To the rich barnacle!
She has been joined in recent years by the marine aquaculture , a sector in which Galicians are also pioneers, with companies such as Prodemar that dominate the turbot and sole market.
Galician aquaculture production represents in some species such as mussel, cockle or oyster 90% of the national total. Despite its proven quality, only one copy has a quality label: Galician mussel . The slices of A Coruna Y Vigo They are the two largest in Spain. Most of the coastal and high-altitude fish that is consumed in the country enters through its unloading ships.
Mussels, the king of the Galician house
We must highlight the good work carried out by the small but innovative Lugo fish market of Celeiro, whose 33 longline vessels boast of catch the best hake (Merlucius merlucius) of the world, there in the waters of the bank of the Great Sun. Among them there are also ranges, the most expensive are the last ones that are fished and that remain in the upper part of the chambers. They arrive fresher and support less weight. Each quality is distinguished by a label, charged at a price and sold directly to fishmongers and restaurants through a computer program.
No less innovative is the work of the “algoculturist” Antonio Portomuiños with algae and coastal plants (halophiles). In his sea gardens he cultivates various species that are collected at low tide or by dipping and, after washing and sorting, shipped for consumption fresh or processed : they are dehydrated, frozen, preserved under vacuum or put in vinegar, like pickles. Among his clients are the best restaurants in Spain.
Algae: the next ingredient in your Tupperware
THREE STRANGE GIFTS FROM THE GALICIAN TABLE
Once you get over the scare caused by their appearance, you face them to discover that they are delicious morsels.
The Maia squinado, scientific name that receives the spider crab , is a marine battleship, with a thick oval shell, which lives on the Atlantic coasts, from Portugal to England. For Galicians it is “centolla” always in the feminine, perhaps because the females are the finest and tastiest, and the ones that have the “coral”, the roe, in season. The weight of the ideal specimen is 1 kg . When they reach that size, the muscle mass is developed and the flesh is tight, the animal is proportionate.
crabs, delicious crabs
the barnacle It is a strange crustacean that lives in all seas but is eaten in very few countries. In Galicia, at the beginning of the 20th century, the families who, out of necessity, were forced to eat them They buried their remains, like someone who hides a murder weapon, in an attempt to hide their misery. The barnacle is a weirdo, weirdo. Look where you look. Responds to two scientific names Pollicipes pollicipes and Pollicipes cornucopia, something unusual and with age it changes sex. First he is male and then female, it is seen that he likes to accumulate experiences. None of this would matter to us if it weren't for it is one of the most appreciated shellfish . Its intense marine flavor, difficult to describe precisely, in which n Saline, iodized, vegetable and mineral otes , it is irresistible. Each bite is a bite of the sea, a sip of the ocean. In Galicia they differentiate the "sun", well proportioned, smooth and tasty; Y the "shadow" , which grow in the hollows and remain covered by water for a long time, making them skinny, watery and somewhat more insipid. Granitic rock attached to the foot . They are not cheap, but, as expensive as they may seem, money does not pay for the permanent risk in which the percebeiros live, whose life depends on a rope and a blow from the sea.
Barnacles, we would eat them like jelly beans: ALL THE TIME
The trio is finished off by the lamprey, a marine vampire in the shape of a snake, with a cartilaginous structure, equipped with a repulsive funnel-shaped mouth crammed with tiny suction cups with which it scratches the skin and absorbs the blood of some marine mammals, as well as sharks, salmon and cod. With dark, greasy and difficult to digest meat, it ascends the Galician rivers – Ulla, Miño and Tambre –, channels in which it is captured with primitive fishing gear, giving rise to long-awaited gastronomic rites. In strict season **(from January to May)**, it is eaten stewed in its own blood, in the style called Bordeaux, fried, dry or in a pie.
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Lamprey Bordeaux style, in its own blood