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Spanish · La Cerdanya

Trinxat: Catalan kale and potato cake

Trinxat — from the Catalan word for mashed or chopped — is a winter dish from the Pyrenean Cerdanya region: boiled kale (col d'hivern) and potato mashed together with pork fat, formed into a cake, and fried until deeply caramelised on both sides. It is then topped with crispy strips of bacon or panceta. The kale must be winter-sweetened — frost-touched col must be used, which converts its starches to sugar and removes the bitterness. Trinxat is mountain food, mountain winter food. It is not elegant. It is dense, fatty, deeply savoury, and completely honest.

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ServesFour portions
Sourced1of 4 in BC
Cook
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I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

500 g
winter kale (col d'hivern)
frost-touched; tough stems removed
Your own market
500 g
floury potatoes
peeled and quartered
Origin · FranceLekker · Vancouver →
pork fat (lard)
for frying
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
150 g
bacon or panceta
cut into strips
Not yet stocked in British Columbia

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

II

The Method

1
Place the kale and potatoes together in a large pot of salted water. Bring to the boil and cook until both are very soft and offer no resistance when pressed. Drain thoroughly in a colander, pressing down firmly to expel all moisture — the mass must be as dry as possible before mashing.
2
Mash the kale and potato together coarsely. Do not work to a smooth purée — some texture must remain visible and felt in the mass. Season with salt.
3
Melt pork fat in a heavy frying pan over a medium heat. If using the bacon method, crisp the strips first in the pan, then lift them out and reserve, leaving the rendered fat behind. Add the mash to the pan and press it firmly into a single cake that fills the base of the pan.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies: do not move the cake. Allow it to fry undisturbed for 10 to 12 minutes until a deep brown crust has formed on the underside. The cake should release cleanly from the pan when a spatula is slid beneath it — if it resists, it is not ready.
5
Slide the cake onto a plate, then invert it back into the pan to fry the second side for a further 10 to 12 minutes until equally caramelised and firm. The finished cake should be deeply bronzed on both sides and hold its shape when lifted.
6
Lay the crisped bacon or panceta strips across the top of the cake. Serve immediately from the pan while the crust remains audibly crisp at the edges.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Col d'hivern cut after the first hard Pyrenean frost, its starches fully converted to sugar; home-rendered pork fat from a Cerdanya pig; thick-cut artisan panceta, dry-cured and unsmoked.
02
Estate — Cavolo nero or January King kale from a cold-climate farm, harvested after frost; good-quality lard from a butcher; panceta from a Spanish charcutier.
03
Market — Any winter kale (curly or Tuscan) from a market stall through November to February; supermarket lard; streaky smoked bacon as the topping.
04
House — Winter kale from a supermarket; cooking oil in place of pork fat — the flavour profile changes entirely, but the technique holds.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Touch. Kale and potato press apart with no resistance and feel waterlogged-soft; the drained mass holds a shape when squeezed but releases no drips.
◇Sight. The underside of the cake is a deep, even mahogany brown visible at the edges before the flip.
◇Touch. A spatula slides cleanly beneath the cake without tearing — the crust has set and detached from the pan surface.
◇Sound. A steady, low sizzle from the pan edge throughout frying; silence or steaming indicates too much moisture remains.
◇Where it lives or dies. The cake must not be moved during the first 10 to 12 minutes of frying — only stillness and time build the crust that defines trinxat.
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VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Lustau Los Arcos Dry Amontillado
Bodegas Lustau · Jerez DO
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Fortified wine
From British Columbia

Nothing from British Columbia holds against this yet.

Without alcohol

No pour without alcohol holds against this yet.

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The whole pairing
Pillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Lekker
Vancouver · floury potatoes
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