A few kilometers from the center of Valencia you immerse yourself in the Orchard, here are numerous fields of oranges and the landscape that we can find follows the typical countryside one. In the midst of all this greenery, the trees remained alive and intact traditions and the main place where you can find them is here.
La Barraca by Toni Montoliu
And the typical construction of the Valencian past, its characteristic is to have a sloping roof and white walls. Obviously it is part of the poor life of the fields.
A 'simple home made with materials found in the fields and shared indoor environments. The horse was the pivot of family sustenance and being such was kept inside the barraca, next to the kitchen.
La Barraca by Toni Montoliu, as I advised you in this post, it is an experience to do, you will find yourself in an environment that is very reminiscent of a classic farmhouse: fields and animals, cultivated and bred by Toni himself who follows them with the classic passion of those men who have always had a vivid and intense relationship with land that raised them.
And in Toni Montoliu all this can be seen. His face shows that he is a good person. Maybe now I live in the countryside too and I see many of these "characters" and they all inspire me tenderness, maybe for me nature is all a show, I don't know, the fact is that I liked it right away. Using the words I used in my journal post two days in Valencia published in Vita da Turista, I defined Toni Montoliu as the grandfather we all had or would have liked to have.
I think this definition helps you to interpret his person.
The experience of a day at Toni Montoliu's Barraca begins with following Toni inside his fields, shows you all his crops, his animals, takes you to see the Barraca where he lived many years ago and finally there teaches how to cook paella.
If you are traveling with your children, probably poor people, although Valencia is beautiful, they may also be a little tired of wandering around the city. This is the perfect place to intersperse your vacation. Toni usually jokes with children, tells them the nursery rhymes and takes a few minutes to entertain them by feeding his animals.
The true original recipe of Valencian paella
But we come to us, we come to the recipe of the true and original Valencian paella that we learned at Toni Montoliu's Barraca.
I begin by telling you that you can find paella with fish, mixed, in short, various variations of the traditional dish. The original Valencian paella is made only with meat, namely chicken, rabbit and possibly snails.
I would like to underline an aspect that is not clear and was not clear even to me before visiting Toni's Barraca. There paella it is a dish that is in the Spanish tradition but even more so in the Valencian one It is prepared for the Sunday lunch, let's call it the party dish. For obvious reasons, especially for tourists, it is also prepared outside of Sunday but know that the tradition is another.
What are the ingredients of the real Valencian paella? In this video we explain in a picturesque way something about Toni Montoliu and also the ingredients.
If from the video they are not understood I write them here:
- Rabbit - Chicken - Snails - Oil - Salt - Sweet Paprika - Tomatoes - Green Beans - Broad Beans - Saffron - Water and obviously Bomb quality rice (typical of that area, it should be similar to our vialone nano)
Since I am not a food blogger, I will just show you the ingredients for the real Valencian paella. I wandered a bit on the internet to find the correct recipe according to what Toni Montoliu taught me and I found the right procedure to follow that you can find HERE.
The preparation of the dish takes about 2 hours, after which you can enjoy an exceptional dish that has nothing to do with the paellas eaten in other places. Toni's passion is evident. He showed me the paella from 60 people who smoked from the heat and I told him "what a good smell ..." and he called me to him and approaching the ear to the steaming rice he said "hear how he sings ..."
I can only recommend this fantastic place!
