Lacon con Grelos

The traditional Galician fare during Carnaval/Entroido is pork.  Chorizos, ham, pancetta, heads, ears, cheeks, trotters, tails, accompanied by tender new beet greens, boiled potatoes, drizzled with olive oil and washed down with local wine, it is a time of celebration and feasting before lent.

Now that we have a functioning kitchen, with a gas stove and a sink and everything, I thought I´d try lacon con grelos (beet greens).  I bought a small lacon (the front leg sans trotter) for 2, greens and potatoes at the Sunday market, and after consulting the meat vendor and my go-to source for Galician traditional cuisine (one of V´s aunts in Coruña) de salted it in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water 4 times.

The lacon went on the boil, and 2 hours later the chorizos were added.  I pre-boiled the greens to remove some of the bitterness, and then added the peeled potatoes half an hour before serving and the greens for the last 10 minutes.

Results - the lacon was still on the salty side for our taste.  Next time I´ll de-salt for 48 hours.  The potates were a tad overdone, they really should have been bigger.  But the results were reasonably authentic for a first try.

I´ll be making bubble and squeak a la gallega today with the leftover potatoes, greens and chorizo for lunch.

Happy Carnavales everyone!