Like Tears for Fears without Curt Smith

29 October 2015

My mum was a great cook and I miss her food to this day almost as much as I miss her. Recently I looked into the origins of quite possibly her best dish, the Puchero, long cooked meats with chickpeas that she would cook the night before and serve in three courses.

The puchero has its origins in the Jewish adafina, the Sabbath Casserole. It was adopted by Catholic Spaniards back in the day and pork and sausages were added to the meats that were already there as evidence the eaters were neither Jewish nor Muslim and that the meal now belonged firmly to the Spanish.

Every region has its own variation of the puchero. Some go big on the bean and sausage meat. Others add more veg. Some, rather strangely in my eyes, do away with the chickpeas, which is a little like the decade Tears for Fears spent without Curt Smith.

You can’t not have the chickpeas.