Arcadia Spain

Carnival starts today and according to the catalan tradition during this week among the different parades and celebration; we eat Coca de Llardons and Botifarra d’ Ou to get ready for fasting during lent!

Today our students tasted the Coca de Llardons & Botifarrad’Ou in Arcadia, now they have enough energy to celebrate Carnival the whole week =)

The Coca de Llardons

Is a puff pastry cake made with eggs, sugar, pork rinds (llardons) and peanuts.
You can only find them prior to Lent, especially from Dijous Gras (Fat Thursday) onwards, when fatty dishes and over-the-top eating is the order of the day.
Then you can find them in other versions all year round and they form part of the sweet products eaten on the most popular feast days, such as Sant Joan and Sant Pere. They are usually accompanied with sweet wine, Moscatell or cava.

Botifarra de Ou (egg sausage)

It’s made from pork meat, eggs, salt and black pepper. The egg gives it a yellowish colour and it has a grainy texture.
They are made of many types, from the most common, such as black and white sausage, to sausages prepared with a wide variety of ingredients, for example mushrooms, onions, tongue and also with egg, the protagonist of this post.
This sausage dates from the 17th century, apparently from Barcelona and related to the Carnival festival. In the beginning, it was a sausage that was made exclusively for eating on Thursday or fat Thursday and the days before Lent. This product has been so popular lately that it is marketed and consumed throughout the year, but outside of Carnival it can be more difficult to find it in regular stores.

Make your own Coca de Llardons at Home!
Ingredients:
*4 eggs
*100 g sugar
*200 g pork rinds
*1/2 kg flour
*100 g peanuts
*100 g baker's yeast
*20 dl oil
*A glass of anisette and water
Preparation:
1- Mix the 3 eggs, oil, 100 g sugar and the yeast, dissolved in a little warm water.
2- Slowly add the flour until it forms a smooth pastry dough.
3- Mix in the crushed crackling and anisette.
4- Spread the dough out on a baking tray coated in oil.
5- Brush it with whisked egg, spread out the pine nuts and sprinkle the rest of the sugar over it.
6- Leave it to ferment and rise.
7- Put the pastry in the oven for about 25 minutes at 180 ˚C.