Local Cuisine
When we talk aboutMadrid's typical cuisine it’s important to note its many influences, from the Arabs to the local cuisines of each region of Spain.
Originallywhen the Arabs lived in Madrid, food consisted of milk, honey, dates, semolina and couscous. Our cuisine was then enriched when Madrid was appointed as the capital of Spain. In this sense two types of gastronomy began to coexist: the most popular one enjoyed by the aristocrats along with Arabic, influencing one another and bringing ingredients and cooking methods from one to the other.
Madrid is an open minded city open to everyone. It imports ingredients, customsand dishes from its neighbors and visitors which fuses with typical Madrid gastronomy, dominated by stews and soups.
Here we want to show you some of the most typical Madrid dishes and the best places to try them. Once you try them in Madrid, we’re sure you´ll try to cook them when you're back home.
Cocido Madrileño
Best restaurants: Lardhy, La Bola
Ingredients for 4:
750 grs. of knuckle of veal
½ chicken
1 Kg. chickpea
1 ham tip
1 ham bone
150 grs. bacon
½ cabbage
5 carrots
5 potatoes
1 onion
2 cloves
salt
2 chorizo
2 blood sausage
2 beef bones with marrow
1 knee bone veal
olive oil
How to do it
Step 1: Put the chickpeas in water overnight.
Step 2: Clean the vegetables and set aside.
Step 3: Peel potatoes and leave whole.
Step 4: Clean the beef, bones and blood sausage and chorizo.
Step 5: Put in a pot at maximum heat: meat, bones, and the ham to boil with salt.
Step 6: After 1 / 2 hour, with a slotted spoon remove the foam that has formed and add the chicken, chickpeas, punctured onion, leaving about 1 hour.
Step 7: After that, lower the heat and add vegetables, potatoes and sausages (chorizo and blood sausage).
Step 8: Once done, strain the broth, make the soup the first course, for the second course serve the chickpeas and vegetables and the meats for the third course.
Churros
Best place: Chocolatería San Ginés and Cafe de Oriente
Ingredients for 4:
3 tablespoons flour, wheat
1 liter of olive oil 0.4 º
1 tablespoon salt
1 / 4 Kg. sugar
2 tablespoons water
If using a pastry bag and a nozzle, which is sold at kitchenware stores, you can make perfectly fluted churros, like the Churrería.
How to do it
Step 1: In a saucepan put water, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and salt. Crumble well.
Step 2: Bring to a boil, add the flour, stir well to avoid lumps leaving a thin, uniform mass.
Step 3: When you have a homogeneous mass, remove from heat and let cool.
Step 4: Once the dough is cold, puts into the pastry bag and prepare a very large skillet with olive oil. Fry it until golden.
Serve hot and sprinkled with plenty of sugar.
Huevos estrellados
Best restaurant: Casa Lucio
Ingredients for 4:
8 medium potatoes
8 eggs.
salt
Olive oil
How to do it:
Step 1: Peel and cut potatoes for frying.
Step 2: In skillet allow oil to heat for frying potatoes.
Step 3: Fry the potatoes and put aside hem in to fry.
Step 4: Fry the eggs. Immediately lay eggs over the potatoes and stir crashing the eggs with the potatoes.
Torrijas (dessert)
Best place: Mallorca, La Malloquina
Ingredients for 4:
6 slices day-old bread
1 / 2 liter of milk
2 eggs
Olive oil
3 tablespoons sugar
cinnamon
How to do it:
Step 1: Pour the hot milk (with sugar already added) on a plate and let the bread soak without coming a part, take out and drain for an hour.
Step 2: The bread is covered by the beaten eggs and fried until browned on both sides ..
Step 3: sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar to taste. The toast can be eaten hot or cold
Tortilla de patatas
Ingredients for 4:
1 cup of olive oil
4 large potatoes, peel and cut in circles about 2mm thick,
salt to taste
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 eggs
How to do it:
Heat the oil in a 9 inch skillet, add potatoes, one slice at a time so that they don't stick. Alternate layers of potatoes and onion. Cook slowly at medium-low flame. Don't fry them!
Try occasionally until the potatoes are tender, but not brown. Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a fork. Salt to taste. Drain potatoes then add them to beaten eggs, pressing them so that eggs cover them completely. Let sit for 15 minutes. Heat another bit of olive oil and add the potato-egg mixture spreading quickly in the pan. Lower the heat to medium. Shake pan to prevent sticking. When potatoes start to brown, put a plate on skillet and turn it around, adding another bit of oil, and brown the other side.
