Migas Extremeñas

Migas Extremeñas: Step by Step

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1. Put the torn bread in a bowl. Dissolve the salt in the water, sprinkle it over the bread with your fingers, and toss.

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2. Cover with a damp cloth and leave at least 2 hours, or overnight. The bread should feel evenly damp but nowhere near soggy.

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3. Heat the oil in a large, heavy frying pan over a medium heat and fry the garlic cloves until golden, about 3 minutes, then lift them out.

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4. Add the chorizo and pancetta and cook 6 minutes until the fat has rendered and both are browned. Lift them out too, leaving the fat.

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5. Add the peppers and cook 6 minutes until soft and blistered, then lift out.

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6. Tip the damp bread into the flavoured fat and stir in the paprika and pepper.

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7. Now cook for 20 minutes over a medium-low heat, stirring and turning constantly with a wooden spatula. The pieces will gradually separate, shrink and turn golden and crisp.

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8. Return the chorizo, pancetta, peppers and garlic, toss through, and cook 3 minutes more.

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9. Serve with a fried egg on top of each portion and grapes on the side — the sweetness against the paprika is the traditional pairing and it is correct.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Things to Watch For

1. Genuinely stale bread. Fresh bread will not take the water evenly and turns to paste.
2. Twenty minutes of stirring. There is no shortcut and the last five minutes are where the crispness happens.
3. The grapes are not a garnish. Try it before deciding.

Changing the Recipe

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

A Little Background

The dampening is the step that makes migas rather than croutons. Stale bread sprinkled with salted water and left under a cloth for a few hours absorbs it unevenly, so the outside of each piece fries crisp while the inside stays soft and steamy. Too wet and they turn to porridge in the pan; too dry and you have made croutons. The pan is kept at a moderate heat and stirred constantly for twenty minutes, which is not a step to hurry.

What to Serve It With

A fried egg · Grapes or melon · A glass of cold fino

Storing Leftovers

Refrigerated for 2 days. Re-crisp in a dry pan; they will not come back in a microwave.

Quick Answers

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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