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Recipe · 3 min read

Arroz con Borrajas y Almejas

Borrajas con Arroz y Almejas

Caldoso · brothy Cooked in Cassola Aragón, Navarra y La Rioja

01Geographic & Texture Profile

  • Primary Geographic Zone: The Zaragoza huerta (Ebro, Jalón and Huerva valleys) and the Ribera de Navarra.
  • Liquid & Texture Profile: Caldoso (soupy). Some modern restaurants serve it meloso.
  • Traditional Cooking Vessel & Fuel: A clay cazuela over gas or a stove.

02Historical & Cultural Context

Borraja (borage, Borago officinalis) is Aragón's emblematic vegetable. It is grown commercially almost nowhere else, and Aragón's agricultural research centre (CITA) points to a book of 113 borage recipes (J. M. Urtasun, 2004) that includes "the famous borrajas with rice and clams". The combination of borage, rice and clams is a Christmas Eve dish in many Aragonese homes. Clams are a striking ingredient in an inland region; they arrived by rail from the north coast and became a festive luxury.

Culinary science: borage stems are fibrous and covered in fine hairs, so they must be scraped and boiled. Their cooking water holds a delicate, cucumber-oyster flavour and becomes the rice stock. A light roux of garlic, flour and white wine (the "a la marinera" technique used for the clams) binds the caldo.

03Local Town-by-Town Variations

  • Classic Zaragoza home style (Consumer recipe): Borage boiled, broth kept. Onion pochada, rice + borage, moistened with borage broth, clams in marinera sauce added at the end. Caldoso.
  • Stems-only version (Público): Only scraped stems, with garlic, a little flour and white wine. Rice al dente.
  • Restaurant Gayarre (modern): The rice is coloured green with a liquefied borage-leaf purée. A meloso evolution.
  • Navarra (Ribera): Borage with potato rather than rice is more common; the rice version appears on festive tables.

04The Master Recipe (4-Person Batch Blueprint)

Variant represented: Zaragoza Christmas Eve (Consumer structure).

The Flavor Base (El Fondo)

Ingredient Quantity
Borage (stems + some leaves), cleaned, scraped, in 4 cm pieces 1 kg
Water (for borage) 2 L
Clams (almejas), purged 500 g
Olive oil 60 ml
Onion, finely chopped 1
Garlic 3 cloves
Flour 1 tbsp
White wine 100 ml
Parsley 1 tbsp

Extraction: Boil the borage in salted water for 15–20 min until almost tender. Drain it and keep the broth (≈ 1.5 L). For the clams: fry the garlic, add the flour (1 min), the wine and a ladle of broth, then the clams, covered, until they open (3 min). Set aside with their sauce.

Assembly Ratios

Element Quantity
Round rice 280 g
Borage broth ≈ 1.5 L (≈ 6 cups)
Borage (cooked) ≈ 700 g
Clams 500 g

Step-by-Step Cooking Blueprint

  1. Sofrito: Sweat the onion in the oil for 10 min.
  2. Rice: Add the rice and borage and stir for 1 min.
  3. Liquid: Add the hot borage broth and simmer 16 min.
  4. Finish: Add the clams with their sauce and the parsley. Simmer 1 min and serve.

Shellfish caldosos & melosos: Lobster, prawns, mantis shrimp and clams, usually soupy or creamy.