Traditional Christmas Recipes of Spain

by Malcolm Coxall

Overview

For any traveller crossing Spain it is soon obvious that every region has its own distinctive culinary specialities. Look a little closer and we realise that every province also has its own specialties. Indeed, when we really begin to dig deeper, we find that most villages also have their own very particular recipes. This high degree of culinary diversity may come as a nice surprise to many a jaded palate. Sadly, in much of the industrial world we are accustomed to bland, standardised and utilitarian food. Even at times like Christmas, when good food should be central, few really local specialities exist in our rather monochrome "Westernised" gastronomy.

Gladly, Spain mostly avoided this "industrialisation" of food so that most people remain avidly interested in and proud of their own food products and their regional dishes. This attitude probably explains the huge number of Michelin stars in the country. Spain is a treasure trove of food diversity, with centuries of cultural influences from Romans, Arabs, Jews and Christians contributing to many of the dishes still served today. Spain is blessed with a pride and love of its own traditional recipes, combined with a range and variety of ingredients that many a chef outside of Spain can only dream about.

Christmas is a special time in Spain and there are few people in the world as capable of making Christmas into a truly special occasion. The Spanish have a love and understanding of good food. Taken together with their ability to enjoy a good party, Christmas in Spain is truly a culinary delight. Here we present you with just some of the multitude of traditional Spanish Christmas Recipes. Enjoy them and Feliz Navidad!

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149538478
Publisher:	Malcolm Coxall - Cornelio Books
Publication date:	10/19/2013
Series:	Traditional Recipes of Spain , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Malcolm Coxall, the author, is the proprietor of the family's 110 acre farm in the Axarquía of southern Andalucía in Spain. The farm has been certified as organic since 1999 and produces olives, almonds and culinary herbs. It incorporates a small factory for the packing of organic herbs and dried fruits and nuts.

Malcolm also provides business, marketing and IT consultancy to other organic food producers in the region. He has published articles on sustainable agriculture, organic food production, forest biodiversity, environmental protection and environmental economics. He is also author of the book "Traditional Recipes of the Axarquía". He is active in the European food and environmental movement, and has taken several successful legal actions in defence of European environmental standards in the European Court of Justice.

Malcolm is passionate about food sovereignty and the maintenance of local food production. He believes that culinary diversity, agricultural sustainability and traditional gastronomy have much to teach a generation that has basically forgotten how food is grown and prepared.
"Truly good food is local, ethical, diverse, organic and slow. How and what we eat defines who we are as a society. Societies that knowingly eat chemically adulterated junk foods, produced in heartless factory farms, reveal an intrinsic social, political and health malaise. They reveal their lack of sustainability, an inherent insecurity and a disconnection from their natural and social context. Contrast this care-less mentality with those societies which treasure their land, their natural environment, their people, their traditional cuisine and the quality and purity of their food. Then explain to me again why we need fast food and how "factory agriculture" fits in with human and environmental well-being and sustainability. To be sustainable, what we really need to do is to start to understand food again, beginning with the basics both on the farm and in the kitchen.
We could do worse than to try to understand and (more importantly) enjoy our own local gastronomic heritage again. Not only is this worthwhile and important, but it is also great fun to discover how to make and enjoy real food again."