El arroz de la terra d'Isabel Marquès

Autumn brings with it new fruits linked to Menorcan culinary traditions: blood-stained pumpkin, pomegranates, wheat, quinces, figs... In the global and frenetic society of the 21st century, will we manage to maintain these centuries-old customs inherited from mothers to daughters? We have interviewed four people to ask them what they think and how they do it.

ARROZ DE LA TIERRA, by Isabel Marquès

How did you learn to make arroz de la tierra?
My mother already made it and I liked it a lot. The sisters remember that in the old days it was a poor man's food, like boiled bran. I don't remember this. What I do know is that my mother already made it in the oven, with chops, knives and suffering, and it was very tasty. When she died, it stopped being made. But Auxili Febrer Martí, who was an older person, made trianets for “Una isla por el mundo” and I asked her: You have to tell me how you make the rice from the land, and she explained it to me. Since she stopped making it, I thought: I can try it. And so it was.

How do you make it?
Before it was made with ribs and pork chop. But they say that cooking is playing and being creative with your ingredients. I have introduced new materials: I don't use pork chop, but pork, brisket, blood sausage, sausages and lots of sofrito. These are the ingredients.

Step by step, what would the recipe be like?
First I make lots of sofrito with plenty of onion. Once the heat is off, I add pieces of skinless blood sausage (which give it a lot of flavor) that melt.

Secondly, it's time to fry the cooked meat. For every kilo of rice (actually it's wheat, but it's called rice) I put half a kilo of chopped pork, a breast cut into small pieces and four sausages cut into pieces. When it's almost cooked I add a handful of peas.

At the same time, I boil the water, I scald the rice (the wheat), the cabbage and mix it with the ingredients. Once everything is together, I decorate it with slices of blood sausage, tomato, onion and one or two garlic cloves, plus a little oil. Then it goes into the oven. When the layer is roasted, it's cooked. I do it in two batches because it's laborious. When I do it in two batches, I first make the sofrito and put it in the freezer so I can finish it. During the process I taste it to see if it's salty enough. I also add powdered ginger to taste it.

Who do you cook it for?
When I do it, it's for the campaign against hunger. A kilo and a half, which is enough for 30 portions, or 15 small dishes. A kilo of wheat costs 9.5€. It is bought from a store in Mahón. Before, my mother bought it from Madona de Son Abatzer. Back then, it was a small extra income for the peasants.

How was wheat prepared?
In the old days, wheat and barley were sown on all the farms. Apart from the flour that they kept for the whole year, they would scald part of the wheat, drain it well, and put it out to dry in the sun. When it was dry, they would chop it. Hence the name “arroz de la tierra” (rice from the land).

When do you make it?
I make it to coincide with the Campaign against hunger. I don’t always make it because, as the base is wheat, in summer it is chopped.

Do you think that the tradition will continue?
I think so, if Menorcan cooking workshops are held, although it is true that young people do not entertain themselves. They go more to the list. It would be a shame if it were not preserved. But everything is a phase. Just as I had forgotten it, if it is written down here it could be that someone would recover it and do it at home.