Puchero de Hinojos Granadino

Puchero de Hinojos is Granadino, from the Alpujarra and the inland kitchens of Granada, and it belongs to the old cocina de cuchara, spoon food. Chickpeas, white beans, wild fennel, pork from the larder, and morcilla. What makes it this dish and not just another puchero is the hinojo silvestre, the wild fennel, with its green aniseed edge and a little bitterness from the hills.

The method that decides it is simple: scald the fennel first if the stalks are thick or fierce. A few minutes in boiling water, then that water goes down the sink. You keep the fragrance and lose the harshness. Young tender shoots can go straight in, but old fennel needs taming. After that, the pot asks for patience: soaked legumes, a low simmer, potatoes near the end, and the morcilla only in the last minutes so it gives flavor without bursting into the broth.

If you are far from Granada, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use the feathery tops and tender stems from cultivated fennel, add a little sliced bulb, and if the smell is weak, tie a teaspoon of fennel seed in cloth and pull it out before serving. It will be sweeter and less wild, and you should know that. Still, with good beans, proper morcilla, and a steady simmer, it comes out.

The Margin beside my recipe says only this: "hinojo duro, escaldar," tough fennel, scald it. That is the sort of note that saves a cook. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.