
Olla Cortijera de Córdoba
Region: Spain, Andalusia
Category: Stews
Season: Any
Difficulty: Easy but long cooking time
Andalusians are quite fond of cumin as a spice. The plant was brought to Spain from North Africa and entered the cuisine. The famous Spanish Arab agronomist Ibn al-'Awwam, who flourished in the twelfth century, wrote extensively about growing cumin.*
This one-pot farm meal with the distinctive smell and taste of cumin, an olla from the hilly farmlands around Córdoba, is an example of the simplest of preparations from the farmer's wife, from cocina pobre, the cuisine of the poor, although even wealthy peasants probably ate the same, or at least fed it to their farm hands. This stew can be frozen and is excellent later in the week.
[photo: Clifford A. Wright]
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Preparation Time: 3:15 hours
|
|
1. Bring the water to a boil in a stew pot. Add the drained chickpeas, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, and cumin. Reduce the heat to medium and after add the bacon after 2 hours. Cook until the chickpeas are soft, about another hour.
2. Add the cabbage to the pot and cook for 1 hour. Taste and correct the seasoning and serve.
Variation:
Note: * Ibn al-'Awwam [fl. 12th century], Kitab al-filaha. Translated as Le livre de l'agriculture. J.-J. Clément-Mullet, trans. 2nd ed. Tunis: Editions Bouslama, 1977, vol. 2, 242-44.
Posted: 01/11/2007