Category: Ingredients
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Lamprey and goose barnacles at Rías de Galicia – Espai Kru
The blood-sucking lamprey and otherworldly goose barnacles top the bill in a feast at Barcelona’s leading seafood restaurant. I’ve eaten at espai Kru before and loved it. You can read my full review here but for the TLDR crowd: just book a table and go. It’s a spin off from Rías de Galicia, located downstairs, which is…
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Conill al Romesco (Romesco Rabbit)
A rustic rabbit recipe from Catalonia that’s delicious enough to turn even bunny-phobes into finger-licking fans. Rabbit’s not what it used to be. The miserable, mass-produced specimens that line the chiller cabinets of Catalan supermarkets don’t have much to recommend them in terms of either flavour or farming ethics. I’ve talked about this before. You…
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Fricandó amb Moixernons o Cama-Secs (Braised Beef with Wild Mushrooms)
This classic dish is a staple of menus across Catalonia with as many variations as there are cooks. It’s really an autumn dish but it can be made year-round using dried mushrooms. The combination of tender meat, savoury fungi and rich onion and tomato sauce is finished with a characteristically Catalan touch: a picada (paste) of…
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Making bread in Barcelona
I don’t eat much bread. I love it, but it’s something I reserve for weekends and special occasions. When I do eat it, I want something as healthy and tasty as possible. Bread quality in Barcelona is on the up but the typical barra is tasteless stodge and pa de pages can be a hit-or-miss affair.…
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Organic Fruit and Vegetables Basket from Mumumío
Spain may be Europe’s leading producer of organic goods but you’d never know it from looking in the shops. There’s nowhere near the same mainstream understanding of what ‘organic’ means, or what the benefits are, that is found in northern Europe. As a consequence over 80% of the best of what the country produces is…
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Rabbit with prunes and pine nuts — Conill amb prunes i pinyons
I don’t eat much rabbit. Not because I don’t like it but because the battery-farmed, flavourless specimens usually available to buy are unjustifiable, either ethically or gastronomically. Fortunately I recently happened upon an organic rabbit which was much more like the real, wild thing. I decided to improvise a dish using some classic Catalan/Spanish flavour…
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Mmm…bacon!
Last week I bought some organic pork belly from BioSpace (www.bioespacio.com, C/ València 186, Barcelona) and set about making some bacon as an experiment. Nothing complicated, just rubbed in a cure of sea salt, black pepper, soft brown sugar and some crushed bay leaf, put into a big, airy tupperware in the fridge then turned,…
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El Cabàs — “tot del camp”
Breaking from the run of restaurant reviews I’ve been posting, this time I want to mention a noteworthy shop for those days when you’re doing the cooking yourself. Barcelona’s great in that — as well as its local covered markets — it has a proper, old-fashioned greengrocer on almost every city block. This makes access…
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Reserva Ibérica — bargain breakfast
UPDATE: Reserva Iberica has now MOVED. It can be found nearby at Rambla de Catalunya, 61. As this was thedoughball’s last day in Barcelona and she’d missed the escudella party on Saturday, we all met for a late breakfast/early lunch at Reserva Ibérica (C/ Aragó 242, www.reservaiberica.com). Reserva Ibérica’s a great little ham shop with…
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Escudella i Carn d’Olla
This is as Catalan as it gets. Escudella i Carn d’Olla, which can be roughly translated as soup and poached meats served over two courses, is the Catalan ur-dish. This is the taste of home, of hearth; the kind of peasant food that makes locals go all misty eyed and start talking about about their grandmothers…
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Puff pastry — masa de hojaldre
Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to make it. Flaky pastry’s about as close as I come when home cooking. No, this is more of a request for advice. Which brand should I buy? I like to keep some puff pastry in the fridge or freezer for impromptu meals. At a push you can…
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Embutido…
…and lentejas Or embutits and llenties if we’re staying all Catalan, but spiced sausages and lentil stew are such pan-iberian staples that it seems best to stick to the more familiar terms. This is comfort food and convenience food both. Lentils offer all the wonderful, winter-warming goodness of other legumes but without the need to be…