Cocido Extremeño

Cocido extremeño belongs to Extremadura, and it tells you so by what it leaves out as much as by what it puts in. Chickpeas, gallina, tocino, chorizo, morcilla, a little potato if the house wants it, and the pork larder of the dehesa. Almost no vegetable. No sofrito to hide behind. The broth has to taste clean, deep, and plainly of the meats.

The method that decides it is the order of the pot. Start the cured pork and gallina in cold water so they give themselves to the broth, skim it well, then add the soaked chickpeas only once the broth is hot. Chickpeas are not fabes. Put them into cold water after soaking and they sulk, staying hard at the skin. Keep the pot at a quiet tremble, never a rough boil, and add the chorizo and morcilla late so their pimentón and fat season the broth without taking it over.

If you're far from Extremadura, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use a real Spanish cured chorizo with pimentón, a Spanish morcilla de cebolla if you can't find extremeña, and cured pork belly or a small ham hock for the tocino. The broth will be a little smokier or darker, depending on the sausage, but it will still be an honest cocido if you keep the simmer gentle and the vegetables out of the way.

Serve the broth first with a handful of fideos if you like, then the chickpeas, then the meats sliced for everyone to take. Or put it all in deep bowls and let the table sort itself out. My Margin beside this one says only: skim early, salt late. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.