Fabada Asturiana, comfort food for a rocky start of 2021

Natacha Sanz Caballero Soups and Stews Art This Way, Asturias, bean soup, Christmas 2020, downtown Fort Wayne, hearty soups, main dish, stews

Come this time of year and all I want to have is a stew, a hearty soup, something to warm me up inside. Fabada asturiana is the answer –one of them at least, and a scrumptious one at that.

The events of the last few days, as we started out a new year filled with hope, also makes me crave for this dish. The attack on the Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, as we celebrated the Epiphany (the arrival of the Three Magi to visit baby Jesus in Bethlehem), followed by the storm Filomena in Spain, with snow accumulations unheard of before, are situations that make us crave something soothing, warm, homey. 

I only started making fabada asturiana last year. The reason is that I didn’t have access to the special bean, the faba grown in the region of Asturias in Spain, until last year, when my son moved to California and brought me a pound of the treasured bean, imported there. And while it makes a difference that you have the “real thing“, a bean like the Great Northern would produce a fantastic fabada. 

The dish in Asturias is made with other meaty ingredients like chorizo, morcilla or blood sausage, pancetta and lacón (ham). To make fabada here in Indiana, I had to adjust. I could find chorizo imported from Spain (I brought the one I used from Miami), and a ham bone that I sourced from the Honeybaked Ham Company. I omitted the blood sausage, because I didn’t want any  substitutions there: the varieties I can find in Spain are not available here, and I don’t want to risk the dish by using anything else.

As for the recipe, like with paella, there are probably as many variations as there are cooks, even if the basic method and ingredients are the same. I chose to follow chef Marcos Morán’s recipe, with the above mentioned substitutions. I also had to modify the method a bit, because chef Morán uses fresh fabes, and the ones I used were the dry variety, imported from Spain. Consequently, the cooking times varied quite a bit: from one hour for his fabada to over three hours for mine.

You might think it was a labor of love, but I would say it was a very easy one: once the fabes are cooking at low heat, you are free to do other activities or bake a dessert, if you please. You just have to remember to shake the casserole gently once in a while — never stir the beans with a spoon or other utensil, as you might break their delicate skin!

Fabada asturiana, as you might have guessed, is a dish that comes from the northern Spanish region of Asturias, and it’s to Asturias what paella is to Valencia: the “national” dish of that region. In a way, it’s a cousin to other hearty bean and meat dishes, like cassoulet in the south of France, an area not far from Asturias, or cocido in Madrid. 

About the recipe that I chose, let me mention that chef Marcos Morán’s fabada asturiana has been deemed the best in the world. 

The fabada was absolutely delicious —hearty, melt-in-your-mouth, with a smoky hint—, and I would make another one in a blink if I had more fabes left.  I might even make it again with a good quality bean that I can source locally.  

Matthew is now back in California and Ethan will return to university in a few short days, but it was very special to have them home not just for Christmas and Thanksgiving, but for the weeks in between. I mentioned in my previous post the positives of this pandemic, and this was one of them. The nurturer that I am, I was happy feeding them special meals they might not make, and simply being together.

Let’s hope 2021 quiets down —we don’t want any more world-shaking events. Let’s hope we can defeat the virus with a vaccine. Let’s hope we can travel to visit loved ones. Let’s hope we can connect in person with our friends. Let’s hope we can learn from 2020.

Happy 2021.

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5 from 3 votes

FABADA ASTURIANA

Bean and Meat Stew from Asturias

Author: Natacha Sanz Caballero, Mama Ía blog

Equipment

• Cast iron casserole or cocotte

Ingredients

• 1 lb dry fabes or dry good quality Great Nothern beans
• 1/2 lb chorizos or about 5 small links
• 1/2 lb slab of pancetta
• 1/2 lb ham hock
• 2/3 cup olive oil divided
• 1 tsp sweet pimentón de la Vera
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 medium onion
• 4 to 5 cups chicken stock
• Soft water or mineral water

Instructions

• Place the fabes in a stockpot, cover with water and let them soak overnight.
• The next day, place the fabes in a heavy stockpot or cast iron casserole, cover with mineral water completely, add 1/3 cup olive oil and the butter and cook at high heat.
• Fill a saucepan with water and cook the ham for about 1 hour (you can cook the whole ham hock, or just the a chunk of its most meaty part).
• Place the saffron threads close to the heat source so they toast slightly.
• In a diffrent saucepan, boil the chorizo and panceta for 5 minutes. Remove from the meat from the water and add to the fabes. Cover and cook at high heat for about 10 minutes.
• Warm up the chicken stock and add it to the fabes. Add the saffron threads and remove the casserole from the heat.
• Chop the onion finely. In a small skillet, heat the remaining oilve oil and sauté the onion. Add the pimentón and sauté with the onion, 1 minute.
• Add the onion “sofrito” to the casserole with the fabes and cook at low heat for 1 hour, then remove the chorizo and reserve. Cook for an extra 2 hours, or until the fabes become tender. At this point, add the chorizo back to the casserole. Let the dish rest for about 1 hour.
• To serve, shred the ham into small pieces and slice the chorizo into 1/4 inch thick slices. Serve alongside the beans in shallow plates.

Notes

Following the steps and tips of Marcos Morán’s recipe, I’ve adjusted it to the American household (or should I say my American household), given the unavailability of certain Spanish ingredients.

• While I had the fabes imported from Asturias, these were dry fabes, and not the fresh ones Morán uses, so the cooking times were considerably longer.
• Morcilla, blood sausage, is another ingredient I didn’t include in my recipe, because I can’t find in this part of the world.                                                                                
• Morán uses a slab of pancetta, while I had the sliced one (a slab of pancetta is easy to find, though).
• Instead of lacón I sourced a ham hock with lots of meat attached to the bone.