Priorat - Part 7 (return of the appetite, Catalonian surf and turf)

My appetite returned today.  After a morning visit to a local lead sulfate mine, which was the main industry in the Priorat for the 100 years prior to 1970, we visited our final winery of the trip.  Finca Mas d'en Gil, located in Bellmunt del Priorat, produces a white, Coma Blanca, and two reds, Coma Vella and their higher end Clos Fontà.  Like the other wineries we have visited, these wines, which are part of the Priorat denominación de origen, have received high scores from Robert Parker.  I enjoyed the tour of this operation, which compared to the other properties we've visited, seemed relatively slick and well-capitalized.  Mind you, we're not talking Napa Valley here.  We toured the vines sitting in the back of a pickup truck!  Of the wines, I preferred the Clos Fontà, with its darker fruit and notes of blueberry and minerals.

We lunched in Falset at an upscale, contemporary restaurant, El Cellar de l'Aspic (C/Miquel Barceló, tel. 977-83-12-46).  Our tasting menu started with a refreshing martini glassful of tomato gazpacho, followed by a mesclun salad with jamón, peaches and figs, and then a perfectly prepared squid with chanterelles and samfaina, a diced ratatouille-like mixture.  The next three courses were zucchini flowers stuffed with canneloni filling and sauced with foie-gras-enriched béchamel, roasted lamb, and finally a dessert of chilled passion fruit and pineapple purées topped with a coconut meringue.  Although the food was quite good and the service professional, I preferred the more down-home and friendly atmosphere and food at El Cairat, the diminutive restaurant nearby where we had lunch earlier in the week.

Back at our stone house in El Masroig, Alicia gave us our final cooking lesson of the trip.  We started with a simple frisée salad with olive oil-poached green garlic and reduced balsamic vinegar.  Our entrée was a traditional Catalonian dish that falls under the category mar i muntanya, literally sea and mountain, or surf and turf.  Combining elements of the sea and the countryside in one dish is popular in the regional cuisine.  We prepared pollastre amb gambes, braised chicken and shrimp with a picada of chocolate, chicken liver and toasted nuts.  Although not as enthusiastic about this dish as some of the others we prepared, I enjoyed the transformation of the two main components into a mysterious, yet harmonious, assemblage of salty and funky (what the Japanese call umami) flavors.

For dessert, we prepared a traditional crema catalana, similar to a crème brûlée, but lighter and flavored with lemon zest and cinnamon.  This was a wonderful finale to my fabulous introduction to the cuisine of Catalonia and the wines of the Priorat and Montsant regions.

Looking over the past week, the culinary highlights for me were the suquet de peix, the sípia amb tripa de bacallà, the truita de mongetes i all tendre, the romesco sauce (which I sampled the next day), and lunch at El Cairat.  My favorite wine of the Montsant region was El Bugader by Joan d'Anguera, while my favorite wines of the Priorat were the white Kyrie and the red Miserere, both by Costers del Siurana.  I also definitely want to return to the moderniste town of Reus some day in the future.