Catalonia


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Of all the regional cuisines in the Peninsula, Catalan cooking is without doubt the most sophisticated, complete and richest apart from possessing most historical evidence. It is, in short, a privileged cuisine, because it developed at crossroads that have connected it throughout history with many other countries, such as France and Italy.

Its main dishes rely on four basic sauces: sofrito, samfaina, picada and ali-oli, and of the four, special mention must be made of the second, because it is strictly Catalan and used with a wide variety of dishess. It is a half-cooked mixture of tomato, pepper and aubergine. Sofrito, on the other hand, is rather widespread in Spanish cooking. It is a fried sauce made with garlic, onion, tomato and parsley. Picada has the special Catalan touch and is added to the simplest dishes so that they never become monotonous routine. It contains garlic, parsley, toasted almonds and chopped pine seeds. Ali-oli is an admirable dressing which probably dates from the times of the Romans and is made with olive oil and garlic, which are mixed very patiently in a mortar until they turn into a creamy paste which is ideal for meat and fish.

The traveller will discover a variety of rice dishes in Catalonia, as well as meat dishes,
White beans with
White beans with "butifarra"
a Catalan sausage 12kb
Bread with tomato and ham
Bread with tomato and ham 28kb
particularly poultry, and the famous Girona veal; not to mention rock fish, which is prepared very tastily and with a lot of imagination. The visitor will also find a surprisingly rich collection of sausages, including butifarra which is roasted or fried with mongetes --white beans-- to make a modest but tasty dish, one of the most typical in the land. Vic is the capital of sausages, especially of salchichón and the typical fuet. And accommpanying this dish is another very traditional treat: bread with tomato in a Catalan version, ie, rubbing the tomato into the bread and adding olive oil and salt. A slice of ham, an omelette or whatever else is available may be put on top.

The wines in the area are also magnificent, and worthy of special mention are those of El Priorato, which are very special, thick and mild reds not easily found outside Catalonia. El porrón or glass jug is also very popular in Catalonia: the wine is poured from the glass jug with the spout held high. More common is the leather wineskin, which is equally appropriate for the liquid, but drinking from the porrón seems to give the wine a different taste.

Girona

Of all Catalonia, Girona really has the best cuisine. It covers part of the Pyrenees and part of the Mediterranean and has carefully preserved its cooking traditions. The area inland is called Ampurdán and has the best dishes of feathered animals. It is the area of the largest turkeys, geese, ducks and poultry stuffed with complicated, unforgettable mixture of pears, turnips, apples, olives...It is also especially famous for its Christmas turkey, stuffed with sausages, butifarras, raisins and pine nuts. Game also abounds in the recipes, and rabbits are prepared with fine herbs, hare with chestnuts, partridge in accordance with a recipe originating from Olesa. Here we find a cuisine which likes to mix flavours, sweet and salty or fish and meat. In this sense, it may be said that it has the most unusual dish in the whole Spanish cookery book, which is nevertheless magnificent: the little known Mar y cel (lit.: sea and heaven), which contains nothing less than sausages, rabbit, shrimp and angler and is prepared in Estartit. And finally there is another famous Costa Brava dish: chicken with lobster.

In the chapter about fish, Girona, with the rest of the Costa Brava, stands out among all the Catalan areas for its magnificent suquets, a fishermen's dish which contains different rock fish boiled in a thick broth and an equally thick sofrito. The thick, magnificent angler soup must also be mentioned, as well as the lobster which is the best in the region and is prepared with roasted almonds and garlic and then served with ali-oli...

Barcelona

Barcelona is a city which has a long tradition in the art of cooking. It reached its greatest splendour in this sense in the 19th century, when some of its many restaurants were counted among the best in Europe.

Of the most important dishes special mention should be made of the escudella i carn d'olla, which was eaten almost daily until the thirties. Today it can hardly be found in the local restaurants. However, it is still number one of the typical Catalan dishes.

Escudella is the Catalan version of the chickpea stew called cocido. It is based on the same principle of cooking meat and vegetables together. There are two separate courses, that is, two dishes: one, a soup with small noodles and rice, and then meat, served with the vegetables. It does not include chorizo or morcilla like other Spanish stews, but the white and black butifarra, and the famous pilota, a ball made of meat, parsley, bread crumbs and egg. This stew probably has more ingredients than any other stew in the whole country: beef, hen, bacon, pig's ear, pig's trotters and lean pork, white and black butifarra, ham bone, marrow bone, chickpeas, beans, potatoes, cauliflower, egg, turnip, carrot, garlic, flour, pepper, cinnamon and parsley.

The people of Barcelona have also invented tasty noodles, ie, fideos a la cazuela, one of the most popular dishes of the region. As is customary in this area, the dish includes an ample selection of spare ribs, sausages, butifarra, ham and bacon as well as sofrito which, as usual, consists of onion, pepper and tomato.

Together with the escudella and butifarra with beans, which we mentioned in the introduction, the third most typical Catalan stew is the one with broad beans (habas a la catalana). It is prepared with a lot of herbs and spices (thyme, rosemary, mint, cinnamon and bay leaf), broad beans which are the favourite vegetable in the area, and butifarra.

As for desserts, Catalan cream is excellent. It resembles custard and is covered with a layer of caramel. However, the most traditional sweets are the ones prepared all through the year for the different holidays, such as pa de pessic, las coques de la noche de San Juan, los panellets of almond and pine seeds in the month of November... and at any time of the year, el mel i mató with requesón, a soft, white cheese.

Sant Sadorni d'Anoia is the production centre of the famous cavas, the sparkling wines.

Lleida

Lleida cooking resembles the mountain cuisine, with hearty dishes in which game and excellent trout abound. And in order to enjoy them at their best, one should select one of the little food-serving places in the Pyrenees, with an expert cook. And reserve the meal in advance. Thus, there is a chance of trying la cassolada, a potato and vegetable stew with bacon and ribs; or lamb's head and legs with girella, or lamb's feet with turnips, and above all the excellent hare and chamois civets.

In this region rice dishes are frequently prepared with rabbit, cod and pork. They are always served with a lot of broth. The most typical sausages of the region are la girella and los xolis.

Tarragona

Snails
Snails 13kb
This province is noted for such dishes as rabbit with garlic and tuna boiled with potatoes, bull de atún, marrow and snails, balls of cod and cod fritters, and a great speciality: los calçots which are sweet, tender onions, ie, the shoots of an old onion. This dish is served in Valls and throughout the area around Poblet and Santes Creus under the name of calçotada. It is a typical and exotic dish, because the onions, freshly picked, are roasted on a tile, on which they are served accompanied by an olive oil and almond sauce.

However, most important of the Tarragona cuisine are the rice dishes and a really splendid sauce. Among the rice dishes, el rossejat is a particularly popular one all along the East Coast and is especially typical of fishermen. Then there is black rice with sepia and el arroz abanda, the most extraordinary of all the rice dishes in the Spanish cuisine. However, it should only be eaten in absolutely reliable places. And in Tarragona, by way of Cambrils, the best are served without any doubt.

Rice with a fish and shellfish broth
Rice with a fish
and shellfish broth 20kb
Arroz abanda is a rice dish meant for experts because it is served by itself, or, if one wants, together with the fish with which it was boiled. The fish and seafood must be of the best queality and the greatest possiblle variety: grouper, angler, conger, prawns, lobster and squid. The complete dish consists of a large amount of rice, which has been boiled with all the fish, and another dish of fish which is served with ali-oli or romesco.

Red pepper romesco from Sitges
Red pepper romesco from Sitges 19kb
Romesco is very popular all along the Mediterranean coast and has become part of the international cuisine. Experts do not agree on the ideal formula nor its variations. Some say olive oil, red pepper and bread are enough, while others add garlic, almonds, cognac, vinegar, and then cook it all. Whatever the case, romesco is the name of a special red pepper used in its preparation, and together with ali-oli it is the most typical of the Mediterranean sauces.

The Priorat wines are the product of the Tarragona vineyards. They are excellent reds, some with 14 degrees and others with up to 20 degrees.


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