A Galician essence menu for New Year’s Eve

We have prepared a Galician essence menu that combines traditional cuisine, excellent quality products and some Rías Baixas containing the best albariños

Although the aromas and flavors of the Christmas Eve and Christmas menus are lingering inside you, the time has come to start thinking about New Year’s Eve dishes. But don’t worry, you don’t have to rack your brains. Today, we bring you a Galician essence menu that condenses the goodness of millenary gastronomy based on the quality of local products and pairs them with superb wines such as the elaborations of Pazo Baión.

This Galician essence menu is not only a celebration of the goodness of an infinite land but also highlights the care of the products and the cuisine made with love.

If this were not enough, our Galician essence menu would be very easy to prepare, so you would not have to spend the last day of the year in the kitchen. Please take note of the recipes, come to the market and let us take the wine home. Your New Year’s Eve banquet will be a success.

Arzúa-Ulloa, San Simón, Tetilla and Cebreiro, a cheese board with designation of origin

Galician beef is a reference not only in Spain but also at the European level. However, Galician beef offers us high-quality meats and milk from Galician cows and allows us to produce delicious cheeses.

Thus, a Galician essence menu could not begin in any other way than with a fabulous cheese board in which the four Galician denominations of origin are present: Arzúa-Ulloa, Cebreiro, Tetilla and San Simón da Costa.

Each of these cheeses has a unique personality. From Arzúa-Ulloa, we can highlight its creaminess, from Cebreiro its potency, from Tetilla its versatility and from San Simón its smoky flavors and aromas. Why choose only one when you can serve all four?

How can you pair the starter of your Galician essence menu? You need a wine that adapts perfectly to different textures, flavors and aromas and simultaneously represents the soul of Galicia. Our winery has a wine that meets these requirements: Pazo Baión, an Albariño with aromas of apple, tangerine and orange blossom, persistent and with long development in the mouth.

Scallops Galician style, sea and land in a shell

One of the most famous dishes of Galician gastronomy is scallops. Why? First of all, because of the extraordinary quality of Galician scallops, which are soft and tasty when you put them in your mouth. Secondly, accompanying them is key to enhancing their flavor.

Ingredients (6 persons):
– Two scallops per person.
– 150 grams of Serrano ham.
– Two onions.
– One ripe tomato.
– Some bread crumbs.
– A glass of white wine.
– A glass of white wine.
– Salt, pepper and parsley to taste.

How is the seafood dish of this Galician essence menu prepared? The first step is to make sure that the scallops are well-cleaned. For that, leaving them in cold water with salt for a couple of hours is necessary. Then, you have to get down to work with the sofrito. First, the onion is poached after finely chopping it over low heat until it acquires a golden color.

Then add the ham and fry it all together for a couple of minutes. The next step is to add a generous splash of white wine. When the wine has finished evaporating, it is time to add the tomato and let everything cook for another 10 minutes so that the flavors come together. It is advisable to taste the sofrito to season it optimally.

While the sofrito finishes cooking, we recommend preheating the oven to 180 degrees above and below. When the sauce is ready and the oven has reached the ideal temperature, just place each scallop in a shell, surround it with the sauce and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top. Then cook for 10 minutes and finally an extra five minutes in the grill mode of your oven. And ready, add a little parsley, serve the scallops directly in their shell and accompany them with Pazo Baión, a Rías Baixas made just a few kilometers from the Arousa estuary that perfectly complements the most exquisite seafood.

Roast capon, a classic of Galician gastronomy

In Galicia, extraordinary chickens are raised and marketed: Vilalba capons, which are subjected to a unique fattening process. If you can get one of these chickens, you can buy any other capon to offer your guests an exquisite dish that does not become heavy so as not to say goodbye to the year with an empacho.

Ingredients:
– One capon.
– Five garlic.
– Two onions.
– Two apples.
– 10 prunes.
– A glass of brandy.
– Two glasses of white wine.
– Olive oil.
– Salt and pepper.

To prepare this dish from your Galician essence menu, simply place the capon on a baking tray and prick it to allow the fat to flow during cooking. Then, stuff it with onions, apples and plums. Then, crush the garlic and mix it with oil, salt, pepper, wine, and half a cognac. Coat the capon with this mixture and put it in the oven at a temperature of 180º for about four hours. Every half an hour you should baste the capon again with the rest of the wine, cognac, and the fat that the capon will render.

What can you accompany the roast capon with? You can make a smooth and creamy mashed potato, a fresh and light apple salad, or some baked potatoes. Any of these accompaniments will go great with roast capon.

In fact, the key for this dish to rise and become the real king of your Galician essence menu is the pairing. In our winery, we elaborate on an ideal wine for this delicacy: Vides de Fontán, a long-lived Albariño with spicy and toasted aromas and bakery notes. When you combine the capon with a glass of Vides de Fontán, its aromas melt together and offer a delicious mouthfeel experience.

And the dessert? Just as Galician gastronomy has typical desserts in other festivities such as Carnival, Christmas is the time to enjoy classic sweets of these dates such as nougat or polvorones. After this Galician essence menu, you won’t want to go overboard with the sweets because otherwise, you won’t be able to dance to inaugurate 2025.

Pazo Baión and Vides de Fontán are the perfect dance partners for an Galician essence menu

“Aromatic, powerful, unctuous, enveloping, persevering…” is how the Gourmets Wine Guide has described Pazo Baión, a wine that treasures the essence of Albariño wines. A wine is strongly connected to the land where it is made, so it is naturally related to the elaborations of this Galician essence menu.

Vides de Fontán is, according to the Peñín Guide, a “round, spicy, long, persistent, powerful and tasty” Albariño. A long-aged Rías Baixas that elevates superb white meat dishes such as roast capon.

Both wines are the best pairing for a New Year’s Eve menu based on the tradition of Galician gastronomy. Not only for their characteristics but also for the legacy they represent: the history of a 500-year-old vineyard that has been at the forefront of the production of albariños since it was born as a noble property.

In every aroma of Pazo Baión and every sip of Vides de Fontán hides a piece of the essence of Galicia, a land where love for culture, respect for nature, the strength of gastronomy and the weight of viticulture go hand in hand. The way they complement each other with this Galician essence menu is a good example of this.

Happy New Year and a prosperous 2025!