Fabes con almejas is a traditional dish from the Asturias region in northern Spain, made with clams and fava beans. Other ingredients include onions, garlic, saffron, parsley, and olive oil. It is a variation of a dish involving fava beans and is similar to paella. The dish can be adapted to use locally available ingredients.
The tasty dish called fabes con almejas is essentially a fish soup made with clams and some variety of beans or legumes. This food is attributed to the Asturias region in northern Spain, where, according to culinary experts, it comes from a coastal culture accustomed to cooking seafood. The former kingdom of Asturias is now the autonomous community of Asturias which is part of the modern Spanish nation-state.
In terms of geography, the region of Asturias from which fairy tales with almejas were born is located on the Atlantic coast. It is located near Galicia, which is in the northwestern corner of Spain. Below this region is the nation of Portugal.
The traditional dish fabes con almejas includes a specific variety of beers called fava. These larger beans, which can often be confused with limes, are popular in various dishes throughout Spain. For example, in the northeastern region of Catalonia, broad beans are also used in some of the most important regional dishes.
Along with the broad beans and clams used for this dish, various other ingredients are common. Some of these include onions and garlic, two vegetables often used in regional cooking for a strong flavoring. Another is saffron, a locally available spice. Parsley often appears in many versions of faves con almejas, and olive oil is also a regular ingredient in this dish. Some cooks may also use other vegetables such as carrots as well as additional elements such as flour to make the texture of this dish different.
Local food experts argue that faves con almejas is a version of a separate dish involving the fava bean, where the seafood version hosts mussels when they’re available. Others note that the dish also seems partially based on the quintessential Spanish paella, which includes rice instead of beans, but may include many of the other ingredients in fables con almejas.
Where cooks around the world pay attention to this and similar items in Spanish cuisine, they can moderate this dish to fit their own regional food supplies. An example is a new English version of the dish popular in the United States such as Rhode Island and Massachusetts that can substitute pinto beans or big northern beans for fava beans and can use locally available types of mussels. This version may also call for other elements such as white wine to flavor the dish.
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