Perched on the top of Portugal and surrounded by the Atlantic, Galicia is Spain’s wettest, greenest province. Galicians themselves claim to be a Celtic people and standing under an umbrella inside a castle listening to their traditional bagpipes and drinking queimada, a flaming mixture of herbs, sugar and the local orujo liquor, it is very easy to see the connection with other Celts in damp green lands.
Until Columbus and his team sailed on the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María in 1492, its furthest west corner, still called Fisterra (Land’s End in Galician), was the end of the known earth for Europeans. Galicians in the port of Baiona were the first Europeans to learn about the New World, as Columbus first landed there on his return to Europe.
Today Galicia is world famous for the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route that starts all over Europe and ends in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia and the resting place of St. James the Apostle. It was one of the great medieval pilgrimage routes in Europe; a pilgrim who completed El Camino was guaranteed a place in heaven, and the trip to Santiago was rivalled only by the pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem. Thousands of people today still walk The St. James’ Way, particularly Spaniards in the summer looking for the celestial blessing of cooler weather than the rest of the country, the promise of some rain and Galicia’s unique flavours.
This marked difference in climate from most of the rest of Spain is reflected in Galicia’s unique culinary traditions of green leafy stews, poached seafood and fish, lightly cured pork, the best potatoes in Spain and empanadas. The fish and seafood here are amongst the highest quality in the world and Galicians are famous for cooking their fish and seafood simply and to perfection. That long fish and seafood tradition made Galicians early adopters of canning technology and by the early twentieth century, the coastal city of Vigo became the centre of the fish canning industry with over eighty canning factories. Today, Galician canned fish and seafood is a highly respected industry and items such as Queen scallops, cockles and sardines all form part of a large canning industry, with tinned mussels being a particular favourite. Chef Alberto Cruz at Lándua in O Fieiro in Costa da Morte has even paid homage to the Galician canning industry, making a light modern version of mussel escabeche.
Coming from the verb empanar, meaning ‘to bread’, empanadas – savoury pies which are mostly eaten by hand – are so widespread in Galicia and so varied from the dough to the filling that every neighbourhood, town and hamlet in Galicia can lay claim to having their own recipe. Traditionally the empanadas are made from wheat, although in Rías Baixas they were made from corn, and a stuffing of everything from octopus to leafy veg and mincemeat is made and placed in between the dough and then baked. Like many dishes across the whole of Spain, the filling for many empanadas, especially on the coast, is based on a sofrito of chopped fried onions before the other ingredients are added. Galician chefs like Anna Portals at Solleiros in Santiago and Dani López at O Camiño do Inglés in the northern town of Ferrol are continuing to make modern versions of empanadas – in Portal’s case a version of the Rías Baixas corn dough with cockles and in López’s a one bite Queen scallop empanada aperitivo.