Habichuelas Con Perdiz

I tried out one of my newer cookbooks last night, La Cocina de Mamà by Penelope Casas. It is a very well written book, with gorgeous photography that will of course make you hungry. Some of the ingredients will be more difficult to obtain in the US, but there are some substitution suggestions throughout the book. The recipe I tried, Habichuelas con Perdiz is a little difficult for the average American to cook, so I made some substitutions to create my own version modeled after Casas'. The recipe calls for partridges (what???) or quail, and having neither at my disposal, I will be using a good old cut up chicken. I also substituted an Ancho pepper as suggested by Casas for the noras (dried Spanish sweet peppers), and Anaheim peppers for the Italian green frying peppers.

This recipe is absolutely delicious and all the peppers make it mildly spicy and the perfect thing for a cold day! Serve it with a salad and crusty french bread to sop up the juice.

1 lb dried white beans, such as Navy Beans or great northern beans
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 anaheim chilies, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic
1 ancho pepper (large dried red one)
1 medium ripe tomato, finely chopped
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 cut up chicken
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 large bay leaf
1/2 pound very small new potatoes, not more than 1 1/2 inches in diameter, (or larger ones quartered)

Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Drain. With kitchen shears, cut open ancho pepper, and remove stem and seeds. The pepper will be added whole.

In a stew pot heat two tablespoons olive oil and saute onion, Anaheim peppers, Ancho pepper and garlic until onions and Anaheim peppers are softened. Add tomato and cook for a couple more minutes. Add beans, 6 cups of water, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover and simmer for two hours.

While the beans cook, season chicken with salt and pepper and lightly brown in olive oil. Stir in wine, chicken broth, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove chicken cool slightly and debone, reserving the broth the chicken cooked in.

Fish out the Anaheim chile from the bean pot and scrape flesh from skin. Discard skin and chop pepper flesh then add to the pot of beans. Add the potatoes, chicken meat and the broth from cooking the chicken to the bean pot. Cover and simmer until potatoes and beans are tender.