During February and March, Brindisa, in true Catalan style, will host its annual Calçotada feast in the group's London restaurants.
Well known nationally as a very Catalan event, the humble onion festival brings the community together – with everyone wearing long bibs and porrons (communal Spanish wine jars) full of local red wine. The calçots (onions), which are ‘shoed –calzado’ underground, covered by ridges of earth and built up in rows across Catalan fields; are then chargrilled, peeled, dipped into romesco sauce and carefully lowered from great heights into hungry mouths.
Brindisa Kitchens’ Executive Chef, Josep Carbonell said, ‘The Calçotada is a messy affair – it goes beyond celebrating a vegetable, it’s part of our heritage! Great fires are lit, long tables are set outdoors and bundles of calçots are piled onto the flames as we feast and drink into the night. It’s quite the performance, with grandfathers skilfully pouring porrons straight into open mouths, and hanging calçots dripping with romesco sauce.”
Exclusive to Brindisa Shoreditch and Brindisa Rupert Street, Carbonell has created a traditional Calçotada weekend menu, capturing the spirit and theatre of the Spanish festival. Chargrilled over Brindisa’s open flames, the calçots are accompanied by homemade romesco sauce; grilled lamb chops; Butifarra sausages; a classic white bean stew; whole grilled artichokes; roasted red peppers; and baked potatoes; with a Crema Catalana for dessert, and porrons filled with red wine and cava.
This year, Carbonell has created a vegan Calçotada menu, offering ‘Escalivada’ flame roasted vegetables, baked potatoes with ‘sanfaina’ tomato sauce and Catalan spinach in place of the meat, with his vegan take on the Crema Catalan.
Brindisa founder Monika Linton said, “Spain celebrates so many traditional ingredients with annual festivals and massive gatherings in the streets and along its beaches. You could fill a whole year, no trouble, just feasting through the entire calendar. This year, fully aware of changing habits and priorities, we have created a vegan menu to accompany the much loved, famous calçot. Josep has chosen some of Catalonia’s most famous dishes, full of the colour and flavour of the Mediterranean sunshine, rounded off with a dairy-free crema catalana!.”