It is Christmas Day. Bon Nadal a tothom! I guess today Catalan tradition is not really special: it is a family day. There is a big family lunch where everybody eats until their stomach is so full that the only idea of eating supper is difficult to digest. What is special in Catalonia on Christmas day is the food eaten, a dish called Escudella i carn d'olla (sorry, there is no translation for that). Well, at home, traditional as this dish might be, we do not eat it because it takes a long time to elaborate and my mother is not so keen on cooking and eating it -as far as I can remember I've eaten it only once.
But what's Escudella i carn d'olla exactly?
Escudella is a kind of broth made out of carn d'olla, potato, cabbage and chikpea. Onion, leek, celery, carrot and garlic can also be added. Carn d'olla is a stew made of black sausage, white sausage, pilota (meatball), veal, lamb, hen or chicken and bacon. Pilota, an important part of the carn d'olla is a mixture of meat, egg, parsley, garlic and bread crumbs. Escudella i carn d'olla can be served all together or also in three parts: the broth, the carn d'olla and the ingredients used in the broth, as you can see in this picture:
Light dish, isn't it? hehe :D. And that is not all! Escudella broth is also characteristic for the pasta added: a special soup pasta called galets. There are small and big galets, the special galets for the escudella are the biggest one (they need to be cut to be eaten).
Light dish, isn't it? hehe :D. And that is not all! Escudella broth is also characteristic for the pasta added: a special soup pasta called galets. There are small and big galets, the special galets for the escudella are the biggest one (they need to be cut to be eaten).
Big delicious galetsIf you are brave enough to cook it, I found the recipe and some more interesting info in English here. Good luck :)!
Another typical thing to do on Christmas day is reciting a Christmas poem. Well, this is usually left for little children who have to stand on a chair while reciting and making gestures in consonance with them poem, and finalise it by saying: BON NADAL A TOTHOM (I wish you all a Merry Xmas). As an exception, I did that on my family lunch today but I won't show you a picture :P. What I will do is to write down a poem (in the short version) that has survived time and is still inside my memory.
| Cançó de Nadal L'escola és tancada, hi ha llum al carrer, la senyora Pepa saluda el carter. "Que tingui bon dia, avui és Nadal, estigui contenta, Jesús ha nascut; per dur-nos la joia, al món ha vingut" Bon nadal a tothom! | A Christmas carol The school is closed, there's light on the street, Mrs. Pepagreets the postman. "Have a nice day, it's Christmas today, be happy, Jesus is born; to bring us joy, he's come to the world" I wish you all a Merry Christmas! |
3 comentaris:
Bon Nadal!
The Catalan tradition reminds me a lot of Christmas with my Spanish relatives in the Philippines. We (us kids) would wake up early to open presents and once the adults were fully awake, we'd start to prepare a big lunch. Somewhere in there, a kid would also stand up on a chair and perform something to make everyone laugh- a song, a poem, a dance.
I'm going to save that Escudella recipe and try to do it one of these days. It reminds me of Cocido except the ingredients differ.
Thank you for explaining the Galets De Nadal, I linked to your post on my site to further describe this Catalan tradition.
Orangepolkadot, of course, help yourself. Many thanks for the link :)
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