Spanish Red Bean Stew

I have been cooking a lot of Moroccan food lately. It has slowly grown into one of my favorite cuisines. I was reading a bit about the history of Morocco and the Moors. You may have heard something about the Moors conquering Italy (at least the Sicilian part) back in the 7th century or so. There was a movie written by Quentin Tarantino that addresses that history in rather colorful detail.

The Moors conquered Spain as well. Also you might remember that Spain was sending ships all over the world doing all sorts of naughty things. With all of those influences, you might imagine that the cuisine of Spain is extremely varied and tasty. I bought a cookbook recently called The Cuisine of Spain. Spanish cuisine is highly variable by region. My wife made an egg dish from the Balearic Islands. The Spanish are wild about fried eggs. Here is the evidence:
My wife's dish:
The sauce is made from leeks, carrot, peas and milk. One of these times I will post the recipe.

I saw a special on the news today about the running of the bulls. I would like to go to Pamplona to do that one day.

Thinking about all those naughty Spanish people running and drinking Sangria all day got me hungry for some Spanish food. I found a recipe for the red bean stew of Tolosa which looked interesting. I guess Tolosa is famous for its red beans. The dish also has some of my favorite elements: cabbage, sausage, bacon and hot peppers! How can you go wrong? I had to Americanize it a bit because I can't fathom eating morcillas - blood sausage - just yet.

Red Bean Stew of Tolosa

1/2 pound dried red kidney beans soaked overnight
2 T olive oil
1/2 onion, finely diced
4 strips bacon
1/4 pound chorizo
1/4 pound Jimmy Dean sausage
2 cloves garlic
1/2 head cabbage coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Brown bacon in a saucepan. When bacon is done remove from pan but leave the grease. Saute the onion and garlic in the grease. When that is done, crumble the bacon and return to the pan. Add the beans and cover in about 1 inch water. Add olive oil and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Meanwhile fry the chorizo in a big cast iron skillet. Leave the grease behind in the pan. Add drained chorizo sausage to the beans after the first hour of boiling. Add more water as needed and continue boiling until beans are soft.

Next fry the Jimmy Dean in a the cast iron skillet you used to fry the chorizo. When the sausage is done, remove from the heat. Leave the grease behind. Add a little olive oil if there wasn't much grease - a real shame. I occasionally give a little grease to the dog to help her coat. Saute the cabbage in the grease. Transfer the cabbage and sausage to a serving platter and keep warm. When beans are done pour the beans over the cabbage on the platter and serve. Garnish with some little pickled peppers. The Spanish use guindilla chiles or peperocini. I used sport peppers.