Yesterday afternoon, Lestedo Social Centre became a “corner of happiness” with the Gluten-free Filloa cooking show. Half a hundred people attended this activity, included in the Filloa Cooking program of the Filloa de Lestedo Festival, which registered an unbeatable reception.
The event, which was developed in collaboration with the Galician Celiac Association (ACEGA), was attended by chefs Roberto Filgueira (from O Balado Restaurant) and José Manuel Mallón. Both professionals created six tasty recipes with Filloas de Lestedo made with different gluten-free flours with fillings in which they used products from the Quality Experiences of Galicia. Among them were the PDO Queixo Tetilla, PDO Queixo Cebreiro curado, PDO Queixo San Simón da Costa, PDO Queixo Arzúa-Ulloa curado, PGI Ternera Gallega, PGI Grelo de Galicia, PGI Castaña de Galicia, PDO Mexillón de Galicia, PDO Rías Baixas or IGP Mel de Galicia.
The president of the Cultural Association of La Filloa, José Manuel Canabal, and the head of the Food Safety Department of ACEGA, Nuria Colmenero, welcomed the public. In his speech, Canabal thanked the high interest that this activity aroused again, while praising the work carried out by both participating chefs and by the filloeiras who collaborated in this day, Matilde Torres and Natalia Cernadas. For his part, Colmenero thanked the organization’s “sensitivity” towards celiac people and hopes to continue collaborating in the implementation of this type of initiative. In this sense, Canabal announced that on the big day of the XLI Filloa de Lestedo Festival, this Sunday, February 18, “there will be the sale of gluten-free filloas in this social venue between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.”
Six Quality Gluten-Free Experiences
In addition to explaining the preparation of the different bases of gluten-free Filloa de Lestedo, both José Manuel Mallón and Roberto Filgueira took the opportunity to detail some curiosities and differentiating characteristics of the products of the Quality Experiences of Galicia that they used for their recipes. Thus, the first proposal, prepared by Mallón, was called La empanada hecho filloa, which aims to recreate this typical Galician dish with the base of Filloa de Lestedo with corn flour, together with Galician veal, turnip greens from Galicia and onions.
Next, Filgueira prepared a Suspiro de mar en el filloeiro, which consisted of a base of Filloa de Lestedo with rice flour with seaweed, a sofrito and pickled Mexillón de Galicia. Returning to the land, Mallón made Los callos turnados en filloa, using a base of filloa with chickpea flour, chorizo, chickpea cream, pork snout and a little Queixo San Simón da Costa. Continuing with the fourth elaboration, Roberto Filgueira also wanted to return to the kitchen of the past with the proposal Returning to Galician origins, creating a kind of fajita of buckwheat filloa and Galician beef.
For desserts, two delicious proposals were offered. The first of them called What does the Tarta de Santiago taste like?, with which Mallón emulated this sweet with an indication of quality and origin through a filloa based on rice flour and almond drink to then make a filling of yolk and almond cream in small pieces. Roberto Filgueira finished the showcooking with his Sobremesa perfecta, which included a filloa of chestnut flour and a cream of chestnut and cured Queixo Cebreiro.
The audience agreed to highlight the quality of the six delicious proposals and was encouraged, once the showcooking was over, to learn how to make the almond-based Filloas de Lestedo. For this, they had the help of the two filloeiras Natalia Cernadas and Matilde Torres, who showed them the tricks of their cooking.
Filloa Accessible, this afternoon
The Filloa Cooking program will close this afternoon, at 7:00 p.m., with the Filloa Accessible, a workshop on the production of Filloas de Lestedo and fillings in sign language. For this, it has the collaboration of the Association of Deaf People of Santiago de Compostela (APSSC) and AGACAL. This proposal, which will feature products from the Quality Experiences of Galicia, will also be coordinated by chef José Manuel Mallón. In addition to the production of filloas and fillings, it will focus on raising awareness of the specific characteristics that define Filloa de Lestedo and on the possibility of providing it with various flavours.
