History
Olla de San Anton is the Granadina stew cooked around January 17, the feast of Saint Anthony, using the leftover pork from the November-December matanza tradition. The dish combines white beans (habichuelas), rice, pig ear, trotter, chorizo and morcilla in a clay olla. The recipe comes from the citys 18th-century convents, where the nuns ran a charity meal for Saint Anthony. Modern Granada restaurants still cook the dish through January and into February, with Chikito and Las Tinajas the most-cited stops.
Make it at home
Yield Serves 6Hands-on 30 minTotal 3 hrDifficulty Intermediate
Ingredients
- 400g dried white beans, soaked overnight
- 150g rice
- 1 pigs ear
- 1 pigs trotter
- 200g chorizo
- 200g morcilla
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 60ml olive oil
- Salt
Method
- Drain the soaked beans. Place in a large pot with the trotter, ear, 2 litres of cold water and the bay leaf.
- Bring to a boil, skim the foam. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 1 hour.
- Add chorizo, morcilla, onion, garlic and paprika. Simmer 45 minutes more.
- Add the rice. Cook 18 minutes until the rice is tender and the stew has thickened.
- Lift out the trotter and ear, slice and return to the pot.
- Rest 10 minutes off the heat before serving. The stew thickens as it sits.
Tip from the editors. Soak the beans 24 hours rather than 12; the longer soak softens them through evenly.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.