Brasa, cocinar a la

Cooking over the embers of a wood fire. This technique is used extensively in Spanish cooking, especially in the north and in Catalonia. Although it looks easy, cooking a la brasa is quite difficult. It is essential to do it over a good, long-burned wood fire. Once the fire has been lit, you have to wait until the wood has burnt to charcoal, which can take quite a long time, and all the flames have died down. Then you put a metal grill over the fire and burn off any bits left on it from the last time you used it, before grilling the meat, vegetables or fish - always separately from each other. If anything catches light, you can either remove it from the grill or raise the grill.