The rich panellada

How to make it

1. Thursday, the chickpeas and the juquiraí. Soak the 300 g of dried chickpeas in plenty of water for 8–12 hours. Drain, cover with fresh water and simmer gently for 1–1½ hours, until they crush easily between your fingers. At the end, add 1 tsp salt. Drain and refrigerate. For the juquiraí, pound the dried chillies with the coarse salt in a mortar to a coarse powder.Juquiraí keeps for months in a closed jar. With 600 g of cooked chickpeas, skip the soaking and simmering.
2. Friday, about 6 hours before sundown, the meat. Trim the hard fat and silverskin from the bone-in meat, keeping the pieces large. From the meatball meat, trim only gristle and silverskin: the marbling stays. Soak all the meat and the marrow bones in very cold water for 30 minutes, adding ice in hot weather. Drain, rub everything with the coarse salt and leave for 1 hour on a rack over a tray in the fridge, so the juices run off. Rinse three times in cold water and pat very dry with a cloth.This is the old way of drawing out the blood. The Inquisition trials say only “com agoa e sal”, with water and salt; the times are those of Jewish law (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 69). The salt also seasons the meat right through. If you use leg instead of shoulder, also cut out the landoa, the gland hidden in the fat behind the knee.
3. While the meat sits in the salt. Boil the 6 eggs for 10 minutes, cool them in cold water and peel. Separate whites and yolks: quarter 3 yolks for the meatballs, press the other 3 through a sieve and chop the whites. Keep it all covered in the fridge. Pound the pepper, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cloves and mace to a coarse powder and add the ginger. Crumble the saffron: ⅔ goes into 3 tbsp hot water; ⅓ goes into the juice of 2 lemons, which stays in the fridge until Saturday. Cut the third lemon into wedges. Wash and dry the herbs, tear them by hand and keep them rolled in a damp cloth in the fridge. For the last 20 minutes of the salting, heat the oven to 220 °C.
4. The half-roasted meat. Lay the bone-in meat in a roasting tin, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and roast at 220 °C for 35–40 minutes, turning halfway, until well browned. The marrow bones and the meatball meat wait in the fridge. On the other shelf, roast the aubergine with 2 tbsp olive oil and ½ tsp salt for 25–30 minutes, until browned and soft. Take out the meat. Pour off the fat from the tin, keeping the browned bits, then pour in 100 ml hot water and scrape up the bottom: these juices go into the pot. Toast the bread slices in the hot oven for 5–8 minutes and keep them in a closed tin. Turn the oven down to 150 °C, with the door ajar for a few minutes.This is the only chance for a crust: in the sealed pot nothing crisps, and colour only comes slowly through the night.
5. While the meat roasts, the onions on their own. In a wide, dry frying pan, toast the 40 g of nuts for 4–5 minutes, stirring. Chop them roughly and set aside. In the same pan, or a clay dish, warm 6 tbsp olive oil over low heat, add the onions and 1 tsp salt, cover and let them sweat for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook 25–35 minutes more, stirring now and then, until deep golden, the colour of honey. For the last 2 minutes, add the pounded spices, all but 1 tsp kept for the meatballs, and stir until fragrant.Don't go past honey: dark onions pull the dish towards brown. If it starts to catch, a spoonful of water loosens the bottom.
6. The meatballs. Soak the breadcrumbs in 2 tbsp water for 5 minutes. Chop the meatball meat very fine with a knife, or mince it. Mix with the soaked breadcrumbs, the raw egg, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp of the spices and 1 tbsp of the saffron water. Knead for 1–2 minutes, until sticky. Divide into 12 balls of about 35 g, flatten each one in your palm, put a quarter of yolk in the middle and close it well. Roll in the flour and brown in a frying pan with 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat for 5–6 minutes, turning: only the outside.Kneading keeps the meatballs whole through the night; the fat and the soaked bread keep them tender.
7. The pounded chickpeas. In a mortar, pound the 60 g of raw almonds or cashews to fine crumbs. Add half the chickpeas (300 g), the remaining 2 tbsp of saffron water, 1 tbsp olive oil and ½ tsp salt and pound to an almost smooth yellow paste. Loosen it with the juices from the roasting tin.In a food processor: 1–2 minutes, scraping down the sides.
8. Build the pot. Peel the yam wearing gloves and cut it into 5 cm chunks. In a clay pot or casserole of at least 6 litres that can go in the oven, lay the aubergine and the marrow bones on the bottom. On top go the meat, with the yam tucked between the pieces, and half the onions with their oil. Scatter over the other 300 g of chickpeas, left whole. Stir the yellow paste into 650 ml hot water with 12 g (2 tsp) fine salt and pour it in a little at a time: the liquid should sit a finger's width below the top of the meat, moist, not drowned. If it falls short, add hot water; if it would go over, hold some back. Last, nestle the meatballs between the pieces of meat, half sunk in the liquid, and spread the rest of the onions over the top.Taste the liquid: it should be well seasoned, like a soup. The chickpeas and yam will still drink up salt; you can adjust on Saturday. The aubergine melts away and thickens the sauce.
9. Seal and bake. Mix the flour with about 90 ml of water into a firm dough. Roll a rope as long as the rim, press it on, set the lid on top and push down to seal. As soon as it's sealed, put it in the oven at 150 °C for 1 hour, at least an hour and a half before sundown. Then, before the candles are lit and at least half an hour before sundown, turn it down to 100–110 °C; for such a long night, 100 °C is better. Leave it alone until Saturday at noon.If you bake the Friday bread, put the pot in straight after, in the falling heat, and pinch off 200 g of the bread dough for the rope.
10. Saturday at noon, open it. Take the pot out of the oven, break the seal with the tip of a knife and lift the lid. Lift out the meatballs with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Pull out the bones, which now slip free of the meat; scoop out what little marrow is left with a small spoon, for spreading on bread. If a thick layer of fat sits on top, spoon some off. Stir the rest gently: it should be thick and golden, the meat falling apart. Check the salt.
11. Serve over bread. Line a tureen or deep dish with the toasted bread and spoon the panellada over it. Drizzle with half the saffron lemon. Arrange the meatballs on top, halved to show the yolk. Scatter over the sieved yolks and dust with the cinnamon. On top go the chopped whites, the herbs and the toasted nuts. On the table: the rest of the saffron lemon, the lemon wedges and the juquiraí in a salt cellar.For a rich table's sweet-and-sour, a drizzle of cane syrup over the meatballs, only as you serve.