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Basque cooking has its origins
in a predominantly agricultural society. It is food of the family type,
designed to be enjoyed in pleasant company at home.
One of its features is its
variety of dishes because it includes fish, meat and vegetable dishes.
The sweets and cheeses served in the company of local wines cannot be omitted
either. The roasts are of ever-increasing importance. Grilled fish and
meat retain their taste and aroma best, the same as the roasted sardines
from Santurce, sea bream and so many other kinds of fish.
Other important features
of Basque cooking are without doubt the sauces, which are part of the same
dish and the same recipe.
Basque cooking is universally
famous, but there is a new movement as part of the so-called New Basque
Cuisine which tries to renew the traditional art of cooking without losing
its essential values. This means upgrading ingredients that seemed to have
lost their importance in cooking, such as leek, carrot or cream, which
are incorporated in the menus of the most luxurious restaurants today.
Typical dishes are especially
porrusalda, a dish based on leek and potatoes, alubias, white beans prepared
with black pudding, chorizo (= a piquant Spanish pork sausage) and potatoes,
el revuelto de Perretxicos, scrambled eggs with mushroon from Orduna, pisto
a la bilbaina, a dish based on courgette, green pepper and tomato, and
marmitako, prepared with tuna and potatoes.
Shellfish occupies a special
place, particularly txangurro, which is the shell of the spider crab filled
with its meat and a sauce.
Among the fish dishes, especially
outstanding is hake in the form of merluza a la koskera and kokotxas (barbels)
from the head of the fish. Other dishes include txipirones (squid) in their
juice or octopus, clam, sea bream and the famous Aguinaga baby eel.
Bacalao (cod) deserves special
mention because of the countless different preparations. Most widely known
and typical are bacalao al pil-pil and bacalao a la vizcaina .
Among the meats, there are
especially chops, lamb, el sukalki, which is a meat and vegetable stew,
tripe, snout, and pig's trotters in the style of Vizcaya.
As regards desserts, typical
are home-made desserts, such as cuajada, a kind of yoghurt, rice pudding,
toasted bread, compote, intxaursaltsa (a sauce made of nuts), in addition
to different kinds of cheese, especially those from El Gorbea. |
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