Cocido Maragato

“To make a good stew, the first thing you have to do is get up early. Cooking takes time and it is necessary to do it over very low heat. When I arrive at the restaurant I put water to heat and, in the meantime, I prepare each product. This is how we look for an exquisite stew that, as I tell all my clients, is not at all strong and has no fat at all. “It is eaten “the other way around” than other stews, that is, it is served in reverse order, starting with the 10 different types of meat and the filling, accompanied by some thin slices of natural tomato. Then continue with chickpeas with potatoes and cabbage, followed by noodle soup and, finally, some exquisite homemade custard with sponge cake for dessert. To finish a traditional stew coffee.Among the theories that explain why cocido maragato is eaten upside down, the most widespread is the one that tells us that during the war of independence, the Maragatería soldiers at war with the French chose to eat the meat first because if it came to attack them, if there was something left over, that there was left over soup... Others attribute it to the fact that the Maragato muleteers, merchants who transported goods between Galicia and Madrid, took the lunch boxes with meat and chickpeas to eat them along the way and, upon reaching the inn on duty, they ordered soup.