Following on from my recipe for the Mojo Verde which I used on the char-grilled pork loin from the other week..... that the finished dish up there, looks yummy eh? The sweet potato puree is really delicious. Honestly! That balance between the savouriness of the spices and the sweetness of the potato brings a lip-smacking umami taste and takes what can sometimes be a bit bland to another level... You will need a Spanish pincho spice mix or ras-al-hanout - a Morrocan spice mix - will do just as well, and should be available in the big supermarkets. For 4 2 large orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, cut into 2" thick slices a tablespoon of spice mix olive oil salt and pepper Put the oven on hot 220 degrees. In a bowl mix the spices with enough oil to make a loose paste, add a couple of good pinches of cracked black pepper and a level teaspoon of salt. Use all of it to coat the potato slices on their cut sides and place in a roasting tray or similar with sides, preferably so they don't touch. I don't mind smearing the paste on the potatoes with my hands but can do it with a spoon! The key here is the cooking of the sweet potatoes - they need to be browned/caramelised nicely but the spices must not be burned. If you are cooking in a metal tray you need to keep an eye on them every 10 mins or so, less important if you are using a ceramic dish, but still. The slices will need turning at least once. They are going to take as long as they take really, no less than 20mins though. When they are caramelised and the centres are cooked through (test with a knife if they are soft) remove and leave to cool. When cool enough to handle, cut or snip the skins open with scissors and scrape the flesh only into a processor. Blend until smooth and then dribble in some oil to make it lovely and silky and to a consistency you like. Check for seasoning and adjust. You make this in advance and reheat in the microwave stirring well to ensure it is all heated through, or in a pan on a low heat, being careful not to let it catch. You can add a little water if it starts to get a bit dry. You can cook the peppers for the recipe at the same time you have you oven on for the potatoes! Escabeche is basically preserving meat, fish or vegetables in a vinegar base. It's very well known and widely used in Spain, but not something you see a lot of in restaurants there. If you do, it would most likely be fish, and even then it would probably be out of a tin. Not that there is anything wrong with tinned Spanish produce - especially fish - it is some of the finest in the world! This pepper recipe will keep for several days in the fridge, but is more about making a dish to eat straight away. They went really well with the pork and balanced the sweetness of the potatoes out. But they can accompany cold meats, chicken, strong cheeses like manchego or used as part of a tapas line up. They are incredibly easy and quick to make too! You need 3 peppers olive oil from brushing and for the dressing sherry vinegar - if you can get get an aged one, even better as this gives even more depth of flavour salt and pepper optional mixed herbs - I used a freeze dried herb mix here Brush your peppers - I used a mixed bag as you can see - all over with olive oil and roast in a hot oven until lightly charred and cooked though. Allow to cool and open them, discarding the seeds. Sliced the flesh into thick strips, keeping the skin on as much as possible. While they are cooking make the dressing. In a small bowl, mix three tablespoons of a good olive oil with two good pinches of salt and then whisk in a little sherry vinegar at a time so that you can taste it but it doesn't catch your throat. As I said a good aged sherry vinegar is worthwhile getting, it gives a subtle nutty flavour. Some good grinds of pepper to finish and the herbs if you are using. You can put fresh herbs like parsley or chives in it, but they won't look too nice if you want to keep the peppers, as the vinegar will discolour them. Fine though if you want to eat the peppers right away! Just mix the pepper with the dressing carefully. Serve at room temperature for the full flavours to come out! Buen provecho!
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As I mentioned in my Bodegas Bentomiz post from April we found ourselves in Spain for Christmas for the first time in 2019. We like to push the boat out at Christmas as everyone does and have cooked many multi-course lunches for family and friends, at our place in France. One Christmas lunch – our first Spanish themed one – was 9 courses for 14 people. We are lucky enough not to be working in the winter, so have – and needed! - plenty of time, space and plates to cater for that. Our little Spanish house has *ahem* more limited equipment and space, in fact we didn’t even have enough wine glasses for six people. Our little fridge has a tiny freezer compartment which is normally home to massive Spanish ice cubes and little else. I dismissed these issues and ploughed on regardless, planning a seven-course lunch for ourselves and four closest friends in Spain. I wanted to as usual highlight Spanish produce and local specialities as much as possible and try some new techniques. Fast forward to the day itself. Sunny enough to have canapes of smoked salmon with goat’s curd and herbs with couple of bottles of Juve Camps Cava on the terrace. In fact, it was a bit too hot, but I was up and down to the kitchen in any case, so saved getting sunburned. Our lovely Norwegian neighbours had no idea what Christmas crackers were all about, but were happy to sport the obligatory paper crown and cringe at the terrible puns. I think they ‘won’ a compass keyring and a tiny tape measure as their prizes – lucky them! To start - A warm soup always seems a bit incongruous in Spain, but a squash and pecan soup seemed like a nod to wintery Christmases past. In any case, a soup is always a good start and Adrian’s was a smooth, velvety delight. Not too sweet either, accompanied as it was by more of that crisp, dry cava. The fish course - I had heard of Mojama and seen it in the shops but we had never bought any, not really having had an idea what to do with it. Also, I am a bit fussy with salty fish so probably pulled a face to be honest! But you have to try new things so I had determined to get it on the menu some way. Mojama - cured and air-dried tuna - is a speciality that has been around for hundreds of years. Originating from along the East coast of Spain near the border with Portugal the tuna is caught by funnelling them into nets, in a way that has changed little since it began. Researching recipes suggested using very thin shavings was the way to incorporate mojama into dishes, that it is very strong with an umami punch that I wanted to use to effectively ‘season’ a dish. We bought a smallish piece and I tried slicing it by hand but just couldn’t get it fine enough, so we invested in small electric slicer. No doubt it will come in handy for jamón and mojama in the near future. I wanted to keep it light, so settled on a salad. I mixed the freshness of shaved raw fennel with some soft fennel confit for contrast. The salty sourness of the fish was tamed by the sweetness of a black garlic vinaigrette and I added some texture and earthiness with Marcona almonds. It really worked as a dish and I would definitely make it again. The fish acted in the way a good sauce should – adding its own flavour, enhancing the other flavours but not overpowering them. I was impressed actually and I am very critical of my own food! You might remember that the Bentomiz post was about my search for a particular wine to go with this course. As I explained, I was unable to find it at Christmas, so I paired the salad with a Galician wine from Rias Baxas. Faustino Rivero Ulecia produce this 2018 from the Albarino grape. It had good sharp fruit, I got apples and white grapes, and the typically slightly briny note from wines of the area. Lacked a bit of punch and dryness for me, but was a good accompaniment to the salad. To be fair we had had quite a lot of sharp cava before this, so it was fine. Sorry I don’t have a photo of this. The meaty starter – Now, I had been ruminating on this one for a while, thinking about how to use Iberico pork in another way than just a lump of – admittedly delicious – meat on plate. Inspiration came in the form of iberico pork burgers from the local supermarket. No, I didn’t do burger and chips for a 2nd starter! You hardly ever see terrines on a menu these days and I think it is a real shame, but they seem out of fashion. I guess chefs don’t see a way to elevate a slab of terrine to new heights, but I think they are missing a trick. Firstly, if you use great ingredients you will likely get a great tasting terrine and what would be the argument against that? Second, they do look nice on a plate in my opinion. Thirdly, from a chef's perspective they are fairly easy to make and easy to portion control! So as it was Christmas dinner and I was doing ‘posh’, how was *I* going to elevate it? Well, there is that great main product, minced Iberico pork. Plenty of flavour from that deliciously fatty meat. I decided to add in pistachios to add some texture and colour, along with minced shallots, herbs, pimentón and a splash of Oloroso. To really go big on flavour I also added some chunky black truffle salsa. Combined with one egg my burgers were transformed into a juicy, umami rich and flavoursome terrine. And to take this up a notch further I tried something completely new. Salt cured egg yolks. What, you say? Why would you want to cure an egg yolk? Well I didn’t know I did, but now I want to find more things I can use them on! Curing them for just a few hours makes that umami yolkiness even more intense. I soft cured mine as I wanted to sauce the warm slice of terrine with it. I should have done them an hour or so less (they were in a 50/50 salt and sugar mix in the fridge for 9 hours) but most were just about right. As you can see from the photo, they looked like perfect, smooth round apricots, but the slightly chewy outside gave way to an unctuous centre. I served with some caper berries for some mad crunch and local white bread rolls that come slathered with olive oil and topped with sea salt. So good. This needed a red wine with some cojones but nothing too dry. We had a Faustino V, Rioja Reserva 2013. This did the job well, medium bodied Tempranillo (mostly) with plenty of red fruit, backed with tobacco and leather hints. This meant it was complex enough but did not distract from the pork or egg. A well-known brand but it fitted the bill for this course and was not expensive – though I can’t actually remember how much it was! We need a pause and something refreshing. What better than a granita? Previous parties have seen the rise and rise of my granitas.... I remember one NYE where a neighbour got more than a bit worse for wear and bad ice-cream head from having three glasses of my Bloody Mary granita. I should give a shout to my sister Lucie for the recipe for that, which has port and sherry in the mix and is hands down the best Bloody Mary going. When in Spain, what do you drink to perk yourself up? Gin Tonic of course! My ‘Larios con tonica’ granita took three days to freeze in our tiny ice box! I think I MAY have put a little too much gin in but, hey ho... Eventually it set enough to break up into delicious boozy crystals which we crunched and slurped through. The main event - As one of our guests is not good with hunks of meat, I went fish for the main course. A distinctly non-Spanish salmon, spinach and leeks ‘en croute’, mainly because I knew she would be able to eat and enjoy it. I sneaked a little Spanish influence in by the addition of saffron into my butter sauce. Accompanied by Pommes Anna, which are a favourite, their buttery crispiness is a winning combination and some roast asparagus. We asked our guests to bring some rosé to accompany the salmon. I only did a vague tasting note for one of the wines they brought, but it was miraculous that I did any at all by this stage to be honest! It was another Faustino V in actual fact from 2014, 100% Tempranillo and none the worse for that. A good weight for a rosé which I prefer with drinking with food. The only other things I noted were a light nose (not very descriptive!) and red fruits, the colour was really deep – again, hardly earth-shattering news for a rosé. Stomachs straining a little we agreed on a polite pause to swap Christmas gifts before attempting to squeeze dessert in. The kitchen wasn’t in too bad a state, considering – helped in part by us needing to wash plates between courses – so we could relax finally. Adrian had made the final course some days earlier – which was a good thing, as it took all that time to freeze. Turron is Spanish nougat that comes in many forms – chocolate, crunch, soft, with and without nuts. We used the soft creamy Jijona version, blended some and mixed small chunks into a semi-fredo. I pickled some blackberries to get some acidity to balance all that super-sweetness and a salted dark chocolate sauce also helped reign in the sugar. What could be more perfect to accompany this than a (small) glass of Pedro Ximenez Nectar from Gonzalez-Byass. The sweet sherry that is like liquid Christmas cake and a revelation for all of our guests. Pedro Ximenez or PX is a grape variety mostly grown on the Montilla-Moriles region and the grapes are left out to dry in the sun. This goes to producing a fortified sherry wine that is heady with raisins, slightly syrupy and downright delicious. We were very happy and so were our mates. We love entertaining and although both couples had been around on several occasions for a meal – we had never made so much effort for them before. Good food, super wine and great friends – it was like microcosm of the Spanish way of life itself! We yearn to make it our full-time home and really integrate into the local sunshine life. That way I can enjoy and share even more with our family, friends and you. The Menu
Smoked salmon toasts with goats curd and herbs Cava – Juve Camps Pumpkin & pecan soup Cava Mojama, shaved and confit fennel, Marcona almonds, black garlic vinaigrette Faustino Rivera Ulecia, Rias Baixas, Albarino 2018 Warm Iberico pork, truffle & pistachio terrine, soft salt cured egg yolk, caperberries Faustino V, Rioja Reserva 2013 Gin tonic granita Salmon, leek and spinach ‘en croute’, pommes Anna, roast asparagus, saffron butter sauce Faustino V, rosé Tempranillo 2014 Semifredo of Jijon turron with salted dark chocolate sauce and pickled blackberries Pedro Ximenez Nectar
This is the first of what I hope will be a series highlighting the best of Iberian produce. I will be focusing on one ingredient, product or brand, some well-known, others less famous and some hardly heard of! Hope you like this one and check back regularly for more. I aim to write one a week, but I may be getting ahead of myself there.
This time, I am spotlighting pimentón, the smoked paprika that lends so much flavour to so many Spanish recipes and products. It’s an absolute mainstay in our larder and really versatile for pepping up huge range of dishes.
Most people will have tried chorizo - the most famous sausage of Spain - but may not be aware that the main flavour comes from the inclusion of this smoky powder. It is one of the most used spices in Spanish cookery and is right up there with saffron as an evocation of important periods of Spanish history. Peppers were introduced to Spain from the New World, but it wasn’t until the 17th century that use of their smoked and ground product became widespread in the cuisine.
The best quality comes from the area of La Vera in Extremadura, its geography making it the perfect place to grow the peppers required. A ‘DOP’ certification shows how highly prized the product is and even the amount of oak required to smoke the peppers is regulated. I am a bit of a bugger for chucking pimentón into all sorts of things! It just gives everything that little Spanish kick. Just in the last week - I used it in a marinade, mixed it into spuds to roast them in and sprinkled over a quick salad. Personally, I refer the ‘dulce’ (sweet) version rather than the ‘picante’ for most things, as it’s the smokiness rather the heat that interests me most. The amount of spiciness is merely down to the heat of the pepper grown, but there is ‘agrodulce’ bitter or sour/sweet version which is also worth having in your cupboard! The colour it gives to everything is mouthwatering too.
Any trip to a Spanish food shop will give you an idea of the amount and variety of produce that is infused with this powder. Undoubtedly you will come across many varieties of chorizo, spicy and not, sliced for eating, stubby and fatty for cooking. Then there is the lean ‘lomo embuchado’ - pork loin cured and dried for two months after being rubbed with pimentón and garlic. As with any Spanish pork product, the most flavourful and highest quality will be made with Iberico pork, but I better not start on that or I will get waylaid! There are an array of cheeses rind washed or coated with it too and I especially like a semi-cured 'cabra' goats cheese flavoured this way.
Some of my favourite things to pop pimentón in -
Tortilla. Yes I know any Spaniard would berate me for this (probably after berating for including onions!) but it adds a subtle depth to what is – let's face it – quite a bland dish, especially if it is be eaten as a main course. Marinades for meat. Mixed it in olive oil with garlic and maybe other spices like cumin, or herbs like thyme or oregano. This makes a super tasty marinade for just about any meat, perfect for cooking on the barbeque or a griddle pan. It will give a lovely smoky taste. In this potato dish from BBC good food, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spanish-potatoes which is becoming one of our favourite potato dishes. It kind of evokes patatas bravas, kind of, but is honestly delicious and really easy. Give it a try! Sprinkled on a salad – especially a mayonnaise based one. Last week I did a quick salad of artichokes from a tin with tiny dice of preserved lemon, olive oil and a dusting of ‘agrodulce’. Perfecto. Keep your pimenton – usually in a cute tin – in a cupboard and out of sunlight. You can find the brand that I prefer ‘La Chinata’ on Amazon by clicking the image link below. |
AuthorAlex Gonnord-Luty, chef, aspiring good blog writer, Hispanophile, lives currently in France & Spain. Archives
September 2020
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