My olive picking is finished for this season. I was outside picking a few hours every day that it didn’t rain.
On
picking days, I didn’t have much time to think about cooking. So I turned to
some traditional dishes from rural Spain, such as this slow-cooked beef stew
from the province of Ciudad Real, in the southern part of Castilla-La Mancha.
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| Beef and vegetable stew is slow-cooked in a clay pot. |
All
the ingredients are put to cook together—thus the name, tojunto, a
contraction of “todo junto”, meaning “all together”. Supposedly this
allowed the women of Almagro to get on with their lace-making (they make very
pretty bobbin lace); the shepherd to keep the cheese-making going (Manchego
cheese comes from here), workers in vineyards (Valdepeñas and La Mancha wines)
and olive groves to keep working right up until dinner and the hunter in the
fields to have a meal ready when he returned to camp.
In
rural Spain, a sturdy dish such as this stew is served for the main meal of the
day, around 2 pm.
Everything
goes into the stew pot—preferably a clay pot, or olla de barro—at the same time
and cooks a fuego lento—on a slow fire, without stirring, until the meat is
tender. Clay-pot cooking is a lot like today’s slow cookers that keep a low and
steady heat. A clay pot also keeps the food warm for an extended time, meaning a meal that can wait.
This
stew is not thickened. Put the potatoes in whole, so they don’t break up with
long cooking. Vegetables such as fresh green beans get very-well cooked. But,
that’s sort of comforting.
Flank
steak or chuck, cut into cubes, is a good cut for this slow-cooked stew. (Tojunto
is also made with lamb, pork, chicken or rabbit.) Saffron is grown in this
region of La Mancha. It adds subtle flavor and color to the stew. You can use
regular sweet pimentón (paprika) or smoked pimentón.
I
served the stew with pickled red onions and my home-cured olives.
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| Meat, potatoes and vegetables cook together. |
“Altogether”
Beef Stew
Tojunto
Serves
4 to 6.
1
onion, quartered and sliced
1 green
bell pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces
1
large tomato (or 3 plum tomatoes), peeled and cut in eighths
2
cloves chopped garlic
1
large carrot, peeled and quartered
4
medium potatoes, peeled
1
½ pounds beef, cut in 1 ½-inch pieces
Pinch
of ground cloves
Freshly
ground black pepper
2
bay leaves
Sprig
of thyme
¼
teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
1
teaspoon sweet pimento (paprika)
¼
cup hot water
4
ounces green beans, cut in 1-inch lengths (1 cup)
2
teaspoons salt
¼
cup olive oil
½
cup white wine
1
cup water
Chopped
parsley to serve
Place
the onion, pepper, tomato, and garlic in a cazuela or stew pot. Add the carrot,
potatoes and veal or beef. Sprinkle the meat with cloves and pepper. Tuck the
bay leaves and thyme around the meat.
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| Add ingredients all together. |
Combine
the crushed saffron and pimentón in a small bowl. Add ¼ cup hot water and stir
to dissolve. Pour the liquid over the meat. Place the green beans on top.
Sprinkle with salt. Pour over the oil and wine plus 1 cup of water.
Cover
the cazuela or pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, without
stirring, until meat is very tender, about 2 hours. Allow to stand 15 minutes
before serving with chopped parsley.