Fishermen from Portlligat and Sitges, united by a seafood meal cooked by the sea

Portlligat-SitgesFishermen know how to cook well, perhaps because they have fresh ingredients on hand or because work on the boat is better spent with a good meal in their bellies. The fact is that today in Catalan fishing ports we find fishermen lighting the fire in their pans and casseroles to cook all kinds of dishes. For the Virgen del Carmen, July 16, the towns of Portlligat and Sitges honored their patron saint with the finest festivities: they paraded the Virgin on a boat at sea, and the fishermen prepared dishes for neighbors, friends, and family. We tried them and told you about them.

Portatado

At two in the afternoon on July 16, fishermen Isca Garcia and Samuel Mir, known as Samu, had just finished cooking fish and potatoes in Portlligat. They had cooked it in a gigantic frying pan, requiring four people to move it from the house where they cooked it to the space where they store their fishing gear, under the green awning. It's a jetty where boats moor, and there are also leisure boats, like the legendary Gala, all yellow. Standing right there, waiting for food, was the priest from the Cadaqués parish, along with buses for sailors, biologists, friends, and family, like Silvia and Joana, the wife and daughter of fisherman Isca Garcia. When the fishermen arrived under the green awning, everyone sat down. It was a table made of two old marine planks, painted white and supported on trestles of different sizes, white and peeling, where there were first courses to eat before the fish and potatoes. Large tomatoes, thinly sliced, dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and salt; Cadaqués anchovies with oil, which Silvia had made; clams cooked in white wine. The dishes were passed around, and everyone had a little.

The two fishermen, Isca and Samu, ate seated on a rock face near the table. There wasn't enough room for everyone at the table, so they preferred to sit in the rock face. "I told you it would be a very informal meal, with everyone eating without any formality," Isca told me. No formality was required to eat the best ingredients from the garden and the sea of Cadaqués. The anchovies were salty, but with that hint of saltiness that reminds us that this is a fish that has needed several months of canning to stop being "boquerón," which is what it was called when it came from the sea. The tomatoes were very tasty. Among the first dishes was an aioli, the only one in Cadaqués, which Isca Garcia had prepared, and which was cut with a knife, as it should be.. With the three authentic foods together (a slice of bread with aioli), the aioli was quickly gone. The aioli was made of recycled plastic, and there were as many as you wanted. And so it was. Portlligat. For dessert, cream-filled brioche. Many of those who had eaten had work to do in the afternoon: they had to take the Virgin of Carmen out of the church and take her for a ride on a boat. The greenery of the Portlligat breakwater would give them strength.

Silos

On Saturday, July 19, at seven in the evening, at the Malvasía Interpretation Center (CIM)Sitges fisherman Oriol Serra arrived with a ninety-centimeter-diameter frying pan. He would sprinkle angel hair noodles with sunflower oil, and meanwhile, in a giant 50-liter pot, he would heat the fish stock he had prepared that morning at home with crabs, ratfish, spider crabs, and scorpionfish. He seared the crabs first, then the fish. When they were seared, he would remove them and, in the same fishy oil, make the onion and tomato sauce. When that was done, he would add the fish and the mineral water, which he would let everything infuse together for six hours. In a separate pan, he had cuttlefish and prawns. All in all, he wanted to make some creamy seafood noodles, and he cooked them for the Sitges residents who had signed up for the Virgen del Carmen event organized by the CIM (Central Mexican Institute of Immigration and Customs). The meal ended with a visit to the museum and the Malvasia vineyards in the heart of the town, and a tasting of three wines, one of which will be twenty years old next year, made by winemaker Anna Baqués. The director of the CIM, Alba Gràcia, was in charge of providing all the explanations and anecdotes that have made Sitges Malvasia legendary.

"As a fisherman, I make seafood stews, rice dishes, and other dishes when the CIM organizes visits with meals of this type," explained the fisherman, who couldn't take his eyes off the pot of fish stock and the frying pan where he was already making the sofrito. It's a way to complete his work as a small-scale fisherman, which at this time of year, in July, is slow.

Regarding the recipe, the fisherman said he made everything by eye. "I must have twenty liters of fish stock; five kilos of angel hair noodles; one and a half kilos of prawns and shrimp; six cuttlefish with their spleens," the Sitges fisherman listed. Of the six cuttlefish, he didn't use all the spleens; only four because otherwise the flavor would dominate the dish. "Think of the spleen as the fish's intestines; they give off a lot of flavor; that's why it's also very important that the cuttlefish be fresh," he commented.

The sofrito is done, now it's time to add the previously browned noodles, followed by the hot fumet. At the CIM, under the giant fig tree with its garland of lit light bulbs, they eat the seafood noodles, marinated in Sitges Malvasia. Dinner ended when it was dark.

Ranch and ranchers. Vilanova and Geltrú de Mar, the book

The publishing house El Cep y la Asa of Vilanova i la Geltrú published the book Ranches and ranchers. Vilanova and Geltrú de Mar, which compiles fishermen's recipes, which the townspeople have adopted as their own, as truly typical of Vilanovinas. The book also includes a dictionary of fishermen's expressions, as well as the experiences and memories of the locals. The book became a huge success due to its accurate compilation of recipes.