Cocido Madrileno (Madrid Style Stew)

1/2 lb chick-peas presoaked in water for at least 10 hours
11 cups water
1/2 lb veal or beef
4 oz ham
5 oz bacon or salt pork in one thick slice
1/4 stewing chicken optional
1 marrow bone
3 carrots
1 leek (if not available, substitute a small onion)
1 sprig mint
4 medium potatoes cut in two
salt to taste
4 oz pork sausage (one sausage)
1/2 small cabbage head chopped coarsely
1/3 cup raw rice (or 1/2 cup fine noodles)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove

Bring 11 cups of water to boil in a large pot. When it boils, add the presoaked chick-peas, drained and tied in cheesecloth. Add veal, ham, bacon, chicken, marrow bone, carrots, leek, and mint.

When soup boils again, skim it well and cook on low flame for 2 hours. Add potatoes and salt to taste. Cook approximately 1 hour longer.

In the meantime, prick the pork sausage with a needle so that it will not burst, and put it in a separate pot with the cabbage and water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer.

A half hour before serving, stir the pot containing the meat, ham, chicken, etc., and strain out 6 cups of broth. Heat it to boiling, put in the raw rice or noodles and cook until tender.

When the cabbage and pork sausage are cooked, drain well and fry in 3 tablespoons olive oil in which a garlic clove has been previously browned and removed.

Serve the broth containing rice or noodles as a first course.

For the second course, put the chick-peas, well drained, in the center of an oval serving dish with the potatoes at either end and the slices of carrot along the sides. Slice the meat, ham, bacon, and chicken and put it on top of the chick-peas.

Serve the cabbage in a vegetable dish with the pork sausage chopped fine on top.