«The vegetables we consume guard secrets. In this book we share some of them with you, accompanied by delicious recipes and beautiful photographs.» This is how Josep Colonques Garrido, naturalist and naturologist expert in herbology, ‘Ibiza, de la tierra a la mesa’ (’Eivissa, de la terra a la taula’, in its Catalan version), describes the book that he has just published with Diario de Ibiza journalist Marta Torres Molina and photographer Toni Escobar Cardona.
The idea came about when Colonques visited the Diaro de Ibiza offices to give an interview after publishing the book ‘El libro de las plantas silvestres de Ibiza y Formentera’ (the book of wild flowers of Ibiza and Formentera). There he met Torres, author of ‘Cocineras en Ibiza’ (cooks in Ibiza). One seeing them talking, deputy editor Rita Vallès suggested they did a joint project as plants and cooking «are a perfect match». A couple of weeks later the project was in full swing, now with photographer Toni Escobar Cardona on board, and who Balàfia Postals accepted with open arms.
In the book, which was presented this week at Club Diario, Colonques explains the origin and some interesting facts about 80 products from the land (fruit, vegetables, aromatic herbs and spices) accompanied by almost 70 recipes provided by Torres, based on dishes she habitually prepares at home: «They are simple dishes. Some of them are family recipes, such as the papajotes (a traditional sweet dish) by my grandmother Paca or my mother’s paella, and others are dishes that I have made thousands of times because I just adore them, like my version of minestrone, marinated salmon or the glazed radishes.» Escobar’s aim has been to move away, as far as possible, from the usual aesthetics of recipe books.
Most of the photographs have been taken outdoors on farms and local areas of the island, such as the orchards of Can Puvil and Ca n’Armat, the Can Rich winery or Romeo’s hotel. «It is a book that showcases the great diversity of dishes that can be prepared with the products from our land,» says the editor, Neus Escandell, who is confident that many readers will be happy to dip their hands in flour with the recipes in ‘Ibiza, de la tierra a la mesa’.
