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The Basque cuisine / Basque Recipes

CUISINE WITH A LOT OF CHARACTER

The Basque cuisine is generous, delightful, and full of character, as per the territory and its inhabitants. The Basque cuisine is subtle mixes the influences of theseafront and its countryside. The markets, farm shops or speciality food shops, make it easy to get the tasty products which are the centre of many delicious typical dishes. They are easy to prepare; you just need to adjust the amount ofEspelette pepper found in many dishes.

The most typical dish, which also shares the same colours than the regional flag, is “Piperade”, a mix of tomatoes, onions and green or red peppers, spiced with Espelette pepper. It is paired with

meat or fish dishes such as chicken, lamb or Basque Tuna. It can also be consumed as a main dish with scrambled eggs or Bayonne Ham. Each year, on 15 August, the town of Salies-de-Béarn organise a “éponyme fair”. Various teams compete to be awarded with the title of ‘best piperade’.

Many typical Basque dishes are basedon fish: the cod cooked “a la biscaye” with tomatoes and peppers; the ttoro, fish shoup specialty of Saint Jean de Luz or the chipirons (small squids) which is cooked with the ink or “à la plancha” complemented with garlic and parsley, make a delicious meal with a glass of Irouleguy white wine, as well as txangurro, a stuffed crabe which is just as tasty.

In the countryside, recipes based on meat are favoured. Pork, lamb and veal are cooked, à l'ancienne, most often in stew, like axoa, a lamb and veal dish, paired with rice or jacket potatoes. Close to the rivers, trout and rainbow trout, panfried with butter, make great starters. During the hunting season, game features; including a delicious wood pigeon salami.

On the desserts side, the iconic basque cake is a true delight. Crispy and fluffy at the same time, with some cream or Itxassou black cherries, we love it!

The Basque Cuisine is a local cuisine, mixing perfectly the tastes and flavours, from the countryside and the sea, and traditional recipes are passed from generation to generation.

OPEN YOUR RECIPE BOOK AND LET’S COOK ! FOLLOW 5 recipes of essential dishes

the PIPERADE, RECipe for 4 PERSONS

Ingredients :

4 tomatoes
4 green peppers
4 onions
2 mild red peppers
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons of olive oil, thyme, bay leaves, Espelette pepper in powder, salt, pepper

Peel the tomatoes and the peppers. For this, scald the tomatoes, and place the peppers in the oven. Remove seeds from tomatoes dice them. Remove seeds from the green peppers and the mild red peppers and cut them into strips. Cook the onions in olive oil for few minutes, add the green peppers and the mild red peppers, mix and cook for 20 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, garlic, thyme, bay leaves. Mix, add salt, black pepper and the Espalette powder. Simmer for 20 minutes.

THE VEAL AXOA, RECIPE FOR 6 PERSONS

Ingredients :

1kg mince breast veal
1 onion
1 red pepper
8 mild red peppers
1 garlic clove
Bay leave, thyme, parsley, salt, black pepper and Espelette pepper
Potatoes

Cook onion and garlic in oil, deseed the red pepper and mild red peppers and dice. Add few dices of Bayonne Ham and chorizo. Add the meat with a glass of water. Simmer 1 hour and mix regularly. After half an hour, add the peeled potatoes and add the Espelette pepper at the end of the cooking.

THE BASQUE CAKE

For the dough: 200 gr flour, 1 pinch of salt, 150 gr butter, 125 gr sugar, 1 egg, 1 yolk
For the cream: ½ litre of milk, 3 yolks, 60 gr sugar, 30 gr flour, 1 tablespoon of rhum, 1 vanilla bean

Mix the butter and the sugar; add the flour, eggs and salt. Make a ball and leave to rest for 30mn. Meanwhile prepare the cream. Beat the eggs and sugar, add the flour. Bring the milk to a boil with the vanilla, mix the milk with the egg and sugar mixture. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes, add the rhum at the end of the cooking. Leave it to cool down. Take the dough ball and divide it in two. Fill the cake tin with half the dough and pour in the cream, adding a little bit of jam at the centre, cover with the remaining dough. Glaze with the egg and decorate with a fork. Cook for 45 minutes at 210°C.

Rack of suckling lamb from the Pyrenees, simply roasted

Ingredients:

2 racks of lamb 8 ribs
Perigord Truffle Oil 1 tsp and olive oil
Jus de Rôti 10 cl, chicken stock 1 L
Fresh almonds, thyme, garlic
Cream 40 g, ewe 80 g, butter 40 g, mascarpone 40 g
Polenta 200 g
Tomate mi confite, tomatoes from Marmande
Salt, Pepper, Sugar

Prepare the squares of Pyrenean Milk-Fed Lamb, season, pan-sear and bake with garlic and thyme for 10 min at 180°c. Confire the peeled and seeded tomatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar, add a garlic petal and bake for 3 hours at 75°c. Cook the Polenta with the chicken stock, add the cheese, mascarpone, cream, butter and seasoning and pour into a siphon. Serve by the plate, adding the fresh almonds, Broge and Truffle oil, and finishing with the Roast juice.

Pyrenean suckling lamb ribs and fillets

Ingredients :

2 racks and 1 saddle of Pyrenean suckling lamb
4 cloves garlic, 1 sprig thyme
20cl white stock or gravy
200g broad beans, 200g peas
4 pimientos del piquillo
4 mini fennels

Bone the loin and saddle completely, keeping the rib bones, season with salt and Espelette pepper, roll the meat up tightly and tie with string. Brown the pieces in a sauté pan, add the garlic and thyme, then cook in the oven at 150° for 10 to 12 min, covered with aluminum foil. Moisten the pan with the white stock or meat juice and reduce until you obtain a syrupy juice. Cook the vegetables in boiling water, then in a buttered frying pan. Serve hot, topped with jus.

With our partner Cuisine des Basques, the cooking and local products blog from Maison Petricorena, we invite you to follow the seasons and discover the recipes prepared with their local Basque produce which inspire many bloggers and cooks in the Basque Country, in France and well beyond.

The specialities presented are all selected for their quality, their flavour, their authenticity: the Manex pork, the chocolate, the foie gras, the Bayonne Ham, the Espelette pepper, the chipiron…

As per the Fandango, the Basque cuisine is coloured, flavoured and bubbly. Let yourself go and taste the following recipes: Piperade, Axoa, foie gras, Bayonne Ham, tapas and wines… an experience to live with your friends and family.