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OLLA
(AHL-uh, OH-yah)
An
unglazed pot or jar for cooking or holding water A meaty,
spicy stew Common
clues:
____ podrida; Spanish
pot, Earthenware pot, Spicy stew; Stewpot; Paella pot; It's a
crock Related crosswordese: Olio Crossword
puzzle frequency:
4 times a year Video: Jorge
Quintana Makes an Olla
A
thousand years ago in Chaco Canyon, this olla, or water jar, was
left on the floor of a pithouse where two families lived.
Their pithouse was part of a small homestead in the shadow of
Fajada Butte. These people, known to archeologists as the Chaco
Anasazi, built and lived in their home from AD 950-1030, a time
of transition in the canyon. Nearly a hundred years before,
construction at great houses Penasco Blanco, Pueblo Bonito, and
nearby Una Vida had begun. By the time this pithouse was
abandoned, around AD 1030, the people living in the canyon had
begun a hundred-year period of intense construction that
completed all the great houses in Chaco Canyon. [National
Park Service]
***
Olla
podrida is a popular dish in Spain and Galicia.
It dates back to the Middle Ages, when it was called olla
poderida, where poderida meant "powerful" ("olla"
refers to stew or to the stew pot), referring to the powerful
ingredients that it included, or because only the rich powerful
could get near this dish.
Following
certain rules of the language, the "e" disappeared and
left the word "podrida," a word which means "rotten."
This oftentimes leads to much confusion, such as theories that
the word referred to a stew which incorporated old bits of meat
which were starting to "go off."
Its
principal ingredient is the red bean, and is well appreciated
when it is made with the exquisite red beans of Ibeas de Juarros.
The beans are traditionally prepared in a clay pot over several
hours (hence its name) until they become soft. To the stew one
adds the following "powerful" ingredients: bacon,
morcilla from Burgos, chorizo, and the ribs, ears, and snout of
smoked pig. The dish sometimes includes la bola or stuffing
(similar to the cocido stew), finished with egg. It is eaten
as a main course,
although one serves beans first and then the meats separately.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Olla
podrida"
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