Valencian cuisine
The Valencian cuisine is the regional cuisine of the Comunidad Valenciana . Typical main course ingredients are rice , vegetables and fish , especially eel . The most famous dish and actually the only known dish in this region is paella , which has long been eaten not only in all of Spain, but in many countries. The Valencian cuisine is not typical Mediterranean cuisine, but rather rural and down-to-earth. Most meals are anything but light, but very filling. Stews play an important role. This is due to the fact that only the city of Valencia is directly on the sea, the hinterland was dominated by agriculture for centuries , the population consisted of farmers. Even in Spain, the typical Valencian cuisine is not very well known, in most restaurants in the region only a few original Valencian dishes can be found on the menu.
Typical dishes
The paella, a dry rice dish that is traditionally prepared in a large metal pan over an open fire, is now internationally known. There are many recipes, but the original variant from the region around Valencia consists only of rice, chicken or rabbit, long green beans ( ferraduras ) and snails ( vaquetas ); The rice traditionally gets its yellow color from the addition of saffron . Seafood paella was introduced in Catalan cuisine , but not in Valencia. About the internationalized paella the Catalan writer and says El País - columnist Manuel Vazquez Montalban mockingly: " La paella internacionalizada es un guiso de arroz en el que se mezcla carne y pescado y cualquier vegetal, con la Excepción del plátano. " (The internationalized paella is a rice dish that mixes meat, fish and all sorts of vegetables, with the exception of bananas.)
Rice generally plays a major role in this regional cuisine. A cookbook published in Spain mentions over 100 different rice dishes from the Comunidad Valenciana.
Another dish that is prepared in the same pan in the same pan as paella is fideuà , sometimes incorrectly referred to by foreigners as noodle paella ; However, the basis of a paella is always rice. They are available with thick and thin noodles . Typical ingredients are fish and octopus , and today seafood is often used as well. The noodles are colored either yellow with saffron or black with cuttlefish sepia.
Especially in winter, many stew dishes called ollas , olletas , putxeros or tarongetes are traditionally prepared . The main ingredients are white beans , rice, pork , various sausages, pumpkin and chickpeas . Cocido suculento is a stew made with meat broth. Fish dishes naturally play a greater role near the coast than in the hinterland, where fish stew ( cassola ) and fish soups are also made. In the past, fish was usually preserved in salt or dried, and there are many ways of preparing fish that have been preserved in this way. Dried tuna ( mojama ) is said to be particularly tasty.
Fruit plays an important role as a dessert , because the region is a fruit-growing area; there are, among other things, numerous orange groves . A typical dessert of the area is turrón , which is made in Xixona and Alicante . It is mostly eaten in winter. As a drink, the Horchata de Chufa must be mentioned, a drink made from tiger nuts , which today is generally prepared ice-cold like a milkshake . Fartons are often eaten as pastries .
Main courses (selection)
The names of the dishes are given in Valencian and Catalan .
- Paella
- Fideuà
- Arròs al forn , rice dish cooked in the oven. Although it is eaten throughout the region, it is particularly popular in Torrente and Játiva ; Every year in these places there is a competition in which the best Arròs al forn is awarded. In Spanish, this dish is called arroz al horno .
- Arròs amb crosta , rice dish with egg that is baked in the oven at the end
- Guiso de anguiles all i pebre , a fish dish with eel , paprika and garlic
- Bullit , a stew with potatoes , beans, onions and Swiss chard
- Olla churra , a stew made with pork, potatoes and vegetables
- Olleta , a stew made with rice, pork, various types of sausage and vegetables
- Minxos , flatbread with oil and sardines
- Suquet de peix , a fish dish (many variations)
- Coca , very popular savory or sweet pastry base
source
Web links
- Comunitat Valenciana: Valencian cuisine, with recipes (German pdf) (2.18 MB)
- Further information from the Comunitat Valenciana (German)
literature
- Cécile Drouin: The traditional Valencian cuisine. Kitchen, recipes, photos, index, lexicon. Moll-Verlag, Benissa 1997, ISBN 84-89111-06-5