Well, another year is passing. I hope that everyone, especially those who have been following Manzanilla Spanish Brasseria all the time can finish everything you planned throughout this year.
The end of the year is nearer day by day, which means the Christmas season is about to come. If you haven’t found a new boiling hot dish for your family on the most important holiday, don’t worry since Chef Dani García got your cover. Today’s dish is quite unique: “Sopa de Galets” aka Pasta Galets Soup.
About the dish
Yes, another dish that shows the beauty of traditional Catalonia cuisine besides frijoles blancos or Catalan sausage and beans,… The main ingredient of this extremely original soup is galets – a kind of pasta that has a special big conical shape like a snail shell. Because of this unique shape, galets is specifically chosen to cook the soup in Catalonia. Particularly, the broth – the soul of this dish – will be trapped in those “snail shells”, fulfilling your taste in each bite.
Moreover, the attraction of Catalan food also appears in a great number of traditional seasonings of this region such as parsley; the seasoning method is very basic, allowing the eaters to completely enjoy the juice of the broth used to make the soup (this can also be seen in cooking butifarra guide)
Ingredients
- Hambone
- Beef bone
- Chicken carcass
- Celery
- Carrot
- Turnip
- Parsnip
- Potato
- Onion
- Minced pork
- Beef
- Garlic
- Parsley
- Egg
- Gallet pasta
These ingredients are divided into 2 main parts. Firstly, they are the ingredients used to prepare the broth, including Hambone, Beef Bone and Chicken carcass. The other part is used to make soup.
An interesting fact about Spanish cuisine, especially with the soup, is that we will not be overdependent on seasonings such as MSG or sugar, sauce… Instead, we will stew bone to create a natural sweetness for the food. This can make the food naturally sweeter and healthier.
The Galets Soup has a lot of versions, some of which may include:
- Broth with Gallet Pasta: This is the most basic version of this soup, when gallet is truly the main part of the dish. You can entirely savor the greasy broth with the intensely sweet broth made by stewing meat.
- Gallet stuff with minced meat: This is also a worth-trying experience, when each piece of pasta will carry full of the tastes and the soul of the dish. Eaters are able to enjoy the meat, the pasta, and the broth at the same time, in just one dish.
- Broth with galets and meatballs: This is the version that we are going to cook and the ingredients we are going to use today. This is medium food, so it’s not going to be so complicated as galets stuffed with meat; however, it’s not gonna be as simple as the first version above. You can still enjoy the essence of this dish, particularly in this freezing cold Christmas.
Step-by-step Stopa de Galets Instruction
This is the traditional dish that Catalans serve for every Christmas holiday, so not only the preparation but also the processing is ranked as complicated. But the result when you give it 110% is worth I must say
About the Instruction, I will divide it into 2 main parts: The first one is Broth Preparation and the second is Making Meatballs and completing the Galets dish. Stay tuned guys.
Making Broth
To prepare a food portion for 4 people in Christmas lunch, I will use a big stockpot to stew the bone purchased, ensuring that the juice of the ingredients will be released during simmering.
Put in the stockpot the prepared ingredients including: Hambone, Beef bone, and Chicken carcass. These are some very basic ingredients to cook the broth for any other dish, and they can be purchased at any shop or supermarket near your accommodation. But, remember that you ought to prepare them 3-4 days before cooking, since these ingredients can be sold out when the Christmas season is coming and well, you will not want to miss this dish, will you?
Season the bone as simple as with salt and black pepper, a specific cooking style of Catalonia, right? To make the soup’s color nice-looking and the broth’s flavor stronger, a tip from Chef Dani García is that you should brown the meat and bone before adding other ingredients and simmering.
When the meat is browned, add the vegetables listed in the recipe (celery, carrot, turnip, parsnip, potato, onion). Of course, give them a rinse with water first (or with salty water for hygiene), peel them all and chop them into small pieces so that they can release all of their juice. Before adding the water and start cooking the broth, quickly stir the vegetables with browned bones.
Then, add the water and turn up the heat to cook a sweet, greasy broth. Pour an amount of water that fits your need for the Christmas dish; in my situation, I serve for 4 people, so I will use half a litter of water, covering the whole surface of the bones and vegetable mixture.
When the mixture starts to boil, right now, you can see that there is a lot of brown bubbles on the surface, resulting from the appearance of Chicken carcass in the mixture. Dispose all of the bubbles with a ladle, making the soup clearer, therefore increasing the dish’s attraction. In addition, there will be no impurities when the dish is served, which may better your experience.
After filtering the impurity, turn down the heat to medium and simmer for 50 minutes. If you use a pressure cooker, this process will be shorter, within about 40 minutes
Making Meatball
During the simmering, we will move to Making Meatballs to serve them together with galets and soup.
On Christmas, I’m quite busy, so the preparation from preliminary processing onwards is pretty difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, unlike usual, I will not use my grinder to grind the high-quality meat chosen from my close butcher; instead, I got 500gr minced beef and pork that I have just bought from the supermarket.
I will add nicely chopped garlic, black pepper, and a touch of parsley (chopped too, of course) to the minced meat so that the meatballs’ flavor will be diverse, however, it can still have a little bit of fresh vibe from the green herb, particularly parsley.
Wear cooking gloves and evenly squeeze the mixture. Make sure every seasoning is blended with minced beef and pork.
To make the meatballs greasier and sticky to other ingredients, add an egg. Continue evenly squeeze the mixture as much as possible.
After the mixture is perfectly mixed, divide it into parts and knead them into delicious meatballs that meet the needs of the eater number and personal portion. Distribute the number of meatballs and place them on the cutting board or dish (anywhere you feel want to place them). Therefore, when the broth is completed, we will only have to put the meatballs in the soup.
Serving sopa de galets
When the broth is perfectly simmered, let’s carefully put the bones and the vegetables out. Crucially, when opening the lid, regardless of slow cooker or stockpot, cautiously follow the instructions for use from the producer in order to avoid unexpected events or injuries.
Now, when the soup is done, you can see the clear, yellow and greasy broth with scum on the surface. This is the soul of the dish; the impressiveness of the dish completely depends on this broth.
Depends on your family’s taste, but as for me, I would like my Sopa de galets to be not only good at taste but have a nice appearance as well. Therefore, I will put the ingredients in the broth out of the pot, and then put them in a separate bowl; of course, there will be someone who loves to eat the vegetables or potatoes, but if there are demands, I can add them to their portions.
Next, put the prepared juicy meatballs in the broth pot. 10 minutes will be ideal for the meatballs to be well-cooked, keeping the greasy and juicy taste of them.
After the meatballs are well-cooked and their texture fits your family’s taste, put them on a separate plate.
The next step is straining the broth again to make sure there is no impurity in the broth, creating a terrible experience when tasting the food and keep the dish’s appearance attractive. In the last strain, pour the broth slowly from the stockpot to a small pot through a strainer to filter all the fat and impurities while simmering the meatballs.
Bring the soup in the small pot to boil, and once again, put the perfectly cooked meatball in. And there is it, the final steps of Sopa de Galets, add the galets and boil. Boil for 8 minutes in medium heat until the galets starts to soften but still keep its creamy, crunchy texture, and the Sopa de Galets is ready to be served.
Each one has a serving that is beautifully organized into dishes, with galets and a meatball is an unforgettable experience during this Christmas season. I hope all of you won’t face any difficulty while making this Sopa de Galets and Merry Christmas!
More Spanish Recipe To Discover
Sopa de Galets
Equipment
- Stockpot
- Skimmer
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Cooking Gloves
- Small Pot
- Strainer
Ingredients
- Hambone
- Beef bone
- Chicken carcass
- Celery
- Carrot
- Turnip
- Parsnip
- Potato
- Onion
- 500 g Minced pork and beef
- Garlic
- Parsley
- 1 Egg
- Gallet pasta
Instructions
Making Broth
- Brown hambone, beef bone, chicken carcass
- Add celery, carrots, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, onions
- Add water, bring to boil, skim impurities
- Simmer broth for 40-50 minutes
Meatballs
- Combine 500g pork/beef, garlic, pepper, parsley, egg
- Form into meatballs
Finishing/Serving
- Simmer meatballs 10 minutes in strained broth
- Add galet pasta, boil 8 minutes until pasta softens
- Serve into bowls with a meatball in each
Notes
- Brown the bones well before simmering – this enhances color and flavor
- Skim impurities and fat off surface as it simmers
- Use fresh, high quality minced meat if possible
- Mix meatball parsley and garlic and adjust seasoning amount for flavor
- Time pasta so it and meatballs finish together
