I found this tapas book on my shelf so we picked a few recipes for a cold rainy Sunday. The saffron meatballs I had made before, but the cauliflower salad was new.
Cauliflower salad; the cauliflower is blanched and cooled. Dressing is evoo, red wine vinegar, capers, smoked paprika, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper. The cauliflower is marinated in the dressing and chilled. Serve topped with minced hard boiled eggs and parsley. I really liked this, but DH was not a big fan of the cold cauliflower.
Tiny meatballs in saffron sauce. Veal, pork, soaked bread, an egg, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper for the meatballs. The sauce is minced sauteed, onion, smoked paprika, chicken stock, and white wine. After browning the meatballs, they are simmered in the sauce and finished with some parsley, garlic, and saffron.
My favorite recipe in that book, a real show stopper, is the sausages with sweet and sour figs. If someone doesn’t beat me too it, I’ll try to cook it at the first sign of good figs.
Some others I would recommend based on past success:
small squid in beer sauce
blue cheese creamed with brandy
blue cheese tapenade
Soft ripened cheese and anchovy toasts
cheese fried with shallot dressing
manchego cheese with quince paste
mushrooms stuffed with pork & pine nuts
Mr. H - this is the way i learned to eat pan con tomate en Barcelona when we lived there in 1979! pan con tomate, pan amb tomàquet - sounds like they’re all the same, and i love them all. it is my absolute favorite tapa - it’s simplicity is genius.
I’m so very happy Spanish won, even though it wasn’t my first pick! i lurrrrrrve Spanish food so much. Will commence soon - have a 5 day vacation planned with no cooking, just eating (Mexico City!!) but when i get back i’ll be dying to get back into the kitchen again.
PAELLA ( cooked on 12 inch tin lined paella pan by sertodo alicante for 2 people using my range for cooking, 18 inch pata negra from garcima using my infra red grill and 36 inch pata negra garcima pan using 39 inch fire pit
if portuguese counts, i like to cook CATAPLANA using my tin lined cataplana pot s) i have a 36 cm , 33 cm for company , and a couple 27 cm ones .( Long story, how I ended up being so many
Onions stuffed w/parsley and migas. Good but I should have carved more out of the onions, there was plenty of stuffing left (ate it w/goat cheese & leftover asparagus the next day).
Swiss chard stew with pimenton. Really good.
Both simple and delicious. Served w/gruyere omelete & grilled asparagus.
I made a shrimp and chicken paella from the book Paella by Alberto Herraiz. Everything was made from scratch, including the shrimp shells stock. I didn’t include the squids that were originally in the recipe. The tomato sofrito, smoked pripika and the safran gives a nice touch to the dish.
Husband wasn’t hot about this dish since, according to his family recipe that paella should have chorizo and much more other seafood. (H’s grandmother is spanish, lived most her life with a French and outside Spain.) I told him that an authentic paella shouldn’t have chorizo and we had a hot discussion.
I love paella. Yesterday, I wrote about paella, using my different pans but I just could not download or upload pictures . WANDER IF THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS SOMEWHERE?
I do use chorizo in my sofrito, with tomatoes, onions, processed in the food processor ( UPSET, MY RIVETED BLADE STILL H AS NOT ARRIVED SINCE I REGISTERED DEC. 18) garlic, different chopped sweet peppers. I like to shell most of the the shrimp, roast the shrimp in the oven, then use it together with other things to make stock as the ratio of liquid to rice is 3:1 using bomba rice. Also love a pinch of saffron ( usually I roast it in foil for a few minutes, then add it to a couple cup of broth together with smoked paprika for the initial broth to moisten the rice. Of course, for dressing, I place some shrimp with shells and head as I love sucking the juice from the head but most guest , even my son thinks it is gross! I do prefer just seafood, ( shrimp, mussels, clams and squid, the shrimp cooked partially with anchovy , lots of garlic and chipotle and adobo sauce , the rest of the seafood incorporated, are steamed in my cataplana with white wine and herbs, all added just before the rice is cooked.
I just watched the new Bourdain Parts Unknown episode on the Basque region, and fell in love with San Sebastian. I’m going to see if my book store has this while I’m out at lunch today! Thanks. And I’m moving Spain up to the top of the travel list.
San Sebastian was a ton of fun - beach during the day and then wander the old town at night eating in all the little bars. I wasn’t able to do the big starred restaurants while I was there (long story) but wish I could have just to get an idea of the culinary distance between the two experiences.
work has been so crazy that I’m hardly home since these theme started. I need to make something Spanish . . . . .
Everything sounds so sexy in Spanish: Pechuga de pollo a la naranja. Chicken breast with orange (from Costa Blanca). Recipe from my book “Culinaria Spain”.
I used mineola, which is a cross between orange and mandarin. I prefer mineola as it is sweeter and smaller, not to mention easy to peel.
How it’s made:
Fry seasoned breast on both side until golden. Remove from frying pan.
Brown finely chopped onion and carrot in the same pan.
Add the juices of oranges and lime, and half a cup of white wine. Season to your liking. Reduce gently.
Put chicken breast back in and simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked
Served garnished with orange slices and parsley.
I only have chives and I did add a slug of Grand Marnier to the sauce. Recipe says to puree the sauce and its contents but I would rather use it to moisten the rice and give it a taste. Worked out great. We loved it. Must cook with citrus fruits more often.
I don’t particularly like plain rice but like it a lot if there’s something in it to make it interesting and delicious. This one is delicious mixed with the sauce used to cook the chicken in.
Spain, together with Portugal, are on the top of my list for Europe.
Japan, however, holds the top spot worldwide.
Hope we are going to cook Portuguese in the future. Make no mistake, Spanish and Portuguese cuisines are not the same. As are the languages and the people. Both are proud and nationalistic for sure. Both were once powerful nations whose massive culinary contributions and influences are in the world’s many cuisines we enjoy so much today.
this is paella cooked with my 36 or 39 inch pata negra using my 39 inch 'EMPEROR FIREPIT"
Despite the fact that the handles of the pan sits snugly on the rim of the fire pit, there was no space to change the wood. Garcia’s tripod would not work bec there is a slight cure on the fire pit. So, we custom made a triangular SS piece that sits on the rim of the fire pit, lifting the pot 3 inches off in order to access the fire.
Thanks naf. I will try again and send more pictures.
I have no time for gardening food, just had some herbs. Most of the garden is a sculpture garden with trees, shrubs, etc.
here is a favorite of mine, very simple dish of fish fillet ( i used rockfish), poached in white wine, broccoli, mushroom sauteed in olive oil and butter and melted gruyere cheese served with rice.
They were cooked in the cataplana for 15 min
for outdoor, I use the garcima pata negra( polished steel, double thickness) paella pan. I have the 18 inch and the 36 inch ones. The smaller ones are not expensive in the US but if if you want a big one likes the 36 inch, it is $325.00 from paella pan.com. My son ordered it from Spain, had it sent home as a Christmas gift, express , altogether under $200 I believe.
I also have a small 12 inch tin lined copper sertodo alicante for 2 people. I think it is a bit difficult to use as one h as to be very careful with removing the crust for fear of damaging the tin.
naf, hopefully here is the paella cooked on the 12 inch sertodo alicante
next time, I will use less rice so it will not take that long to obtain a good
soccorat. Always errr in using more rice for left overs.
