This is a very economical and delicious soup that was devised by peasants to
both kill their hunger and warm their bodies in the long winter nights of a Godforgotten Spain. The idea was to make a good use of bread leftovers, as even
bread was very expensive in those dire days.
Four servings: Garlic: 1 and half bulb; four 1-inch thick dried out baguette slices
bread (100 gm/0.22 pounds); 1 liter and a half of light stock (1 1/2 L of water
enriched with 2 stock cubes will do); 2/3 eggs; 4 tbsp olive oil; black pepper (1
tsp), salt (1 tsp).
Preparation: Shred the bread into small pieces and add it to the stock. In the
meantime, peel the garlic cloves and fried them in a sauce pan with the oil on a
medium fire ring until the cloves get a brownish color. Keep aside part of the oil
and start smashing the garlic with the pepper, the red paprika and the salt in a
mortar to get a brownish-red paste that will be incorporated to the stock
together with part of the oil. Stir the soup with a wire whip to allow the bread get
thinner and to obtain a good mixture of all the ingredients. Crack the eggs and
stir both yolks and whites in the mortar with a fork (don't use this time the wire
whip as it would add air to mixture, and this is not a dessert). Finally, allow the
soup to simmer for 10 minutes, cut the fire and slowly add the stirred eggs while
you stir the soup with a fork to mix all the ingredients.
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Baked Pork's Knuckles (Codillo de cerdo al horno) (10)
10