Pollastre amb Escamarlans

Pollastre amb escamarlans is Catalan, especially at home in Empordà: browned chicken and whole langoustines sharing a cassola under a dark sofregit and an almond picada. This is mar i muntanya, sea and mountain. Nothing is muddled. The chicken gives depth, the shellfish gives sweetness, and the mortar brings the sauce together.

The sofregit, the slow onion and tomato base, decides the dish. Cook the onion low until dark gold and jammy, then reduce the tomato until its water has gone and the oil shows again at the edges. That long cooking concentrates the sweetness. Rush it and the sauce stays pale, sharp, and thinner than it ought to be. Sear the escamarlans first, set them aside, and return them only for the final minutes so the tails remain tender.

Whole raw langoustines are worth seeking because their heads and shells season the oil before the chicken enters the cassola. Frozen ones are perfectly good if you thaw them slowly and dry them well. If they aren't sold where you live, use large raw head-on prawns. The sauce will taste a little more robust and less delicately sweet, and the prawns need about one minute less at the finish. No hace falta haber pisado España.

The picada goes in near the end: toasted almonds, hazelnuts, garlic, fried bread, parsley, and, in many Catalan homes, a small piece of dark chocolate. It shouldn't taste of chocolate. It rounds the sauce and gives it body. The Margin beside mine says only: shellfish at the end. Follow that, and the rest behaves. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.