It's
Ash Wednesday today, the beginning of Lent and the most solemn period
of the Roman Catholic year. Lent (Cuaresma)
is an effort to relive Jesus's forty-day fast in the wilderness and
is regarded as a time of ascetic preparation for Easter. Catholic
Lent is a period of 40 days, not including Sundays, beginning with
Ash Wednesday and ending at midnight on Easter Saturday. The meaning
of all this is to reduce one's "bodily pleasures" for the
duration of Lent but commonly it's about not eating any meat on Ash
Wednesday and fridays. Ash Wednesday is named after the practice of
burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday and placing
blessed ashes in the form of crosses on churchgoers' foreheads as a
reminder that “man is but dust” when faced with God and a
reminder to fast, pray and confess. Generally, Lent is a time of
penitence in preparation for reaffirming baptism at Easter during
which Catholics choose to “give up” something they like (meat,
chocolate, alcohol, etc.) or give of themselves through service.
All
the cultures have their periods of abstinence (of bodily
purification, of physiological hygine) that have granted them, like
to everything important in the ancient world, the sacred and
religious nature. In the Gospel of Matthew there is a phrase that
condemns this torture: "When you fast, do not look somber as the
hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are
fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in
full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face...”
(Matthew
6:16-17). This is why Andalusians fast with joy and pride. To some
forty days on fish and seafood could be a real torture, but not to
them. Making something out of little is what their forefathers
learned during the times of severe poverty and what is still in their
genetic memory. So, they say here in Andalusia that everyone can cook
meat, but cooking meatless food that tastes fabulous needs
imagination. Hence, they do not only cook fish but also dishes
prepared using fish stock as they go through Lent, and have, as they
still bother to prepare vegetables for dinner, truly mastered
creative cooking. Some
typical delicious low-cost dishes for Lent that are prepared in
Andalusian homes and restaurant kitchens are fried cod in batter
(pavías
de bacalao),
fisherman's
rice (arroz
a banda),
potatoes
“of importance” (patatas a la importancia), spinach
and chickpea stew (guiso
de garbanzos con espinacas),
scrambled eggs with tagarninas
(revuelto
de tagarninas con huevos),
chickpea stew (potaje
de garbanzos),
lentil and artichoke stew (guiso
de lentejas con corazones de alcachofas),
and for the dessert (postre),
rice pudding (arroz
con leche),
for example.
In the pastry shops (pastelerías),
you will find sweets which are only made during Lent and the Easter
Season. In Seville, these are pestiños
(small fried cinnamon pastries), torrijas
(bread soaked in milk and fried in batter with sugar) and huesos
de santo (filled
marzipan rolls).
Here's
a recipe to try at home:
Potatoes
“of importance” (Patatas a la importancia)
Ingedients
for 4 persons are 4-6 potatoes, 3 eggs, 1 onion, 2-4 cloves of
garlic, 3 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 sprig of
parsley, 6 strands of saffron, water or chicken broth, and salt.
Peel, wash and cut the potatoes into rounds approximately 1 cm thick;
season them. Put the flour in one dish and beat the eggs in another.
Put the potatoes in the flour and then into the beaten egg. Fry in
plenty of hot oil. Make a paste with the garlic, saffron, parsley and
salt. Heat 3 spoonfuls of oil and cook the peeled and chopped onion
until it begins to brown. Add 1 spoonful of flour, stir rapidly and
add the paste, without stopping stirring. Put the potatoes in a
casserole, pour the prepared mixture over them and add 2 cups of
water or broth. Place on the heat and, when it begins to boil,
correct the seasoning and cook on a gentle heat for 20 minutes,
stirring occasionally. Take off the heat, sprinkle with chopped
parsley and put into a fairly hot oven, letting them cook for another
5-10 minutes. Serve in the same dish. You can also put some potatoes
in their sauce on each plate and serve with a bit of parsley or
chopped boiled egg on top.
And,
just in case, a video tutorial (in Spanish):
This
is more or less what the finished dish should look like.
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