Iberia · Volume 05, The Rías, the Feira and the Road to Santiago
Lacón con Grelos
Interior Galicia
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Not statedNo source states a time and the atlas has too few comparable dishes to estimate one.
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Grelos, the flowering shoot of the turnip plant, are only at their best from January to roughly Easter, squarely across the Entroido, Carnival, season, which is why this dish is eaten then and not by any older ritual assignment. The Festa do Lacón con Grelos in Cuntis, running since 1998, times its celebration deliberately to the Sunday following Entroido itself.
As tradition built it
About 3 hours, plus 24 to 48 hours' desalting soak.
Ingredients
- 1, roughly 1.5 to 2kg whole cured lacón
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and whole
- 1 smoked chorizo
- 2 bunches grelos, roughly chopped, a generous quantity
Method
- Soak the whole cured lacón in cold water for 24 to 48 hours, changing the water every eight hours, to draw out the curing salt.
- Place in a large pot with fresh cold water, bring to a simmer and cook gently for 2 to 2.5 hours until the meat is fully tender, skimming as needed.
- In the last 20 minutes, add the peeled whole potatoes and the smoked chorizo to the pot.
- In the final 10 minutes, add the grelos and simmer just until wilted and tender.
- Serve the sliced lacón with the potatoes, chorizo and grelos, moistened with a little of the cooking broth.
What a modern chef changes
A sous vide lacón, and grelos blanched to fix their colour
Rung 5
Method
- Desalt the lacón on a tasted schedule rather than a fixed clock (Rung 5).
- Cook the lacón sous vide at a held 80°C for the full 2.5 hours rather than on the hob, finishing the skin briefly under a hot grill or on a Big Green Egg for colour before slicing.
- Blanch the grelos separately for 90 seconds in heavily salted, rapidly boiling water and shock in ice water to fix their colour.
- Reheat the grelos briefly in a little of the reserved lacón broth just before serving, keeping the bright green the traditional long simmer inevitably dulls.