Basic homemade sauces for Mediterranean food

In the Catalan Countries there are a few main sauces or cooking basis with ingredients that are typically Mediterranean: picada, samfaina, sofregit, allioli and romesco.

They are now known to gourmets from the American continent, which is an honor.

Once Paula Wolfert, who has written five or six books related to Mediterranean cooking, said that picada was the best invention after bread. It really is a great special way of flavoring, binding and thickening cooking juices. Besides, picada is perfect for today's Zeitgeist, because it is light and healthy.

Today samfaina is also known to connoisseurs and Mediterranean food lovers from very far away from the Mediterranean. This sauce that contains onion, pepper, eggplant and tomatoes is very closely related to ratatolha, which is the original Occitan name of ratatouille.

In the Middle Ages, the Catalan and Occitan speaking countries were politically independent and had a strong relationship. Both our cuisines are related as illustrates the fact that samfaina and ratatolha are sauces that have the same spirit.

Click for delicious step-by-step Mediterranean homemade sauce recipes.

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Roasted chestnuts for All Saints' Day

On the first of November, All Saints' Day, Catalan friends and families get together for the castanyada, that is, to eat roasted chestnuts and panellets, delicious small sweets.

Until not so long ago most homes had a big frying pan with holes to roast the chestnuts on this day. If you don't have the patience you need to roast chestnuts in a perforated frying pan, or if you don't have any, you have another solution at hand: you roast the chestnuts in the oven.

First you have to make an incision into each chestnut with a pointed knife. You will need as many help as possible. The party can begin with everybody contributing except very small kids. Next, you place them on a baking dish, only one layer of chestnuts, and sprinkle some water over them.

You have preheated the oven ten minutes earlier. Now you can place the baking dish with the chestnuts in the oven, as low and as near as possible to the heat source. After ten minutes you can turn them over, and after ten more minutes they are done.

Roasted chestnuts should be eaten hot. If you don't eat them immediately, wrap them in some wool cloth. If you wait too long to eat them, the skin gets glued to the chestnut and it is very difficult to remove it. On top of this, they are not as delicious as when you eat them right after roasting them.

A sweet moscatell wine is the traditional company to this Mediterranean food. In my next post I will explain what are the mouthwatering panellets and the special moscatell

Click here if you would like to discover Mediterranean food recipes as nutritious as the roasted chestnuts.

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Ginger, a recovered Mediterranean food

In the Middle ages ginger was a a spice regularly used in cooking, but unfortunately in modern times it was partially forgotten. Now it has made a come back and everyone knows again what it is, and you can buy ginger easily again.

Ginger gives dishes an spicy and scented flavor. On top of this, ginger is a health-promoting herb; it is an excellent digestive.

I use it often -with rice, vegetables, or chicken. Ayurvedic Indian cuisine uses the ginger root or rhizome in many dishes combined with other herbs and spices. Ayurvedic Indian chefs are masters in the use of ginger for cooking, and the Mediterranean countries import a lot of ginger rhizomes for cooking from India or the tropical countries.

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Feast with homemade fritters - A Mediterranean food traditional recipe

This morning, in the Mallorca small town where I live, groceries make and sell bunyols, or fritters, in front of their shops. It is the feast of Ses Verges, the Virgins. In some towns guys sang or still sing under the balconies of their beloved. Girls offer them homemade bunyols to thank them.

In the Catalan speaking countries fritters are always associated to a certain religious feast. To celebrate the feast of the Virgins, people get together to eat huge dishes of homemade fritters, and drink mistel.la or moscatell, which are sweet wines.

There are different variations of bunyols or fritters - with flour, with sweet potatoes, with eggs, milk, depending on the region or town. Everywhere in the Mediterranean, in Greece, Turkey, or Morocco, you find some sort of fritters.

Click here if you would like to discover different Mediterranean food recipes.

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Year of Food, Cuisine and Gastronomy in Barcelona and Catalonia

The Barcelona city council declared 2005 the Year of Food, Cuisine and Gastronomy. The government of Catalonia gives its support to the program and contributes with their own activities.

The Barcelona city council is clever in not wanting to miss the splendor of the Catalan cuisine that Catalonia and its capital Barcelona are living right now. Never had Catalonia had such an impressive number of top chefs like Carme Ruscalleda and Ferran Adrià.

Click here if you would like to check the program of activities, top restaurants and imaginative food happenings.

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Easy baked Mediterranean sweet potatoes

Many think that sweet potatoes are a food for the poor, but they are healthy, and taste really good when properly baked. Baked sweet potatoes are the easiest of recipes.

Preheat the oven.

Take one medium sweet potato for each person and rinse them thoroughly.

Prick them with a fork in six or seven different places and put them on a baking dish.

Place the baking dish as near as possible to the heat source. After half an hour turn them over. After another half an hour the sweet potatoes are done.

This sweet potato recipe couldn't be easier. Your active cooking time is less than five minutes, and you can go about your daily activities while the sweet potatoes are baking in the oven.

Once the sweet potatoes are done, peel them and serve them. You can also cut them in half unpeeled and eat them with a teaspoon.

This is a most simple Mediterranean food recipe. Here I regularly publish simple and more elaborate Mediterranean recipes with pictures.

Sweet potatoes contain almost as much beta-carotene as carrots, vitamins A, C, and some of the B group. They also have iron and potassium.

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Mediterranean food changes with the weather

Today we had the first day of fall rain here in Mallorca. After the blinding light of so many summer months, it is strange to accept such gray skies. It gets colder, nature's appearance changes, and with it the Mediterranean food menus that we put on our tables every day.

Mediterranean sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, and pumpkins begin to appear in the food markets. Last week I bought a bundle of wild spinach that was the best I had ever had. In Mallorca you can still find wild purple artichokes along the sides of countryside paths. They are the best. Yesterday I grilled some purple artichokes according to a traditional recipe from Mallorca. So simple, so perfectly Mediterranean!

There are lots of wild mushrooms this year. I prepared a sauteed mushroom recipe and took some pictures. It was fun as usual.

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