Gallo Turresilano; Rooster

A little update to clarify about the laurel and a tweak to the instructions about oil
Know your food.

Before


After


We were in Tordesillas, province of Valladolid, region of Castilla y Leon (Old Castile) and had the local specialty for lunch. With a nice bottle of Ribiera de Duero (local) wine (or, rather, part of one).

Translated, Gallo de Corral Turresilano translates as Tordesilla Farmyard Cock but since that word, although technically correct, is not permitted in this day and age we'll stick with Rooster (or, generically, Bird).

Dead simple country style food, delicious and uses pretty much the whole animal. The bird has to come from a specific region (a few small towns) in Valladolid and the preparation is low slow cooking. Basically, what you get is sort of a a giant chicken leg; braised.

I didn't cook this one but the recipe goes something like this:

Gallo Turresilano

Ingredients

• 1 rooster (whole, 3 or 4 kg) [1½-2 #]
• salt
• pepper
  
  
• 750 ml olive oil [3C]
• 2 laurel leaves
• 2 onions (medium) chopped
  
• 100 gr almonds [2oz] chopped
  
• 50 gr bread [2oz] crumbs, large (verging on huge)
  
• 3 garlic cloves, smushed
  
• parsley (small bunch) chopped
  
  
• 500 ml dry white wine (from Rueda) [2C]

Procedure

1. Cut the bird into 8 pieces (legs, breasts, thighs, wings; 2 each)
• Save the leftover parts
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on all the pieces
3. Cover the feet, neck , and back (the remnants of trimming the bird) with water to make a bullion.
• Simmer slowly.
4. Oil into another pan and brown the "good" pieces
• Set the bird pieces aside
5. Pour out the greater amount of oil (in Spain we save it for use in other dishes)
   
6. Now, into the oil goes the rest of the ingredients, except the wine, to fry up a little
7. Pound the result (except the laurel) in a mortar (or a stick-blender for the more modern types)
8. Back into the pan, add the wine, scrape the bottom of the pan (deglaze)
   
• add the bullion
• put the laurel back in
  
9. Simmer slowly, covered, for 2½ hours (wow, a long time)
• After, if the sauce is too thin, remove the bird and reduce the sauce vigorously until it coats the back of a spoon

Serve with fries (which go great with the sauce) and maybe a green salad (quite traditional)

Notes

1. You can add sliced carrots to the mix about a half hour before the end to trick this dish up with some vegetable content

foto credit, rooster, wikipedia commons