Cocido Madrileño

Cocido Madrileño is a classic Madrid peasant dish. It's a slow-cooked stew packed with meat and vegetables. Traditionally, some of the stock is served as soup for the first course, and then the meat and vegetables are served with a side dish of cabbage.

If you are using dried chick peas, you'll need to soak them overnight in water before using them. Chop the chicken into large pieces (including the skin and bones) and place the pieces skin-side down in a large pan. Add the beef and half of the bacon (they should be whole pieces, not chopped at all), the bones and the onion, coarsely chopped. Add enough water to cover the meat, and bring to the boil. Add the pepper and the bay leaves. If you are using dried chick peas, add them too (if you're using pre-cooked, add them towards the end, otherwise they'll disintegrate). Put a lid on the pan, and simmer for about two hours.

After two hours, add the pre-cooked chick peas, if using. Continue cooking for about half an hour.

Cocido is usually served with a small bowl of massively overcooked cabbage, so you need to shred the cabbage and boil it in a separate small pan.

Peel the carrots and potatoes, and chop them and the leek into large chunks. Add them to separate pan of salted water and bring to the boil. Add the chorizo and morcilla (keep them whole, otherwise they'll fall apart) and the other half of the fatty bacon. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for half an hour.

To make the soup, drain off some of the cooking broth from the meat. Add a handful of short noodles (basically regular spaghetti cut into 2cm (1in) lengths and boil for 5 minutes. The soup is now ready to serve.

To finish the cocido, add the vegetables, sausages and bacon to the meat pan, along with some of the liquid if needed. Let them cook together for about 10 minutes, and then remove the sausages and meat and cut them into bite-sized pieces. On each plate, arrange chick peas, potatoes and carrots, and one piece of beef, chicken, bacon, morcilla and chorizo. If you like, you can pour over a little of the broth, but this is not commonly done.