Sovereign State: Andorra

Andorra
The Menu:
Terrina de Conejo (Rabbit Terrine)
Sofrito (Catalan Tomato and Onion Sauce)
Trinxat (Cabbage and Potato Cake)
Cargols amb Mantega D'all (Roasted Snails with Garlic Butter)

I have to admit, I didn't know much about Andorra before researching for this project, aside from the fact that it's this little tiny sovereign state right between Spain and France. My lineage on my mother's side is Spanish. My lineage on my father's side is French. Andorra feels like a long lost sister that I never had. I know this food. It's in my blood. I bleed blood sausage (ummm weird). Paella,  Poulet Rôti, Albondigas; these are my comfort dishes. Andorra is pretty damn close to Spanish food. It actually has quite a bit in common with Catalan and Basque cuisine. This is the kind of food I cook on a daily basis.  I could just whip out some kind of braised chicken dish with tomatoes and olives or perhaps fry up some Basque chorizo and eggs and call it a day. I love finding small regional dishes that are in my wheelhouse but I've never cooked before. Andorra has got me all hot and bothered. I was so excited for this one.

I went down to Don & Joe's butcher shop in the market to grab some rabbit. The butcher fabricated it (cut it up) for me and I asked Don (or was it Joe?) to save me the livers. He asked me if I was "feeling a little jumpy" to which I replied "keep using puns like that and I'll have to shop somewhere else". I also got a bit of bacon and some of their amazing pork meat sticks that I need for my pork deficiency. I also picked up my snails from next door, my favorite Italian specialty store Delaurentis. I found a recipe for snails that said "go outside and collect 20 garden snails". Uhhh, not in my neighborhood friend. I'll stick with canned snails. After collecting all my ingredients I went home and started on dinner. I finally got to use my lovely new friend. My pink Kitchen-aid mixer with meat grinder attachment that my sweetheart wifey got me for my birthday. I loved how upset the cat got while watching the rabbit meat squish out of the grinder. Both my kitty Clara and K were intrigued and repulsed at the same time.

The rabbit terrine was incredible. A mixture of ground rabbit meat and liver, garlic, onion, egg, and spices. All wrapped up with bacon and steamed in a terrine water bath for 1 1/2 hours. It was like eating the most moist meatloaf you ever had in your life. If there was a god of meatloaf, this is what she would make. It went perfectly with the sofrito sauce. A super smokey and spicy tomato sauce with pimenton (smoked paprika) and sweet onions. I always make Cuban sofrito as the base for soups and sauces but this one was special. This will be my "go to" sofrito from now on. We ate the terrine the next day in sandwiches. So stinking good!

Who doesn't love potato pancakes? Unloved demon spawn, that's who. Trinxat (pronounced trin-chat), Andorra's national dish of potatoes, cabbage, and bacon all fried up in patty form, is comfort food pure and simple. K is half Irish and I make a dish called colcannon for her when she's not hiding her gold at the end of rainbows. (I'm joking of course. She'd never let me see her hide her pot o' gold.) It's basically the same ingredients as trinxat but the Andorrans here have stepped it up a notch and fried the whole thing.

Snails are a hard sell to people that have never tried them before. Getting someone to try snails for the first time can be a daunting task. "Here, I cooked you some slimy insect looking creatures, have some." Snails are mollusks. If you like clams, oysters, mussels, etc... you will like snails. It's a texture thing that most people have a problem with. To me, snails have similar texture and flavor to a portabella mushroom that got in a fight with a clam. I stuffed the snails back into their shells and topped them off with some garlic and chive butter and roasted them for 10 minutes. They were garlicky and delicious.

Anyways, don't get too comfortable cooking the dishes you know. Try something new. There is a lot of food out there just waiting for you to cook and eat. As they say, variety is the spice of life. Sprinkle on some of that spicy variety and eat that life up. Okay, that sounded less weird in my head.

For more info on this project, read this: Sovereign States