Calling a calçot an overgrown onion is rather like calling a Périgord truffle a ball of black fungus: essentially accurate but missing the point entirely. The gastro-hysteria inspired by the local love of this sweet white scallion reaches its peak on January 31st this year, in its hometown of Valls, with La Gran Festa de la Calçotada, when over 30,000 people converge to gorge themselves on calçots. Six euros and a lot of queuing will buy you a kit bag with a dozen calçots, a pot of salvitxada sauce, bread, some local red wine, an orange, some roast hazelnuts and a cotton bib.
There’s plenty of time to buy your own as calçot season stretches from late November to March: calçots from the warmer coastal crops are ready by Christmas, but in colder Lleida the calçots take all winter to grow and are picked late into the season. In the markets, calçots are generally sold in muddy bundles of 24, which should be enough for two moderately greedy people (although bear in mind that the top players in the Valls calçot-eating competition can put away over 200 calçots in 45 minutes). Find a large outdoor space and build a fire, preferably of vine cuttings, and place a flat metal grill over the flames. Grill the calçots until charred and floppy and serve on a clay roof tile or wrapped in foil or newspaper to keep warm. Shuck the blackened outer skins and dip the calçot in the salvitxada sauce which is made by grinding almonds, hazelnuts, nyora peppers, garlic, tomato, parsley, oil and breadcrumbs in a pestle and mortar. Throw your head back and eat the dripping calçot, sword-swallower style. Drink some wine. Repeat to fade. --NF
CARROTS
January is just about the time when you need a little colour back in your life, and carrots are nature's way of giving it to you. When the rest of the earth seems cold and dead, carrots come into their prime. Packed with beta-carotene, vitamin A and potassium they are also one of the best ways of keeping winter colds at bay. Originally from Asia, the orange carrot is a fairly new thing, hundreds of years ago they were more likely to be lilac, dark purple or yellow and were generally used medicinally. Rare varieties however, are starting to make a comeback and are worth looking out for at the more adventurous stalls in the market.
Latest Comments