The escudella and pot roast like you've never seen it before: how to cook it easily and successfully

In the traditional Christmas stew and escudella, the meatball, the black sausage, and the galets (large pasta shells) are essential. This magical trio is what makes the dish stand out from all other stews and casseroles. cooked and stewswhich are traditionally cooked in the rest of the country and also in northern Europe.

To continue, speaking of the ball, we must refer to the book What we have eatenFrom the writer Josep Pla, who described in detail how it should be: "It doesn't have the shape of a running ball, I mean round; rather, it has an elongated tubular shape." And people like it because "it's easy on the teeth, and this is always appreciated," he continued.

And regarding the dish's origin, tradition holds that before the war, the dish was eaten six days a week, with Sundays being the day of rest. It was prepared with different types of meat: hen, chicken pieces, beef, bacon, and black or white sausage. On the other hand, there were the basic vegetables: carrots, cabbage, and the tuber, potatoes. Also, two legumes: chickpeas and white beans. And everything in moderation, as exemplified by the quantity of legumes, which in the cooked They're abundant, while in the escudella they're just right.

Above all, the restaurant's chef speaks Can Marco, from San Esteban de PalautorderaOriol Sabé, in his own recipe for escudella and pot roast, explains important tricks such as placing the beans inside a mesh bag so they can be retrieved together after boiling for a full hour.

Ingredients for six people

For the meat

• 3 spine bones
• 2 calf knee bones
• 1/4 chicken
• 3 beef rib bones
• 1/8 of a chicken
• 200g of pork jowl
• 1 ham bone
• 200g of pig face
• 1 lamb shoulder
• 300g of crocheted bean

Stop the ball

• 200g minced beef and 200g pork
• 1 slice of rustic bread without the crust
• 2 whole eggs
• Milk (or plant-based milk in case of allergy)
• Pine nuts
• Parsley
• Truffle
• Salt and pepper

For tubers and vegetables

Those I recovered after boiling:

• 2 potatoes
• 3 carrots
• 1/4 of a cabbage
• 1 yam

The vegetables and greens that will be left in the broth

• 1 leek
• 1 stalk of celery
• 2 Figueres onions
• 1 turnip
• 1 parsnip

To finish the recipe

• 1 black sausage
• 1 white sausage
• 250 g of galets

Elaboration

1. The night before preparing the recipe, salt the meat and store it in the refrigerator. Place the crocheted beans in a bowl of water to soak.
2. Begin by placing all the meats in the pot, along with the crocheted bean, which you should put inside a tied mesh bag so you can easily retrieve it after an hour of boiling. The meats will continue to boil for another two hours. In other words, allow three hours for the entire recipe.
3. Once you have the meat and beans in the pot, which should be large, cover it and bring to a boil over medium heat. When it starts boiling, reduce the heat. During this process, you will need to skim off the fat that accumulates at the top of the boil. Remove it with a ladle and discard it.
4. While it's boiling, make the meatball. In a bowl, place 200 grams of minced beef and 200 grams of minced pork, a slice of day-old bread (crust removed), which you'll soak in milk, and add two eggs. Season with salt and pepper, then add a finely chopped clove of garlic, some chopped parsley, a handful of pine nuts, and a little grated truffle. Stir until you have a homogeneous mixture. You can do this with your hands or with a spatula. Once well mixed, set it aside until we're on the next step in the stew.
5. After the pot has been boiling for an hour and a half, add the vegetables, which should boil with the other ingredients for another hour. Once cooked, place the potatoes (which are tubers), yam, cabbage, and carrots in a fine-mesh sieve.
6. Start by preparing the leeks. Cut them in half and wash them under running water to remove any dirt. Next, clean and chop the celery stalk. Now, prepare the two onions, a turnip, and a parsnip. Cut the onions into quarters. Then, chop the turnip and the parsnip (peeled and chopped). Place these vegetables directly into the pot. For the vegetables you'll be reserving, you'll need a potato, a yam, and three carrots. Peel the potatoes, carrots, and yam. Also, prepare a quarter of a cabbage, which you've already cleaned. All of these—potatoes, carrots, yam, and cabbage—will be ready after an hour. That's why it's important to place them in a fine-mesh sieve.
7. After an hour, the meatballs are ready. Take the prepared mixture (in whatever quantity you prefer) that you have in a bowl, coat it in flour, and drop it into the broth. Sprinkle it with flour, but not too much. Keep in mind that traditionally in our country, meatballs have been tubular in shape, but you can prepare them however you like.
8. With the meatballs in the casserole dish, count twenty minutes. Then add the two sausages, the black and the white, which only need ten minutes of cooking.
9. After the last ten minutes, remove the pot from the heat, take out the potatoes, yam, and cabbage, and place them on a tray. Add the meats, the meatball, and the sausages as well.
10. In another empty pot, strain some of the broth so you can add the galets when the broth boils. Check the galets' packaging for the cooking time to ensure they are cooked through.
11. Finally, plate the stew and the meat in a deep dish; add some of the various meats and the soup with the galets.

Enjoy!