The fishermen's ranches that have saved our fishermen

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 and anchovy), the aioli was quickly gone. And there came a time when everyone was asking where the aioli was, and no one answered. It was gone. Then came the fish and potato repast, served by the fishermen themselves and Silvia on coconut plates with recycled plastic cutlery, and there were as many repasts as you wanted. And so it was. The repast was likable, and even more so with the Cadaqués bread soaked in it. When everyone was already having lunch, Jordi arrived at the table from the boat Gala, having just finished a crossing. He added, sitting in the hail. Everyone knew he was coming, because he was counted as a Portlligat worker. For dessert, there was a cream-filled bun. Many of those who had eaten had work in the afternoon: they had to take the Virgin of Carmen out of the church and take her for a ride on a boat. There was no time for distractions because the main event of the Virgen del Carmen festival still had to come. And they were bound to do so, because the fellowship meal under the green awning of the Portlligat jetty would give them strength.

Silos

On Saturday, July 19, at seven in the evening, at the Malvasía Interpretation Center (CIM)Sitges fisherman Oriol Serra would arrive with a ninety-centimeter-diameter frying pan. He would fry the crabs, then the fish. When he had them seared, he would remove them and, in the same oil, flavored with fish, make the onion and tomato sauce. He would make creamy seafood noodles and cook them for the Sitges residents who had signed up for the Virgen del Carmen event organized by the CIM. Baqués. The director of the CIM, Alba Gràcia, was in charge of giving them all the explanations and anecdotes that have made the 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 noodles, previously browned, and then the hot fumet. While she's doing this, Isabel, the secretary of the Guild, explains the utensils Sitges fishermen use for traditional fishing: trammel net, grill, and catúfols. She utters her words and shows off her objects. The residents of Sitges, in the CIM courtyard, under the giant fig tree with its garland of lit light bulbs, eat seafood noodles marinated in Sitges Malvasia. The dinner ended when it was dark. People congratulated the organizers, and Oriol Serra began loading the frying pan and pot into his car. These are the seafood ranches that have saved our fishermen.

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.