Bread (matalahúva, potato, corn and egg varieties) Although there was a time when bread was a luxury for many
ovens to use up left-over boiled potatoes, in paste form mixed
islanders, who only ate it on rare occasions –and maybe preci-
in with flour, yeast, sugar, lemon, cinnamon and oil.
sely for this reason-, Gran Canaria is a real bread-loving island.
These breads today are on display on bakers’ stalls at popular
So much so it has a place in the culinary memory which identified bread with matalahúga as something home made, from the island. It is our “daily bread” from the countryside, an inseparable part of every meal, be it round or oval in shape.
Sunday markets, and are mostly made following artisan methods. The most veteran and busiest of these markets can be found all around the basilica of Our Lady of El Pino, in Teror. Here visitors can find a specific bread for this open air market
The island’s most traditional breads mainly contain aniseed as
made from eggs. Its dough includes butter, sugar, aniseed,
an ingredient and as a condiment which gives it an identity, toge-
and of course, egg.
ther with the skills of each baker, with women commonly being artists of this age-old trade. But it wasn’t the only one. While on
Yuri Millares, December 2017
the subject of this “bread-loving” island, we should also mention “potato-loving”, a mainstay ingredient in Canary cuisine, and “corn-loving” too, as it has been the most widely used crop here, going into gofio, for cooking, and for feeding cattle. With these staple foods of corn and potatoes, that farmers could most easily get their hands on, they have also put them into bread, and continue to do so, and like it was years ago, only on special occasions. Currently, weekend bread, especially potato bread, is popular, traditionally baked in domestic
Bread (matalahúva, potato, corn and egg varieties)
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