Flamenco Gastronomy

1. HUEVOS A LA FLAMENCA.

This dish is flamenco and has Andalusian roots.

You can find them in all the provinces of Andalusia, also in other corners of Spain, but there is no tavern in Seville without the delicious “Huevos a la flamenco”.

“Cuando seas padre comerás huevos” (Spanish expression “When you are a father you will eat eggs“)  that goes back to ancient times, when some families had hardly any food to put in their mouths. It is born with country people, who used to have one or two chickens at home for their own consumption. The eggs that these hens gave were reserved for the father, as a contribution of proteins so that he could carry out the day with as much energy as possible. The children of the house used to have a more impoverished diet, and obviously demanded to eat eggs, hence the expression “When you are a father you will eat eggs” as a response from the mother to the children.

We cannot make a list of ingredients for this recipe, because the “Huevos a la flamenca” are versatile and admit many varieties in its preparation.

What we can’t miss to prepare them are eggs, vegetables, salt and olive oil.

They accept all types of vegetables: green beans, onions, asparagus, peas, beans, peppers, zucchini, aubergines, broccoli… Put together the vegetables you have at home, chop them in small pieces and make a sofrito.

To this you can add potato and meat that always gives it a tasty touch. They are usually made with chorizo or loin.

How are they prepared?

●  Cook the vegetables with boiling water or steamed, leaving them al dente.

●  With these vegetables we make a sofrito in the frying pan, once the vegetables are crunchy (12-15 minutes) we add the meat or the sausage to the taste letting. It sauté with the vegetables so that the flavours are mixed.

●  Then add crushed tomato, if it is homemade better. But we can also use bottled

fried tomato (nowadays there are exquisite ones).

●  Something very characteristic and for which we all recognize this recipe is by

the way of plating: The huevos a la flamenca are always served in crockpot.

●  Once we have the sauce, we spread it on the crockpot, we make a hole with the spoon and we crack the egg or the eggs inside the hole.

●  It is necessary to curdle the eggs in the oven at 180 oC with patience and affection. It is important to be careful to remove them when the yolk is still soft and the white totally white.

Flamenco eggs are one of those recipes that leave any person, whatever their origin, wanting to repeat. You can have it for lunch, dinner and even a great breakfast.

In the origins of Flamenco something very characteristic among the neighbours who formed brotherhood and developed this art spontaneously was: ​To share the pot.

If you cooked in a house (​aviar)​ you didn’t count just the people who lived there, because the family expanded to the whole neighbourhood.

The contents of these pots, cooked most of the time by women, varied according to what was in the pantry each day. However, the pot was always hot and with substance to wet the bread.

Little by little, some foods were defined inside this dish that today we know with the name of Olla gitana.

Perfect to spend an unlimited time with the family around the table, and warm up. A food that curiously gives rise to be started by ​cante jondo​ in the after-dinner.

And all that’s left is to be hungry and want to enjoy a good gypsy pot!

The origin of this dish can be found in the families of Sacromonte, mostly gipsy. This tortilla is linked to the gastronomic of the Catacombs of Sacromonte and to the patron saint San Cecilio, whose feast, in which this tortilla is never missing, is celebrated every year on February 1ST.

Once we have the food well cleaned, we cut it in squares and we sauté them in a frying pan (We must not lack brains and criadillas to make an authentic tortilla from Sacromonte).

At the same time, cook the peas in a saucepan. Cut the potatoes into thin pieces and fry them in a frying pan plenty of olive oil.

The next step is to sauté the peas we have previously cooked together with the chorizo, the ham, the brains, the criadillas and the rest of the casquería or sausages we have wanted to add. We sauté everything and after 6-7 minutes we add the potatoes to the sofrito so that they are impregnated with the flavour of the mixture, although they are already fried.

Then, beat the eggs and mix them with marrow, moron pepper and all the food we have sautéed previously.

Finally, set the tortilla in the frying pan at low heat. Carefully and with love turn it over.

Do you dare with this flamenco food not suitable for the weak?

4. MIGAS CON HABAS