Rice broth from the Mountains of Alicante with ‘esclatassangs’ (saffron milk cap mushrooms)

In the mountains of Alicante, we call them esclatassangs.  But you might also know them as robellones (above all in the Teruel area) or níscalos but it makes no difference what you know them as.  You will see that they give an incredible flavour to this rice which we cook in the Mountains of Alicante, where our olive groves  and also our Masía El Altet oil mill are to be found.  This dish is  typical in autumn and winter, a hearty dish to eat with a spoon   and which is normally cooked when you have friends with you at home.

And if possible, let the saffron milk cap mushrooms come from our natural parks, either from the Font Roja or the Sierra de  Mariola.  They have an extra special taste due to the particular orography of these enclaves.  But let’s get started with the ingredients for this rice broth from the Mountains of Alicante with saffron milk cap mushrooms:

Ingredients for four people

• 5 saffron milk cap mushrooms
• 3 pieces of chicken and three pieces of rabbit
• 2 pieces of pork loin
• 100 g runner beans
• Red pepper
• Grated tomato
• I artichoke
• 1 and a half glasses of rice water
• 6 glasses of water
• Black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt

Preparation

• Heat the water
• Put the Masía El Altet extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan and brown the meat. Add salt.
• When you see that the meat is a golden-brown colour, add the red pepper, tomato and runner beans.  Stir and add half of the previously heated water.  Add colouring and the black pepper and leave it to boil for 5 to 6 minutes.
• Add the rest of the water.  Now is the moment to add the artichoke which you can put in whole or  cut up into quarters.  Leave  to boil for 20 minutes.  Taste the broth every so often and add salt if necessary.
• Now it’s time to add the rice. Leave it  on a strong heat for 5 minutes and then cook at a lower temperature  for another 20.  And it’s ready to eat.

What you now have in front of you is a really great dish to eat with a spoon but which you can only eat in autumn, when saffron milk cap mushrooms appear (and obviously, only if it has rained sufficiently in August).  Eat it hot.  And you’ll see how it really warms you up.

As you will have seen, this is a really easy recipe to prepare.  The saffron milk cap mushrooms will give this rice a different taste.

We would also like you to try grilled saffron milk  cap mushrooms.  On their own, nothing more.  All you need to do is wash them well to get rid of the soil, put them on a grill and when they are ready to eat, add a good dash of extra virgin olive oil, season to your liking and you’ll see what pleasure your taste buds experience.

In our area, it is very typical to collect saffron milk cap mushrooms in our mountains.  What we do want you to understand is that if you decide to pick your own, you should always respect nature and the environment.   Use  the correct type of basket so that the spores can disperse and reproduce and also  cut them  correctly.