Soup for a Cold Winter Night: Madrid Lentil Hotpot

Soup for a Cold Winter Night:  Madrid Lentil Hotpot

(c) Dorine Houston 2007

The Rastro is one of Europe’s great flea markets.  Sunday mornings, the people of Madrid crowd into a few blocks in Madrid de los Austrias, the oldest section of the city.  There they find bargains in used goods of all kinds, plenty of new products and cheap imports, and those with an especially good eye and luck to match may find a real antique scattered amidst the junk available at a bargain.  The rest of the week it is a neighborhood called Lavapies for its main street and thee Metro stop on it.  Lavapies is the traditional home of the traditional “Gato”, Madrid’s answer to the Cockney.  Being born in Lavapies or in the Rastro is Madrid’s equivalent to being born within the sound of Bow Bells in London. 

To read stories about traditional Madrid and the community of the Rastro denizens, look to such 19th century authors as Benito Perez Galdos and in the early 20th century, Pio Baroja. 

If like many visitors, you center your visit on Puerta del Sol, walk west on calle Mayor to the Plaza Mayor, the heart of Madrid de los Austrias, established in the 16th century.  If you stay in Puerta del Sol and head towards the southwest, walk down the calle de Jose, Maria y Jesus.  Centuries-old houses have traditional markets and shops at street level and family apartments above them.  The street boils with activity.  The bars and restaurants are not fancy or expensive; they cater to the people of the neighborhood.  Their menus are recitals of the comfort food of central Spain.  It was at one such restaurant that I first tasted lentil soup. 

Autumn is considered to be the most beautiful season in Madrid.  Spring disappears in the sudden leap from winter to summer and summer is oppressively hot and dry.  Winter is long, dry and bleak even though it does not get cold  like northern Europe or the northern and eastern US.  Autumn, however, is long, sunny and pleasant, only chilly when the winds blow bitter out of the Sierra Guadarrama. 

It was one of those November days in Madrid when the sun shone, the sky was a brilliant blue and the breeze was stiff.  Instituto Briam’s Puerta del Sol building, where I taught English, was cold despite the heat having been turned on for the season.  Normally I went home to make lunch and enjoy the siesta before returning to teach at 4:00 PM, but this particular day a colleague and I decided to spend dinner and siesta together at one of the small neighborhood restaurants near the Rastro.  We walked down Jose, Maria y Jesus and beyond under the acacia and eucalyptus trees lining Embajadores while the breeze bit through our clothes.  My teeth were chattering by the time we entered the restaurant and sat at our heavy plank table.  I needed something hot and hearty.  Puchero de lentejas would do the trick.  It is one of the classic old stews of Madrid, the lentils as ancient as human habitation in Iberia, the potatoes as new as the Age of Exploration. 

That day I remember starting the meal with the puchero de lentejas and ending it with dulce de membrillo and manchego cheese (dulce de membrillo is sliceably thick quince jelly) but cannot remember what the main dish was.  I thoroughly enjoyed the lentil hotpot starter and the traditional quince jelly and cheese dessert!  I know that at most of the family dinner tables of the neighborhood that day, such Castilian hotpots as the classic chickpea cocido and the lentil stew I enjoyed were comforting the Gatos, because that is the way they have always eaten when cold winds blow out of the sierra.  If you wonder why I recommend a red wine when the main course is fish, it is because that is what Gato families drink and this is a classic Gato meal. 

For you, I recommend this dinner menu: 

Starter: 
Puchero de Lentejas Madrileno (Madrid Lentil Hotpot)

Baguette or similar bread

Main Course: 
Poached Hake or Haddock Steaks with Lemon Wedges
Swiss Chard Sauteed with Garlic
Raw Radishes 

Dessert:
Quince Jelly and Manchego Cheese

Seltzer Water with Lemon Slices
Spanish Red Wine (try to get Gredos or Valdepenas)
Expreso 



Puchero de Lentejas Madrileño
Madrid Lentil Hotpot

Serves 6

60ml/1/4 cup olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, diced
8-10 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 large, fat carrots, diced
300g/10 oz. cured Spanish chorizo, preferably Cantimpalos, diced (do *not* substitute Mexican chorizo!) 
2.5ml/1/2 tsp. sweet smoked Spanish paprika
1 litre/1 quart water, more as needed  throughout cooking 
500g/18 oz. brown lentils, picked over and rinsed 
4-6 potatoes, cut into chunks  
1 bay leaf
5ml/1 tsp. dry thyme
1 wineglass dry red Spanish wine, preferably Gredos or Valdepenas
Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot and stir in onion, garlic, carrots and chorizo.  Cook, stirring, until onion is tender.  Stir in paprika and add water.  Add lentils, potatoes, bay leaf and thyme.  Simmer 30 minutes, adding water as needed.  Do not boil.  Stir in wine; simmer another 30 minutes, or until lentils are very tender.  Keep an eye on the water; you want the result to be thick like pea soup.  Stir in chopped parsley and cook another 5 minutes. 

Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve garnished with additional parsley.