Squids and Elvers

Time to time one needs to lighten up a bit so I am glad that EITb published this note about two of the must famous Basque dishes, one of them my all time favorite.

Here it is and... enjoy your meal:

Gastronomy

Traditional Cooking

Strange-looking Basque dishes

07/17/2007

There are at least two local dishes that never fail to catch the eye of the outsider: squids and elvers.

One of the two Basque dishes that never fail to catch the eye of the outsider is squid cooked in its ink, hence the not very typical black sauce. But don’t be put off, you’ll love it. The black sauce which accompanies the squid, and which is made of its own ink, is unique.

The recipe has spread throughout the Basque Country, and is considered one of the true masterpieces of our cuisine. It can be found using the news browser at the top of the page using the key work “squid”.

The other one is elvers, baby eels that look a bit like worms. Elvers are another dish which only very few countries eat. Fried with a hot pepper in an enamelled clay dish, they are absolutely delicious. They are prepared by simply frying them in oil, garlic salt and paprika, but unfortunately their scarcity is converting them into a very expensive dish.

It’s traditional to eat them on the evening before San Sebastian Day, but their scarcity and astronomical price is obliging establishments to use surimi substitutes.

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