So much space has been filled with these meritorious bacons and hams,
that we must be brief with our remaining bill of fare. For a _pisto_ or
meat omelette take eggs, which are to be got almost everywhere; see that
they are fresh by being pellucid; beat these _huevos trasparentes_ well
up; chop up onions and whatever savoury herbs you have with you; add
small slices of any meat out of your hamper, cold turkey, ham, &c.; beat
it all up together and fry it quickly. Most Spaniards have a peculiar
knack in making these _tortillas_, _revueltas de huevos_, which to
fastidious stomachs are, as in most parts of the Continent, a sure
resource to fall back upon.
The _Guisado_, or stew, like the olla, can only be really done in a
Spanish pipkin, and of those which we import, the Andalucian ones draw
flavour out the best. This dish is always well done by every cook in
every venta, barring that they are apt to put in bad oil, and too much
garlic, pepper, and saffron. Superintend it, therefore, yourself, and
take hare, partridge, rabbit, chicken, or whatever you may have foraged
on the road; it is capital also with pheasant, as we proved only
yesterday; cut it up, save the blood, the liver, and the giblets; do not
wash the pieces, but dry them in a cloth; fry them with onions in a
teacup of oil till browned; take an olla, put in these bits with the
oil, equal portions of wine and water, but stock is better than water;
claret answers well, Valdepeñas better; add a bit of bacon, onions,
garlic, salt, pepper, _pimientos_, a bunch of thyme or herbs; let it
simmer, carefully skimming it; half an hour before serving add the
giblets; when done, which can be tested by feeling with a fork, serve
hot. The stew should be constantly stirred with a _wooden_ spoon, and
grease, the ruin of all cookery, carefully skimmed off as it rises to
the surface. When made with proper care and with a good salad, it forms
a supper for a cardinal, or for Santiago himself.
[Sidenote: STARRED EGGS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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