Gastronomy

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Gastronomy

FRESH FROM THE LAND AND THE SEA

Serrano Ham, Natural Dry Curry: (c) Michelle Chaplow Enjoying and experimenting with Andalucían cuisine is a fundamental part of your stay in Andalucía.

The Arab presence has made a lasting impact on the cuisine of Southern Spain. Rice, lemons, oranges, olives and vines were introduced, as well as many new vegetables and spices. Typical today are the barbecued meats, sauces flavoured with cummin or saffron and sweets made from crushed almonds. Tomatoes and peppers are much used. Local sherry vinegars are used for dressing salads. The region is famous for its grilled fish, especially sardines, and deep fried calamares (squid). Quality ham and pork are used widely in sausages; and in the mountains stews of tripe or chickpeas are common fare. Tapas were invented in Andalucía and a wide variety of them is still served throughout the region.

Tapas are small snacks that originated in Andalucía in the 19th century to accompany sherry. Stemming from a bar tenders practice of covering a glass, with a saucer (tapar - cover), to keep out the flies.

The custom progressed to a chunk of cheese, or a few olives, being placed on the platter to accompany the drink. Once free of charge, tapas usually have to be paid for nowadays, although it is still very much the custom to give free tapas in some bars in Granada.

What better than an alfresco lunch commencing with a chilled summer gazpacho soup. Freshly harvested Mediterranean fish and a salad dressed with the finest olive oil. Olives and olive oil have been an important product of Andalucía since Roman times. Today a third of Europes olive oil is made here. The Mediterranean diet is well known as being one of the most nutritionally healthy in the world.

On the coast you will find the fish and seafood the traditional fare. Five of Andalucía's eight provinces have stretches of coastline (Almería, Granada and Málaga on the Mediterranean; Cadiz and Huelva on the Atlantic), while a sixth, Sevilla, has a tidal river and seaport. So, you can imagine that the gastromony on the coastal regions is distinguished by a hugh variety of seafood. The fish market is a great place to get acquainted with the local catch.

Also, tapas bars, freidurías (fried fish to go) and cocederos (cooked fish to go) display dozens of different fish and shellfish. You buy a heap of cooked prawns, wrapped in a paper cone, and carry them to the nearest bar to shell and eat them with a fino wine.

Fresh prawns, clams, mussels, scallops, crabs, lobster, squid are some of the shellfish. Fresh anchovies (boquerones), sardines, mackerel, hake (merluza), several varieties of sea bream (look for besugo, dorada, hurta, pargo), monkfish (rape), sole, turbot, sea bass, red mullet (salmonete), grouper, skate, conger, swordfish, tuna, and even more.

	Fried isn't the only way fish is prepared. It may be grilled and served with a garlic and parsley sauce, or baked in a crust of salt, or baked with potatoes and vegetables or sauced or combined in a salad.
Inland there is a tendency for ham sausage and game dishes not forgetting vegetable and meat stews.

Furred and feathered game is plentiful in Andalucía and, in former times, a dish of rabbit or partridge was more common than chicken in rural homes.

Also widely popular inland is rabo de toro-braised bulls tail. Wonderfully tender and served usually in a rich gravy sauce is the best way to serve this traditional dish.

Córdoba has deer and wild boar. Jaén is especially noted for partridge. In the marshlands of the Guadalquivir near Sevilla wild duck is taken and often cooked with Sevilla olives.

Pork is the favoured meat in Andalucía. Besides the hams and sausages already mentioned, pork goes into many dishes, minced for meatballs (in an almond sauce) and stuffed peppers; the loin marinated and roasted; the fillet braised in orange-sherry sauce. Where the iberico breed of pig is raised for ham, fresh pork from this animal is also available. It's exceptionally juicy and sweet.

Lamb is also widely raised, especially in parts of Huelva and Córdoba. In Andalucía, typical lamb dishes are slow-cooked shepherds' stews. Sheep's and goat's milk cheeses are also worth seeking out.

Fruit is also available here in abundance and is always on the menu for dessert. Everything grows here in the south, the market garden of Europe. Crops include strawberries, apples, pears as well as oranges and lemons. Tropical fruit is grown too, mangos and chrimoyas (apple custard fruit) and Spain is also known for its melons. Figs grow wild, while the city of Granada owes its name to the locally grown pomegranate.

If you are an aficionado of fine wine, Spain is the place for you.

With a wine-making tradition spanning more than 2000 years and with more vineyard acreage than any other country in the world, Spain is producing wines of increasingly good quality. There are excellent reds from traditional areas such as Rioja and Navarre, and also from emerging wine-growing regions such as Ribera del Duero and Somontano. Delicious whites are being made with indigenous Spanish grapes in regions such as Rías Baixas in Galicia (home of the Albariño grape) and Rueda in central Spain, where the Verdejo grape is used. Bubbly cava from Penedés in Catalonia, made following the same method as champagne, is the world's best-selling sparkling wine.

The best-known wines comes from the 50-odd Spanish Denominación de Origen areas, equivalent to France's Appellation d'origine controllée. Red wines may be young (known variously as vino del año, vino jovén, vino de cosechero) or aged in oak barrels, followed by a second period of bottle ageing. Crianza, reserva and gran reserva indicate the different degrees of aging.

The predominant red grape in Spain is the Tempranillo, introduced by French monks in the Middle Ages and thought to be related to the French Pinot Noir. It can be used on its own to make varietal wines, but is often combined with smaller quantities of other varieties.

Southern Spain produces one of the most famous wines in the world, sherry, grown in the area next to Jerez de la Frontera in the province of Cádiz. This is one of Andalucía's four Denominación de Origen areas (equivalent to France's Appellation d'origine controllée), together with Málaga, Montilla-Moriles and El Condado de Huelva. In addition, there are several Comarcas Vinícolas (smaller wine making districts), not to mention a handful of innovative vintners who are starting to produce interesting red table wines.

The Vendimia is the festival in September that takes place at the end of the grape harvest.

Beer (cerveza) is enormously popular in Spain, which is in fact one of Europe's major producers of lager. In Andalucían bars it is common to ask for draught beer by the type of glass: a caña is a small glass, a tubo is a long glass. Bottled beer comes in quintos (20 cl.) and medias or tercios (33 cl.), as well as litre bottles. The most popular brands of lager include San Miguel (brewed in Málaga among other places), Cruzcampo (brewed in Sevilla), Alhambra (Granada) and Mahou (Madrid).

Brandy is a favourite digestive to end a meal. Most Spanish brandy is produced in Jerez, where it mellows in casks once used to age sherry. Another national passion is aguardiente de anís, a clear anise-flavoured brandy produced in a number of villages in Andalucía. The most famous comes from Rute in Córdoba. It can be sweet or dry.