GASTRONOMIC ROUTES

GAME ROUTE

Every village in Extremadura has its own game recipes. This is extremely unique cuisine with such a sensitive identification that proves the importance of game dishes to locals within their staple diet.

It is instant cuisine, making the most of what was flying or running around the countryside that particular day and stewing it with whatever was in the pantry.

For many days of the year, it was the only source of food to reach many Extremadura kitchens. Hence the need to try a thousand different stews using partridge, rabbit, pigeon or wild boar in order to overcome the routine. This exercise in imagination by the housewives of old has led to wealth of recipes full of nuances that are still used today, with brushstrokes of sophistication in some monastery recipes.

This daily cuisine takes a privileged place in Extremadura cooking, which has remained creative and open until around thirty years ago when the industrial processing of game began and its progressive disappearance due to overhunting and catastrophes. It is nowadays almost a meal for the most privileged and what used to be frequent and common in Extremadura kitchens is now an exception.

It is however, cuisine that is closely linked to our tradition, to our raison d´être, to the most distinctive essence of our history as a region. A deep-rooted cuisine of wild meats tasting of nature and freedom.

The route chosen is dotted with places in which the game dishes remain a very significant part of their menus.

In Badajoz, together with the Extremadura-style breadcrumbs that form an introductory and welcoming dish, you can find game recipes such as rice with hare, stewed partridge or pigeon in almond sauce.

In Alburquerque, roast leg of wild boar, partridge croquettes and haricot beans with partridge. In La Codosera, the emberzao (cabbage with beef and bacon) and conejo a la cazadora (a rabbit dish).
In San Vicente de Alcántara, cabbage with pork belly, rice with cod and chicken in almond sauce. In Valencia de Alcántara, rice with pigeon. In Cheles, ajo de peces (garlic fish), in Alconchel ternera en ajo cabañil (beef with garlic), lecechillas de ternera (veal sweetbreads) and partridge with cabbage. Finally, Olivenza with it original Portuguese-Spanish recipes, cod stews, dogfish in green sauce, pork stew and the wonderful desserts such as técula-mécula (almond cake), marzipan or asubias (pumpkin cakes).

An emblematic dish in local game cuisine is Alcántara-style partridge, a convent recipe influenced by the treatment of game recipes in nouvelle cuisine that is prepared by stuffing the partridge with truffles and hepagrás (fresh, homemade pâté) and macerated before marinating it for two days in Port.