There are so many of these that I have been collecting photos and thinking about them – and eating them too of course – for months. I had better start writing about them now or there will never be time to write about anything else! I am not smoking at the moment so food is even more important than ever so here are the first two servings…
A few months ago the shops started displaying a vegetable that was new to me – CalçotsIt is very seasonal and during the time when it is available people organise special events to eat them. These parties are called Calçotades and are usually organised to take place in the open air with a barbeque and a lot of friends. As this happens in the early Spring it coincides with a celebration of the warmer weather and thoughts of the summer to come.Best cooked on a fire the calçots are then wrapped in newspaper and distributed around the party to be stripped of their outer leaves dipped in a special sauceand then eaten in one long delicious mouthful straight from your handThe sauce is called salvitxada and is made from almonds, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, vinegar and oil.
The next recipe is not really connected with the first one except that is also totally delicious and to my mind a good way to end any meal.In case you can’t read Catalan here is my version of the recipe but it loses something in translation. If you click on the photo it will be large enough to read.
Put two egg yolks with 75g sugar into a saucepan, beat well then add 15g of cornflour. Add some warm milk (taken from a half litre) and throw in two sticks of cinnamon and the skin of a lemon. Put in the rest of the milk and put it all onto the heat. Keep stirring until it is near the boil then take off the stove but don’t stop stirring. Now take out the cinnamon sticks which you have been careful not to break up during the stirring process. If you want you can now strain the mixture through a sieve but it’s not necessary unless you have broken the cinnamon.
Put the mix into the serving dish and put in the fridge until you are ready to caramelise the top. Sprinkle sugar over the cream and then burn it until nicely crisp and brown. It will then have a wonderful combination of hot crust and cold centreWe only fire-branded half of the pudding as for some reason that I still can’t understand some of the women present prefered to eat it without the extra sugar layer!
And here is Delia meeting Cuinar és Senzill by Montserrat Segui de Queralt.I look forward to a happy relationship between the two of them!