Catalan cuisine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Catalan cuisine refers to the cuisine of Catalonia in Spain. It may also refer to the shared cuisine of the four Catalan-speaking regions of Catalonia, French Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. In any case, most of the dishes present in Catalonia are made in some or all of the rest. Some consider it a part of Spanish cuisine whilst others consider it to be part of mediterranean cuisine generally, alongside Italian and Occitan cuisine amongst others.
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[edit] Basic ingredients
It relies heavily on ingredients found along the Mediterranean coast, including fresh vegetables (especially tomato, garlic, aubergine, red pepper, and artichoke), wheat products (bread, pasta), olive oils from Arbequina, wines, legumes (beans, chickpeas), mushrooms, all sorts of pork preparations (sausages from Vic, ham), all sorts of cheese, poultry, lamb, and many types of fish like sardine, anchovy, tuna, and cod.
Traditional Catalan cuisine uses a lot of bread and cod (salted, dried, fresh, etc.). The cuisine includes many preparations that mix sweet and savoury and stews with sauces based upon botifarra (pork sausage) and the characteristic picada (ground almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, etc. sometimes with garlic, herbs, biscuits).
[edit] Savoury dishes
- Catalan-style cod (with raisins and pine nuts)
- Escalivada or "espencat" (valencian) (various grilled vegetables)
- Escudella (a stew with rice)
- Ollada or "Putxero" (val.) (Meat and vegetable stew)
- Esqueixada or "esgarrat"" (val.) (salted cod salad with tomato and onion)
- Fuet (a characteristic type of dried sausage)
- Mongetes amb botifarra (beans and pork sausage)
- Pa amb tomàquet (bread smeared with an olive oil, garlic and tomato sauce)
- Tonyina en escabetx (tuna escabeche)
- Suquet de peix (a seafood casserole)
- Savoury Coca (pastry)
- "Sea and mountain" dishes (incredible marriages of meat and fish)
- Embotits, a generic name for different kinds of cured pork meat)
- Calçots (specially cultivated onions, grilled and served as a "Calçotada")
- Cargols a la llauna (cooked snails)
[edit] Sauces and condiments
- Allioli, a thick sauce made of garlic and olive oil, used with grilled meats or vegetables, and some dishes like Fideuà (noodles).
- Mayonnaise, postulated to be a Minorcan invention from the city of Maó.
- Samfaina, also called "Mullador" (Valencia) and "Tumbet" (Mallorca). Essentially ratatouille.
- Salvitxada
- Romesco
- Xató
- Sobrassada, a kind of pork paté with spicy red pepper.
[edit] Sweets and desserts
- Crema catalana (a crème brûlée-style custard with cinnamon)
- Mel i mató, a plain dessert of mató cheese with honey.
- Mona de Pasqua
- Sweet Coca (pastry)
- Panellets
- Tortell or "torta" (roussillonese) or "roscó" (val.), a typical ring-shaped pastry stuffed with marzipan, that on some special occasions is topped with glazed fruit.
- Torró is a nougat-like traditional Christmas confectionery. Nowadays many variants and flavours exist, but the traditional ones are these kinds based on almonds and honey.
- Menjablanc typical of Tarragona, a kind of yoghurt.
[edit] Wines
There are 11 Catalan wine-growing regions qualified by the INCAVI (The Catalan Institute of Wine): Priorat, Penedès, Catalunya, Costers del Segre, Conca de Barberà, Montsant, Alella, Tarragona, Empordà-Costa Brava, Pla del Bages and Terra Alta.
In Valencia, denominations include: Alicante, Valencia, Requena-Utiel.
The sparkling wine cava, made in Anoia (Catalonia) and Costera (Valencia) counties: the Catalan equivalent to champagne. It is widely exported.
"Moscatell", or muscat, is very popular and produced in Roussillon, Catalonia (Empordà) and Valencia (Marina Alta).
[edit] See also
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