Glossary C
Coca a Catalan word which refers to Catalan cake which has either sweet or savory toppings. Catalan Coca is a very popular flat and oval shaped pastry that is often made of unleavened bread or, sometimes, a sort of Victoria sponge . The texture can vary from dry and flaky to moist or spongy, and the ingredients and toppings range from sugar, anisette pine nuts and dried fruit to tangy fried onion and green pepper. Traditionally, different Coques are made for each feast day, the most notable and popular Coca which has a sweet toppings is Coca de Sant Joan , which is leavened, candied and glazed. Some Coques are covered with Pine nuts (Pinyon or Piñones).
Coca de Llardons is made with sugared Chicharrones (pork scratchings) and served and eaten during the Carnival week before Lent. All types of Coca is best served with Cava.
The sweet Coca versions are often named after a Saint and traditionally served on the feast (Fiesta) of that Saint, the main one being Coca de San Joan (St John), which has a candied fruit topping. Other Coques are just made with sugar or pine nuts.
Coca Amb Xocolate, another kind of Coca has a stuffing of rich dark chocolate and is best serve as breakfast dish. The savory topped Coques are eaten everyday and are often made with Samfaina with the addition of anchovies, sardines, sausages, and many more. Sweet Coques are oblong in shape and large ones can be bought by the slice, while savory Coques can be either oblong or more frequently are made in baking trays and sold in squares.
Chao Gan or fried liver refers to one of the food of Beijing which is made with raw material as pig's intestines and some liver with soy sauce, mashed garlic, starch, aniseed, etc. as seasonings. Chao Gan is made by boiling the intestine with seasonings and later the liver is added. When cooked, the juice is sparkling and clear while the intestine is tender and the liver is tasty. Chao Gan is in fact not fried but boiled. But since it got the name in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), people accepted it according to the custom.
In Beijing, Tianxingju Chaogan Restaurant is the most well-known restaurant for Fried Liver is in Xianyukou Jie, Qianmen, Chongwenmen District.
- Camachile (Cookies) : Camachile refers to an old time favorite filipino cookies which is shaped like a Camachile fruit.
Camachile (Pithecellobium dulce) is a common thorny tropical American tree that originated from Mexico and other Central and South American countries where it is known as Guamachil.
Cansi or Kansi refers to the Ilonggo’s or Iloilo's version of Bulalo or stew made from boiled bone-in beef shank which come with bone marrow. The beef shank is boiled with spices until the meat around the bone is tender, vegetables are added at the end, usually cabbage or Pechay Baguio.
Cansi is one of the popular foods among the Ilonggos.
In Bacolod City, Cansi is synonymous to Sharyn’s Cansi House. Sharyn’s Cansi is considered as the best-tasting in Bacolod City.
Iloilo is one of the provinces in the Visayas region of the Philippines which is famous for its sweet delicacies and native seafood dishes.
Cataplana refers to Ireland's warm spicy fish and sausage stew that is ideal for cold winter evenings.
Moreover, Cataplana is a Portuguese seafood dish, popular on the country's Algarve coast. It is also the name of the special cookware used to prepare the dish, which is traditionally made of copper and shaped like two clamshells hinged at one end and able to be sealed using a clamp on either side of the assembly.
The cataplana is a wok-shape hammered copper pan with a hinged domed lid. It was introduced to the southern Portugal region during the Moorish occupation in the 8th century AD.
The Cataplana is meant to be a steaming pan and is much suited for the many shellfish such as Ameijoas and Conquilbas that are available along the southern coastal region of Portugal. The ingredients are placed in the bottom half of the dish and the hinged lid is then closed, enabling the food to simmer together and the flavors developed during cooking. These days the pan has a much wider usage.
Much like the word Tagine, Cataplana is the name for both the recipe and utensil in which you cook it. Cataplanas are a feature of many Algarve kitchen and are often used as a centrepiece dish at social gatherings.