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· Facebook · Twitter · Flickr · YoutubeThis fish rice dish is put together dry, in a paella dish. The Valencian expression “a banda” means “aside”, meaning that the fish and the rice are cooked separately. A typical seafood rice dish where the fish is cooked to provide a stock which is then transferred to another pan in which the rice is cooked with no other additional ingredients.
The rice is served separately, while the fish, potato and onion are as a second course, accompanied by garlic mayonnaise which adds interest and improves any flavours which have been lost to the stock. The complete recipe is difficult to find today in restaurants, since time pressures and modernity have led to the rice being served alone with the “all i oli”
SEASON: ALL YEAR
SERVICE: LUNCH
SUGGESTED WINE: WHITE OR LIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS Rice, monkfish, rock fish (scorpion fish, ocean perch, comber, goby, etc), potatoes, onion, head of garlic, oil, paprika, tomato, saffron, bay, salt and water. Optional: cuttlefish, ñora peppers.
PREPARATION
Pour a little oil into a casserole pan and add the crushed garlic. Sautée, and add the paprika and the water immediately along with a bay leaf, the onions and the potatoes, and a little salt. Leave to cook for 30 minutes. Add the cleaned fish cut into even chunks, strained the stock and reserve the rest(fish, potatoes, onion and a little liquid).
Fry the chopped cuttlefish (optional), the tomato, the paprika and the rice in a paella pan for 2 minutes. Add the strained stock, the saffron, season with salt and cook the rice. Mash the dried pepper (fried) with a pestle and mortar with some peeled cloves of garlic and add it to the pan with the fish, heat for a few minutes and serve as a second dish with the “all i oli” garlic mayonnaise.
If the paella is the rice dish best known to the public on an international level, oven-baked rice or “arroz al horno” is the favourite and most consumed dish of the people of Valencia. Cooked in the village or neighbourhood oven (as there were no ovens in people’s houses), the trail of pans being taken to the oven was a common daily sight. There are many ways to prepare oven-baked rice: there are the dishes for fasting periods while the rest contain meat, always pork. This is the most traditional and most popular rice dish our local cuisine has to offer, since it is usually made with the meat left over from the previous day’s hotpot.
SEASON: ALL YEAR
SERVICE: LUNCH
SUGGESTED WINE: RESERVE WHITE – LIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS
Pork ribs, dried onion black pudding, streaky bacon, cooked or leftover chickpeas, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, a head of garlic, oil, saffron, salt and water or stock from the stew.
PREPARATION Put the chickpeas to soak the night before and cook them in a saucepan until they are soft.
Fry the rib rack well in oil in a casserole pan and then add a few cloves of garlic, the sliced bacon, the chopped pepper and the tomato, followed by the sliced potatoes and the rice. When everything is well fried, add the water or the stew stock, the saffron, the black pudding, sliced tomatoes and the head of garlic in the centre, season with salt and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. Less stock is used in oven-baked rices than in paellas: 5 parts of rice to 9 parts stock.
The most modest of Valencian rices, at times considered one of the most popular. It is made all year, but above all in the spring and summer. Apparently simple to make, if minimal quality is to be achieved then an increasingly scarce ingredient – patience – must be found. Only with very slow cooking on low heat are the simple ingredients used transmitted to the rice to give it substance. This is, therefore, a rice dish cooked in the privacy of the home and absent from restaurant menus, where it is only usually made on request.
SEASON: ALL YEAR
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER
SUGGESTED WINE: LIGHT WHITE
INGREDIENTS
Rice, chard, white beans, potato, tomato, snails, oil, cloves of garlic, saffron, paprika, salt and water.
PREPARATION
Boil the beans in a saucepan (put them to soak the night before).
Fry the cloves of garlic and the tomato in a frying pan in oil. Add the paprika and the fried mix with the stock to the beans. Add in the snails and chard (well washed) and leave to simmer.
Then add the potato, chopped into small pieces, and the saffron. Season with salt.
Once these ingredients are cooked, add the rice and cook for another 18 minutes.
The rice should be fully softned. Serve immediately.
Cod arrived in Valencia in the 16th century and revolutionised eating habits, especially in times of fasting. Since then it has entered popular cuisine and today is a common ingredient in many dishes. Cod is used in various dishes here, but is most commonly eaten by the people of Valencia in raw salted form, broken up and soaked in oil. Cod is also shredded and served in salads along with other roughly torn vegetables or leaves.
SEASON: ALL YEAR
SERVICE: STARTER FOR LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: LIGHT WHITE.
INGREDIENTS
Skinless, boneless cod shredded by hand, baked red peppers, olive oil, black olives, garlic (optional).
PREPARATION
Grill the peppers and leave to cool, peel, deseed and cut into strips.
Slice the garlic and shred the cod.
Put the ingredients in a bowl or high-sided tray and add the black olives.
Add a generous amount of oil, mix well and leave to macerate for an hour.
Keep cool in the refrigerator.
The “encisam” lettuce is the queen and lady of Valencia salad, and is accompanied by tomato, onion and olives, giving a Valencian salad in its simplest form.
However, you can also add tuna, salted fish, radish or peppers, all ingredients highly appreciated by the people of Valencia.Only one dressing is allowed by our popular cuisine: olive oil; that is, olive oil, a little vinegar and salt.
Mustard, creams, sauces, etc. are not used in Valencian cuisine.
The salad is served as a starter or in the middle of the table, and in Valencia it is never to accompany roast dishes.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: STARTER FOR LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: LIGHT WHITE.
INGREDIENTS
Lettuce, tomato, spring or dried onion, olives, radish, green pepper, tuna, boiled egg, oil, vinegar and salt.
PREPARATION
Wash the lettuce well and chop.
PREPARATION
Cut the tomato into large chunks, the onions in strips, the pepper in slices, score the radishes, add the tuna and the olives, and decorate with the boiled egg cut into slices Dress with plenty of oil, a little vinegar and salt.
Broad beans have always been farmed in large quantities in the Valencia region, especially in rice-growing areas where the fields have been used to grow broad beans in the winter while they lie fallow. Baby broad beans are undoubtedly the favourite legume of the people of Valencia, who anxiously wait for the early crops in spring. There are many ways to cook them in the regional cuisine, and this is a very typical home recipe, although with some small variation in the ingredients. It is the most commonly prepared broad bean dish in Valencian homes.
SEASON: Formerly in MARCH-APRIL-MAY. NOW PREPARD ALL YEAR ROUND.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: RESERVE WHITE - REDS.
INGREDIENTS
Broad beans, lean pork, spicy sausages, dried onion black pudding, streaky bacon, spring garlic, onion, salt, oil, water.
PREPARATION
Put the oil in a saucepan or high-sided casserole pan, fry all the meat slowly, cut into very small pieces. Then add the spring garlic and the finely-chopped onion, add the broad beans and a little water, not enough to cover the beans.
The dish is cooked very slowly, covering the saucepan and stirring from time to time to prevent the ingredients from sticking. When the broad beans are soft, season with salt and serve.
In some homes a little paprika is added at the start, in others a little tomato and some aromatic herbs are also used.
Stew has been and is the dish most typically served throughout the community of Valencia. The favourite dinner in most homes, it is the most democratic of dishes, since whatever the economic resources of those eating, the composition of its ingredients is practically the same on the tables of all social classes. The vegetables are boiled, and once on the table each person dresses them to taste with oil and a little vinegar.
SEASON: ALL YEAR
SERVICE: DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: LIGHT WHITE.
INGREDIENTS
Potatoes, green beans, onion (spring), chard (optional), water and salt. For the dressing, oil and vinegar to taste.
PREPARATION
Peel the potatoes and cut into large pieces. Cut the onions into quarters, top and tail the beans and cut them in half and roughly chop the chard.
Put a saucepan or stew pot with cold water and a little salt on to heat up, adding all the ingredients.
When the ingredients are cooked through, drain, place in a bowl and serve with the dressing components: oil, vinegar and salt.
With its expected provincial variations, hotpot is the most popular of all so-called “spoon” dishes, and is a staple homemade dish served on a weekly basis. It differs from stew in that it uses dried haricot beans. There are many names for this most important rural dish of our cuisine, such as olleta, olla de pueblo, olla de la plana, olla de recapte, and so on. Its main vegetables are cardoons, and you really cannot make a good hotpot without them.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH.
SUGGESTED WINE: REDS.
INGREDIENTS
Haricot beans, chicken, hen, leg of lamb, beef, dried onion black pudding, pork fat(pig’s cheek, ear, trotters), cardoons, green beans, turnips, potatoes, water, saffron, salt.
PREPARATION
Put the beans to soak the night before. Cut the raw meat into pieces and place in a saucepan with the beans, hen, lamb, beef, pig fat, the pig’s trotters, cheek, and ear, the turnips and the cardoons, which should be peeled, scraped, and cleaned with no rough fibres. It is best to “shock” the beans, adding cold water. Halfway through the cooking process, add the chicken, the black pudding and the green beans, and with 20-25 minutes left the potatoes and saffron. Adjust the salt.
Serve the beans with the vegetables as a first course and the meat with the potatoes as the second.
The emblem of Valencian cuisine, modest in its rural origins, the paella has entered world cuisine and is now made in many countries.
Each region adds small variations in its preparation: in Alicante they add fried dried ñora pepper and garlic, pepper and garlic in Castellón, and none of these in Valencia, while a great deal of importance is given to artichokes in Castellón and Valencia. This paella recipe is the only one that can be called Valencian: all others are rice dishes made in a paella pan.
SEASON: ALL YEAR
SERVICE: LUNCH
SUGGESTED WINE: RESERVE WHITE – LIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS
Chicken, rabbit, ribs (optional), round “bomba” rice, tomato, green beans and runner beans, large haricot beans, pepper (optional), artichokes (optional, in season), snails, olive oil, saffron, paprika, salt and water.
PREPARATION
Put the paella dish on the heat with oil, add the pieces of meat and fry well. Add the pepper, tomato, paprika, the salt and the water. Half way through, add the vegetables and the cleaned snails soaked the night before (avoid over-cooking the vegetables), and the saffron. Top up the water, check for salt, and when it is boiling add the rice, pouring evenly around the dish. Leave it to cook on a high heat for 5 or 6 minutes, reducing the heat little by little. After 18 minutes of cooking, leave it to rest for 5 minutes and serve. The rice should be dry but the grains should be separate.
The typical rice dish of the Valencian vegetable garden, where all kinds of vegetables grow in abundance. Naturally there are small variations in the way it is made and its ingredients depending on the region, as with Valencian paella. Therefore, while in Alicante a dried pepper and garlic are replaced by fried and pepper and garlic in Castellón, none of these are used in Valencia. In Castellón and Valencia artichokes are given more importance. Some cooks add carrot to the vegetable paella, and the result is a sweetened flavour, which is considered an offence to Valencian cuisine!
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: WHITE OR LIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS
Rice, young artichokes, cauliflower, spring garlic, green beans, red pepper, green pepper, large haricot beans, broad beans, tomato, saffron, oil, salt and water or vegetable stock.
PREPARATION
Pour the oil into the paella dish and fry the vegetables slowly, depending on their consistency, sautéing them well.
Add the tomato and the rice, followed by the water or stock. Add the saffron, adjust the salt and cook for 18 minutes.
As in the case of all rice dishes made in a paella pan, the dish should be left to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Cuttlefish is one of the most widely used and favoured seafood products of the Valencia region. It is prepared in all imaginable ways: boiled with mayonnaise, grilled with salsa verde, in batter, in salads, in rice dishes, soups, sauces or fish “suquet” sauces, etc. It is used for everything and we like it in all its forms. We prepare this cuttlefish recipe in two ways. A very coastal way to serve it is stewed with haricot beans, although in the recipe we present here it is stewed alone.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: WHITE – LIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS
Thick cuttlefish, oil, garlic, onion, bay, pepper, paprika, water, salt and parsley.
PREPARATION
Fry the cuttlefish, cut into pieces or strips, in oil in a frying pan. Add the cut green pepper and plenty of sliced onion, the chopped garlic and the salt, and sautée all the ingredients well. Add the paprika and stir, add the water and bay, cover, and cook slowly. Remove the dish from the heat and season with salt. Prepare a finely chopped mix with the garlic and parsley and add to the dish.
Artichokes are one of the most popular and widely used vegetables in our cuisine. A seasonal ingredient, they are also available preserved or frozen all year round. They are grown throughout the community, but those from Benicarló are particularly famous for their quality. Boiled, in rice dishes or soups, sautéed, in omelettes, grilled, baked, fried, in stews, as side dishes or as a main meal, artichokes are present in most dishes and stews. This recipe belongs to what has been called “new Valencian cuisine”.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: WHITE ORLIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS
Artichokes, lean pork, flour, white wine, garlic, egg, parsley, salt, pepper, water and oil.
PREPARATION
Fry the meat, cut into very small pieces, in the oil in a casserole pan. Add the artichokes, the crushed garlic and a little salt.
When the ingredients turn golden brown, add the spoonful of flour, the white wine, and then the water and a pinch of pepper. Let the mixture cook until the artichokes are tender, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Once cooked and tender, add the beaten egg and the chopped parsley.
The sauce must bind, but not be too thick.
The cardoon, an essential ingredient in stews and hotpots, is also eaten in some dishes of the kind we present here. Although it is a seasonal vegetable, we can find it frozen all year round either in shops or prepared at home, and it really maintains its good quality.
A vegetable very rich in fibre, it is a staple in the Mediterranean diet.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: WHITE ORLIGHT RED.
INGREDIENTS
Cardoons, pork fat, lean pork, onion, flour, white wine, garlic, egg, parsley, pepper, oil, water and salt.
PREPARATION
In a saucepan fry the lean pork, cut very small. Add the fresh pig fat, the chopped cardoons, the onion, the crushed garlic and a little salt.
When it turns golden brown, add a little flour, the white wine and the water. Add water until the cardoons are tender.
Once the cardoons have softened, add the beaten egg and a little crushed parsley, adjust the salt and serve.
The sauce should not be too thick.
A vegetable widely used in our cuisine, spinach is rich in vitamins and inexpensive. Used to accompany a multitude of dishes (stews, soups, tarts and savoury hors d’oeuvres, side dishes, etc.). A vegetable classified among the humble spinach can, with a good sauce and a little love and attention, shine as a first course for dinner.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: FIRST DINNER COURSE.
SUGGESTED WINE: LIGHT WHITE.
INGREDIENTS
Spinach, oil, garlic, raisins, pine nuts, salt and water.
PREPARATION
Boil the spinach with a lot of water and a little salt. Fry the sliced garlic, the raisins and the pine nuts in oil in a casserole pan.
When the sauce is ready, add the spinach and mix all the ingredients well, check for salt and serve hot.
The words “all i pebre de...” ( “... in garlic and pepper sauce”) serve to highlight any kind of fish prepared in this way. If the words “all I pebre” are not followed or preceded by the name of a particular fish, the main ingredient is always understood to be eel, the best known, most authentic “all i pebre” delicacy of the Valencia region. It is a genuinely Valencian dish with origins in the shoreline coastal areas of the Albufera (lagoon).
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: APPETISER OR SECOND COURSE FOR LUNCH.
SUGGESTED WINE: RESERVE WHITE OR RED
INGREDIENTS
Eel, oil, paprika, dried chillies, garlic, potatoes, salt and water.
PREPARATION
The garlic is crushed in the mortar and lightly fried in a saucepan in oil. Add the paprika and enough water to cover the fish. Add the sliced potatoes, the chilli and the salt. Leave to cook. When the potatoes are almost done, add the eel and adjust the salt before leaving to simmer.
This is one of the most common and traditional fishes in Valencian cuisine, and is prepared in many ways: fried with flour, on the grill, on charcoal grills, on embers, in the oven, pickled, in batter, salted and tinned, etc. Popular for its extraordinary quality, for its properties as a remedy for cholesterol, perhaps this mass consumption is also the result of its abundancy. It is an essential fish in the Mediterranean diet.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: WHITES.
INGREDIENTS
Fresh sardines, oil, flour, salt, garlic, parsley, lemon and vinegar.
PREPARATION
Clean the sardines under running water. Salt the fish and flour them.
Place them in a frying pan with hot oil in one layer and fry them well on both sides.
In the mortar, prepare the salsa verde (green sauce) with the garlic, the parsley, a few drops of vinegar, the lemon, the salt and the oil.
When the sardines are fried (or baked), put them in a bowl and cover with the salsa verde.
Of the many typical stews in the Valencia Community, the “puchero” is the most representative, long accepted as a compulsory dish on Sundays and public holidays, and particularly for Christmas lunch, when the whole family gets together. Of all of those made throughout the year, the “puchero de Nadal” (Christmas stew) was and is the richest and most sumptuous. This dish must have the so-called “pilotes” (meatballs), which are characteristic of the Valencian ‘puchero’ and distinguish it from hotpots of other regions.
SEASON: AUTUMN-WINTER.
SERVICE: LUNCH.
SUGGESTED WINE: RED.
INGREDIENTS
Braising beef, lamb, leg bone, ham, pork fat, hen, chicken, chorizo, dried onion black pudding, chickpeas, carrots, potatoes, cardoons, water and salt.
PREPARATION
Put the chickpeas to soak with water and salt the night before. In a saucepan or pot with water and salt put the beef, the lamb, the bones, the ham, the hen, the pork fat and the cardoons. Add the chickpeas when it begins to boil, followed by the chorizo, the black pudding and the carrots. Continue cooking on a low heat. Add the sliced potatoes and a few minutes later the meatballs, which need to boil for 20 minutes.
The stock is used to make a soup which is served as first course either with pasta or rice. Serve the meats along with the balls in one dish, and the vegetables in another.
A rice dish very typical of Lent and Easter Week, it is tasty and easy to prepare. It is usually prepared and served dry in a paella pan, but is also very popular served in a deep earthenware dish as a more moist rice dish, (although it is not as liquid as “arroz caldoso”, a rice stew) a popular way of preparing rice dishes among the people of Valencia.
Cauliflower is very common in many dishes of Valencian cuisine, and particularly in rice dishes with vegetables.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: LIGHT WHITE.
INGREDIENTS
Rice, de-salted cod, cauliflower, garlic, paprika, tomato, saffron, water and salt, oil.
PREPARATION
Put a little oil in a paella pan and sautée some unpeeled whole cloves of garlic on a low heat. When they are golden brown, add one finely chopped garlic clove, the crushed tomato, the paprika and the cauliflower. When the sautéed base is ready, add the water and the cod in pieces or shredded.
Leave it to simmer for another five minutes, then add the saffron, check for salt and incorporate the rice. Cook for 18 minutes and leave it to rest for 5, then serve.
Cauliflower is one of the vegetables most widely used in Valencian cuisine, in boiled vegetable dishes, in a variety of rice dishes, in salads, and various stews. It is cheap, easy to prepare and is available all year round. This way of preparing cauliflower makes a very complete, nutritional dish.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH OR DINNER.
SUGGESTED WINE: RESERVE WHITE OR RED.
INGREDIENTS
Cauliflower, lean pork, pork sausages, dried onion black pudding, pork fat, spring garlic, onion, a head of garlic, paprika, oil, salt and water.
PREPARATION
Cut the meat, pork sausages, pork fat and blood pudding into small pieces and sautée them well in a saucepan. Add the whole head of garlic, the chopped onion and the spring garlic, finely chopped. Add a little paprika and the cauliflower and stir. Add a little water and salt, cover, and leave to cook on a low heat stirring every few minutes. Season with salt and serve.
Lamb is one of the meats most consumed in the province of Castellón, so our province boasts thousands of recipes and methods of preparing this delicious meat. And, of course, every village and every household has their own traditional recipe.
We make this delicious dish with a less sightly part of the lamb.
SEASON: ALL YEAR.
SERVICE: LUNCH.
SUGGESTED WINE: RED.
INGREDIENTS
Lamb: chest, hock, leg, etc. Potatoes, onion, fresh rosemary, oregano, water, white wine, salt, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, oil, garlic cloves, crushed tomato.
PREPARATION
Put the raw meat, cut into even pieces, in a casserole pan with a little oil, along with the onion chopped into large chunks, the sprigs of rosemary, a little oregano, a glass of white wine, salt, some of spoonfuls of breadcrumbs, peeled cloves of garlic, and some spoonfuls of crushed tomato. Cover with water, bring to the boil, and simmer gently for around an hour and a half. After this time, taste it, add the semi-cured or cured grated cheese and adjust the salt.
