Fabada Asturiana

Introduction:

Fabada is probably the second most famous Spanish dish after Paella. It is fairly easy to make but some of the ingredients can be hard to find in the U.S., I have adapted this recipe slightly.

This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 6 cans of large Butter beans, (soaked lima beans) which in Spain are called Fabas
• 6 oz cooked ham
• 6 oz Chorizo
• 6 oz Morcilla
• 6 oz Bacon
• 1 cup Chicken stock
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1 ts saffron (azafrán)

Pre-cooking:

• Cut the onion and bell pepper in half
• Cut the ham, bacon, chorizo and morzilla in bite size chunks
• Reserve 4-5 pieces of chorizo and morcilla, mush them
• Take half a can worth of beans, and mush them into a paste

Cooking:

• Set tall frying pan in mid-high heat
• Add the olive oil to frying pan
• Fry the half onion and bell pepper for 2 minutes
• Add 4 cans of beans with their stock
• Add saffron and stir
• If at any time the beans are over the stock, add some chicken stock
• Once hot, lower the heat to mid-low
• Add the chorizo, morcilla and ham
• Add the mashed chorizo and morcilla, stir carefully
• Boil until the beans are really soft
• If the sauce is to watery add some of the bean paste made earlier to thicken the sauce and boil for a couple more minutes
• Remove the onion and bell pepper before serving

Tips:

Saffron: Saffron (azafrán) is really hard to find and expensive, but it gives this food some of its coloring and flavor. But if you can't find it... this dish will still be very good.

Chorizo: Always read the labels on chorizo in the supermarket, the best chorizo is made of pork meat, without any by-products and has a lot less fat.
In fact you may want to buy Spanish made chorizo, you'll be amazed how much better it is.

Morcilla: Morcilla is Spanish made blood sausage. It is salty and very rich in flavor. If you do not use it add some salt instead. I recommend the Onion Morcilla for this dish, the other variety of morcilla has rice.

In Asturias, Spain they cook the beans (fabas) all night along with other ingredients. I just don't have all that time.

You can order Saffron, Spanish Morcilla and Chorizo from:

Tienda.com
4514 John Tyler Highway
williamsburgh, VA 23188
Phone: (757) 220-1143
Fax (757) 564-0779

La Española Meats, Inc.
25020 Doble Ave.
Harbor City, CA 90710
Phone: (310) 539-5989
Fax (310) 539-0455

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