Cocido is popular dish in Spain, and now that it’s getting colder, it makes a great evening meal in cold London also.  From this you get a very satisfying meat-y drink (or you can add some vermecilli to get a satisfying soup also) and a hearty meal of vegetables and meat.  Here is an easy cocido recipe.

This is cooked in a pressure cooker, so you can use cheaper cuts of meat, and they will become very tender after cooking.

Here is a recipe I was shown; It’s easy and and this one serves 3~6 people.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried chick peas (or you can use tinned ones)
• 1 potato
• 1 carrot
• 1 leek
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 Garlic Clove
• salt
• olive oil
• vegetable stock (cube or about 1 teaspoon of powdered stock)
• Meat.  I’ve used brisket and shin.  Shin tastes the best. about 750gm to 1kg
• 50gms tocino.  This is a Spanish cured pork belly product (If you can’t find tocino, you can substitute with either streaky bacon makes a good substitute; use 3 or 4 rashers, or some pork belly)

Time Required

This will take about 90 minutes from when you start preparing the ingredients until the pressure cooker has finished cooking and has cooled down enough so that it can be opened.

Prepare the chick peas

If you are using tinned chick peas, you can skip this step.

If you are using dried chick peas, you will need to leave them to soak overnight. Place in a container and cover with plenty of water.

Prepare the other ingredients

Peel the carrot and potato.  Slice the pepper into quarters. Clean the leek and remove the top and bottom. Remove the skin from the garlic clove.

Fill the pressure cooker to about 3 quarters full.

This is the vegetable stock.  I’m using a powder rather than cubes. You can see that I’ve drained the chick peas also.  Add the vegetables, meat and tocino.  Add salt (about 1 teaspoon), and one tablespoons of olive oil.  Here’s everything in the cooker being brought to the boil.

Bring to the boil.  Place the lid on the pressure cooker and let it pressure up.  Once its pressured, reduce the level of the hob to keep it pressured.  On my hob, I find setting 3 or 4 (out of 9) will keep the pressure up without setting the safety valve off.

Cook for an hour, then turn off the hob and let the pressure cooker cool so that you can open it.

The liquid can be served as a broth, either as-is, or you can transfer some to a smaller saucepan and add a couple of nests of vermicelli.

Crush in your hand to break into small pieces and drop into the saucepan.

To serve

Take the chick peas, vegetables and meat out of the liquid and serve (place on a serving plate and everyone can help themselves).

Serve the broth first, with or without the vermicelli added.

Cut some bread to spread the tocino on.

Enjoy!