Bask cooking

The plates of the Basque cuisine are simple and noble, more acquaintances and original they turn concerning the fish that is obtained directly on the Basque coast or comes from the distant fishing-grounds that the Basque fishermen exploit for centuries. Some of the most common varieties are the hake, the bream, the nice one, the turbot, the snuff or the sea bass and humbler some as the sardines or anchovies. There are accompanied on some few basic and light sauces as the green sauce or the pil-pil on that prepares the cod for itself.

In Araba Was Ploughing, the stew of lamb is outlined, whereas in Gipuzkoa and Biscay the most valued meat is the chop, specially of ox, to the gridiron.

The most typical product of the garden is the string bean, the bean dries. Gernika's red string bean or Toulouse is cooked to very slow fire and is served accompanied pudding, sausage, rib, bacon, etc. In It Was Ploughing they prefer the beans, the green beans called pods or the soup of leeks with potatoes, the porrusalda, and in the stews they combine all kinds of vegetables. It is consumed in the whole country, but it is typical of Bilbao, "el piso", a stew of vegetables with tomato, zucchini and pepper.

In the rural cuisine there is very current preparations like apples and roast chestnuts, hen, soups of string beans, more than one hundred of stews and for especially plates with meat. In the hamlets traditionally the consumption of fish was minor for the costly transport and its difficult conservation. There form a part of the recetario the soups, pâtés of pork, vegetables, fried eggs like ham or sausage, tortillas of potatoes or cod, in a mess of perretxikos, chicken with txapela, roasted to the burruntzi, of Navarre stews, sartenako Biscayan, the gigot or leg of sheep or lamb served with white string beans, the plates of hunt(fighter) as the dove, the woodcock, the meats of wild boar. Sausages, puddings, txistorras, birikas, mondejus, buskantzas, tripochas, txurita beltz, etc. They show the wealth of sausages that are prepared in the Basque hamlets. The cheese, the mamia (gastanbera for the Navarrese ones and gatzatu for the Biscayans) and rice with milk they are the kings of the domestic confection

The cider that can be tasted in the sidrerías, the red of Navarre wine or of the rioja alavesa (this one competes with the best of the world) and the txakoli (young, fresh and fruity wine) they are the most common drinks.

It is not necessary to sit down to the table to eat. In the bars of many bars, the 'Pintxos', tiny portions of the most diverse plates, can be a certification show restraint.

The Basque cuisine has received throughout the time the influence of the different cultures that have had contact with its people: the Roman, the árabe, the Englishwoman, the American, etc. Opened the sea and with seaworthy tradition, them inhabitants included in them cuisine the culinary habits of other peoples. The discovery of America and the later import of products as the corn, potato, string bean, pepper, tomato, chocolate, etc. They revolutionized the nourishment of the Europeans and among them the Basques. Today the Basque cuisine enjoys notable international reputation.