Soup for a Cold Spanish Night

When I opened my freezer to make a little room for Christmas future, I found it stuffed with pork--Spanish pork to be specific.  Morcilla, lomo, a hunk of jamon (just the way I like it), serrano ham, and chorizos:  chorizos from Despaña in Soho, mini choricitos from Palacios available at Ellwood Thompson, chorizo from an old school New Jersey company called Corte, much anticipated, newly imported Iberico sausage from acorn-snuffling, wild pigs of the motherland, and finally, a whole shrink-wrapped package of contraband, homemade chorizo from my husband's great-aunt in Taramundi.

No one in their right mind needs to collect sausages (I also found some andouille and a few miscellaneous Italian sausages from the Double H farm), but it seems that, without really intending to at all, I'd assembled a comprehensive selection.  It was time to free up some space and put at least a little dent in all that porkage.

A typical Spanish meal--well, at least typical in Staten Island--is a bowl of steaming Caldo Gallego with a triangle of tortilla on the side.  Caldo is a soup thick with turnip greens, white beans, smoky ham and garlicky chorizo that can be found on the menu in most restaurants in Northern Spain.   My husband orders it every single time he sees it and is always shocked to discover that it tastes exactly the same as his family recipe.  No doubt this is because there aren't a lot of ingredients involved nor fancy preparation; you don't even need broth. No one thinks to tinker with it because it's perfect just the way is.

Arias Caldo Gallego

1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 15-oz. can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 quarts water
1/2 lb. serrano or smoked ham, cubed
1/2 lb. chorizo, left whole
1 10-oz. package frozen turnip greens, defrosted, with the water squeezed out, or about 3/4 lb. fresh greens, well-washed, de-stemmed and coarsely chopped
2 red potatoes, peeled and diced
2 t. coarse salt

Heat olive oil, and saute onion in a Dutch oven until soft. Add water and the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 45-60 minutes.  Remove chorizo and slice, and then return it to the pot. Serve with Three Potato Tortilla with Red Onion and Chorizo (recipe after the jump).

Check out running with tweezers for more fabulous soup recipes from some the best food blogs on the web during the Super Souper Challenge.

Three Potato Tortilla with Red Onion and Chorizo

2 large red potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick
1 Russet potato, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick
1 large Yellow Finn or Yukon Gold potato, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick
1 large red onion, sliced
2 Tb. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tb. vegetable oil (I use extra-light olive oil)
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 lb. chorizo, sliced into thick rounds

This is a recipe for the real culinary action/adventure lover.  Don't be put off by the following instructions.  It's easy, and dare I say it, fun too.

Heat the olive oil in a 10" skillet.  Add a single layer of potato rounds, sprinkle with salt, and top with a layer of onion.  Repeat layering procedure until all the potatoes and onions are used up. Turn heat to medium low, and with a spatula, pick up the potato slices from the very bottom of the pan and flip over.  Cover, and in a few minutes, repeat procedure.  The idea behind this is to keep the potatoes from browning (a big no-no) and instead, slowly saute them in the olive oil.  This does take careful vigilance and repeated flipping, but it's worth it, believe me.  Some of the potatoes will inevitably break up, so try to keep as many of the slices as you can intact.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat a smaller pan and add chorizo.  Heat just until chorizo begins to release its smoky oil and remove (again, you don't want to fry them or they become too hard and crunchy) to a paper towel-lined plate.

When the potatoes are done, drain them in a colander set over a bowl in the sink.  Beat eggs in a large bowl and add potatoes and chorizo.  Gently turn to coat all sides of slices and distribute chorizo.

Now comes the FUN part:

Heat reserved oil in that 10" skillet you've quickly cleaned out with a paper towel.  Add a little more oil if you need it.  Dump the egg and potato mixture into the pan and spread to the sides evenly.  Cover, and when it looks like the bottom is set, put a plate over the top of the pan, lift the two up, invert, flipping contents onto the plate.  Then slide it all back into the pan.  Do this three more times (so each side cooks twice) and again, avoid browning (this is almost impossible, but I try every time).

Flip one last time onto a clean plate, and serve sliced in wedges.  It's actually best at room temperature, so make the tortilla first, then the soup (now I tell you).

Of course, you can use just one kind of potato and a regular onion.  I use a mix because the Yellow Finn and Russet add flavor, although they have a tendency to fall apart when cooked, and the red potatoes add stability.  Chorizo is extra just because I've got so damn much of it.  A plain tortilla is a humble beauty in and of itself.

Comments

[veron]

That is just so perfect for this weather right now. Nothing like a hot bowl of soup on a Chilly December evening.

[Barbara (Biscuit Girl)]

Yum! You can tell it's getting cold out. Lots of soup recipes popping up on the blogs. Your soup and potato dish look wonderful!