3 Warm Spanish Stews (& Recipes!): Callos, Fabada, Lentejas

If you asked me what my favorite part of Spanish cooking is, I wouldn’t answer with tortilla (potato omelet), jamón (cured ham), or paella (a meat-and-veggies rice dish). What I love most about the cuisine of Spain is the country’s savory tradition of soups and stews. Usually centered around one of what I like to call the Holy Trinity of Spanish Legumes—chickpeas, white beans, and lentils—these one-pot meals cook on low heat for hours, letting the flavors of the aromatic veggies and spiced sausages combine together to create a simple, yet tasty, product.

When cooler temperatures roll around in November, restaurant cooks and abuelas alike will start preparing these warm, comforting stews that are beloved by Spaniards but under-appreciated by foreigners. Let me share with you three of the essential stews to try if you visit Spain off-season (or to try your hand at in your own kitchen). Each recipe serves 4-6 people, or one person and enough leftovers for a week!

Callos con garbanzos

(Source: Héctor Herrero)

This dish’s literal translation—“tripe with chickpeas”—may not sound very appealing, and I’ll admit, it’s not for everyone. But the stinkiness of cow stomach vanishes as it cooks for three hours with spices like cumin, black pepper, and cloves—medallions of some good Spanish chorizo help, too, of course. I’ve had heaping bowls of this stuff all over the country and the tripe meat has always been melt-in-your-mouth tender, not chewy or slimy by any means. The earthy chickpeas add a nice contrast of texture and flavor to this stew.

Ingredients
* 500g tripe
* 1 lemon
* splash of vinegar
* 250g dried chickpeas
* 2 tablespoons callos spices (cumin, pepper, cloves, etc.)
* 2 chorizo sausages
* 1 onion
* 4 garlic cloves
* 1 bay leaf

Directions
1) Soak the chickpeas overnight for at least 12 hours, changing the water every 4-6 hours.
2) Let the tripe soak for an hour or so in water with some vinegar and/or lemon quarters. Make sure to clean it vigorously under running water, cleaning off the slime.
3) Chop the clean tripe, bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and pour out the water. They are now ready to cook.
4) Add to the tripe the chickpeas, spices, chorizo, chopped onion, garlic, and bay leaf, and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then let cook over low heat for 3 hours until the tripe and chickpeas are tender.
5) Slice the chorizo, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Fabada asturiana

(Source: Julio López)

Considered the national dish of the Asturias region along Spain’s northern coast, the Asturian white bean stew is beautiful in its simplicity. At its most essential, the fabada is simply large white beans cooked with the three elements that comprise a compango asturiano: one link of chorizo, one blood pudding sausage, and a hunk of thick bacon…and that’s it. The type of dried white bean usually used is called judiones de la Granja, the same kind used in the local stew of Segovia to the south. But while a basic fabada is just beans + meat, many Spaniards like to add aromatic flavorings like garlic, bay leaves, smoked paprika, and even saffron. After *ahem* stewing for several hours, the white beans make the stock thick and creamy, and the meat turns the soup an attractive bright orange.

Ingredients
* 500g dried large white beans
* 1 chorizo sausage
* 1 blood pudding sausage (morcilla)
* 1 hunk of thick bacon (panceta or tocino)
* 4 garlic cloves
* 1 bay leaf

Directions
1) Soak the beans overnight for at least 12 hours, changing the water every 4-6 hours.
2) Add all the ingredients to the pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil.
3) Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 3 hours until the beans are creamy and tender.
4) Slice the meat, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Lentejas

(Source: Xurxo Martínez)

If my personal comfort food is Mom’s meatloaf, green beans, and mashed potatoes, then every Spaniard’s comfort food is lentil stew. (Although apparently it’s not everyone’s, since there’s a rhyme that goes lentejas, comida de viejas, si quieres las comes, y si no, las dejas, “lentil stew: grandma’s cooking; if you want ‘em, then eat ‘em, but if not, leave ‘em.”) I tend to make lentejas a couple times a month because it’s cheap, healthy, tasty, and a fast and easy recipe to make. What more could you ask for in a meal? Basically this stew consists of boiled green lentils, sausages, and root and aromatic veggies. But the two keys to a good pot of lentejas are some good Spanish sausages—which will add can’t-wait-for-seconds savoriness—and a small potato—which will help thicken the whole broth. Lentil stew is also the ultimate Spanish leftover dish that you will often find in lunchtime break rooms across the country.

Ingredients
* 250g or 2 cups dried lentils
* 1 chorizo sausage
* 1 blood pudding sausage (morcilla)
* 5 carrots
* 1 celery stalk
* 1 leek
* 1 potato
* 4 garlic cloves
* 1 bay leaf

Directions
1) Chop all the vegetables.
2) Add all the ingredients to the pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil.
3) Turn the heat down to low and simmer for up to 1 hour until the lentils are no longer firm.
4) Slice the meat, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

What’s your favorite part of Spanish cooking? Do you pass over lentejas or look forward to their leftovers? Comment in the discussion thread below!

Gaudí Week #7: Casa Vicens in Barcelona, Spain

This week on the blog I’m celebrating works by the famous turn-of-the-century Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed everything from churches to mansions to public parks. This post is the last installment in a seven-part series; check out the introduction here!

Façade of Casa Vicens

This little-touristed house is visited by none but the most dedicated Gaudí fans (i.e., yours truly), so when I managed to turn onto C/ Carolines during a sunny Barcelona siesta, I ran into only a handful of Asian and European travelers, some toting guidebooks and others cameras. I lingered for a few minutes, snapped some pictures, and headed back down a major street to get some croquetas for lunch. Casa Vicens is—surprise, surprise—still a private home, and so tourists have to be content to admire its architecture from behind iron grillework. Finished in 1889 at the request of Manuel Vicens, a man in the brick and tile business, the house has subtle nods to Vicens’ industry: warm, red bricking and happy white-and-green tiles that give the fortress-like house a pixelated look.

Gate, Casa Vicens

As Gaudí’s first work, his trademark style isn’t clearly evident yet here, but Moorish elements abound without falling into the exoticist trap of Revivalism: you can catch hints of the Alhambra in the arches and columns, and the overhanging roofs are reminiscent of the flourishes found over entrances to Moroccan homes. Seashells (palm fronds?) populate the iron gate to the property, reminding us of Gaudí’s lifelong fascination with the shapes of nature.

Currently it’s up for sale—to the tune of 30.000.000€. Yes, that’s thirty million euros. Think of it less as a piece of property, though, and more as a work of art, especially since Gaudí designed everything from the doors to the toilet seats (probably). It’s still on the market, and I wonder if some philanthropic business or foundation might take it over, clean it up, and re-open it to visitors as the next Casa Batlló, La Pedrera, or Palau Güell. Or maybe it will escape becoming a museum for a few generations, remaining just as the architect intended it to be—a home.

How to get there: Casa Vicens is house Nº 24 on C/ Carolines (Gràcia district). Take the L3 (green line) on the Metro and get off at the Fontana stop. Head north on C/ Gran de Gràcia and turn left at C/ Carolines. If you reach Av. Príncep d’Astúries, you’ve gone too far.

If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, have you ever seen Casa Vicens? Do you think it should become a museum or stay a private home? Comment below!

Gaudí Week #6: The Crypt-Church of Colònia Güell near Barcelona, Spain

This week on the blog I’m celebrating works by the famous turn-of-the-century Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed everything from churches to mansions to public parks. This post is the sixth in a seven-part series; check out the introduction here!

Colònia Güell patio

Eusebi Güell was one of Antoni Gaudí’s most important patrons, commissioning the Palau Güell mansion in Barcelona’s old town and the popular Park Güell. For this post, however, we’re leaving crowded Barcelona for a quiet village on the outskirts of the Barcelona area, Santa Coloma de Cervelló. It was here that Sr. Güell moved his textile operations at the turn of the century, establishing an industrial estate to be run by the business on behalf of his employees. Called Colònia Güell, this company town stood out from its contemporaries because Güell actually tried to improve his workers’ lives instead of focusing on profits-profits-profits; e.g., he sponsored the construction of Mondernista-style homes as well as a parish church for the “colony.

After years of analysis and experimentation, Gaudí began work on the construction of this church in 1908 but was forced to leave it unfinished after funding ran out in 1914. Only the crypt-like lower nave had been completed at this point, even though there were plans for a soaring upper nave as well. The next year, the fully-finished lower nave was blessed by Barcelona’s bishop and the upper floor was bricked over. This lower floor has functioned as a church ever since.

Crypt, Colònia Güell

Outside, you get the feeling that a giant brick- and mosaic-clad daddy-longlegs has emerged from the earth. But inside, you’re welcomed into an intimate, earthy space. When I visited, I was really surprised how tiny the interior of the church was; pictures I had seen made it appear like a gargantuan, roofed-over outside auditorium. Instead, it was a small, warm circular nave held up by leaning tree trunks stone pillars and bricked vaulting. Goodies within include whimsical stained-glass windows, a giant clam shell repurposed as a holy water font, and ergonomic pews designed by Gaudí himself.

Hanging chains, the “blueprint” for
Colònia Güell

It’s a real shame Güell ran out of money for the project, because the church would have been a surreal work of true beauty: a spaceship-like beehive of a complex with rockets and towers and spirals and light. At the very least, the crypt-church let Gaudí warm up for his later work on the Sagrada Família; here he perfected his hanging-chains method in which he would look at a mirror on the floor and see the “blueprints” right-side up.

How to get there: The church is in a suburb of Barcelona called Santa Coloma de Cervelló. I entered the underground system in Barcelona’s Plaça de Espanya and headed to the FGC regional train line (orange square & white chain logo). At one of the machines, I bought a combined admission + round-trip ticket. Any train marked S4, S8, or S33 will drop you off at the Colònia Güell station, and there are little spray-painted footprints that will lead you straight to the church, which is on C/ Claudi Güell.

Have you ever been to Colònia Güell before? Would you be interested in making a daytrip here if you haven’t visited Barcelona yet? Comment below!

Gaudí Week #5: Palau Güell in Barcelona, Spain

This week on the blog I’m celebrating works by the famous turn-of-the-century Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed everything from churches to mansions to public parks. This is the fifth post in a seven-part series; check out the introduction here!

Palau Güell from the street

The only work by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona’s old city, Palau Güell (“Güell Mansion”) fits in with the historic feel of the neighborhood and reflects the architect’s budding creativity. Owned by the same Eusebi Güell as #3 (the park) and #6 (the church), it was Gaudí’s first commission for the textile magnate. Although the Catalan word palau is best translated as “mansion,” its cognate, “palace,” could just as easily be used to describe this *ahem* palatial home.

Staircase

Residents and guests would enter from the street under one of two eye-like parabolic arches decorated in intricate ironwork. Once inside, their horses and carriages would be led down to the subterranean stable, which, despite its lowly function, reflects the elegant arches and vaulting Gaudí would later use in the Sagrada Família. The living quarters are cozy but not gloomy, warm but not gaudy, made of stone but not cold, and solid without being cave-like. The smooth, finished stone from the exterior continues inside—a simple, sophisticated skeleton that was fleshed out with rugs, lamps, and furniture. The whole house centers around the main living area that was used for welcoming guests. This space was used both for entertaining and for praying; a brilliant, gilded chapel is balanced by a powerful organ whose notes fill the dome-capped hall.

Although Palau Güell isn’t as obviously-Gaudí as his later works, you can still see his nascent style coming to life: he flirted with Moorish elements by installing a golden ceiling and bathroom tiles that look more at home at Sevilla’s Royal Alcázar than a Barcelona palace; he put slender, yawning parabolas everywhere, from windows to arches; and he incorporated natural elements by forging vines, seed hulls, and even a phoenix out of iron.

Chimney

As with Casa Batlló and La Pedrera, Palau Güell also has a surprise on its roof. Although the chimneys are evenly distributed around the perimeter, they’re just as whimsical and fun as those on his other two works in the new part of town. Decorated with tightly-arranged trencadís mosaics, the chimneys look like anything from rainbow frozen yogurt and bulbous Christmas trees to zebra skin and goblin faces. If you look hard enough to the east, you can catch glimpses of the simple-yet-beautiful octagonal belltowers on the Catalan churches of Santa Maria del Mar and Santa Maria del Pi in the distance.

How to get there: Palau Güell is house Nº 3-5 on C/ Nou de la Rambla in the Ciutat Vella (old town) of Barcelona. If you take the L3 (green line) on the Metro, you can get off at one of two Las Ramblas stops: Liceu to the north and Drassanes to the south. C/ Nou de la Rambla is directly opposite Plaça Reial on the other side of La Rambla dels Caputxins.

If you’ve ever been to Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic before, did you get a chance to visit Palau Güell? Comment below!

Gaudí Week #4: Casa Milà a.k.a. “La Pedrera” in Barcelona, Spain

This week on the blog I’m celebrating works by the famous turn-of-the-century Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed everything from churches to mansions to public parks. This post is the fourth in a seven-part series; check out the introduction here!

Façade of the “La Pedrera” apartment block

Between 1906 and 1912, Antoni Gaudí worked on the most distinctive apartment block on the Passeig de Gràcia, a lovely, wide north-south avenue spanning Barcelona’s Eixample district or modern, gridded “expansion.” At the request of the industrialist Pere Milà, he created a structure that is actually two separate apartments joined by two oblong patios and an other-worldly terrace with a wavy floor and weird chimneys. It’s officially called Casa Milà, Catalan for “the Milà House,” but informally everyone calls it La Pedrera because it looks like an open-face rock quarry. Part of the reason the wavy façade is so dramatic has to do with the street grid system that covers the Eixample; at every intersection the corners are cut off like those desktop calendars with triangular pockets, so each street crossing is actually a little plaza and feels open and accessible.

La Pedrera houses a restored family apartment that you can stroll through wistfully and get a taste for what turn-of-the-century bourgeois Barcelona would have been like, a time of hopeful innocence before the tragic events of the twentieth century. Up in the attic there’s a small museum that educates you on Gaudí, his architectural style, and his building methods.

Roof of Casa Milà

The real draw to La Pedrera, though, is the roof and its terrace. The ceiling of the complex’s attic undulates like a sine curve, and the rooftop is no different. Stairs and ramps move you up and down and offer lovely views of the Passeig de Gràcia and the rest of the city. Instead of seeing chimneys as something to grudgingly put up with, Gaudí eagerly incorporated them into his design, capping them with surreal, face-like tops that look like helmet-clad stormtroopers or Pacific Islander totems. Frozen-yogurt ice cream cones tempt you to stay longer as stoic guardians keep vigil, but ultimately the whirling, spiraling patios will draw you back down to street level.

How to get there: Casa Milà sits on the northeast corner of the intersection formed by the Passeig de Gràcia and C/ Provença (Eixample district). Take the L3 (green line) or L5 (blue line) on the Metro and get off at the Diagonal stop.

If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, did you climb up to the terrace of La Pedrera? Does this building look cheesy or intriguing to you? Comment below!

Gaudí Week #3: Park Güell in Barcelona, Spain

This week on the blog I’m celebrating works by the famous turn-of-the-century Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed everything from churches to mansions to public parks. This post is the third in a seven-part series; check out the introduction here!

Entrance to Park Güell

Park Güell is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Barcelona, but first, a little background on who this Güell guy was (pronounced “gway-ee” [gweʎ]), since he shows up in two more buildings I’m talking about later in the week. Eusebi Güell made a fortune in the textile business as the Spanish region of Cataluña rapidly industrialized in the late 19th century. Early on in Gaudí’s life, the two met and Güell became one of the architect’s biggest patrons. Between 1900 and 1914, work was done on an idealized subdivision for the wealthy on land purchased by Güell, but because few of the upper class at the time cared for Gaudí’s style and/or Modernisme, and the project was halted. Still, both Güell and Gaudí ended up living in two of the handful of houses built in the park, none by Gaudí himself, though.

(There seems to be a lot of confusion about how to spell this neighborhood-turned-city park. Güell was inspired by England’s Garden City movement, or utopian urban planning that emphasized parks and green space, and so spelled it Park Güell instead of the Catalan parc or the Spanish parque.)

Across the park, he decorated buildings and structures with a technique he popularized called trencadís. Taking shards and pieces of broken ceramic tiles, plates, etc., he arranged them in such a way to create flowing mosaics and shapes, covering walls, ceilings, benches, and statues with these imperfect tiles. The most beloved piece he created is el drac, “the dragon” or lizard that’s crawling down toward the entrance to Park Güell, covered in fun blue, orange, and green tiles.

Trencadís tile mosaics at Park Güell

Main sights include: the two unassuming pavilions at the southern entrance; the Sala Hipóstila—it looks like a wavy Greek temple with a forest of columns and has the world’s longest bench on its roof; vaulted, colonnaded paths made from local stone that swoop into hillsides; and a megalithic mini Calvary with three crosses on its summit which offers a commanding view of the whole city. There’s a lot to be said for simply strolling around the grounds and enjoying the mix of deciduous and palm trees, a welcome break from the city air. As you wander, try to imagine what the currently-empty estate was supposed to look like: luxury homes set on roomy lots, all surrounded by lush, shady vegetation.

The lizard, Park Güell

How to get there: Park Güell is located up a hill to the northeast of the Gràcia district. Take the L3 (green line) on the Metro and get off at either the Lesseps or Vallcarca stops. If you get off at Lesseps, head east on Travessera de Dalt for a few minutes until you see escalators that will carry you north up the hill and leave you near the main southern entrance. If you get off at Vallcarca, head due east until you run into escalators that will take you east up the hill and drop you off at the western gate.

If you’ve been to Barcelona, did you visit the touristy Park Güell or did the crowds scare you away? Comment below!

Gaudí Week #2: Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Spain

This week on the blog I’m celebrating works by the famous turn-of-the-century Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed everything from churches to mansions to public parks. This post is the second in a seven-part series; check out the introduction here!

Façade of Casa Batlló

Pronounced “buhl-YOE” [bəʎˈʎo], Casa Batlló was my favorite of the Antoni Gaudí-designed residences I got to visit in Barcelona last year. A wealthy textile industrialist named Josep Batlló had purchased Passeig de Gràcia Nº 43 but was unhappy with the house’s design, so in 1904 he commissioned Gaudí to do something about it. By 1906, the architect had completely remodeled the townhouse in his signature style.

The front façade offers a way to appreciate Gaudí-style buildings for free. From a distance, the house appears a rather drab bone-gray, but upon closer inspection, faint bacterial colonies of red, green, purple, and blue tiles emerge that bring the façade to life even as the weird balconies and windowpanes whisper a subliminal message about skeletons.

Whenever people mention Casa Batlló—nicknamed the “House of Bones”—they always mention that Gaudí basically tried to avoid incorporating any rigid, straight lines. Maybe, but perhaps this is just what happens when you draw all your inspiration from the sea and underwater life? I don’t think the architect purposefully omitted straight lines and right angles, but merely copied the organic, smooth forms found in nature.

Lightwell of Casa Batlló

From the very entrance you get the impression you’re under the sea: the foyer walls are decorated in scale- or bubble-like patterns and a groovy banister looks like the “lips” of a giant clam. Above, on the so-called Noble Floor, you’re led into a large drawing room with a toothed ceiling lamp made to look like either a whirlpool or a nautilus shell, and the vast street-facing window is decorated with blue and pink stained glass circles—or should I say sand-dollars, sea urchins, and plankton? My tour through the house put me in a calm, relaxed mood, just as tidewaters can have a healing, soothing effect.

The audioguide pointed out an ingenious feature of the house’s lightwell, or inner patio/gap that brings light to interior rooms: to ensure an even distribution of light at the upper and lower floors, Gaudí graded the tiles so that darker, light-absorbing blues float above and paler, light-reflecting blues dominate below. Gill-shaped windows are narrow on the top floor and gradually expand to take in more air the farther down you go.

Dragon-like roof on Casa Batlló

The roof is, like all Gaudí houses, pretty cool, but the attic is equally fascinating. You walk through a colonnade formed by dozens of white, plaster upside-down catenary curves (think the St. Louis, Mo., Gateway Arch). 1960s-like in their pale minimalism, you begin to wonder if you’re slipping past the ribs of a sardine skeleton. Emerging from the ethereal tidal pool, you walk out onto a clean, spacious terrace. The architect grouped the house’s many chimneys into four clusters, but the chimneys look less like sooty smokestacks than deepsea tube worms, or frozen-in-time backup dancers swaying to rhythms, rhythms that could be the regular crashing of waves or the coming and going of the tides.

And capping it all is a sharp mound, festooned with lumpy blue and brown scales shingles and bookended by a cross-bearing turret. You might say it resembles a coelacanth, the body of a coastal bird, or even a dragon. Gaudí was a very devout Catholic, and the patron saint of Cataluña is St. George (Sant Jordi). Since St. George, according to legend, slew a dragon and saved a damsel, it’s thought that Gaudí inserted this regional symbol right onto the house: the ridged spine of the lizard drapes over the façade while the gleaming white cross-topped tower represents the piercing spear of St. George.

How to get there: Casa Batlló is house Nº 43 on the west side of the Passeig de Gràcia (Eixample district). Take the L2 (purple line), L3 (green line), or L4 (yellow line) on the Metro and get off at the Passeig de Gràcia stop.

If you’ve ever traveled to Barcelona before, did you get to take a peek inside Casa Batlló? Comment below!