Ingredients for the escudella stew:
– 1/4 chicken
– 1 cut of veal flank (or rabbit, for example)
– 2 pork feet
– 1 piece of streaky bacon
– 1 pork ear
– 1 pork snout
– 1 chunk of ham
– 2 white botifarra sausages
– 2 black botifarra sausages
– 1 spicy chorizo sausage
– 1/2 kg dried chickpeas
– 1 head of cabbage
– 4 large carrots
– 4 potatoes
– Baking soda
Ingredients for the meatball:
– 1 kg ground veal
– 1/4 kg ground pork
– Wheat flour
– Garlic, finely minced
– Parsley, chopped
– Egg
– Salt
– Black pepper
For the soup:
“Galets” (elbow-shaped pasta shells)
Preparation:
The day before you plan to make the dish, soak the chickpeas in a pot full of cold water with some baking soda. Thoroughly clean all the meats, ridding them of any remaining blood, fat, hairs or feathers. Fill a large cooking pot with water and then add the chicken, veal, ham, bacon, and the pork ear, snout and feet to the pot. Bring the pot to a boil for at least 1 ½ hours. It is important to remove the foam from the surface of the pot as the meats cook. Meanwhile, cook the chickpeas separately and prepare the meatball. Place the chickpeas into a pressure cooker with a great deal of water and bit of salt. Cover well. Once steam begins to come up through the valve of the pot, it should take approximately another 45 minutes for the chickpeas to be well cooked.
For the meatball:
Mix the ground pork and veal and add in the egg, salt, pepper, garlic and parsley. Combine all the ingredients, kneading them until they are thoroughly mixed together. If you see that the mixture needs to be a bit more compact, you may add in a small amount of breadcrumbs. Shape the mixture into an elongated meatball and sprinkle it well with flour. Add the chickpeas and the meatball into the pot with the meats. Here it is very handy to place the chickpeas into a mesh before adding them to the pot, as you will need to remove them later. Let the pot boil for another 1 ½ hours. After this time, add in the carrots, potatoes and cabbage, which should also be protected inside of a mesh, as should the white botifarra sausages. You will need to allow the pot to boil for 45 minutes more; however, after the first 30 minutes, add in the black botifarra sausage and allow the entire pot to cook for 15 minutes. Here it is important not to overcook the botifarra sausage, as it tends to break very easily. Prepare the chorizo sausage broth in a separate pot. To do so, take some of the broth from the main pot and boil the chorizo in it for 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate cooking pot, boil the galet pasta for three minutes less than the time recommended by the pasta manufacturer. Separate the meat and vegetables from the broth. In a clean pot, place the strained broth and the partially boiled galet pasta. Finish the cooking process for the pasta and serve as a soup immediately. You may wish to serve it with grated parmesan cheese and a cup of the broth from the chorizo sausage on the side. Next, lay out the meats and vegetables neatly in two trays, in a way that allows each person can select the pieces and ingredients he/she likes best. We recommend adding a bit of olive oil and salt to taste.
Bon appétit!