Mediterranean cuisine
The Mediterranean cuisine, associated with the famous Mediterranean diet
that has been shown to be so beneficial for the health, is based on the
"Holy Trinity" of wheat, the olive and the vine, with other
important ingredients being: rice and legumes; garlic, greens and vegetables;
cheese and yoghurt; fish, meat and eggs; and fruit. This is a school of
cuisine which is as varied as it is complete, and which, in the Mediterranean
areas of Spain, is interpreted with local differences and twists.
Ever since the Middle Ages, Catalonia has enjoyed a delicious and refined
cuisine embracing plain, sea and mountain, a cuisine which on the coast
has recourse to a wide array of fish, and inland, to typical dishes such
as escudella (a meaty broth with pasta, usually followed by carn d'olla,
a hearty stew) and roasts.
Great individuality and contrast likewise mark the Valencian cuisine,
which combines typically Mediterranean dishes –fish, green vegetables
and fruit– with those of the upland plateau, such as potages and
game stews, and which assigns rice, served dry, moist or in paella, the
leading role in an endless list of specialities. Sweetmeats, nougats (turrón)
and ice creams keep the Arabic influence very much alive. Murcia too displays
this same character, namely, a cuisine of the sea and of the land, shaped
by the merging of cultures.
Besides the fluffy pastries known as ensaimadas and the original and now
world-famous mayonnaise (salsa mahonesa), Balearic Isle specialities rely
on greens, fish (caldereta - sea-food stew) and pork (sobrasada - a spicy
red sausage spread).
Meseta cuisine
The cuisine on the Central Plateau is the product of a harsh climate that
is unforgiving and demands hard and continuous toil. In Castile &
León the cooking is based on legumes: haricot beans (La Bañeza,
El Barco), chickpeas (Fuentesaúco) and lentils (La Armuña).
Pork which, in the case of the Iberian pig reared on acorns and chestnuts,
attains a peak of quality and flavour, and game are also basic to the
typical regional specialities (botillo, the mountain sausage from León,
savoury bloodsausage or morcilla from Burgos, and the red Segovian sausage
known as cantimpalo). Baby lamb, kid and sucking pig –deliciously
roasted– are the star dishes, fish comes in the form of trout and
cod, and there is a great variety of local cheeses made from goat’s,
ewe’s or cow’s milk. Sweets and pastries, such as yemas (meltingly
soft sweetmeats made from egg-yolk) and hojaldres (puff pastry), are in
the most refined traditions of Arabic cuisine.
These same characteristics are also to be found in Extremadura, in a range
of dishes and foodstuffs in which Iberian ham and pork reigns supreme.
There are calderetas (stews) and cochifritos (lamb seasoned, garnished
and casseroled in an earthenware dish), cold escabeches (marinades), wild
vegetables (mushrooms, cardoons, leeks) and a wide choice of handmade
cheeses to be had at the hearthsides of famous monasteries and convents
(Guadalupe, Yuste, Alcántara) or in typical local eating houses.
The cuisine recreated in the story of Don Quixote of stockpot, salpicón
(salmagundi) and duelos y quebrantos (a cattle-drover’s and shepherds’
dish, traditionally associated with St. Peter’s Day rivalry, consisting
of a fry of eggs, bacon and brains, thought to be good by Sancho Panza
and eaten by Don Quixote on Saturdays) serves to bring us to Castile-La
Mancha, with its saffron, La Alcarria honey and Manchego (ewe’s milk)
cheese. A country cuisine which in its gazpachos (not the better-known
Andalusian gazpacho but a shepherd’s torta, a rough-and-ready dough
made from flour, salt and water, eaten with game meat) and morteruelos
(chopped pig’s liver braised with seasoning and breadcrumbs) retains
the flavour of the old sheep-herding ways, and in its roasts (lamb, kid),
the mouthwatering aroma of the hill country, rewarding the sweet-toothed
with the ultimate delight of the exquisite Moorish-inspired marzipan of
Toledo. Like an island, Madrid contributes with the singularity of some
of its typical dishes, such as cocido madrileño (a hearty stew
for those with big appetites, where the broth is served first, followed
by the soup-meat, chick-peas, potatoes and greens), cod and callos (tripe).
The sticky torrijas (sweet fritters), desserts and sweetmeats are yet
further local specialities. |