Trinxat

The Pyrenean mountain dish of Andorra and the Cerdanya, winter cabbage and potato crushed together with bacon and garlic and fried into a flat golden cake

Origin: Andorra and the Cerdanya

From the journey of Potato.

Trinxat means chopped, or more exactly shredded, in Catalan, and that is the whole method. Winter cabbage and potato are boiled until soft, crushed together roughly with a fork rather than mashed smooth, worked with fried bacon and garlic, and then pressed into a hot pan and fried on both sides until a crust forms. It is the food of the high Pyrenees, of Andorra and the Cerdanya valley on either side of the Spanish and French border. The cabbage should have been through a frost. Mountain cooks are insistent about this and they are right: freezing converts some of the cabbage's starch to sugar, which makes it noticeably sweeter and less sulphurous, and trinxat made in autumn from an unfrosted head is a flatter dish. It is peasant winter food of a very pure kind. Two crops that store through a mountain winter, a piece of cured pork, and a pan. Andorra's other everyday dishes come from the same logic: escudella, the long-boiled meat and vegetable broth of Catalonia, and cured mountain meats.

Ingredients

Base

700 g floury potatoes, peeled and quartered
700 g savoy or winter cabbage, cored and roughly shredded

Fat

150 g streaky bacon or pancetta, cut into lardons
3 tbsp olive oil

Aromatics

6 cloves garlic, sliced

Seasoning

1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp black pepper

Method

Boil the potatoes and cabbage together in well-salted water for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until both are completely soft.
Drain very thoroughly and leave in the colander for five minutes to steam dry.
Meanwhile fry the lardons in the olive oil over a medium heat until they have released their fat and browned, then lift out half and reserve them for the top. Add the garlic to the pan for one minute.
Tip the drained potato and cabbage into the pan and crush them together with a fork, working in the bacon fat and garlic. Season well.
Press the mixture down into a flat cake filling the pan and fry over a medium heat, undisturbed, for eight to ten minutes until a deep golden crust forms underneath.
Slide it onto a plate, invert the pan over it, and flip. Fry the second side for another eight minutes.
Turn out, scatter the reserved crisp lardons over the top, and serve hot.

Notes

Use a cabbage that has been through a frost if you can. Mountain cooks insist on it and the difference in sweetness is real. Floury potatoes only. A waxy one will not crush properly and gives a wet cake that never crusts. For a vegetarian version, leave out the bacon, use plenty of olive oil, and add a little smoked paprika for the missing depth.

The Gastrographer

Name: Trinxat
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Andorra and the Cerdanya
Ingredients: 700 g floury potatoes, peeled and quartered; 700 g savoy or winter cabbage, cored and roughly shredded; 150 g streaky bacon or pancetta, cut into lardons; 6 cloves garlic, sliced; 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp black pepper

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control