Episode 10: Potaje de garbanzos y espinacas

I'm in a bit of a bind when it comes to cookbooks. I can tell you that I am greatly enjoying Claudia Roden's Food of Spain. And according to the U.S. Copyright office, "Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions. Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook."

So I can tell you the ingredients that went into the potaje de garbanzos y espinacas according to Roden's recipe, or rather, in my attempt to roughly halve Roden's recipe, namely:

• 2 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1 15.5 ounce Goya can of chickpeas
• 2 3/4 cups of low-sodium Chicken broth (I favor the Pacific brand, which these days can even be found at humble Shaw's)
• 10 oz. box of frozen spinach, defrosted
• 1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
• Salt to taste
• 1 hard boiled egg
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 slice of sourdough bread, crust removed
• 1/2 tsp of sweet Spanish paprika (pimentón dulce--this was a spice that a made a point of packing with me on the move, purchased from the estimable Despaña--when it runs out I'll have to figure out where to find it around here)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• Pinch of red chili powder (pure, i.e., the kind you get in Indian markets like Masala Mahal, not the spice blends labeled as "chili powder" you find in the supermarket
• Black pepper to taste (Roden doesn't call for this, but I found it necessary)

But to tell you how these humble ingredients combine into something sublime in less than an hour, I have to provide a substantially different literary expression. That should not be difficult, as I am not Claudia Roden. This recipe was so fast I certainly didn't have time to photograph its successive stages, only the final outcome.

If you're like Claudia Roden, you put the potatoes and chickpeas in a large saucepan with 2 cups of the broth and simmer the pot with its cover on for 10 minutes. If you're me, you forget to put the cover back on until about five minutes through (and it still turns out good).

If you're Claudia Roden, you have either meticulously picked over all the fresh spinach, washing it thoroughly, or you've at least remembered to thaw the frozen spinach, so you add it to the pot and continue the gentle, covered simmer for another 5 minutes. If you're me, you forgot to thaw the frozen spinach, so you dump the ice-cold brick into the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high to hasten its thawing, and then turn the heat back down to resume the covered simmer for 5 minutes (and it still turns out good).

Then you add the vinegar and season with some salt, and cook for another 10 minutes.

In the midst of all this (and this is why I had no time to take pictures), there's more stuff you should be doing, because the remaining ingredients are going to be added to the pot as a luscious, spicy slurry. This is where it gets interesting.

First you separate the egg yolk from the white, chopping the white into bits, and reserving both yolk and white. Then you take a skillet, heat the oil on medium-high (make sure it shimmers), and then add the garlic cloves and the bread. Make sure to brown both--forget everything you've learned from French and Italian cookbooks, the Spanish like brown garlic--but you have to be careful to make sure that neither burn. Turn them so both the bread and the garlic cloves brown on both sides. (If you're the kind of person who likes times, this step took me about 3 minutes.) Remove them to a plate with paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Now you take that fried bread and browned garlic, put them in the food processor, add the spices, and process to--well, Claudia Roden says "a fine paste", but to me it looked more like a powder. Add the egg yolk and blend so it gets thoroughly incorporated. Now slowly add the remaining 3/4 cup of the broth.

It is this slurry that gets added to the pot after its first 25 minutes of cooking. That's why you have to move fast, to make sure it's ready in time. Taste for seasoning, and season with salt and pepper to taste. After that, you continue the simmering of the pot for another 10 minutes, and then stir in the egg whites.

¡Que sabrosura!

Roden mentions that this is often served with added salt cod during Lent, or studded with bacon or ham at other times of year. Both seem to me like needless indulgences--it's perfect as a vegetarian dish. And as you can tell from all the goofs to which I readily confessed, it is a fairly forgiving dish, not requiring flawless professional technique.

Search, using your engine of choice, for potaje/garbanzos/espinacas, and you will find countless recipes, with many variations from this one. It is a dish of which Castilians, Madrileños especially, seem quite proud, and justifiably so.