[Recipe + Video] Cocido de Paticas (Pig Trotters Stew)
Cocido de Paticas - Recipe & Video (Pig Trotters Stew): This is not exclusive to Dominican cuisine, but ours has a nice combination of flavors and vegetables. Try it!
Servings 6 porciones
Calories 1191kcal
Ingredients
- 2½ lbs pork trotters [1 kg] cut into small pieces
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (peanut, soy or corn)
- leaves from a celery stalk
- 1 sprig thyme (fresh)
- 1 sprig oregano (fresh) or 1 teaspoon of dry leaves
- 2¼ teaspoons salt (or more, to taste)
- ½ teaspoons pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground) (or more, to taste)
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 large red onion chopped
- 1 celery stalk chopped
- 2 large tomato chopped
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 1 cup boiled chickpeas
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 4 floury potatoes diced
- 2 carrot diced
- ½ Scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
Instructions
How to season pig trotters
- Season with lime: Add the lime juice to the meat and mix well.
- Brown meat: Heat oil over medium heat in a heavy pan. Add trotters to the pan and brown. Remove the pan from the heat.
How to cook pig trotters (also cow trotters and goat feet)
- Add water: Place the meat into a pot (3 qt [3 lt] capacity). Add 6 cups of water to the pot. Add celery leaves, thyme, and oregano. Add a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper.
- Boil: Boil until the trotters are very tender and the meat falls off the bones. In a conventional pot, it may take 1-2 hours or about 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. If you are not using a pressure cooker, then add water when necessary to keep the meat covered.When the trotters are tender, remove the herbs from the pot and discard them.
- Separate: Remove the meat from the liquid in which it boiled, set both aside. Let everything cool to room temperature.
- Cook vegetables: Return the pot you used before to the stove and heat over low heat. Add the garlic, then the onion, and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the celery stalk and then the tomatoes and bell pepper, potatoes, carrots, chickpeas, trotters, tomato sauce, and mix.
- Add liquid: Skim the fat off the liquid in which the trotters boiled. Add them to the pot (6 cups). Add Scotch bonnet pepper. Simmer covered over low heat until the potatoes and carrots are cooked through.
- Serve: Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with white rice and avocado slices.
Video
Notes
You can make the same dish using cow trotters, pig trotters, or goat trotters.
You can use tomato paste instead of tomato sauce, just dilute it in a cup of water before adding it to the pot.
I recommend using a pressure cooker to shorten the cooking time of the trotters.
The habanero bell pepper is optional, as mentioned above; if you are not used to spicy food proceed with caution as they are extremely potent. Start with less than half and add more until it is to your liking.
Let me clarify that the reason why the stew thickens is not so much the amount of fat in this cut, what thickens it is the gelatin that is produced when it is boiled. Yes, the same type of gelatin that is used to make desserts and is obtained from certain parts of animals.
If you don't have tomato sauce but you do have tomato paste, then use 2 tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in 1 cup of water.
Nutrition
Calories: 1191kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 106g | Saturated Fat: 37g | Cholesterol: 136mg | Sodium: 1186mg | Potassium: 1407mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 4585IU | Vitamin C: 55.5mg | Calcium: 92mg | Iron: 7.1mg