Nowadays being a chef is trendy in Spain. Wherever you go there’s people talking about where he has eaten or about the Michelin Stars of certain restaurant. This is not strange, Spain is one of the best places to eat. Thanks to it’s geographical position and his climate condition, we have products from the mountain, from the sea, from the orchard, from the forest… thousands of products with thousands of different elaborations makes the Spanish gastronomy one of richest in the world.
For this session I invited Pablo to my place to eat “cocido”, but not any “cocido”, my grandma’s “cocido”. The “cocido” is one of the most typical, plate for the winter in Madrid, made with different processed meats from the pork, such as “chorizo”, “morcilla” and “jamon serrano”, we also use potatoes, carrots and chickpeas. As you see is quite a caloric meal but it’s warm and really tasty. So once we got all the ingredients it was time to cook my grandma’s recipe. It seemed easy… seemed… but in spite of all the work the meal was a success.
CATALAN MENUS
Winter
Starter: Clara + patatas bravas (aioli)
First: esqueixada/empedrat
Second: bacalao con samfaina
Desert: miel y requesón
After Desert: Cava
Summer
Starter: escalivada
First: fricandó
Second: calçots
Desert: crema Catalana
After Desert: moscatel + carquiñolis
As I’ve already been three times in Barcelona, I’ve tried most of the typical Catalan plates, one of my favourites was proposed by Pablo in his summer menu, the “calçots”, a kind of onion cooked in a grill. Fresh food and a sea-mountain mixtures are typical in the Catalonian gastronomy thanks to its proximity to the Mediterranean sea and the Pyrenees.
I must confess that finding a typical Madrilian menu was harder than finding a catalonian one. That upset me, and made me thought about why could it be possible. Probably it’s because Madrid is the place where all the cultures in Spain are joined because it is the capital, that’s why probably we’ve lost a bit of our identity.
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