The age of saus

The 3 things I look for in a fridge/larder are cured meats (embutidos y jamón), cheeses (quesos) and Greek yoghurt. If these holy three are in abundance I am a very happy man and will usually find some premise to spend most of the day in or around that hollowed place. 

Before Easter I was given a bag full of embutidos from La Cerdanya in the Pyrenees, from a very generous friend.  I mean really a whole bag of deliciously cured meats from the mountains famed for fine produce and excellent producers; it was truly a panzatic act. 

In this bag of goodies I unfolded the waxy white paper to find secallona, butifarra negra, bisbe blanc, pork paté and sobrasada. 

Cataluña makes some of the best cured sausages in Spain. Fuet and Secallona are both made from pork and similar to the Italian salami, though usually less spicey and smaller in circumference. The former is common all over Cataluña whereas Secallona is rarer I think due to its artisanal pedigree and the fact the pork is cured just that little bit less making it less appealing to the claims-conscious supermarkets. Both are morish little sausages which make for a wonderful aperitif. 

Butifarra negra comes from the renowned butifarra family and is a cured black pudding (butifarra is a beast I will come back to in more detail in a later post) and is delicious and hearty, as you would expect from the Pyrenees. Bisbe blanc is a sort of cured white pudding made from Ox tripe, salt and pepper with a special place in the heart of Catalans as a link to forefathers, or foremothers, who would make the sausage at home.

Pork paté needs no real explanation whereas sobrasada, on the other hand, could easily be passed over if not dealt with carefully. In this age where cholesterols, saturated fats, diets are so prevalent, sobrasada is the cigarette of embutidos. Made from pork, salt and pimentón, on paper it is much like its famous and well- travelled cousin the chorizo. However, sobrasada is so very deliciously creamy and buttery that you just know it is swimming in fat. Spread liberally on bread and toasted – panini style – and you have a sandwich rivaling the bacon-butty. I would go for the sobrasada any day of the week and have gained a few well earn pounds eating this most delicious of sausages which is the closest you will get in a Mediterranean country to that dreamy-buttery-mouth-filling-taste which we are used to in say France or Britain. A devilishly good treat. 

It would be wrong to dismiss all these edibles to the cold meats platter. One of the great recipes of the Catalan kitchen – alubias a la catalana – can use both butifarra negra and bisbe blanca as we did in the restaurant this week. This is a ridiculously simple recipe and as such everything depends on the quality of the ingredients. Cook the broad beans (or butter beans or any beans that take you fancy) to just under al dente. In another pot throw in a bay leaf, fry finely sliced pancetta and once they are crisp add some diced onions. When the onion is translucent add a little dry white wine (Cataluña has a plethora of dry white wines) and grated tomato and cook through. As soon as the tomato is looking at home amongst the other ingredients add the beans, with some of its own water, as well as the butifarra negra and bisbe blanc diced into cm cubes. This dish goes wonderfully with a little mint which can be added as a garnish at the end or with the beans. 

I often wonder why we don´t have more cured meats in Britain. It is an ancient and excellent way to conserve meat which most of Europe has embraced and mastered over the centuries. The arguments that the northern climate is too humid doesn´t really hold water when you see the sausages coming out of Galicia, with its Celtic weather. But as the Spanish say “hay gente para todo” – there are people for everything – and it is just as well that every larder has its own charms.