Where the sea meets the mountains
Catalan Mar i muntanya brings together the best of both worlds
People of the world, are you ready for fall yet…? I think I wouldn’t mind a few more weeks of summer, personally…!
What’s on my mind today? For some reason, I’m thinking today of the Catalan tradition of mar y montaña (or mar i muntanya in Catalan). Here in the U.S., we talk about surf and turf, but did you know that that idea comes from the Spanish (well…maybe we didn’t invent it, but we definitely do it best!) When you think about where Catalunya is, you have both amazing places—the sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea, and the majestic Pyrenees and Catalan Coastal Range. So it just makes sense…it’s the gastronomic way of expressing the land around you. Do you remember when I made it with Carlota and Inés and our friend Quim in “José Andrés and Family in Spain?”
In the U.S., we often think of “surf and turf” as steak and lobster, but the idea of combining ingredients from completely different places goes back hundreds of years. One of the oldest cookbooks in Europe, the fourteenth century Catalan “Llibre de Sent Sovi,” talks a little bit about combining meats and seafood, and those dishes set the base for a lot of what you see today. You see a lot of garlic, wine, saffron, things we still use today in Catalan food.
Like a lot of amazing dishes around the world, mar i muntanya wasn’t originally made for kings and queens…it was all about making the most of what you had, what was fresh, and what might taste the best at a certain time of year. Creativity made it even better, but it was really about being resourceful. Centuries ago, farmers and fishermen would meet and exchange their products with each other—that tradition still continues today—and the family of famous mar i muntanya dishes was born from those meetings.
Even though the tradition had already been in place for hundreds of years, it was even more important during the Spanish Civil War in the early 20th century, and then after during the years of Franco. Scarcity determined menus a lot of the time, but also regional traditions…though since Catalan food, culture, and language were suppressed, everything was being shared in private, in home kitchens between family and friends, not in public.
That changed a lot as Spain came out of the Franco years, and Catalan food became more celebrated again. My dear friend Ferran Adrià made an effort to bring mar i muntanya back to elBulli, in his style, using avant-garde techniques to reinvent something so classic and important to the people of Northeastern Spain.
Today in Barcelona and other parts of Catalunya, you’ll see both classic and creative mar i montanya combinations…while there are probably as many dishes are there are families in Catalunya, here are some of the most common dishes:
Pollo con gambas: The chicken and shrimp, which my daughters and I made with my friend Quim, is probably the most famous of all the classic mar i muntanya combinations. Of course it is always the best if you can get gambas rojas! It’s usually made with a sauce with onions, tomatoes, garlic, wine, and picada—an incredible Catalan paste of nuts, bread, and garlic that’s used forthickening
Albóndigas con sepia:this is meatballs in a cuttlefish stew. Probably not something you have thought about before, right? But it is delicious—the meatballs are usually made from a combination of veal and pork, and the cuttlefish stew has all kinds of classic Spanish flavors—tomato, onion, wine—sometimes with the added richness of anchovy.
Patacó Tarragoní: A hearty tuna stew with potatoes that sometimes includes land snails— another classic mar i muntanya combination.
Conill amb escamarlans — Rabbits with crayfish…we are a very resourceful people, Catalans are.
Escabetx de Perdiu amb Llagosta: This “pickled partridge and spiny lobster” is one of Ferran Adrià’s variations on a classic dish, and I think it definitely counts as a mar i muntanya! Escabetx, or escabeche in Spanish, is an old preservation method (remember conservas? You see “en escabeche” a lot on those tins…try some here!) using vinegar and spices .
Calamars farcits de carn: Squid stuffed with pork! Have you ever had anything like it? Maybe it doesn’t immediately make sense that those two things go together, but Spanish creativity always makes it work!
What do you think? Are you curious to try some of these combinations?
I thought about this a lot, about bringing the tradition of mar i muntanya to our restaurants, because I want as many people as possible to experience it, so this month, in Las Vegas, Bazaar Mar and Bazaar Meat are teaming up to offer the ULTIMATE mar i muntanya menu…which might appear a little more like the American “surf and turf” than some of these more traditional Catalan dishes. This is especially perfect because while Bazaar Meat is moving over to the Venetian, you can still enjoy a lot of the most special things on the menu, including foie gras cotton candy and caviar cones. Come join us and try it!
You are a very good man. Thank you for the care you bring to the world. 💜
Thanks, chef, but you left out paella valenciana. Wouldn't you classify that as mar y montaña? Rabbit, snails, and often those beautiful red shrimp and squid rings too. (I just looked up your recipe and you don't add any seafood at all so perhaps I'm wrong, inautentico?