Gastronomia

Also known as “coques a la calfó” are typical in rainy days when people from the countryside stayed at home and sought to warm themselves. In fact, the first step in preparing them is to blanch the flour with boiling water. This process is not complicated but it does involve some annoyances.

We recommend that you dirty your hands with oil to protect them and work better with the raw dough. In ancient times, coques were prepared only with corn flour; today, wheat flour is also used to give it consistency, and some people even use only wheat.

With this dough and fillings we can also prepare pastissets escaldats, cooking them in the oven.

We can find infinite options to fill them, including sweet options.

Ingredients

To make 20 coques:

• ½ kg of flour (150 g of corn flour + 350 g of wheat flour)
• 3 glasses of water
• 3 fingers (of the glass) of olive oil
• A pinch of grated onion (optional)
• A handful of salt

Farcit

• 4 eggs
• 2 tins of tuna
• 2-3 large tomatoes
• 1 tin of anchovies

Elaboració

1. Bring to boil 3 glasses of water, the oil, the salt and the onion pinch over a high flame. When It starts to boil, lower it to the minimum and add the flour and constantly turn it over with a wooden spoon until the flour has absorbed all the water.
2. Remove from heat and stir until the lumps disappear. If there are any left, we’ll eliminate them by kneading.
3. We will let it settle a few minutes. In the meantime we flour the work table to work more easily. While the dough is still lukewarm it is kneaded with oily hands until we cannot find any lump.
4. With the dough we’ll make 20 balls.
5. To make it into a cake shape, use a small dish to crush the balls. The diameter of the cokes will depend on how big the balls are and how big is the dish we have used.
6. To toast them you will need a frying pan with little oil, and leave them for a few minutes on each side until they turn golden.

Relleno tradicional:

1. Boil the eggs for 10-15 minutes and then grate them, or cut them into pieces.
2. Grate the tomato and add a bit of olive oil, a pinch of salt and a clove of garlic.
3. Add the tuna and anchovies. We will put each one of the preparations in a different bowl so the diners can prepare the cakes to their liking. Other preparations can be shrimp with chard or haddock, floricol with onion and haddock, with honey or chocolate… everything depends on the taste. Finally, when all the ingredients are ready, in a frying pan or griddle, with a few drops of oil, toast the cakes for a few minutes on each side, until they are golden.