Representative Dishes
Among the pork or mutton-based dishes, some of the most well-known are the callos con manos de cerdo (tripe with pig's feet), caldereta de cordero (mutton stew), cabrito en cuchifrito, frite de cordero (mutton fry) and the cabrito a la hortelana (lamb stew with vegetables).
The chanfaina in Extremadura has nothing to do with similarly named dishes in the Iberian Peninsula, like the Catalan Xanfaina, which is a Spanish version of the Occitan Ratatouille. The Extremaduran chanfaina is a rich stew of mutton liver, brain, heart and kidneys cooked with a mixture of bay leaves, garlic, bread crumbs and boiled eggs.
Traditional Extremaduran gastronomy includes other meats, like hen (gallina), which is one of the main ingredients of the emblematic cocido extremeño stew, hare arroz con liebre (rice with hare) and frogs ancas de ranas fritas (fried frog legs). It also includes local fishes like the tench tencas fritas (fried tenches) and trout truchas con jamón (trouts with ham), and even a certain large lizard in a regional speciality known as lagarto con tomate. This dish is made by frying slices of lizard in olive oil, after which they are stewed with tomatoes and onions on a slow fire in an earthenware pot.
Among the basic popular dishes the ones based on chick peas are dominant. Other main ingredients are, habichuelas (beans), potatos, pumpkin, chestnuts, onions and bell peppers. The most famous dishes of Extremadura are the cocido extremeño, the potaje de garbanzos y judías blancas (chick pea and bean soup), the sopa blanca de ajos (white garlic soup), the potaje de castañas secas (chestnut soup), the olla con "asaura" (a stew with offal and blood), the Ajoblanco extremeño and the gazpacho extremeño (a variant of gazpacho with ham). There is very little in the way of vegetarian dishes in the traditional cuisine.
Some of the ancestral dishes of Extremadura are fast disappearing, like the migas and the gachas. These are very ancient dishes, one of the most prominent being the migas con torreznos. Vegetables like cardoon and borage were formerly widely used in soups.
Certain dishes of the Extremaduran cuisine show the influence of neighboring Portugal, like the lentejas estofadas (stewed lentils) and the sopa de perdices (partridge soup).
Read more about this topic: Extremaduran Cuisine
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“Rice and peas fit into that category of dishes where two ordinary foods, combined together, ignite a pleasure far beyond the capacity of either of its parts alone. Like rhubarb and strawberries, apple pie and cheese, roast pork and sage, the two tastes and textures meld together into the sort of subtle transcendental oneness that we once fantasized would be our experience when we finally found the ideal mate.”
—John Thorne, U.S. cookbook writer. Simple Cooking, “Rice and Peas: A Preface with Recipes,” Viking Penguin (1987)