At this time of the year, we remember all the saints and our dead, some of whom are also saints. It is the time to visit the cemeteries and fill them with flowers. And, as in all traditions, there is a culinary repertoire of its own. The typical desserts of All Saints’ Day make the most of seasonal products and imagination. They are recipes that go back a long way, many of them reminiscent of Arab or Sephardic sweets from many centuries ago, which spread throughout Spain, with some variations depending on the area.
One of the most typical and macabre desserts of All Saints’ Day is the saint’s bone. It is made from a small canute of almond paste, which simulates the bone, filled with sweet egg yolk, which would be the marrow. It seems that the first ones were made in Valencia in the 17th century. The recipe is based on ground almonds, sugar, water, lemon zest and eggs. Modest ingredients wisely used: the key to traditional cuisine. The most purist bones are simply made of marzipan and sweet egg yolk, but more and more imagination is being added to the tradition, with more colourful bones, both on the inside and outside, in a variety of flavours: strawberry, chocolate, cream…
Perhaps the second most typical dessert is the buñuelos (fritters), those little balls of fried dough that are eaten without realising it. The base is flour, butter, eggs and oil. When the dough is fried, the dough becomes fluffy and doubles in volume, creating air inside the fritter, which is why it is called a buñuelo de viento (wind fritter). The most traditional ones are filled with wind, but nowadays they are also filled with cream, custard and truffle. The more daring ones resort to many flavours: coffee, strawberry, dulce de leche… Their lightness comes in handy with the story that, with each one eaten, we help a soul to be freed from Purgatory. Not a bad excuse for a binge. That’s why they would be so fond of sweets in convents…
Now let’s talk about chestnuts, so autumnal they are. It can almost be said that the first big magosto takes place on 1 November, although in Ourense the big chestnut festival is on the 11th, the day of the patron saint, San Martiño. Whether on the 1st or the 11th, roasted chestnuts are accompanied by young wine, both seasonal products.
Symbolically, the chestnut has always had to do with death and, in this festival, it can be said that the chestnut is taken for death and the wine for life. As with fritters, there is also a parallel between the chestnut being eaten and the soul escaping from purgatory. It seems that it could be applicable to all the morsels of All Saints’ Day?
Chestnuts are always a very popular food, remember that before the arrival of the potato they were our daily bread. Although they are mainly eaten roasted, there is another dessert of chestnuts cooked with milk and cinnamon, very typical of this time of year in the province of Lugo.
By the way, chestnuts are not only eaten on All Saints’ Day. They are also made into rosaries or necklaces of zonchos (necklaces of chestnuts cooked in their shells). Traditionally they were cooked on the morning of 1 November and the children wore them all day, visiting the cemetery with the necklace and offering zonchos to the people, to free more souls among all of them. In the afternoon, they would finish eating the necklaces.
There are other very typical sweets from Extremadura that are also made in Galicia, especially in Ourense: pestiños. They are also a pan dessert, like fritters and, like this, they are also usually eaten at Easter and even at Christmas. They are made with flour, white wine, lemon, oil, sugar and aniseed. To top it all off, they are dipped in honey, an Al-Andalus heritage.
At this time of year, it is important to make the most of seasonal produce, such as the aromatic quince jelly. The quince jam prepared in November can still last us all winter, if it doesn’t run out before then, of course. Sugar, quince, lemon… That’s all? How simple and delicious it is… The ideal partner: tetilla cheese. From there, a world of combination possibilities: walnuts, curd…
Another seasonal fruit is pumpkin, which produces delicious results in the kitchen. So, as we hollow it out at Samaín to decorate it, why not take the opportunity to make some fritters? Pumpkin fritters are very nutritious pancakes, made in a frying pan, based on pumpkin purée, flour, sugar and egg. They are also eaten at carnival time.
