purrusalda

Para hacer el caldo, coloca los esqueletos de pollo en la olla rapida con abundante agua. Agrega un manojo de perejil y una pizca de sal. Coloca la tapa y cocina (al 1) durante 4-5 minutos a partir de que comience a salir el vapor. Desgrasa el caldo, cuela y reservalo.

Pela y pica finamente la cebolla y pochala a fuego suave en una cazuela con un chorrito de aceite, sin dejar que se dore. Vierte el caldo e incorpora los puerros limpios y troceados. Agrega las zanahorias y las patatas peladas y troceadas. Sazona y deja cocinar durante 18-20 minutos. Sirve la porrusalda en un plato hondo.

Se aconseja mantener las patatas a una temperatura fresca y no amontonarlas demasiado para que no germinen.

En esta receta estan presentes las vitaminas y minerales necesarios para depurarnos y desintoxicarnos de los excesos que hayamos realizado durante la jornada.

Las necesidades de vitamina C estan cubiertas con la ingesta de una naranja al dia. Por lo tanto, debemos incluir menos suplementos vitaminicos y mas fruta y verdura en nuestra dieta.

Esta receta nos aporta de todo, vitaminas, minerales, tambien proteinas, calcio, fibra, grasas cardiosaludables.

La porrusalda o caldo de puerros es un plato de origen vasco que antiguamente se consumia mucho en tiempos de cuaresma, donde las familias humildes usaban ingredientes basicos de la huerta, como por ejemplo los puerros y las patatas.

En la actualidad se ha convertido en una opcion perfecta para todo el ano y aunque se han integrado otros ingredientes como zanahoria o incluso pescado como puede ser el bacalao.

En esta ocasion vamos a preparar una porrusalda, con la receta sencilla y humilde que se hacia solo con patata y puerro, aunque tambien incluiremos zanahoria para complementarla un poquito mas.

Con estas cantidades tendremos para 4 personas:

Es importante sofreir la verdura unos minutos antes de anadir el caldo para potenciar su sabor, si solamente la cocemos, la porrusalda no quedara igual de rica y le faltara ese punto que la hace especial.

Si no tienes caldo de verduras puedes sustituirlo por agua, pero como digo siempre, en los pequenos detalles esta la diferencia, pues donde haya un buen caldo de verduras casero que se quite todo lo demas.

No olvides suscribirte a mi canal de YouTube si todavia no lo has hecho, asi no te perderas ninguno de los videos que voy publicando y ademas, me ayudaras mucho a subir mas recetas como esta.

En mi casa comemos siempre mucha verdura y hay algunos platos como las judias verdes a la jardinera que preparo habitualmente, pues es una de las opciones mas faciles de hacer y el resultado esta delicioso.

Para los meses de invierno y con la temporada de la alcachofa en pleno auge, tambien suelo hacer alcachofas con jamon, un plato con unas increibles propiedades nutritivas y un estupendo sabor.

Y una de las recetas que publique hace poco tiempo y que ha tenido mucha aceptacion son las tortitas de brocoli, otra forma de consumir este preciado vegetal, perfecta para una cena ligera o incluso como entrante de la comida del dia.

Desde siempre como muchisimas verduras porque me encantan y me parece que estan ricas preparadas de cualquier forma, ya sea salteadas, cocidas, al vapor, al horno, en tempura e incluso crudas y por supuesto guisadas. Eso si, en los meses mas frios me encanta que sean las protagonistas de los mas calientes y ricos platos de cuchara.

Esta receta de porrusalda tradicional es muy sencilla y saludable, repleta de verduras y rapida de preparar. La porrusalda es un plato tipico sobre todo del Pais Vasco, Navarra y La Rioja aunque se ha extendido a otras regiones. Basicamente significa caldo de puerros y, aunque sus ingredientes basicos con puerros y patata, con el tiempo se ha hecho la costumbre de anadirle mas verduras e incluso en algunos lugares bacalao o carnes.

Resulta de lo mas reconfortante ya que queda caldosa y lo ideal es servirla bien caliente. Aunque de un dia para otro esta genial, no es un plato que se deba reposar mucho ya que al llevar patata no se puede congelar y muchos dias de nevera tampoco le sientan del todo bien.

Si te ha gustado esta receta seguro que te encantara nuestra sopa de verduras y tambien otros guisos como los niscalos con patatas, las patatas con bacalao, las patatas a la riojana con chorizo, las patatas con costillas de cerdo, la famosa caldereta de cordero con patatas o la carne guisada en salsa con patatas y verduras.

Tambien la carne es protagonista en recetas como los muslos de pollo a la cerveza con patatas o el pollo en salsa tradicional con patatas salteadas. En cuanto a estofados personalmente me encanta las carrilleras de cerdo al vino tinto y el estofado de ternera con patatas y verduras.

Sirve recien hecha y caliente la porrusalda en los platos de los comensales, ya que es como mas rica esta. Aunque se puede dejar de un dia para otro e incluso conservar unos dias en la nevera, a la patata no le sienta muy bien el frio ya que altera un poco su textura, y por supuesto no se puede congelar.

Si utilizas un buen caldo casero, este plato se convierte en un autentico manjar de lo mas apetecible y saludable ya que va repleto de verduras, ademas de ser muy sencillo e incluso rapido de preparar pues no necesita una larga coccion como otros guisos. Personalmente me encantan los puerros asi cocinados, quedan de autentico… ¡escandalo!

Ya es una porrusalda un plato con patatas y puerros pero a lo largo de los anos se le han ido anadiendo otros ingredientes como la cebolla y tambien es habitual ponerle zanahoria o calabaza segun la epoca del ano. Ademas, es muy comun servirla con bacalao desmigado e incluso con carnes como las carrilleras o la butifarra.

Al margen de esto, es un guiso de verduras y puedes anadirle otros ingredientes que te gusten como por ejemplo alubias verdes, guisantes o setas.

Al saltear la cebolla o el resto de verduras debes evitar que se quemen pero si se pegan un poquito o cogen color dorado no pasa nada, anade un poco de agua a la vez que bajas el fuego y lo tendras solucionado.

Aprovecha las hojas mas verdes del puerro para elaborar caldos caseros ya que es una parte que aporta mucho sabor y aunque no solemos comerla porque esta un poco dura, es una lastima desperdiciarla.

Other variations on the porrusalda

Hoy vamos a preparar una receta tipica de la cocina vasca tradicional: Porrusalda con bacalao. Las tradiciones culinarias del Pais Vasco son reconocidas mundialmente. Esta region cuenta con afamadas escuelas de cocina y restaurantes para los que la gastronomia es un verdadero arte. La cocina vasca mezcla los aromas del mar con los de la montana, una fusion que ha servido de inspiracion para la cocina de autor.

El clima del Pais Vasco es propicio para el cultivo de las mejores verduras y hortalizas. Ademas de disfrutar de la cocina vasca, se aprovecha la fibra, vitaminas y minerales de las verduras frescas. Esto tambien incluye hierbas aromaticas, que le dan delicados sabores a la preparacion de distintos platos.

Uno de los ingredientes clasicos de la cocina vasca es el bacalao. Se trata de un pescado bajo en grasas y rico en proteinas; los nutrientes mas resaltantes en este pescado blanco son los minerales como el potasio y el fosforo.

El fosforo es importante para organismo, evita la perdida de masa osea, y contribuye en la salud de los dientes. Este mineral tambien hace que el organismo pueda aprovechar las vitaminas D y C. El potasio es importante en la sintesis de los musculos y ayuda al funcionamiento del sistema nervioso.

La porrusalda o purrusalda es un plato muy tipico de la cocina Vasca, aunque tambien se prepara en otras regiones de Espana, basicamente la porrusalda significa caldo de puerros, donde el principal protagonista es el puerro acompanado de patatas aunque tambien se le puede agregar otros ingredientes como zanahoria y hasta bacalao, ya es cuestion de gustos.

La porrusalda es un plato muy saludable y nutritivo, ya que esta hecho a base de verduras las cuales nos aportan muchos beneficios, en cuanto a su preparacion, no tiene complicacion alguna, es muy sencilla y rapida de preparar y el resultado es muy reconfortante y delicioso.

La porrusalda es ideal para los meses de frio donde siempre nos decantamos por comer platos bien calentitos, pero tambien se puede degustar durante todo el ano.

Te invitamos a seguir nuestros videos paso a paso, donde te explicaremos al detalle como preparar porrusalda!!

Si eres amante del puerro, no puedes perderte ese riquisimo pollo con salsa de puerro y para los meses mas calurosos, esta deliciosa vichyssoise o crema fria de puerro, recetas faciles para nuestro dia a dia.

Y si te gustan las recetas de sopas y cremas, entonces no te pierdas esta deliciosa crema de calabacin o crema de espinacas!! Platos muy saludables y nutritivos!! Tambien tienes esta rica sopa de cebolla, una de las mas populares del mundo! La crema de zanahorias, la crema de boniato o la crema de lentejas, son tambien muy buena eleccion!! Y si quieres probar un plato de cuchara diferente, no dudes en preparar este estupendo clam chowder, una crema de almejas que esta de 10!! Su presentacion te encantara!!

Como hacer una porrusalda con bacalao. En un dia frio o lluvioso buscamos esa receta magica que nos reconforte, y nos caliente por dentro y por fuera. Pues para mi la ganadora es siempre la porrusalda, en cualquiera de sus versiones. Ya sea la receta tradicional o con algun ingrediente a mayores, como las conocidas que llevan bacalao o costilla de cerdo.

Hoy os traigo la porrusalda con bacalao, un plato muy conocido en el Norte de Espana, sobretodo en el Pais vasco. Ademas de ser una receta perfecta para calentarnos el espiritu, tambien nos sirve para despues de los excesos de celebraciones o para tiempos de vigilia.

Es una receta que os gustara seguro. Sabrosa, saludable, economica y facil de preparar, lo tiene todo. Con ingredientes basicos sacaremos un plato de cuchara de los que no se olvidan. Deciros que “Porrusalda” significa “caldo de puerros” en vasco, donde se situa el origen de esta receta. Como en otras recetas tradicionales, hay muchas variaciones, casi tantas como cocineros. Las hay con o sin cebolla, con o sin zanahoria, alguna llevan ajo o sofrito, etc. Pero lo que nunca falta es el puerro, y en cantidad.

No dejeis de disfrutar de todas las recetas de pescado y marisco que tenemos en el blog, os aseguro que encontrareis un monton de ideas para hacer mucho mas felices a los vuestros.

Podeis ver todas las fotos del paso a paso en el siguiente album.

How to make a porrusalda with cod.

On a cold or rainy day we look for that magic recipe that comforts us, and warms us inside and out.

Well, for me the winner is always the porrusalda , in any of its versions.

Either the traditional recipe or one with a larger ingredient, such as those known as cod or pork rib.

Today I bring you the porrusalda with cod , a well-known dish in the North of Spain, especially in the Basque Country. In addition to being a perfect recipe to warm our spirits, it also serves us after the excesses of celebrations or for waking times.

It is a recipe that you will like for sure. Tasty, healthy, cheap and easy to prepare, it has it all. With basic ingredients we will take out a spoon dish that is not forgotten.

To tell you that ” Porrusalda ” means ” broth of leeks ” in Basque, where the origin of this recipe is located.

As in other traditional recipes, there are many variations, almost as many as cooks.

There are them with or without onions, with or without carrots, some have garlic or sofrito, etc. But what is never lacking is the leek, and in quantity.

We will have our porrusalda ready. We serve hot on the table and we accompany it with a good artisan bread to dip and saute.

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make yours much happier.

You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album.  

Today is the birthday (1506) of Francis Xavier, S.J. (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta) co-founder of the Society of Jesus, companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese empire of the time, and was influential in Christian evangelizing, most notably in India.

Xavier was born in the royal castle of Xavier, in the kingdom of Navarre. He was the youngest son of Juan de Jasso y Atondo, seneschal of Xavier castle, who came from a prosperous farming family and had received a doctorate in law at the University of Bologna, and later became privy counsellor and finance minister to King John III of Navarre (Jean d’Albret). Francis’s mother was Dona Maria de Azpilcueta y Aznarez, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families. He was thus related to the great theologian and philosopher Martin de Azpilcueta.

In 1512, Ferdinand, king of Aragon and regent of Castile, invaded Navarre, initiating a war that lasted over 18 years. Three years later, Francis’ father died when Francis was only 9 years old. In 1516, Francis’ brothers participated in a failed Navarrese-French attempt to expel the Spanish invaders from the kingdom. The Spanish governor, cardinal Cisneros, confiscated the family lands, demolished the outer wall, the gates, and two towers of the family castle, and filled in the moat. In addition, the height of the keep was reduced by half. Only the family residence inside the castle was left. In 1525, Francis went to study in Paris at the College Sainte-Barbe, University of Paris, where he spent the next 11 years. In the early days he acquired some reputation as an athlete.

In 1529, Francis shared lodgings with his friend Pierre Favre. A new student, Ignatius of Loyola, came to room with them. At 38, Ignatius was much older than Pierre and Francis, who were both 23 at the time. Ignatius convinced Pierre to become a priest, but was unable convince Francis, who had aspirations of worldly advancement. At first Francis regarded the new lodger as a joke and was sarcastic about his efforts to convert students.  When Pierre left their lodgings to visit his family and Ignatius was alone with Francis, he was able to slowly break down Francis’ resistance. In 1530 Francis received the degree of Master of Arts, and afterwards taught Aristotelian philosophy at Beauvais College, University of Paris.

On 15 August 1534, seven students met in a crypt beneath the Church of Saint Denis (now Saint Pierre de Montmartre), in Montmartre outside Paris. They were Francis, Ignatius of Loyola, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Lainez, Nicolas Bobadilla from Spain, Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simao Rodrigues from Portugal. They made private vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Pope, and also vowed to go to the Holy Land to convert Muslims. Francis began his study of theology in 1534 and was ordained on 24^th June 1537. In 1539, after long discussions, Ignatius drew up a formula for a new religious order, the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).  Ignatius’ plan for the order was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.

In 1540 king John III of Portugal had Pedro Mascarenhas, Portuguese ambassador to the Vatican, request Jesuit missionaries to spread the faith in his new Indian possessions, where the king believed that Christian values were eroding among the Portuguese. After successive appeals to the Pope asking for missionaries for the East Indies under the Padroado agreement, John III was encouraged by Diogo de Gouveia, rector of the College Sainte-Barbe, to recruit the newly graduated students who had established the Society of Jesus. Loyola promptly appointed Nicholas Bobadilla and Simao Rodrigues. At the last moment, however, Bobadilla became seriously ill. With some hesitance and uneasiness, Ignatius asked Francis to go in Bobadilla’s place. Thus, Xavier accidentally began his life as the first Jesuit missionary. Leaving Rome on 15^th March 1540, in the Ambassador’s train, Francis took with him a breviary, a catechism, and De Institutione bene vivendi by Croatian humanist Marko Marulic, a Latin book that had become popular in the Counter-Reformation. According to a 1549 letter of F. Balthasar Gago in Goa, it was the only book that Francis read or studied. Francis reached Lisbon in June 1540 and four days after his arrival, he and Rodrigues were summoned to a private audience with the king and queen.

Xavier devoted much of his life to missions in Asia, mainly in four centers: Malacca, Amboina and Ternate, Japan, and China. His growing information about new places indicated to him that he should go to what he understood were centers of influence for the whole region. China loomed large from his days in India. Japan was particularly attractive because of its culture. For him, these areas were interconnected and could not be evangelized separately.

Xavier left Lisbon on 7^th April 1541, his 35^th birthday, along with two other Jesuits and the new viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa, on board the Santiago. As he departed, he was given a brief from the pope appointing him apostolic nuncio to the East. From August until March 1542 he remained in Portuguese Mozambique, and arrived in Goa, then capital of Portuguese India on 6^th May 1542. Following quickly on the great voyages of discovery, the Portuguese had established themselves at Goa 30 years earlier. Francis primary mission, as ordered by John III, was to restore Christianity among the Portuguese settlers. According to Teotonio R. DeSouza, recent critical accounts indicate that apart from the posted civil servants, “the great majority of those who were dispatched as ‘discoverers’ were the riff-raff of Portuguese society, picked up from Portuguese jails.” Nor did the soldiers, sailors, or merchants come to do missionary work, and Imperial policy permitted the outflow of disaffected nobility. Many of the arrivals formed liaisons with local women and adopted Indian culture. Missionaries often wrote against the “scandalous and undisciplined” behavior of their fellow Christians.

The Christian population had churches, clergy, and a bishop, but there were few preachers and no priests beyond the walls of Goa. Xavier decided that he must begin by instructing the Portuguese themselves, and gave much of his time to the teaching of children. The first five months he spent in preaching and ministering to the sick in the hospitals. After that, he walked through the streets ringing a bell to summon the children and servants to catechism. He was invited to head Saint Paul’s College, a pioneer seminary for the education of secular priests, which became the first Jesuit headquarters in Asia.

Xavier soon learned that along the Pearl Fishery Coast, which extends from Cape Comorin on the southern tip of India to the island of Mannar, off Ceylon (Sri Lanka), there was a group of clans called Paravas. Many of them had been baptized ten years before, merely to please the Portuguese, who had helped them against the Moors, but remained uninstructed in the faith. Accompanied by several native clerics from the seminary at Goa, he set sail for Cape Comorin in October 1542. He taught those who had already been baptized and preached to those who weren’t. His efforts with the high-caste Brahmins were unavailing.

He devoted almost 3 years to the work of preaching to the people of southern India and Ceylon, converting many. He built nearly 40 churches along the coast, including St. Stephen’s Church, Kombuthurai, mentioned in his letters dated 1544. During this time, he was able to visit the tomb of Thomas the Apostle in Mylapore (now part of Madras (Chennai) then in Portuguese India). He set his sights eastward in 1545 and planned a missionary journey to Makassar on the island of Celebes (in today’s Indonesia). As the first Jesuit in India, Francis had difficulty achieving much success in his missionary trips. His successors, such as de Nobili, Matteo Ricci, and Beschi, attempted to convert the noblemen first as a means to influence more people, while Xavier had initially interacted most with the lower classes (later though, in Japan, he changed tack by paying tribute to the Emperor and seeking an audience with him).

In the spring of 1545 Xavier started for Portuguese Malacca. He labored there for the last months of that year. About January 1546, he left Malacca for the Maluku Islands, where the Portuguese had some settlements. For a year and a half he preached the Gospel there. He went first to Ambon Island, where he stayed until mid-June. He then visited other Maluku Islands, including Ternate, Baranura, and Morotai. Shortly after Easter 1547, he returned to Ambon Island; a few months later he returned to Malacca.

In Malacca in December 1547, Xavier met a Japanese man named Anjiro. Anjiro had heard of Francis in 1545 and had travelled from Kagoshima to Malacca to meet him. Having been charged with murder, Anjiro had fled Japan. He told Francis extensively about his former life and the customs and culture of his homeland. Anjiro became the first Japanese Christian and adopted the name of ‘Paulo de Santa Fe’. He later helped Xavier as a mediator and interpreter for the mission to Japan that now seemed much more possible. In January 1548 Francis returned to Goa to attend to his responsibilities as superior of the mission there. The next 15 months were occupied with various journeys and administrative measures. He left Goa on 15 April 1549, stopped at Malacca, and visited Canton. He was accompanied by Anjiro, two other Japanese men, father Cosme de Torres, and brother Joao Fernandes. He had taken with him presents for the “King of Japan” since he was intending to introduce himself as the Apostolic Nuncio.

Europeans had already come to Japan: the Portuguese had landed in 1543 on the island of Tanegashima, where they introduced the first firearms to Japan. From Amboina, he wrote to his companions in Europe: “I asked a Portuguese merchant, … who had been for many days in Anjiro’s country of Japan, to give me … some information on that land and its people from what he had seen and heard …. All the Portuguese merchants coming from Japan tell me that if I go there I shall do great service for God our Lord, more than with the pagans of India, for they are a very reasonable people.”

Xavier reached Japan on 27^th July 1549, with Anjiro and three other Jesuits, but he was not permitted to enter any port his ship arrived at until 15 August, when he went ashore at Kagoshima, the principal port of Satsuma Province on the island of Kyushu. As a representative of the Portuguese king, he was received in a friendly manner. Shimazu Takahisa (1514–1571), daimyo of Satsuma, gave a friendly reception to Francis on 29^th September 1549, but in the following year he forbade the conversion of his subjects to Christianity under penalty of death. Christians in Kagoshima could not be given any catechism in the following years.

He was hosted by Anjiro’s family until October 1550. From October to December 1550, he resided in Yamaguchi. Shortly before Christmas, he left for Kyoto but failed to meet with the Emperor. He returned to Yamaguchi in March 1551, where he was permitted to preach by the daimyo of the province. However, lacking fluency in the Japanese language, he had to limit himself to reading aloud the translation of a catechism. Francis was the first Jesuit to go to Japan as a missionary. He brought with him paintings of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child. These paintings were used to help teach the Japanese about Christianity. There was a huge language barrier as Japanese was unlike other languages the missionaries had previously encountered. For a long time Francis struggled to learn the language.

Having learned that evangelical poverty did not have the appeal in Japan that it had in Europe and in India, he decided to change his approach. Hearing after a time that a Portuguese ship had arrived at a port in the province of Bungo in Kyushu and that the prince there would like to see him, Xavier now set out southward. The Jesuit, in a fine cassock, surplice, and stole, was attended by thirty gentlemen and as many servants, all in their best clothes. Five of them bore valuable articles on cushions, including a portrait of Our Lady and a pair of velvet slippers, these not gifts for the prince, but solemn offerings to Xavier, to impress the onlookers with his eminence. Handsomely dressed, with his companions acting as attendants, he presented himself before Oshindono, the ruler of Nagate, and as a representative of the great kingdom of Portugal offered him the letters and presents, a musical instrument, a watch, and other attractive objects which had been given him by the authorities in India for the emperor.

For 45 years the Jesuits were the only missionaries in Asia, but the Franciscans also began proselytising in Asia as well. Christian missionaries were later forced into exile, along with their assistants. Some were able to stay behind, however Christianity was then kept underground so as to not be persecuted. The Japanese people were not easily converted. Many of the people were Buddhist or Shinto, and did not find concepts such as Purgatory and Hell appealing, especially since Catholic faith confined their dead ancestors to Hell.

Xavier was welcomed by the Shingon monks since he used the word Dainichi for the Christian God, attempting to adapt the concept to local traditions. As Xavier learned more about the religious nuances of the word, he changed to Deusu from the Latin and Portuguese Deus. The monks later realized that Xavier was preaching a rival religion and grew more aggressive towards his attempts at conversion. With the passage of time, his sojourn in Japan could be considered somewhat fruitful in that he established churches in Hirado, Yamaguchi, and Bungo. Xavier worked for more than two years in Japan and saw his successor-Jesuits established. He then decided to return to India. Historians debate the exact path he returned by, but from evidence attributed to the captain of his ship, he may have travelled through Tanegeshima and Minato, and avoided Kagoshima because of the hostility of the daimyo.]During his trip, a tempest forced him to stop on an island near Guangzhou, China where he met Diogo Pereira, a rich merchant and an old friend from Cochin. Pereira showed him a letter from Portuguese prisoners in Guangzhou, asking for a Portuguese ambassador to speak to the Chinese Emperor on their behalf. Later during the voyage, he stopped at Malacca on 27^th December 1551, and was back in Goa by January 1552.

On 17^th April he set sail with Diogo Pereira on the Santa Cruz for China. He planned to introduce himself as Apostolic Nuncio and Pereira as ambassador of the king of Portugal. But then he realized that he had forgotten his testimonial letters as an Apostolic Nuncio. Back in Malacca, he was confronted by the capitao Alvaro de Ataide da Gama who now had total control over the harbor. The capitao refused to recognize his title of Nuncio, asked Pereira to resign from his title of ambassador, named a new crew for the ship, and demanded the gifts for the Chinese Emperor be left in Malacca. In late August 1552, the Santa Cruz reached the Chinese island of Shangchuan, 14 km away from the southern coast of mainland China, near Taishan, Guangdong, 200 km south-west of what later became Hong Kong. At this time, he was accompanied only by a Jesuit student, Alvaro Ferreira, a Chinese man called Antonio, and a Malabar servant called Christopher. Around mid-November he sent a letter saying that a man had agreed to take him to the mainland in exchange for a large sum of money. Having sent back Alvaro Ferreira, he remained alone with Antonio. He died in Shangchuan from a fever on 3^rd December 1552, while he was waiting for a boat that would take him to mainland China. His relics are preserved in a number of shrines in Asia.

It may seem odd for me as an ordained Christian minister to express my disapproval of Xavier’s, or any missionary’s work, and I could get in trouble for doing so with my superiors. But I am going to do it anyway. The Catholic Church (and others) used conversion to Christianity as one of many vehicles of colonial subjugation of conquered peoples. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Americas. Asia, thank God (literally), was more resilient. Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto religions etc. were much more widespread than local religious traditions in other places, and were supported by rich and powerful rulers. These rulers knew quite well that stripping away centuries-old faiths that had been their own partners in control of the masses would weaken their control, and so they resisted mightily. I also disapprove because the foundation of Christianity is love, and if a Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim preaches love in the name of a religion that is not named Christianity, it amounts to the same thing, and should be left alone.

For Xavier I have chosen the Navarrese dish, porrusalda (literally, “leek broth”) for several reasons. First, it would have been well known to Xavier. Second, in basic form it is a Lenten dish bespeaking humility and simplicity, as befits a Jesuit. Third, I love leeks. It is really a form of leek and potato soup, but with some twists. The leeks should be the dominant flavor, and many other things can be added besides potatoes. Nowadays, carrots are a usual addition, as was pumpkin at one time. You can also add salt cod or meat – as you desire. It’s all up to you as long as the leek flavor predominates.  It is traditional to use water as the cooking liquid, but you can also use vegetable stock.

Porrusalda

Ingredients

3 large leeks
400 gm peeled and diced potatoes
200 gm peeled and diced carrots
2 or 3 spring onions, sliced
olive oil
salt

Instructions

Saute the onions and leeks in a little olive oil over medium heat in a heavy pot until they are soft. Add water (or broth) to cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and add the potatoes and carrots. Continue to simmer until the potatoes and carrots are cooked (another 15 minutes). Add more olive oil to taste and check the seasoning.

Some cooks mash the potatoes before serving to give the soup more body. You can also add a dollop of cream.