Characteristic products
Fish and seafood are the first emblems of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria. Octopus, squid, crustaceans and various shellfish already form a delicious inventory, complemented by a beautiful list of fish: hake, sea bass, sea bream, grouper, turbot, sardine and many others. In Galicia, we will of course taste the percebes or barnacles, a mollusc that lives in groups, firmly attached to the cliffs beaten by the waves and whose collection - very risky - explains its price. In Asturias, try the fish of the Cantabrian Sea, including the delicious northern tuna and the pixin (monkfish). In Cantabria you can enjoy the anchovies(anchoas) of Santoña. In Castilla y León, due to the lack of coastline, crayfish and trout in the rivers are very popular.
Meat is also the strong point of the region, such as the Galician veal IGP or the Asturian veal that has a DOP (Denominación de Origen Protegida). In Cantabria, the tasty meat of the tucanda, an indigenous breed, is a highlight. Castilla y León stands out for its suckling pigs and lambs. The sausage has a special place here, especially in Castilla y León. The chorizo is omnipresent, like the one from Cantimpalos IGP, but you can also taste the different morcillas made with pig's blood. The one from Burgos is very famous and contains rice. The jamón de Guijuelo DOP comes from the province of Salamanca, while the cecina IGP, a specialty of beef jerky, is the pride of the province of Leon. The botillo del Bierzo PGI is a thick sausage seasoned with pimentón and prepared with the large intestine of the pig. Finally, lacón gallego DOP is a dry-cured ham from Galicia, made with the shoulder of the pig.
Cheeses are very popular and Asturias alone has about 40 cheeses, including the famous blue cheese from Cabrales, wrapped in chestnut leaves. Nicknamed the "Spanish Roquefort", this mixed cheese (cow/sheep) is aged from 2 to 6 months in natural caves. It can be plain or with paprika. In Galicia, you can taste the tetilla (cow's milk cheese in the shape of a breast), the San Simón de Villalba (smoked cheese in the shape of a top) and the cebreiro (fresh cheese often served with quince paste). In Cantabria, you can try the small cheeses of Liebana, the picon Bejes-Tresviso (marbled), quite spicy and the very creamy queso de nata de Cantabria DOP. In Castilla y León you will find many tasty cheeses such as queso zamorano DOP, a sheep's milk tomme.
Pulses such as faba (white bean) and garbanzo (chickpea) are extremely popular. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes and of course pimientos de Padrón are also very popular. These sometimes very hot green peppers, from the province of A Coruña, in Galicia, are eaten fried.
Local specialties
While this part of the country is home to some of the classics of Spanish cuisine, including various tapas, it also has an abundance of tasty local specialties. Galicia honors the octopus in the Galician style or pulpo a feira. Once cooked for a long time, it is cut into small cubes and sprinkled with olive oil, salt and sweet pepper. Vieiras a la gallega are scallops with tomato, jamón serrano and white wine, served in their own shells and baked au gratin, while guiso de xoubas (sardinillas) is a soup of sardines with potato, tomato and chili. Another soup, caldo gallego, is made with beef, ham bone, white beans, potatoes and grelos (tender turnip leaves). The same ingredients are used for the cocido gallego, but with the difference that chickpeas are added. Lacón con grelos, a stew, contains smoked cooked ham, potatoes, chorizo and grelos. Here,empanada gallega is a puff pastry pie filled with a mixture of tuna, tomato and corn or sometimes meat or poultry.
In Asturias, the star dish is the fabada. Fabas (white beans) are stewed and accompanied by smoked cooked ham and compango. The pote asturiano has most of the ingredients of the fabada but also contains green cabbage, while in the variant called fabes con almejes, the meat is replaced by clams. Chorizo a la sidra is a very popular tapas made with grilled chorizo and simmered in cider. Another appetizer, the pastel de cabracho, is a terrine of scorpion fish (rock fish). Finally, the cachopo asturiano is a cordon-bleu of veal, served with a salsa de cabrales, a creamy sauce made with fresh cheese and queso de Cabrales.
In Cantabria the emblematic dishes are the cocido montañés (stew of white beans, green cabbage and compango) or the cocido lebaniego (chickpeas, potatoes, green cabbage, compango, beef, cecina and dumplings made of breadcrumbs and eggs). The lighter olla ferroviaria is a lean meat stew with assorted vegetables. You can also try sorropotún (tuna casserole with tomatoes and potatoes), almejas a la marinera (clams with tomato sauce, chili pepper and white wine), maganos encebollados (squid in a sauce of onions and white wine) or rabas (fried squid) as tapas.
The cuisine of Castilla y León is as varied as this great region. Among the most representative dishes are the lechazo asado (suckling lamb) and the cochinillo asado (suckling pig) roasted in a wood-fired oven. The meat of this region is very famous and the chuletón de Ávila, a veal chop of the avileña breed, served rare, is a testimony to this. Other specialties include torreznos de Soria (fried strips of bacon), caracoles a la palentina (snails with sliced chorizo, cured ham, tomato, garlic, chili and white wine), patatas a la importancia (fried potato slices simmered with garlic, saffron and white wine), arroz a la zamorana (rice with chorizo, jamón, bell pepper, tomato and sweet pepper) and sopa de trucha (trout soup with sweet pepper in which slices of bread are soaked) A rural dish par excellence, olla podrida is a stew of chickpeas, beef, pork and compango. Another rural dish, chanfaina, is a stew of meat and offal of lamb, in a tomato sauce with chili pepper and white wine.
Desserts and coffee
Galicia is best known for itsSantiago pie, originally made for pilgrims. Sprinkled with powdered sugar, it is actually more like an almond-based cake, flavored with orange or lemon peel. In 1924, a pastry chef decided to decorate it with a cross symbol, an idea that was later taken up by all the city's artisans. Other desserts include filloas (pancakes), bica (a very soft lemon cake), almendrados d'Allariz (small crunchy almond cookies) and torta de Mondoñedo (a watermelon, almond and candied fruit jam pie).
In Asturias you can enjoy casadielles, fried turnovers filled with crushed nuts and flavored with aniseed. Otherwise, you can try the tarta gijonesa (pie with a caramelized turron cream), the charlotta gijonesa (charlotte with a turron cream, flavored with rum, garnished with maraschino cherries), carbayones (almond cream puffs with white icing), moscovitas from Oviedo (thin almond cookies covered with chocolate), tocinillo de cielo from Grado (caramelized flan) and of course the unmistakable arroz con leche (rice pudding).
Cantabria is first of all known for its sobaos, a kind of very light sponge cake flavored with rum or aniseed, typical of the Valles Pasiegos. But also for its quesadas, flans with fresh cheese and cinnamon, from the same region. Castilla y León is famous for its yemas de Santa Teresa d'Avila, sweets made of egg yolks and sugar, flavored with lemon and cinnamon. Also worth trying are the hojaldres de Astorga (honey-based puff pastries), the mantecados de Portillo (dry cookies with white icing) and the bollo maimón (a very soft crown-shaped cake).
Coffee is an integral part of Spanish culture and in this part of the country, that doesn't change. You can sip your café con leche just about anywhere. There are establishments on every corner that will offer you a snack to sip your coffee for the merienda (snack).
Wines, ciders and liqueurs
Castilla y León is a wine-growing region with the most Designations of Origin. Among the most famous are Ribera del Duero, Cigales and Verdejo. Galicia has five Designations of Origin: Ribeiro, Rías baixas, Ribeira sacra, Monterrei and Valdeorras. In Asturias, we will taste the wines of Cangas, while Cantabria also has two wines with protected origin, Costa de Cantabria and Liébana.
Cider is a hallmark of Asturian culture, and since 2002 it has had a PDO. It is ubiquitous both as it is and in cooking. Cider is a drink traditionally present in the celebrations, pilgrimages or festivals of the region called espicha. In the wine regions, people enjoy the bodegas, in Asturias the locals sip their glass of cider with some tapas in the chigre or sidrería. Cantabria, Galicia and Castilla y León also produce this alcohol to a lesser extent.
The orujo is a brandy, made from grape marc and very present in the different Galician festivals where it is also queimada (flambé). It can be flavored with herbs and is therefore called augardente de herbas. It is also found in Cantabria.
