At our autumn guided Boqueria market visits we stop at the famous Llorenç Pelras stall to buy rovellons.  Here goes a recipe for a very simple and tasteful Spanish dish for breakfast or a starter. The proportion below  serves two for breakfast, and the side-by-side presentation features the mushrooms as a separate flavor. The recipe can also be assembled as scrambled eggs or an omelet. With more cream or half-and-half and doubling the recipe, it easily converts to a quiche filling or a frittata.

2 cups Rovellons (Lactarius rubrilacteus), cleaned and coarsely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
4 T. olive oil
2 T. flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 T. good dry sherry
4 eggs
2 T. cream
salt and pepper to taste

Beat egg, cream, and salt and pepper. Set aside. Heat 2 T. of olive oil in skillet and saute mushrooms, onions, and garlic over medium-low heat until mushrooms are cooked and liquid has evaporated. Add sherry, salt and pepper to taste, and continue cooking and stirring until liquid has condensed into a sauce. Remove mushroom mixture and keep warm. Clean and reheat skillet. Add and heat remaining oil, then pour beaten eggs into skillet. Stir with wooden spoon periodically until the eggs are cooked soft. Place the scrambled eggs on one side of serving platter and place the mushroom mixture on the other side. Sprinkle parsley over all and serve.

Rich in culture, charm, and beauty and located just an hour north of Barcelona, the city of Girona boasts narrow cobblestone walkways with something new to discover at every turn. Visit Girona on a Gourmand Breaks Private Guided tour.  The combination of chic boutiques and modern interiors juxtaposed against the backdrop of an ancient medieval village give this city a striking contrast between old and new. And with such close proximity to the beaches of the Costa Brava as well as the backdrop of the Pyrenees Mountains, Girona is a destination that should not be missed.

Although first settled by the Iberians, it was not actually named until 218 BC, when the Romans arrived. Winding your way through the Gothic quarter of Girona, you can still see the remnants of the Roman walls built so many centuries ago. The true beacon of this town though is the Cathedral that looms overhead. It is visible from almost any vantage point and feels as if it is “keeping watch” over the town. While the Romans began constructing the iconic Cathedral in the 13th century, it was actually not completed until the 18th century, more than 500 years later. As a result, it features a medley of architectural styles including Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque.

By the 9th century, a large Jewish population had established a semi-independent town within Girona and they were quickly becoming leaders in the area’s development. It was here that the Jewish School of Mysticism was created, and where many texts for the Kabbalah were written. With the aid and protection of the Spanish Kings, the Jews prospered. However after an attack on their community in 1391 and 100 years of persecution following, the Jews, who refused to convert to Christianity, were forced to leave.

It wasn’t until 1970 that their true heritage and influence on Girona was actually discovered. “The Call”, as the area was named, was sealed off and the non-Jewish Gironians who remained built over and around the Jewish Quarter for centuries, nearly obliterating it from existence. The Moorish baths and history existed, but were never fully understood. As real estate market trends changed, a restaurateur named Jose Tarres bought a group of buildings near the Cathedral that still dominates the old city. During the excavation of those buildings, the story of the Jews began unfolding, and Gironians learned of a silent generation and what the Jewish heritage means for the history of their town.

So with its newly discovered Jewish heritage and roots, its trendy restaurants and cafes, quaint shops and streets, Girona is highly recommended by us at Gourmand Breaks! You will not regret making the drive to this historic town, and day tours of the area are featured on many of our tours!

There’s only one time of year in Spain to come and participate in the grape harvest and it’s almost here! Most grape harvests, or “vendimias,” happen in September and October of each year.

We’re excited because it’s a unique time for visitors to come visit the region and learn first hand from vineyards how to recognize, pick and store ripe grapes for some of the most highly regarded wines in the world. We have launched our Grape Harvest Tour, so our guests can come and experience with us this smashing good time!  It also brings the excitement of all the harvest festivals that are just around the corner–ones like Cava Week in Sant Sadurni. In the beginning of October this town, which is the capital of cava production, prepares train tours to all the vineyard harvests, hosts several tasting events, the election of the Cava Queen and her patriotic speech of course.

The remarkably preserved fishing villages of the Costa Brava offer a beautifully blue and tranquil setting for restaurant visitors who want to eat the best seafood dishes available on the Mediterranean. But foodies who want to familiarize themselves more with this valuable seafood can go much farther than ordering Suquet for dinner -they can join us on our Spanish Gastronomic Tours and visit with us an authentic fish auction!

When going straight to the source at a local fish auction, like the one in Palamós, foodies can see first-hand how early local fishers set out to sea, catch fresh prawns, squid, octopus, monkfish and more then auction it to early-morning buyers. On the same day, all these fish are shipped to be sold fresh at morning markets all over the Catalonia region. If you make a dish like paella later in the day with a cooking class instructor, know that the seafood you’re cooking with was swimming around in the Mediterranean that very morning. One of Catalonia’s biggest prides is its variety of fresh, delicious seafood!

The Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona lights up every year in mid-August for its week-long Festa Major. Every town here has a charming Festa Major during the summer, but as a particularly influential city in Spain and the world, everything about the celebration is done in bigger and more extreme ways. In order to experience the Gracia Festa Major yourself, join us on one of our Barcelona Cultural Tours. You will find that during  the Gracia feast the castells—or human castle competitions–are larger, there are more aisles of fireworks to run through, but the decorations are probably what stand out the most.

Each street is carefully and creatively themed with wild decorations everywhere. The beautiful floral decorations they specialize in are called arte festivo éfimero. Within the decorations visitors find orchestras, games, theater, music, dance and other activities, which combine for one energetic week-long party.

Well, of course, we know what a finely preserved treasure Catalonia is–we’ve dedicated our careers to it! But just in case you need an outside opinion to elaborate on the subject, the New York Times (we’re fans of this publication too) put out a wonderful article one weekend about the quiet aquamarine shores of Catalonia’s peaceful fishing villages. You can read it here and browse its lovely slideshow here.

The quiet villages it references–Cadaqués, Pals, Empuries–are important pieces of our Spanish culinary  tours because they do much more than give our clients a truly relaxing spot to vacation: They give our clients an opportunity to really savor a centuries-old culture undisturbed by the unfortunate overdevelopment that plagues so many other areas in Spain. From the bucolic scenery of farms and vineyards near Pals to the clear tropical-blue shorelines of real fishing villages, you are able to take advantage of the best in traditional Catalan cuisine, wine and personal hospitality.

Browse all of our tours through this area

Every Sunday, Catalans gather outside in their city’s plaza to do Catalonia’s centuries-old national dance, the Sardana. It’s a very sweet patriotic dance I’m quite enchanted by. Most of our guides, as proud Catalans,  can dance Sardana so you can ask them to teach you a lesson while they accompany you on one of our Spanish Cultural Tours. The most recently I observed sardanas it was when I was in a charming little medieval town called Besalu. Older Catalans are especially proud of doing it because the Spanish dictator Franco, a fascist who ruled from the 1930s until 1977, made it against the law for Catalans to speak their own language or do the sardana on Sundays. This dance is just one testament to the strong pride and energy Catalans put into keeping their culture alive.

The origin of the Sardana is not clear though some say that it was already popular in the 16^th century.   What remains undisputed is that the Sardana was a popular dance in the Emporda region by the end of the 19^th century.   Contributing to its mounting popularity by this time were the additions from similarly popular genres such as Zarzuela and the popular Italian operas of the time, which increasingly made the Sardana a fad dance.

As the rise of the Sardana took place, in the context of the Renaixenca or newborn Catalan nationalism, the origins of the dance were embellished in order to symbolize a distinct Catalan ethos as to serve Catalan nationalism.   Modern choreography was established as late as the end of the 19^th century and features slight differences from the original North-Catalonian dance.   Pep Ventura´s band is credited with stabilizing different variants around a clear 6/8 rhythm and fixing the instrumental ensemble.   Though some Iberian and Mediterranean circle dances follow similar patterns, instrumental music for the Sardana has achieved a complexity of its own.

The music is provided by a cobla, a small group of musicians playing mainly brass instruments. Tambourines provide the rhythm. The flaviol, a small flute with a tone akin to that of the piccolo, gives these bands a characteristic high pitched sound. The dancers form a circle which gradually enlarges as more dancers join it. When it becomes too large for the space available, the circle may break into smaller ones or a another ring may form within the large one.

Among dedicated dancers, the sardana has a well defined etiquette, e.g. as to whether the ring should be broken to the left or to the right of a man. You may see these “purists” in a small, perfectly formed circle apart from the rest, their foreheads held high and their eyes almost closed in an expression of concentration, in harmony with the music and with each other. They may not take kindly to the ring being broken by a novice or stranger, tightening their grip rather than parting to let the circle enlarge. The late Jean-Pau Giné, a Catalan singer from the French village of Bages, once commented when vexed by a refusal “You are nothing but legs!”. Generally, however, anyone who can make a passable attempt at the steps is welcome to join in. It is a quintessential part of the Catalan experience.

Who needs bulls running in the streets when these strapping Catalans can flex their macho muscles without them?

Once the capital of the Western Roman Empire, the seaside city of Tarragona still has a captivating amount of archeological finds. An amphitheater where gladiators made shows of courage and strength, a circus where legendary chariot races took place, museum of artifacts and archeological passage give visitors a fabulous setting to envision the ancient empire that once thrived here.  Tarragona is an archeological treasure and we have included the city in one of our Wine Tours in Spain.

After enriching yourself with these archeological destinations, you can relax at the beach, an atmospheric fisherman’s quarter called El Serralló or go shopping on one the city´s wide avenues. If you feel like visiting a relaxing hidden treasure, Altafulla is a quaint seaside city near Tarragona with boutique hotels and quiet seashores to walk along.

There really is no one recipe for paella. In the same way pizzas are made with endless combinations of ingredients, paella can be made with various kinds of meats and vegetables. The combination of ingredients below, however, is the most typical in Catalonia and the one we use at our Traditional Spanish Cooking Classes, especially along the coast where seafood can be caught and cooked in the same day. But, just in case you feel like experimenting sometime, we’ve helped you out by leaving an asterisk next to all the essential ingredients you should never leave out. Everything else can be left out or substituted as you wish.

Ingredients

• • ½ cup of oil*
• • 3 cloves of garlic*
• • 2 medium tomatoes*
• • 1 tender chicken
• • 3-4 oz. (100 g.) of jamón serrano
• • 20 prawns
• • 2 ¼ lb (1 kg.) of mussels
• • 1lb. (500 g.) of clams
• • ½ lb. (250 g.) of squid
• • 5.5 oz. (150 g.) of octopus
• • 4 artichokes
• • 3-4 oz. (100 g.) of peas
• • parsley
• • 2 cups of rice*
• • ¼ tsp. saffron or 2 saffron cubes
• • 4 cups of broth*
• • 1 hard boiled egg
• • 1 red chili
• • 2 lemons

(*)Essential ingredient

Serves 4 (or 2, depends on how good of a cook you are!)

First, make sure you prepare this dish in a typical paella pan or iron frying pan. For this recipe, the diameter of the pan should be about 8-9 inches (22 cm) in diameter and about 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) high, depending on how wide the pan is.

Cut the chicken into 8 pieces and the jamón serrano into small slices. Peel the tomatoes and 15 prawns, reserving the remaining ones for decoration. Wash the mussels and clams and put them in a pan with 3 tbsp. water until they open. Reserve the water and take off the shells with the exception of 12 mussels and some clams that will remain for decoration. Clean and empty the squid and the octopus. Boil them in water in order to take off their skins, then cut them into smaller pieces. Separate the hearts of the artichokes and quarter them. Chop the parsley. Wash the rice.

Once everything is ready, heat the oil on medium heat. Put in the garlic and chopped chili until the garlic is golden-brown. Then toss in the tomatoes. Add pieces of jamón serrano and chicken. Then add the octopus, squid, mussels, clams, prawns, artichokes and peas. After tossing everything together for a couple seconds, mix in the rice so it is fully coated in the oil for 3-4 minutes. After that, add the broth, mix well, boil then lower the temperature back to medium heat. Add the saffron and parsley, preferably after being ground together in a bowl.

As the rice cooks for another 10 minutes, arrange the prawns, clams, reserved mussels, the hard-boiled egg and lemon slices on the surface of the paella into a pleasing design. The rice should be dry along the edges, but if you think it needs more moisture, just add a little more broth. After cooking, let the paella rest for a few minutes, then serve.

Que aproveche!