Europäische Weihnacht – in Vielfalt geeint - Sutter GmbH & Co. KG

Spanien/Spain
Recipe: Pechuga de pollo con salsa de naranja y
menta (breast of chicken with mint)
2 medium-sized oranges
olive oil
4 chicken breasts (each à 200 g)
salt, fresh ground black pepper
8 cl Amontillado
1 /8 ltr chicken stock
1 /2 bouquet of mint leaves
Rinse and clean the oranges thoroughly under hot
water. Peel one orange thinly; cut the second in
half. Cut the zest into very fine strips. Squeeze
the juice from the peeled orange and half of the
second orange.
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and fry the chicken
breast at a high heat for five minutes from both
sides. Season with salt and pepper; set aside and
keep warm.
Dispose of the oil in the skillet. Add Amontillado
to the skillet and bring the meat juices to the boil.
Add the orange zest, the orange juice and the chikken
stock and reduce under high heat to two thirds.
Rinse the mint and shake dry, pick the leaves and
set a few aside for decoration. Finely chop the
remaining mint leaves and stir into the gravy.
Season with salt and pepper. Cover and leave the
chicken breast for approx. 10 minutes, or until
cooked.
Cut the remaining half orange into slices. Arrange
the chicken breasts on a platter and pour the
gravy over them. Decorate with the remaining
mint leaves and orange slices.
The Spanish have invented a rather nice custom for
the years with are so-called pro-“employer’s Christmas”,
meaning that the Christmas holidays fall onto
what are anyhow work-free Sundays. The working
day following Christmas is declared a substitute
holiday. However, one should be cautious if the
neighbour announces that December 28 these days is
also a public holiday. This day, the Día de los Inocentes
(“Day of the Innocent Children”), which is
82
to recall the child-murder of Bethlehem by King
HEROD, bears a particularly mischievous meaning
in Spain, similar to our April Fool’s Day.
New Year’s Eve celebrations in Spain are also
honoured with dazzling Fiestas. Most Spaniards
spend the hour prior to ringing in the New Year outdoors,
jointly celebrating the happy event. In
Madrid, for example, people meet every year at the
Puerta del Sol in the city centre, where the tower
clock chimes in the New Year. Its dial is broadcast
nation-wide live on TV during the last minutes of
the old year, while Spaniards celebrate the custom of
eating grapes, which allegedly dates back to the year
1909. In that year, the wine harvest proved so abundant
that somebody had the idea to reduce the excess
on New Year’s Eve in an original manner. Every
Spaniard was to put a grape into their mouths at
every midnight’s chime and make a wish. Having
swallowed twelve grapes with the twelve chimes
was to be a sign of luck and good health for the
imminent year.
1997 started out with a memorable blunder for millions
of Spaniards, who as usual had counted their
twelve grapes and placed them neatly in a small
bowl or bag to transfer them with every chime of the
bell as a token of luck into their mouths. A technical
error rang the bell of Puerta del Sol, which was
being broadcast nation-wide on TV, twice as fast
than usual. Did the Spaniards experience a particular
degree of bad luck in 1997? In any event, every
misfortune that occurred during the year was taken
up by the newspapers, recalling the failed consumption
of grapes on New Year’s Eve.
The most important day during Christmas is in any
event January 06, Dia des los Reyes Magos, the
“Day of the Three Kings”, which is celebrated with
processions and lots of gifts given to the children. The
Three Kings ride during the night from January 05
clad majestically and on real dromedaries at the head
of long processions to many little villages and distribute
sweets to the children and adults. To lend an
official feel to the arrival of the wise ones and to
make their rank clear for everybody to see, they are
solemnly welcomed at the city limits by the mayor
and other notabilities.