Atascaburras

                                                                               Receta en Español

The recipe I present today , 'Atascaburras' , appears in the book '1000 recetas de Albacete y su provincia' from Carmina Useros, it is related to the village called Chinchilla de Montearagón but the dish is popular in all the province of Albacete.

The name can be translated into english as  'stuckdonkey' it comes from the similarity between the sound that we ca hear when we crush the ingredients with the help of a pestle and the sound of a donkey stuck in the mud stomping to set itself free.

Tradition tells that the origin of the dish comes from a group of shepherds who had nothing to eat but garlic,potatoes and some cod. They decided to cook and smash all the ingredients, the result was spectacular and the recipe became popular little by little.

This is a typical dish for winter but you can also eat it as a cold dish in summer.

It can be a main dish or a starter.

Ingredients:

• 100 grams of desalted cod.
• 4 potatoes (950 grams).
• 3 eggs.
• 3 clove of garlic.
• Some nuts.
• Oil.
• Salt.

Method:

1- Soak salted cod for 48 hours to get rid of the salt.

2- Wash and peel potatoes. Put in a pressure cooker together with cod ,add some salt and some water just to cover the potatoes.

Close the pressure cooker , put on a high heat. Once the steam starts to come out,  put on a low heat and cook for 10 minutes. 

3- Once cooked, crumble the cod (Keep aside broth , maybe you will need it later) .

4- Use a pestle to crush the 3 cloves of garlic until it turns into a dough.I did it in the same clay pot where I was going to present the 'Atascaburras'.

5-  Add little by little potatoes and cod , smash them. Add some oil to the mixture while you are smashing it.

6-  If the mixture is thick you can add some broth and keep on smashing.

7-  Boil eggs, cut each egg in two. 

8 - Flatten he mixture and place cooked eggs, nuts and a dash of oil on the surface of the dish.



Albacete