Agustina's pig's trotters: "Catalan cuisine wants this, the sizzle, Catalan cuisine is time."

Well, look, my name is Agustina Oliveras Calsina. I was born... wait for it...! On September 10, 1942. I was born in the countryside. But we didn't live like farmers at home. My father, since farming wasn't enough to make a living, immediately bought a truck and transported the bricklayers. He'd done this all his life.

And me? Well, a family at home asked if I could be hired as a maid at 14, to take care of a child.watch herAnd my family said yes, but on one condition: "She must still go to school." And yes, yes, I went to live with that family. I stayed for four years, but at night I went "for refreshers," as they called it. With the nuns. There were always volunteers who went to help people who couldn't (the poor, so to speak).something). So, little school! And until the age of eighteen or morelessAnd then I spent some time with my uncles in Barcelona, who didn't have any children. Two years too. And then I came back. The young people from these parts used to go dancing on Sundays in the dance hall we had, and I met my husband because he also came back here. The boys from San Vicente, from Manresa… All couples have been like that. Here, almost all the girls—we were all girls—married boys from…aroundIt was fun to go dancing, to laugh. This was our life. That was it. And before I got married, I also worked in the factory, like everyone else. It was three years.

And once I was married, I didn't work outside the country anymore. I got married and my children were born... And I've always been a farmer. They went to Terrassa to sell. And I stayed home with the little ones, and we went to the fields to harvest... I'd never cooked, because at my parents' house we stayed with a grandmother and an aunt.learnfrom my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law liked everything very well done, the fire always low, andwatch it, because Catalan cuisine wants this, the simmering, Catalan cuisine takes time. It's a matter of seeing things, I learned. But while she was here, she did it. And doing it little by little is very important. Because if you do it quickly, you're in trouble...

When my father-in-law got sick (and that's just getting older) and my mother-in-law was already retired and couldn't do much, I took care of myself. Always chipping away and always working hard. Because you have to think... You have to think that right here in front of you, on the other side of the road, there were all apple orchards, a field of Golden apples. In our country they called it "The House of Fruit." There was everything. Plum trees, pear trees... Further on, do you see? It was split in two, and in the top corner there were peaches, those tiny yellow ones, summer ones. Just a pass... And in the bottom corner there were pears. But everything we had in 2000 was swept away by the flood. Nothing was left.

It was nighttime, my husband was gone, having gone to sell some goods. Grandma and I were there. Both of us alone. And here, so dark, I heard the thunder coming from Montserrat Mountain. And I said to myself: "Agustina, what are you doing?" What could I do? And I thought: "You know what? Go get a bag of sawdust." Because we had sawdust, other downpours. I went to the tractor garage, and I grabbed that bag, but the water kept coming in, and I was afraid I wouldn't make it. I left the bag, ran up, and said to my mother-in-law, who was sleeping: "Grandma! Come on! Let's go up to the roof! We have to leave, Grandma!" And Grandma said in a hoarse voice: "I'm not going up... I can't go up." And we hunkered down, however we could and wherever we could, because the garage was already collapsing. And the bag I had left there was right here in front of me. The water took everything, left us nothing...

Yeah, look, we've been rebuilding, working hard... Machines? We didn't find any. The tractor was outside, with a tanker, and it took it away. They found the tanker in Monistrol! This is where the water comes from Montserrat. The fruit trees were all ruined. It was the fruit house. And that's how it goes.

And now I'm here. The neighbors always tell me I'm a good cook. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but look, for the Llenega festival all the young people want me to make a dish, and for a few years now they've been giving me theprizeFrom the contest. The way I cook? There are other methods, but I do it like I do at home. The way we're making this dish today, they'd say I'm complicating my life, because to make this, preparing it, I've been... You can count! You don't want to know when I've been there. Cooking takes time, but a cook clears their minds.

Crochet Pig's Trotters with Beans

Ingredients

• Two pig's feet
• A pinch of baking soda
• A handful of flour
• Extra virgin olive oil
• An onion
• A leek
• A carrot
• Two hanging tomatoes
• A small glass of cognac
• All
• A bunch of aromatic herbs (thyme, bay leaf, etc.)
• A handful of crochet beans.
• For the bite: almonds and pine nuts
• Water
• Salt and pepper

To make pig's feet

• I ask for them to be cut into quarters. From a foot, four pieces. I always do it this way, because I think it's more even. Otherwise, they'll look like they're curling up.
• We scrub them well with baking soda and let them rest for a couple or three hours.
• Then, I wash them thoroughly and leave them well drained and dried.
• Next, I coat them in flour. Then, in the pan, with a good splash of oil, I seal them and remove them.
• I chopped the onion, leek, and carrot into bite-sized pieces. I chopped the garlic into small pieces.
• In the same pot, which already has olive oil, I add the onion, leek, and carrot. I add a pinch of salt to each vegetable to "make it weep." Then I add two hanging tomatoes, split open. We call it "hanging" because in our homes, we used to harvest them and hang them. And then we chopped them.
• If I want the onion to cry a little more, I cover it up.
• Then, I add all the herbs: bay leaf, thyme... And I combine everything. When it's done, I add a little liquid. It could be water. I use water, but some people prefer vegetable broth.
• I let it cook for at least two hours. But you shouldn't look at the clock. You should check if it's cooked.
• Then I make the picada: with a handful of almonds, walnuts, some garlic, and parsley, if necessary. And I mix it all together.
• What I sometimes do is remove the tar, along with the oiliness created by the feet, combine it with the spices, and blend it. I get it to the consistency I like; neither too thick nor too light.
• Finally, in the last five minutes, we add the beans.

To make the crochet beans

• I soften them the day before.
• I listen to them, I boil them in cold water. Especially cold water. And on low heat.
• We make sure it doesn't boil over, and if it does, we add water to "scare" them off. I boil it foaming when it's time. I have them for just over an hour.

Grades

Bresa is one of the most common techniques in Catalan cuisine. In French it is calledmirepoix, and consists of cutting the vegetables into small cubes of about two and a half centimeters per side.

Sofrito is a preparation of Catalan cuisine that serves as a base to "start" many dishes and that, as the gastronome Jaume Fàbrega explains, who talks about sofrito in many of his books (the last of which,The cuisine of Lleida, the Strip and the Aran Valley, from Vienna (Publishers), was already being made in the Middle Ages. It is made with onion and tomato, and optionally with garlic, pepper, carrot, wine, etc., combined in different proportions.