Some recipes from Barcelona

Costa Brava anglerfish

Ingredients for 4 people: About 1kg of anglerfish cut into thick fillets. 200g of peas 1 onion 500g of mussels 6 spoons of olive oil 2 morrón peppers

Preparation

Open the mussels. Remove them from their shells and put aside. Peel the onion, chop it fine and cook it in the oil until it goes transparent. Wash the fish and put it in a flameproof casserole dish with the onion and the oil. Then add the peas to the casserole dish with the anglerfish. Wash a sprig of parsley, chop it fine and sprinkle it on. Salt lightly and pour two glasses of wine on top. Move the casserole to mix the juices. Heat the oven and put the anglerfish in and half maximum heat for fifteen minutes. Peel the cloves of garlic and mash them with the lightly toasted saffron in the mortar until you get a paste. Add the spoon of flour, mix and dilute everything with the stock, stirring vigorously. When the anglerfish is half cooked, take it out and add the mussels, the morrón peppers cut into thick strips and then pour on the mixture from the mortar. Mix carefully and put it back in the oven to finish cooking.

Escudella i carn d’olla

Ingredients

Ingredients for 6 people: 500g of hock of lamb 300g of pig's ear or cheek 300g of potatoes 300g of chicken 200g black butifarra (Catalan sausage) 150g chickpeas (soaked overnight) 100g of fatty bacon 100g of lean pork 100g of large noodles 4 beef bones 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 2 eggs 1 piece of bread soaked in milk 1 sprig of parsley, finely chopped 1 stick of celery 1 pig's trotter 1 cabbage 1 carrot 1 onion 1 turnip salt

Preparation

Put the hock, the chicken, the bacon, the beef bones, the pig's ear, the cheek and the trotter into a pot, all well covered with water, and place it on the heat After an hour add the salt, the chickpeas, the chopped turnip, carrot and onion, the butifarra and the celery. Keep an eye on the meat so you can remove it when it is perfectly cooked. As for the lean pork, the bacon, the garlic, the parsley and the bread, put this through the mincing machine. Then add the eggs and a pinch of salt and mix everything. Prepare some balls with the resulting mixture and add them to the cooking soup. Once the meat is ready, take it out of the pot and strain off a little stock into another receptacle where you cook the potato and cabbage. When this is cooked, take out the ingredients and use the stock to boil the noodles.

Presentation

First serve the soup and then the meat and vegetables on a serving dish.

Chicken with prawns

Ingredients for 4 people: 1 ½ kg chicken 8 prawns 6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and seedless 2 carrots 3 onions 800 g toasted almonds 3 shallots 1 small bunch of herbs 1 dl chicken broth Olive oil 2 small glasses of brandy Salt Pepper

Preparation

Cut the chicken into pieces, season and brown it in a frying pan with the olive oil. sauté the prawns too. Chop the vegetables and fry them gently with the onions, shallots and the small bunch of herbs in a separate frying pan. Place the chicken pieces and the prawns flat in an earthenware dish and add the oil they were fried in. Cook on a low flame and when it is hot, pour on the brandy. Wait a few minutes for it to evaporate, then add the vegetable sauce and the hot chicken broth. Leave to boil a further 15 minutes or so, but add the ground toasted almonds before it reaches boiling point. Once cooked, carefully separate the chicken and the prawns.

Presentation

Pass the sauce through a colander Place the chicken and the prawns in a serving dish and pour on the sauce, making sure it is hot. Serve immediately.

Catalan custard

Ingredients for 4 people: 1l of milk 8 egg yolks 200g of sugar 45g of starch 10g of sugar for burning the grated rind of half a lemon

Preparation

Separate the yolks from the whites. Put the yolks in an earthenware dish. Grate the peel of half a lemon, put everything in the mixer, add a pinch of salt and the litre of milk. Put it on a low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spatula.

Presentation

Once it has solidified, pour the mixture into small, individual earthenware dishes, dust with icing sugar and burn the surface with a red hot iron until it caramelizes.

Coca de Sant Joan (bun with caramelized fruit)

Ingredients: 1 kg of flour 55 g of sugar 50 g of lard 3 eggs 10 g of salt 50 g of baker's yeast lemon rind milk or water (as preferred) caramelized fruit (cherries, orange, melon ...)

Preparation

Place the flour on the table in the shape of a flat-topped cone, break the eggs into the middle and add the sugar, salt, yeast (slightly diluted), lemon rind and butter. Mix well and gradually add the milk or water until you obtain an even dough which does not stick to your hands. Leave to stand for 20 minutes. Then roll the dough with a rolling pin until it is 1 mm thick and oval in shape. Lay out on a greased baking tray, place the sliced caramelized fruit on top and leave to rise at room temperature. Sprinkle with sugar and place in the oven at 160ºC until the dough is spongy and the surface golden.