is more authentic to gather your chairs around and eat directly from the caldero. It’s fun as long as everyone follows the basic paella-eating rules:
Mentally divide the paella into pie-slices for each person. You are not allowed to eat from anyone else’s slice or break the barrier between your slice and the person next to you without permission. Interestingly, the size of this barrier is a pretty accurate indication of the relationship between neighbouring eaters. The smaller it is, the closer they are.
If there is something you don’t want in your slice, you can flick it gently into the centre with the handle end of your spoon (never the bowl). Start eating from the edge and work your way inwards dragging the rice towards the rim with your spoon and squashing the spoonful flat against the inner wall of the pan to avoid dropping grains of rice all over the place.

Paella with cauliflower, pork and ajos tiernos

Oscar’s uncle Rafa is usually in charge of cooking Sunday lunch but today he was otherwise engaged so my father-in-law Eduardo took up the long-handled spoon. It was unbelievably windy, so an open fire was out of the question. We huddled in the shed and cooked the paella over a gas flame. Not exactly picturesque but unbelievably good all the same! We used a kilo and a quarter of rice, enough for about 12-15 people. As Eduardo points out, the amount you cook depends on who is eating, how much people nibble beforehand and how much you want left over for later. It is almost impossible to give accurate measurements for the ingredients, I have recorded what we used today but every paella will be slightly different. The amount water is the hardest thing to get right and trial and error is an unavoidable part of becoming a proficient paella chef!
Cauliflower is at its best right now and the normal accompanying vegetable is what we call ajos tiernos. They are sort of like spring onions but in garlic. I have no idea if these are available outside Spain – spring onions and normal garlic are NOT the same and would not work here – best to just leave them out if you can’t find them.

What you need:

200ml olive oil
1½kg pork rib in bite-sized pieces
a bunch of ajos tiernos cut into 3cm lengths*
a medium-sized cauliflower broken into florets
4 pear tomatoes, grated (discard skin)
2 capsicums torn into pieces
1¼ kg rice
250g chickpeas, soaked and pre-boiled
sweet paprika
orange food colouring
salt
*you will have to add the pieces according to size so that the smaller pieces don’t burn. First the thickest white parts, then the thinner white parts and finally the green sections.

What you do:
Set the caldero on the gas rings and make sure it is level. Pour in the oil and heat. Add pork and brown well. Lightly fry the capsicum until it softens slightly then remove and set aside. Season the meat. Add the thickest pieces of the ajos tiernos and fry for about 30 seconds. Follow with the smaller sections and then about 30 seconds later the thin green parts. Pop the cauliflower in and stir well to coat everything with a little oil. A long handled spoon or a pair of long tongs is essential for this if you are using a large caldero. When everything is sizzling away nicely, add the tomato to deglaze the pan. Fry slightly then add a spoonful of sweet paprika. Stir and cook for about half a minute, taking care not to burn the spice. Now it’s time to put the first lot of water in. Pour it in until it reaches the screws on the side of the caldero. I think we put in about 2½ litres today, adding a little later after the first boil. It’s a good idea to keep seasoning as you go – Eduardo says “better to add a little salt five times than a lot twice”. Check everything is comfortably under water and bring to the boil. This initial cooking period will soften the vegetables and tenderise the meat. It also gives the cook a chance to grab a beer and some olives or cheese!
Things should be looking pretty well cooked after 15 minutes or so boiling. That means it is time to get ready to add the rice. Top the water up to the screws again (when you stand a spoon up in the middle of the pan, the liquid should reach about half-way up the bowl – see the photo) and season with a little more salt. Add your food colouring, pop the chick peas in and give everything a final, gentle stir. Once you put the rice in you can just gently poke things into place, but any major spoon action is forbidden. Gently lay your fried capsicum pieces over the top of everything and then get the water boiling nicely again. Pour in the rice, making sure it is spread evenly around the pan. Use a spoon to push and poke any visible grains under the water and off the vegetables but don’t stir! Rice needs to dance as it cooks so that it doesn’t go all gluggy and sticky. Bring the water up to a steady, rolling boil. Try the stock for salt remembering that the flavours will become more concentrated as all the water evaporates.
The rice we use here takes about 20 minutes to cook through by which time all the liquid should have disappeared. You can’t add water after it’s started cooking so you need to control the flames carefully. If it looks as though there is too much water, turn up the heat. Too little water and you will need to turn the flames right down and, if necessary, cover everything with some tinfoil to let the steam help the rice cook through. If things go to plan, your rice should absorb all of the liquid and form a crusty, caramelised layer underneath. This is called socarrat and everyone will want some.
Once all the water has evaporated and your rice is cooked, take the pan off the heat and, if you can bear to wait, leave it to cool for about 10 minutes before serving onto plates or, Valencian style, eating directly from the pan. This last option requires special knowledge of paella-eating etiquette (see above).

Serve with: wine in winter, beer or icy sangría in summer…

Carxofes farcides (stuffed artichokes)

Posted on January 13, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

This would have to be my favourite artichoke recipe. Iaia and I cooked a double quanitity (24 artichokes) today for a family lunch, so don’t be put off by the sheer size of everything you see here.
To serve as a main course for four people, simply halve all of the ingredients and use a deep frying pan with a lid instead of the industrial saucepan you see here in the photos. The important thing is that the artichokes fit snugly in a single layer. And please, don’t skimp on the oil – there isn’t any other fat in the recipe, and you need to be generous to make sure it tastes fabulous!

What you need for the stuffing:
500g lean minced beef
500g minced pork
50g pine nuts
2 eggs, beaten
2 small slices of stale bread, soaked in…
…½ glass of milk
a good bunch of parsley, finely chopped
salt, pepper and ground nutmeg to taste

What you need for the gravy:
2 large onions, roughly chopped
2 or 3 carrots, roughly chopped
4 or 5 pear tomatoes halved
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
a small bunch of parsley
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sweet paprika
750ml of good chicken or vegetable stock
75g whole raw almonds
salt to taste

Other ingredients:
24 artichokes
250ml olive oil
8 hard-boiled eggs
4 more carrots
extra stock
a large bowl of acidulated water

What you need to do:
Prepping the stuffing: If you can manage it, it is best to make the stuffing mixture the day before you cook the dish itself. This will ensure that it has the perfect texture – not too dry, not too sloppy. Simply put all of the stuffing ingredients into a large bowl and mix well by hand. The mixture should feel a little loose at this stage. Cover with cling film and let rest in the fridge overnight.

Prepping the artichokes: Have your bowl of acidulated water to hand; you will have to plop the prepped chokes into it, so they don’t go all grey and ugly. Trim the tough outer leaves from the artichokes, cut off most of the stem and then trim any very green parts off the base. Slice off the green leaf tips and use your thumbs to open the artichoke slightly in preparation for the stuffing. Fiddling with artichokes will stain your finger brown, so you might want to wear gloves! When you have finished them all, turn them upside down onto a tea towel to drain a bit before you stuff them.Now it’s time to stuff your artichokes with however much mince fits into each one. Once stuffed, you need to dip their tops in egg and fry them top down to seal the stuffing in. Once the tops have browned, turn them on their sides and continue to fry them for a few minutes to start the cooking process, then remove them from the heat and set them aside for the moment. It’s a bit of a palaver, but once you get a rhythm going, you’ll be fine.
After stuffing, you will have some minced mixture left over. Roll into meatballs, coat in the remaining egg (as they have very little bread, we need the egg to bind them) and fry until golden. Remove and set aside.

Making the gravy:
Use the same pan and the same oil to lightly fry the raw almonds. Watch them closely and whip them out as soon as they get a blush of colour; if you leave them in, they will suddenly go dark and burn. We’ll be mixing them into the gravy later. For now, pop the parsley and garlic in and swizzle them around for a minute or so before adding the chopped onion, tomato and carrot. Fry all of this gently until the onion starts to soften. Before you add the stock, you need to fry the flour and paprika lightly. This will thicken and flavour the gravy beautifully. It’s also a good idea to remove the tomato skins at this point. Once that is done, pour in your stock. Iaia says that it is important not to put too much stock in, you can always add more, and this is gravy, not soup. You will have to judge the amount for yourself, but for this recipe, we used about 750ml at this point. Cover the pan and simmer until the veggies are soft enough to go through the blender. When you think they are, pour everything into a blender (or use a stick blender), add the almonds, and whizz it all into a smooth gravy. Adjust seasoning to your taste.

Putting it all together:
With your pan off the heat, put the 4 chopped carrots and meatballs on the base and arrange the artichokes carefully so that they all fit in one layer. The carrots and meatballs can be used to prop the artichokes up; you don’t want them rolling around and losing their insides. Pour in your blended gravy and, if necessary, add a little stock, so the artichokes are about ¾ covered. Heat on, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cover the pan and let things bubble gently for about half an hour, or until a skewer passes easily through the base of the largest artichoke. Slice your boiled eggs in half and place them over and around the artichokes to warm through, and there you have it. Stuffed artichokes in a yummy gravy!

Serve with: crusty bread for the essential oop and your favourite bubbly.

Arros d’hivern (winter rice)

Posted on January 8, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Winter is never very long or arduous in Valencia but there are some days when the cold gets right into your bones and hot, nourishing soupy rice is the only thing that will warm you up. This is one of the first things I learnt to cook here and one of my favourite rice dishes. It is also incredibly easy!

The cardet (cardoon in English) is delicious but it may be a bit hard to find. If you can’t manage to get your hands on any, just leave it out – there is no need (and no way) to substitute it.

What you need:

Two meaty pork ribs cut into pieces (650g)
A medium-sized swede
A stick of cardoon
Sweet paprika
One pear tomato
A jar of white beans
A bunch of spinach.
8 small handfuls of white rice (250g)
Enough water to cook the rice and still be soupy
Saffron or turmeric powder*
Olive oil
Salt (season as you go and to your own taste).

*People have a strange aversion to white rice here. They love to see it coloured yellow. Saffron is bloody expensive and gets lost in this dish, so I usually use turmeric. Otherwise, just leave it white.

What you do:

Peel and chop the swede into bite-sized chunks. Strip the cardoon of any leaves and if the stringy fibres are particularly thick, strip some off. Chop into mouth-friendly lengths. Slice the tomato in half and grate it onto a plate, discarding the skin. Wash the spinach thoroughly and chop or tear it a bit, so you don’t get giant leaves on your spoon when it comes to eating.
Pour enough oil into a large saucepan to coat the bottom and heat (if your pork is especially fatty, use less olive oil).
Pop the pork into the pan to brown; the browner it gets, the tastier the rice – but don’t burn it!
Put a generous pinch (or a small teaspoon) of sweet paprika into the pan and stir quickly so that it doesn’t stick and burn. After about 30 seconds, add the grated tomato and stir to deglaze the pan.
Pour in enough water to cover the pork, then add the swede and cardoon and top the water up so that everything is generously covered. Bring to a boil.
Cover the saucepan and turn the heat down. Simmer for at least two hours or until the swede and cardoon are cooked through (there are two factors to take into account here; one is that the bigger the pieces, the longer they will take to cook, and the second – and more important – factor is that the longer it simmers, the better the stock will be so no half-hour skimping!).
When the veggies are cooked** and you are ready to eat, check your seasoning and if you are happy with it, turn the heat back up to get a rolling boil before putting the rice in. Stir it around a bit and cover again, so as little stock as possible evaporates. About 10 minutes before the rice is cooked (read the packet – every rice is different, here it takes about 20 minutes to cook through), add the spinach and white beans and give everything a gentle stir.
Ladle into bowls and let sit for five minutes before eating. If you are lucky, you will get a sort of skin over the top, which is proof of a fantastic arros d’hivern!

Serve with: a full-bodied red to help warm those wintery cockles.

**I usually make a double quantity and at this point, before putting the rice, spinach and beans, take out half the stock, pork and veggies to freeze for another day. It means you will have this delicious rice in just 20 minutes next time!

Iaia's kitchen

Traditional recipes from my Valencia mother-in-law

Category Archives: Mains