Lalin stew
Punset came to relate the stew soup with the origin of the universe . It was a joke. It was 2014 and I was giving the proclamation of the 46th edition of the Lalín Cooked Fair . He was talking about the primordial soup that germinated at the beginning of life and that's where it came up. In front of him, thousands of people crowded. Even a small group carried a cardboard that said " I love Punset ". In an interview granted days later he spoke of the experience. He enjoyed it so much that the journalist remarked the same words that he had said days before in the proclamation:" is one more example that, fortunately, there is life before death".
So much for those who already know this Bacchanalia As for those people who still haven't, here's a warning: you have to go to the Feira do Cocido de Lalín . Be part of that list. Galician parties and parrandas of immeasurable size with gargantuan papatorias Y bands ad infinitum . Now that winter is starting to moderate temperatures, don't you feel like a little appetizer before carnival?
Cocido de Lalín at the Sanxenxo Restaurant in Madrid
Lalin invented this party in 1969 and they have been perfecting it ever since; so much so that it was just named International party of touristic interest . Nothing like mastery gained from experience. It is celebrated on the Sunday before Carnival Sunday. . This year will be the February 16 . Although since January 15 they have been celebrating the month of cooking . Are 25 places where you can taste this dish , but there is even restaurants in Madrid that offer it, like the Sanxenxo Restaurant (Jose Ortega y Gasset 40).
But if you go on the big day, make a reservation . The town, which barely exceeds 20 thousand inhabitants, triples its capacity this holiday season. That day it is preferable to go early to be able to walk and have a coffee in the early hours when the sun begins to clear. Go to church square to place you in the nerve center of the party and watch the preparations.
The street that crosses just where the square ends is the zero kilometer of Galicia . There are a figure of a life-size pig , has no loss. There will be the parade of floats and the reading of the proclamation. If your thing is the fair, it's in the parking lot of the market square, the field of the fair . there will be one huge tent full of stalls of Galician producers crammed with sausages and ingredients to make a good stew . Surely after this you will get hungry.
Lalín's famous life-size pig statue
Sure, so much exercise opens up the stomach. There are 25 restaurants throughout Lalín that offer this dish . But the best-known references are all just a stone's throw away: the cabanas restaurant (Pintor Laxeiro 3) is at the beginning of the street where the parade begins, turning left . The cocido here -as in most restaurants in Lalín- is a family thing. The La Molinera restaurant (Rosalía de Castro 17) is right in front of the supply square , so chances are you'll walk past him on your way to the fair. Cooked impeccably, it never disappoints, they have been perfecting this dish for more than three decades.
Curras House (church square 2) is in the epicenter of the party , one step away from kilometer zero. Newly renovated but with the usual mastery, now carried by the hands of the third generation of cooks of the Currás family . And the Las Palmeras restaurant (Arenal 8), at the end of the parade street, next to a fountain with horses. Very good cooked at a cheaper price.
Cabbage, the essential complement to Galician stews such as La Molinera
AND HOW IS LALÍN COOKED? WHY SO MUCH A COMBAT?
The stew is a serious problem for small stomachs and a headache for the most innovative cuisine . It's like the calling function of new mobile phones. It is the most traditional, deep-rooted and sentimental of all the people who populate the north . It is a poor man's dish as -apparently- simple as boil everything in water . And that's it. so popular there multitude of versions throughout the country because when we talk about poor dishes one would grab what was close by and throw it into the pot. And it is a dish so handy and so well structured and perfected over time that has even several uses and endless endings, as if it were a video game.
The first round is the stew soup . Be careful with the noodles, cook them according to the manufacturer's times, they still melt and you have a wonderful formwork -I say this out of inexperience-. If you're sick and the cold hits, the soup without the noodles is ideal to spend the days of perpetual suffering.
The broth, the origin of all things
The second assault is the cooked itself . Unlike other stews such as the spectacular one from Madrid or the work of art of the maragato, Galician is served all at once . The vegetables are turnip tops , although there are variants throughout Galicia that accept others, such as the cabbage. Potatoes, chickpeas and sausages on the one hand; the pork, chicken, hen and beef for the other. From the pig, as you well know, everything is used , and the stew is the exaltation of this animal.
In Lalín everything is served todito, and the pieces that come from the head are the most coveted . As later use there are a thousand versions, all are reminiscences of that past in which every last strand of meat had to be used:** from the famous stew croquettes to old clothes**, which is a delicacy of the gods.
The Lalín stew should be a World Heritage Site
As a final confrontation -if you are still alive- it's dessert and coffee with drops . The mandatory ones are ears and freixós , but in Lalín they are very cool, and in case you are hungry -nobody, and I repeat, NOBODY is hungry at this point but they insist as if they were your grandmother- in some restaurants they will offer you donuts, flan, torrijas, fried milk and Carballiño straws . On one occasion, when I was about to faint, it occurred to me to make the joke of asking, and that's it, is this all? Big mistake. The cook came out and brought me mille-feuille and a piece of grandma's cake.
So you are warned Lalín is not a land to be brave, but it is to enjoy it.
Carnival ears (typical Galician dessert)