Castile and Leon It is the largest of the Spanish autonomous communities, with nine provinces that share tastes and flavors, but that retain their own personality.
The region forms, together with Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha, the Spain of the roast. The preparation of suckling pigs and lambs is the best known face of Castilla y León cuisine. These are unique elaborations, not so much because of the cooking method (always in a wood-fired oven), but because of the raw material: meats with denomination of origin that are not consumed anywhere else in the world.
But the cuisine of Castilla y León (regions that share a community, but not always traditions) goes much further. When reviewing your kitchen you have to take into account many other dishes that deserve to be known and enjoyed. The meats, whether lamb, pork and rabbit, among others, are prepared with the same care as trout, migas or marinades. And the same goes for pastries, very rich and varied.
The cuisine of Castilla y León is strong, simple and delicious. The most humble products become great pleasures for the palate. A good example of this are potatoes to importance. A very basic stew in which the potatoes are coated in flour and egg and fried before cooking in broth enriched with minced garlic, saffron, parsley and white wine.
Peel, wash and cut the potatoes into slices of approximately one centimeter; we season them Then we put flour in a plate, and beat the eggs in another. Pass the potatoes through flour and then through the beaten eggs. Fry them in plenty of hot oil, and reserve them in a large bowl, taking care not to spoil the batter.
We make a mashed with garlic, saffron, parsley and salt. Heat about three tablespoons of oil and fry the onion until it begins to brown. Add a tablespoon of flour, give a few quick turns and add the mashed, without stopping moving. Then add the wine, letting it cook for two minutes so that the alcohol evaporates. Let’s finally pour broth or water to cover a couple of fingers above.
Carefully transfer the potatoes to the sofrito saucepan, and when it starts to boil, correct the seasoning and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring carefully from time to time. We will puncture them to test that they are tender, that will be the moment to remove them from the fire and serve.
A dish that surprises due to the apparently extravagant mixture of ingredients is the serrano lemon, a kind of blunt salad with lemon, orange, garlic, mincemeat or chorizo, pickled fish and egg, which often also includes ham.
In a line of humility and simplicity Very similar is the Castilian soup, known as “garlic soup” or “bread soup” in other regions. A full-fledged recipe in which stale bread reaches another level by being cooked in broth and seasoned with garlic and paprika.
Pastoral crumbs are also prepared with bread, of which there are infinity of variants. Our recipe is very simple and basic, but tasty to the max.
The tuber is also the star of the revolconas potatoes, a marvelous snack in which the potato is flavored with paprika and accompanied by torreznos. If you have never tried them, we will only say that you are already late. It is the specialty of Salamanca, although the torreznos they are more from Soria. Preparing them at home, if you have good raw material, does not have much of a mystery, once you know the right technique so that they are crispy on the outside and very juicy on the inside. Our recipe is infallible and with it we can enjoy a delicious appetizer at home.
Cod with ajoarriero is a dish whose origin some link to the gastronomy of the Basque Country and others to Castile. With this in mind and without entering into disputes, what it is worth sinking your teeth into this recipe in which products from the garden such as tomato, potato, pepper, chilli, garlic and onion fit so well with the flavor of cod.
For those who love spooning and legumes, a plate of stewed beans from La Granja when the cold gets worse can be something like touching the sky. This variety of legumes is very grateful, their buttery texture makes them melt in your mouth. The mixture with the pork with which it is stewed is simply spectacular.
We continue with the dishes of something with meat with the Zamora style rice, whose recipe we have not recreated (yet), but we have borrowed it from a friend with Zamora roots. Is a sticky rice that is prepared in a wood oven and is characterized by its flavor and the forcefulness provided by the meats it is accompanied with. Generally chorizo, rib and pork ear.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the post, dishes made with meat are the most emblematic of the cuisine of Castilla y León. Among them, the cuchifrito suckling pig, typical of Segovia, stands out. The name derives from the two techniques used for its preparation: cooking and then frying. From the name cooked and fried derives cocifrito and hence cuchifrito or cochifrito.
Maybe the most famous piglet of the region is Cándido, a restaurant located at the foot of the Segovia aqueduct, where they have been roasting it for years and surprising everyone who passes by their tables. Its meat is so tender that it can be cut with a plate. Our suckling pig recipe can be used to give you a homemade treat, in the absence of being able to visit Segovia, and it will not disappoint you.
From León, the maragato stew is traditional, very similar in preparation to the rest of the country’s stews. Its peculiarity is that it is served in reverse, in three turns of meat, vegetables and soup. It seems that this tradition arose in times of war, when you had to eat the meat proteins first in case there was an attack and there was no time to finish all the food. To spare, that on the soup.
Also from León, specifically from the El Bierzo area, it’s the botillo (also typical in Asturias and Galicia): a sausage made with pork ribs (minimum 65% and maximum 90%) and pig tail (minimum 10% and maximum 20%) to which other components such as tongue, cheek, shoulder and backbone, in a maximum of 20% of the total ingredients.
The invention is cooked and accompanied by potatoes and vegetables. If you want to taste it at home, we have a guide in which we explain how it should be prepared so that it reaches all its splendor.
Another traditional stew based on meat, this time lambis the chanfaina. In it, several cuts of this animal are mixed, with its legs, cooked blood, onion, garlic, bay leaf and chilli pepper. The basic and common thing is offal, to which you can add: rice, bread, noodles, legumes, or potatoes. It is seasoned with paprika and hard-boiled egg. A whole plate gentleman.
Although his fame has transcended borders and today it can be found in almost the entire country, from the province of Salamanca it is the Salamancan hornazo. It is the typical snack on Monday of waters, eight days after Easter, and commemorates the end of the time of recollection and abstinence What does Holy Week mean? For many, long ago, the time to return to the pleasures of the flesh. In every sense.
Oval refractory clay roaster with special bars for suckling pig and lamb 60 cm x 28 cm.
A land for sweet tooth
The sweet tradition is varied and also forceful in this Autonomous Community, with many typical specialties hidden in each town. Among the most memorable desserts in the cuisine of Castilla y León is the San Marcos cake, famous throughout the Spanish geography. Layers of fine sponge cake interspersed with cream and chocolate cream and covered with toasted egg yolk. Is there anyone here who hasn’t eaten it yet? Probably not.
The yolks are a recurring ingredient in sweet recipes and so we find the very delicate yemas de Santa Teresa, which melt in the mouth and seem to come from another world, the tocinillo de cielo, pure lust, and the Segovian punch which, like the San Marcos cake, is made with alternate layers of sponge cake, on this occasion, with pastry cream and covered with a layer of marzipan that is marked with its characteristic rhomboid pattern.
Finally, one of the most typical sweets of this community is French toast with bread. With a somewhat redundant name, Torrija is not exclusive to this geographical areabut it is one of its most representative and popular sweets, especially during Easter and Lent when the region’s pastry shops sell thousands and thousands of them.
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