Spanish Cooking [antikvár]

Spanish cookingOpanish cooking can initially be described as a cuisine relying strongly on oilve oil and garlic. It is Mediterranean cooking and easi-ly identrfied by the presence of these two ele-ments in the recipes and fiavours.These basic and unmistakable ingredients which Spain shares with other Mediterranean countries are found in a wide variety of dishes.Spanish cooking has basically popular roots. Although a well-served table is habitual, with-out, however, making any fuss about it except in the Basque Country and Catalonia any refined palate without pre-judices will no doubt live through somé un-forgettable experiences.In this country the travelier will alsó discover that customs and dining habits vary consider-ably from one region to the next. What a dif-ference there is between the attention, ceremony and eating capacity displayed by a tripasai (the term used to describe a gour-met in the Basque Country) at lunch time "and the Andalusians" rather informál attitűdé to cooking -great fans of "pescaíto" (fried fish)".In orderto describe Spanish cooking, there-fore, we have divided the peninsula into six areas with special food characteristics. In ac-cordance with this division, the area of the sauces is the North. In the direction of the Pyrenees, there is the area of the chilindrori-es (a pepper and tomato accompaniment), which are served with many typical dishes of the region. The area of the cazuelas (stews) covers the greater part of Catalonia. Then the rice dishes are found along the East Coast. Fried dishes are typical of Andalusia, while the central area is famous for its roasts.This is a useful arrangement because it is simple, perhaps too simple in fact. In thisguide we have made it a point to describe a more detailed itinerary which, without entirely abandoning these broad outlines, is an attempt to provide as complete a view as possible of Spain's present-day cuisine.A national dishOome dishes from the Spanish recipe book have become internationally famous, eg, the paella or the fabada. Others, in a more mod-est way, have alsó become popular, eg, the gazpacho or the tortilla or potato omelette. However, many really typical and popular recipes have gone unnoticed. Often overlooked is what we might call the national dish par excellence, the only one which can be con-sidered characteristic of the entire map of the art of cooking because it is found in every cor-ner of our peninsula, though each area has its own particular version. We mean the co-cido, olla, pote or escudella in one word, the stew which has all these different names.