Tastes of the Camino de Santiago in the US - Foods and Wines from Spain
St. James Way has never been so popular among Americans. But now you don’t need to be a pilgrim to enjoy its best Spanish flavors.
Author: Rosa María González Lamas/©ICEX
Originally published on July 13, 2016.
Four Caminos to Santiago de Compostela completed since 2011, two along the French Way starting in St. Jean Pied de Port, one walking the Portuguese Way from Porto, and a another path through the Sanabrés starting in Orense gave Yosmar Monique Martínez enough insight and abundant flavors to write “Tastes of the Camino,” a new culinary publication that reviews some of the best known foods along the route towards the tomb of the Apostle St. James in Galicia.
“After completing my first Camino, I became highly involved with American Pilgrims on the Camino Association (www.americanpilgrims.org), first as a member, then as the founder of Southern Florida’s chapter, and now as a Board member. I share a great enthusiasm, both for St. James Way and gastronomy, specially Spanish gastronomy. Since many members of the Association kept asking me about gastronomy throughout the Camino and recipes, I decided to write a recipe book about the flavors found throughout the French route of the Camino,” detailed Martínez to www.foodswinesfromspain.com
A culinary author and professor, Martínez has been involved in cooking since a very early age, thanks to her international living experience that helped her develop a discerning palate as an adult. This inspired her to move to Paris, where she attended renowned culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, and had an opportunity to do an internship with global pastry icon Pierre Hermé, before returning to America where she currently lives and offers private cooking classes in Miami Beach.
“Tastes of the Camino” is a spiritual and gastronomic pilgrimage. The 152-page book features 30 recipes, 60 luscious color photos and over 30 beautiful illustrations. Featuring recipes that truly exemplify Camino food such as empanada gallega (Galician pie), pulpo a la gallega (Galician octupus), and tarta de Santiago (St. James almond cake) as well as more mainstream Spanish recipes as tortilla española (Spanish omelette), gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp) and croquetas de jamón Serrano (Serrano ham croquettes), this cookbook makes it very easy to replicate favorite Camino foods back at home. Conceived for the US market, the book is written in English, although the names of the recipes are indicated both in this language and in Spanish. Spanish and Portuguese editions are not discarded for the not so distant future.
To celebrate the release of the publication, author Martínez will lead a culinary experience at Spain’s Cultural Center in Miami next July 21st. The culinary demonstration of some of the recipes included in the book has been supported by the Tourist Office of Spain in Miami, with which the author will partner in future promotional events.
“Tastes of the Camino” can be purchased on www.whiskandspatula.com/books, and as of July 21st, also on www.amazon.com.
For the original article, click here.