Lately I've been feeling like cooking more catalan dishes up here, for myself and to show the culture to family and friends... But there is a problem: where do I find the ingredients!?
I have taken out the dishes that involve local sausages because I know that it would never be the same, even if I found something a bit similar...
But after my last visit to my dad, where he made "arròs negre", I really feel like making a rice dish! Specially because I have never tried making one before, even when I was living in Catalonia.
I called my dad and asked for the recipe. I needed cuttlefish (its ink included), artichoke and good rice for this kind of dish (basmati and jasmin or these things you can find in denmark are not good for this..). Since it is not season for artichoke anymore, I asked him for an alternative, so I got rice with cuttlefish and scampi, which seemed easier to get, since I didn't need artichokes or the ink.
My plan was to prepare this for family on Easter holidays, but I wanted to try it first at home.. that being my first time with rice.
I went to the fish shop of the harbor in Aarhus. To two of them, actually. No sign of cuttlefish :( One of the problems is also that the danes have one single words for octopus, squid and cuttlefish, so I wasn't sure how to ask for it. I saw that they use the italian names for those sometimes, so it turned out not to be so difficult. Still, no cuttlefish :( And I can't make a rice with squid!! I know some do, but it wouldn't be the same...
I gave up and looked for some other dish.. I decided I will prepare a "mar i muntanya", which is also very typical, and it is easier to find the ingredients.
I was at the same fish shop again, this time to buy the scampi for the dish.. and guess what I found? They had one single box of frozen cuttlefish! From the Pacific, which is probably not the same as the mediterranean ones I'm used to, and frozen, which I'm not used to either... but I couldn't help it and I bought it! Now we have one kilo cuttlefish in our freezer :) I will not use it this time, since I decided to stick with the chicken recipe, but I'll experiment with them when we are back from the Easter holidays.
Oh, and I also found salted cod there! I've been looking for it for a while... now I can prepare many of my catalan favorite dishes!!
I feel like cooking now!! :)
