Galicia, Spain
The definitive Galician winter dish — cured and salted pork shoulder (lacón) boiled with grelos (turnip greens) and chorizo. Lacón is a specifically Galician cured product: the front shoulder (not the hind leg as with jamón), salted and dried rather than fully cured, and always cooked before eating. The combination of the slightly salty, rich lacón with the bitter, mineral grelos and the smoky paprika of the chorizo is one of the great winter flavour combinations in Iberian cooking. The dish is the traditional Entroido (Galician Carnival) preparation — eaten throughout February and March when the grelos are in season and at peak bitterness.
Desalt the lacón for 24-48 hours in cold water (change twice). Start in cold water, bring slowly to a simmer. Add the chorizo after 1 hour. Add the potatoes after 1.5 hours. Add the grelos in the last 15-20 minutes — they must be barely cooked. Season only at the very end — the lacón is already salty. Serve the components on a single platter with a good pour of Galician olive oil.
Grelos are available in Galicia from November to April — outside this window, young broccoli rabe is the closest available substitute. The broth from cooking lacón is extraordinarily flavoured and should be used for soups, caldo gallego, or cooking garbanzos. Pair with Ribeiro white wine (the traditional Galician partner) or young Mencía.
Over-cooking the grelos — they must retain green colour and slight bitterness. Starting in boiling water — produces a turbid broth. Forgetting to desalt — the dish becomes unpleasantly salty. Under-seasoning the grelos separately — they need a pinch of salt even though the lacón is salty.
The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden