Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Classic Catalan
Traditional Catalan recipes showcase the great produce of the Mediterranean: fish, prawns,
cuttlefish, clams, pork, rabbit, game, first-rate olive oil, peppers and loads of garlic. Classic
dishes also feature unusual pairings (seafood with meat, fruit with fowl): cuttlefish with
chickpeas, cured pork with caviar, rabbit and prawns, goose with pears.
Sauces
The essence of Catalan food lies in its sauces for meat and fish. There are five main types:
sofregit
(fried onion, tomato and garlic),
samfaina
or
chanfaina
(
sofregit
plus red pepper
and aubergine or courgette),
picada
(based on ground almonds, usually with garlic, parsley,
pine nuts or hazelnuts, and sometimes breadcrumbs),
allioli
(a mayonnaise-style sauce of
pounded garlic with olive oil) and
romesco
(an almond, red pepper, tomato, olive oil, garlic
and vinegar sauce, used especially with
calçots
).
Paella & Fideuà
Arròs a la cassola
or
arròs a la catalana
is the moniker given to Catalan paella. It's cooked
in an earthenware pot without saffron, whereas
arròs negre
is rice cooked in squid ink -
much tastier than it sounds.
Fideuà
is similar to paella, but uses vermicelli noodles rather
than rice. It usually comes with a little side dish of
allioli
to mix in.
Seafood
Apart from more standard approaches such as serving up steamed, baked or fried fish, the
Catalans like to mix it up a little, by way of fish soups and stews.
Suquet
, which combines
several types of fish with potatoes, is the best known, while
sarsuela
includes a richer vari-
ety of fish ingredients. Other themed stews often go by the name of
caldereta
, where one
item (usually lobster) is the star ingredient.
Calçots
Catalans are passionate about
calçots
(large, sweet spring onions), which are barbecued
over hot coals, dipped in tangy
romesco
sauce and eaten voraciously when in season
Search WWH ::
Custom Search