Traditional Christmas Foods across Europe

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
2. AUSTRIA
3. CYPRUS
4. CZECH REPUBLIC
5. FRANCE
6. GERMANY
7. GREAT BRITAIN
8. GREECE
9. HOLLAND
10. HUNGARY
11. POLAND
12. PORTUGAL
13. ROMANIA
14. SERBIA
15. SLOVENIA
16. SPAIN
    1. Cardo con almendras (cardoon with almonds)
    2. Cardo con pure dorado de nabos (cardoon with golden turnip purée)
    3. Besugo al horno (baked sea bream)
    4. Besugo a la Vinagreta (baked sea bream in a vinegar sauce)
    5. Bacalao abadej con almendras (Salt cod with almonds)
    6. Cordero Lechal (suckling lamb)
    7. Escudella i Carn d'Olla (Catalan meat stew)
    8. Pollastre a la Catalana (Chicken the Catalan way, or Chicken with dried plums, dried raisins and pine nuts)
    9. Peras al Vino Tinto (Pears in red wine)
    10. Guirlache (the local turron speciality of Aragon)
    11. Polvorones

Besugo al horno (baked sea bream)

Two alternative recipes have been sent for baked sea bream, which have some similarities but are considerably different in style.

Ingredients (a traditional recipe provided without measurements)
sea bream
lemon
slivers of garlic
potatoes
onion
celery
fish stock
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
white wine
olive oil
parsley

Preparation:

Gut and clean the sea bream. Make some cuts into the flesh into which put slices of lemon and slivers of garlic. Also put some lemon and garlic into the centre of the fish. Finally, add some salt and sprigs of parsley.

Choose an ovenproof container that is also suitable for the table. Cover the base of this pan with slices of potato about 1/2 cm thick, add chopped onion and celery, parsley, salt, a little ground black pepper, slivers of garlic, and enough white wine and fish stock to cover easily. Put the pan into a previously heated very hot oven (250^o C) until the potatoes, onions, etc. are partly cooked. Turn down the oven to 150^o C. Then, put the seasoned and decorated sea bream on to the vegetable base and spoon the stock, wine and olive oil fluids over the fish. Return the pan to the oven, but regularly spoon fluids over the fish.

The fish is cooked when the flesh is firm and there is no indentation when pressed with the back of a spoon. Take the ovenproof pan with all its contents straight to the table.

Alternative: Another version is to stew the fish with almonds on the top of the stove. In this case, season as above but instead of potatoes, etc., add a spicy almond sauce with the fish stock, in which case add a little flour to thicken the sauce. This version seems to be much older and belongs to an age when not all houses had an oven.