Land of stews

Spain is a land of stews. They’re a unifying element in a diverse and fractious nation of nations. Almost every region has its own particular dish on the theme, but ususlly involving different bits of pig and chickpeas or beans. Or lamb. Traditionally they would have been eating communally around the cooking pot, each participant with a spoon in hand.

They are many and varied: Pote gallego, cocido maragato in Ell Bierzo, cocido castellano, cocido montañés, escudella catalana, cocido colorao and olla gitana Andalucía.

They even took them to the Americas in the form of puchero criollo en América.

I once drove with some friends from Madrid and Zaragoza for a a short holiday on the coast of Almería. We stopped for lunch in a little village on seriously hot day somewhere in the middle of La Mancha, whose name, to borrow the first line of Don Quixote,  I do not care to recall. We were all hot and sticky because the car air conditioning didn’t work, and five of us gratefully ordered the gazpacho manchego – you know that lovely cool tomato summer soup. We were dismayed to be served huge dishes of a hot and heavy rabbit, chicken and partridge stew. Gazpacho manchego is a very different dish than its internationally famous Andalucían namesake. I also mentioned this as an example of Spain’s varied and locally unique cuisine.