The Food of Spain and Portugal - a review

	The Food of Spain and Portugal A Regional Celebration Elisabeth Luard Kyle Cathie Ltd First published 2004 Paperback edition 2007 RRP £14.99
"A stunning overview of the 21 regions of Iberia highlighting the different gastronomic variations in each - written with style and a clear love of the landscape, people and food of the area."
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Regular readers of this blog may know of my deep love of all things Spanish - from the wine to the flamenco to the landscapes... but especially the food.  So I was delighted to learn that Elisabeth Luard's classic work on the Food of Spain and Portugal is now available in paperback.

For me, this is the definitive work on Iberian cooking, going far deeper than most into the history, traditions and ingredients.  For too many people, Spanish food is synonymous with badly made paella, greasy patatas bravas and the occasional over-cooked tortilla.  What Luard gives us is a stunning overview of the 21 regions of Iberia highlighting the different gastronomic variations in each.

Like much of the food of the Med, the modern gastronomy of Spain and Portugal has its roots in the food of the poverty-stricken 'peasants'.  What we find through Luard's extensive research is that this peasant-food background brings us exciting dishes full of robust flavours. 

It's almost ironic that now the food of poverty has become the food of the rich.  Take the Iberian love of ham for example.  So many of the recipes here feature ham in some aspect - often a bone or stock or scraps traditionally taken from the family pig and cured at home.

One lovely example of this 'peasant' food becoming the expensive comes from the Rioja region - a recipe for trout with ham and ceps - the idea is you take a thick slice of your home cured ham with you to the river, set up your rod and poke about in the undergrowth until you find a few ceps.  Then the trout you'll undoubtedly catch will be cooked with olive oil from your own press, the ham and the ceps.  Of course, if you want to make this at home, the trout becomes the cheapest ingredient with the serrano ham and ceps costing you a small fortune... 

The book is divided by region, rather than by ingredient or type which can make it a little difficult to find any given recipe.  However, what this approach does give us is a good understanding of how common ingredients (ham, olive oil, almonds etc) are used to different effect throughout Iberia. 

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