COZIDO

A rustic stew of boiled meats and vegetables, blending all the flavours.

1 chicken
1 lb 2 oz | 500g veal
1 lb 2 oz | 500gpork
9oz | 250g smoked hock
1 Chinese white radish (also called Chinese turnip, daikon) (lo pak)
2 potatoes
2 onions, diced
1 dried onion, diced
9oz | 250g white mustard (also called yellow mustard)*

* The original recipe called for white mustard leaves, with their distinct flavour. If white mustard is unobtainable some other vegetable, such as Chinese cabbage, would have to be substituted.

Season the meats in salt and pepper and let stand for some time.

Fry the onions and dried onions in a little oil until golden, then add the whole chicken and brown, followed by the pork and finally the veal. Cover with boiling water and simmer until the chicken is almost done (about 1 hour).

Remove the chicken and continue gently cooking the pork and veal, removing each in turn when done.

Add the Chinese white radish, potatoes and white mustard and continue cooking; remove when done.

Return the meats to the liquid and simmer for 45 minutes and remove the meats again.

On a dish array the chickens cut in eight pieces, slices of pork and veal, the hock, slices of Chinese white radish and potato, and the whole white mustard.

Serve the liquid as a soup and the meats and vegetables with steamed rice.

1 lb | 450g beef, preferably in one piece
1 lb | 450g corned beef
1 large pig’s trotter
1 lb nervo*
1 large chicken
If a richer cozido is wanted, add 1 lb (450g) pork chop, 1 ham trotter, chouriço, ham, etc
1 large cabbage, cut in 4
6 carrots
4 Chinese white radish
1 lb | 450g kai lan choy (Chinese broccoli)
3 large onions
½ taro
about 20 chestnuts
3 sweet potatoes
Cabbage, carrots and white radish are essential; some of the other vegetables can be omitted if out of season.

* beef tendon

Wash the nervo and boil it the day before till quite tender. Scrape the ham trotter and boil with a quart (1.2l) of water together with the corned beef. (This is because salt meat, if cooked with white meat, tends to turn the white meat an unattractive red colour.) The rest of the meat can be simmered in a large pot with 3-4 qt (3.6-4.8l) water and a pinch of salt till tender.

Wash and cut the cabbage, and simmer till tender. Wash kai lan choy and tie in a bunch.

Peel taro, carrots and white radish and wash.

Peel, chestnuts, potatoes and onions and add to the meat when the meat is ¾ tender. Add also the onions, the previously boiled nervo and its stock.

10 minutes before serving, when the meat and vegetables are quite tender, add a piece of chouriço and its oil and let cook for just a little while.

Just before serving, remove the chicken and other meat, then add the boiled ham trotter and corned beef to the contents in the pot. Bring the stock, vegetables and salt meat in the pot to the boil. Any stock from boiling the salt meat should not be put in until this last boiling.

Two large dishes are needed. Cut the beef, corned beef and pork chop in neat, thin slices, and lay them neatly on the dish. The chicken, etc, are cut in good-sized pieces and arrayed neatly on the same dish.

The other dish is for vegetables. Drain every bit of liquid from the vegetables and arrange them neatly and appetizingly on the dish. They can be cut into convenient sizes if desired.

Drain the soup in the pot into a soup tureen.

Serve with rice. A soup plate is usually needed for the rice as one’s appetite is considerably increased when such a wonderful course is presented at table. Have a good nap after tiffin to complete the joy.

4 tbsp balichão
6-8 tbsp Chinese white vinegar
½ lemon thinly sliced and with each slice cut in twelve

Mix these ingredients in an attractive bowl and serve with the cozido.

This is made with the left-overs of cozido.

Remove all the bones from the meat and chop the meat fine (do not put it through the mincing machine). Chop each of the vegetables – cabbage, Chinese white radish, carrots, etc – separately. Sweet potatoes, chestnuts, and taro can also be chopped and added if desired but they do as well, being farinaceous.

Slice stale bread, ¼ ” | ½ cm thick, and grate a good portion of Dutch (or similar) cheese.

Heat up the leftover soup. In a large Pyrex bowl put a layer of the sliced bread at the bottom, then a good sprinkling of grated cheese, and after it, a thin layer each of carrots, meat, cabbage, white radish, etc, and repeat the layering until all is used up. The top layer should be of bread which will be crusty when baked.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour just a few ladles of the hot soup over and move gently so that the soup is distributed through. (Do not made it too sloppy.)

Bake in a moderate oven till the top is golden and crispy.

Boil the remaining soup. Serve a portion of the sopa assado in a soup plate, and help yourself to enough soup to suit your taste.