uone of the most interesting sarmale recipes can be found in the north-west of Spain (Asturia, Cantabria, Lugo), radically different from anything we have seen so far. Moreover, it also benefits from a fabulous, recent history.
Passing through Pola de Allande in Asturias and not stopping at La Nueva Allandesa restaurant would be an unforgivable gastronomic-tourist sin.
In 1957, Encarnación Fernández Parrondo, together with her husband Rafael Fernández González, Pura, her sister-in-law and her husband, Antonio Rodríguez Álvarez, founded a small inn. The conditions were harsh, only one bathroom in all three rooms, wood burning stove, and sheets were washed in the river. The building and the space were inherited from their parents, and the father of the two brothers had imposed only one rule on them: to cook every day a dish that would become emblematic of the establishment. So they started cooking a stew based on sausages and greens from the garden, but which was not very successful.
Afterwards Encarnación chose two other dishes: a vegetable pudding and stuffed cabbage. He had tasted the latter while in Madrid and then identified the recipe in an old cookbook. It's just that the original recipe was a source of inspiration, and the chef modified and adapted it both for local taste and to use local beef. It's just that the two new dishes didn't break the market, in fact they didn't even lose a tooth.
Enter Encarna's nephew, Antonín, son of Antonio and Pura, who would ask customers to try the dishes with the promise that if they didn't like it, he would change them. Descendants say that it is quite possible that in all these years no one wanted to change their dishes.
"Everyone who walks in is sure to be able to taste it, that's how it's been 365 days a year since 1957," explains Gelina Fernández, the third generation in charge of the business. There were only three days when it wasn't like that: "When my grandfathers Rafael and Encarna died and when I got married"[1]. Descendants also claim that the recipes have remained unchanged for so many decades, and that at some events, where they are asked to pay more attention to appearance, they just walk around plating.
Stuffed cabbage is still made in the area, but the spread of the dish is not very large. The recipes are classic, nothing special. Encarna's recipe remains unique:
Blanch the cabbage. The veal is chopped and stewed. Then wrap the sarmales, dust them with flour, seal them with beaten egg and fry them like chips. In another saucepan, make a sauce from two spoons of oil, one of flour and 250 milliliters of concentrated beef soup, salt and saffron. Add the sarmales and boil for another 20 minutes.
Another Asturian recipe instructs us to saute onions, add beef but also mushrooms (canned) given through the mincer. Dip in flour and egg and fry until golden. The sauce is made like this: garlic and olive oil are blended together then transferred to the pot and a bay leaf is added. Saute onion and bell pepper in this oil, add thyme (salt and pepper). When it softens, add a glass of cider, let it boil for a few more minutes and then add the sarmales for another quarter of an hour[2].
The enciclopediadegastronomia.es website mentions that these recipes are curiously local (found only in the regions mentioned above) and urges chefs and restaurateurs to discover and capitalize on such preparations. They also emphasize the fact that the French neighbors and also those from the Nordic countries frequently cook "Choux farcís".
The recipe proposed by them: the cabbage is blanched; a sauce is made from coarsely chopped onions, small whole carrots, sautéed in olive oil, green pepper is added. When the vegetables are caramelized add large pieces of beef, seal, and then pour in a glass of white wine. Cover the pan and cook the ingredients on low heat. When the meat is cooked, we take it out and crumble it in our fingers. Cabbage leaves are filled with this meat and a little of the sauce. Boil the sarmales in the rest of the sauce, along with the carrots, and cook for another 30 minutes, making sure to pour more of the sauce on top.
Tip: the carrots in this sauce can become a side dish for a more insipid dish, or with boiled turnips and glazed chestnuts that go wonderfully with this stew.
Photo: pixabay
[1]https://www.elcomercio.es/gastronomia/tres-generaciones-cuchara-20171102113209-nt.html
https://www.lne.es/asturias/2010/05/15/adios-inventora-repollo-relleno-21340834.html
[2] http://lasrecetasdebe.blogspot.com/2014/09/repollo-relleno-la-sidra.html
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