Catalonia for foreigners

An easy video-recipe to make “fideuà”

cataloniaforforeigners — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:50:49 +0000

This is a video about a simple fideuà recipe to make at home. You will need:

2 onions

2-3 cloves of garlic

3 tomatoes

olive oil

8 Norway lobster or true scampi

4 slices of monkfish

300 gr of noodles (“fideos” nº 2)

1/2 litre fish stock

STEP ONE

First of all, finely chop the onions. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add olive oil. Then, add the chopped onion and stir.

STEP TWO

Cook until browned and add the chopped garlic. Fry a few minutes. Then, you can add the tomato puree.

STEP THREE

Add olive oil in another frying pan and then, add the noodles or fideos. Stir until browned.

STEP FOUR

Put the chopped monkfish and the Norway lobsters in the other pan only for a minute and remove them.

STEP FIVE

Add the noodles and one soup ladle of fish stock per person. You can make it yourself with the heads of monkfish and Norway lobsters. If you don’t want to, buy it. Cook for 10 minutes, more or less. Then, add the fish and seafood. Cook for two minutes and put in preheated oven.

A few minutes later you can eat a delicious fideuà. The best way to eat it is with allioli.

Calçots’ time

cataloniaforforeigners — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:27:15 +0000

It’s time to eat calçots! From February to April people use to go to calçotades. And it’s very usual for Catalan people to go with friends or family. You can choose between going to a restaurant or cooking them yourself in a barbecue. It’s a very popular gastronomical event. First, calçots, and then meat and slices of bread are roasted in the barbecue.

Calçot is a kind of onion but it is milder and less bulbous. It looks like a leek because it’s longer and thinner than onions. The secret is in the way of growing them. Calçots are planted like onions, in trenches, but it’s necessary to increase the depth of the soil around the stems as they grow. This way of cultivating is called calçar in Catalan, hence the name calçot.

If you go to a calçotada you will find a sauce called romesco to dip them. It is typically made from almonds, hazelnuts, garlic, olive oil, nyora peppers, tomato, vinegar, salt and pepper.

If you can’t go to a calçotada, you can cook them at home, in the oven. The taste is not the same, but it’s delicious too.

Catalan human towers

cataloniaforforeigners — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:03:35 +0000

Last year castells were declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Inatangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. These human towers are a Catalan symbol and it seems their origin is in a traditional dance called “Ball dels Valencians” in catalan, that means “Valencian’s dance”. However, the first castells appeared in Valls, considered the home to castells, at the beginning of the 19th century. Precisely, if you visit Valls you will find the commemorative monument you can see in the next photograph.

This image was taken on 29th January 2011. Valls holds a meeting of “colles castelleres”, groups who build castells and it’s the only time the towers are build at the same time by the different colles. This meeting is only held once every ten years.

As well as people who climbed to form the upper parts of the tower, it’s needed la pinya. La pinya is the base of the castell, most often made by men. Women use to be in the uppest levels. Finally, the anxaneta (a very young girl or boy) is someone who climbs to reach the top of the castell. The casteller’s motto is “Força, Equilibri, Valor i Seny” that means “strength, balanced, courage and sense”.

If you are interested in castells you will find them in many festivals within Catalonia. Here there is a small calendar with the most important festivals of the year. You can’t miss them if you visit us.

- 15th August: Bisbal del Penedès
- 30th August: Vilafranca del Penedès
- 24th September: Barcelona
- First Sunday october every two years: A competition in Tarragona
- 22th October: Valls
- 1th November: Vilafranca del Penedès
- Third Sunday November: Terrassa

More information in wikipedia