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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First in what will be a series of recipes where I hope to inspire you and also - frankly - keep you coming back for more! Sometimes the simplest things are the best and what could be simpler than Mojo Verde? It literally translates as 'green sauce' which is nothing if not descriptive! Mojo's are common all over the Spanish speaking world and Mojo Verde and Rojo (red) are both thought to have originated from the Canary Islands. My take on it is a mash up - or perhaps more literally a whizz up - of single herb versions from the canaries. It shares basic elements of a lot of similar sauces - pesto and it French equivalent pistou - garlic, olive oil and herbs. After that they go their own ways really. Mojo that I make in Spain uses a long sweet green pepper - now if you can get hold of one then also chuck that in the mix. Here in France I rarely see them so just omit pepper altogether. Don't be tempted to use an ordinary green bell pepper - they are horribly sour and bitter and will completely spoil your sauce! Take it from me.... What I like best about the simplicity of Mojo is that it makes it really versatile. When I make a batch, it gets used as a marinade, accompanying sauce to white fish, chicken or pork, salad dressing and more. It keeps well in the fridge and is just waiting there to jazz up all sorts of things, with it's fresh zesty taste. Mashed potatoes with olive oil and mojo verde - yes please! All you need is a bunch of basil, one of flat leaf parsley, one of coriander (omit and double up on the others if you don't like it), couple of fat peeled garlic cloves, lemon juice and olive oil (and deseeded and chopped sweet pepper, if you are using). Don't use tougher herbs like rosemary or thyme - they won't blend and are too strong in any case. You can add in chives or chervil - leafy herbs are OK - but the base I find is best with basil and flat parsley. So chuck everything but the oil & lemon juice into a processor. You can put all but the toughest herb stalks in too - it's all flavour. Whizz until everything is chopped finely (finer than in the foto!) scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. Add in the juice of half a lemon, then whizz and dribble in the olive oil until you get a consistency thinner than pesto. I prefer to use mainly a light tasting olive pomace oil and a bit of extra virgin Arbequino to finish it off. Using all extra virgin will likely overpower everything else and give a bitter aftertaste. It make look quite oily or wet but that's fine.. Season with salt and pepper, I prefer to over-salt a little. So this is the finished product! I am using it here to marinade a pork loin, which has been trimmed and is ready to go. As the mojo has salt in it you won't want to marinade the pork for longer than a coupe of hours. This is because the salt will draw out the moisture and in a super-lean cut like this, you need to keep that moisture in. So I smooshed a good blob of the mojo over the loin, making sure it was all covered, then cling filmed it and popped into the fridge until I was ready to cook. Here it is looking splendid! I served the pork with two side dishes that I will be giving you the recipes for over the next week. One is a new invention using a very old spice mix and the other is a traditional method for preserving. So stay tuned for how to make Moorish spiced sweet potato mash and peppers escabeche. Ideally you would want to barbecue the pork or cook it over a wood fire. I sealed it on a char grill pan on all sides and finished cooking it in a medium hot oven. This piece fed two big lads and I guess was about 400grams maybe a big bigger. That took 12 mins in the oven but you need to adjust as it entirely depends on the thickness and size of the loin. If I was doing this with Iberico pork I would cook it pink but otherwise you need to roast it until it is just done, you don't want it to go dry. Also it will continue to cook as it rests. When the meat hits the hot the pan, such a wonderful aroma comes up from the herbs and garlic - yum! Rest for 10mins out of the pan but under foil to keep it hot. I sliced across the grain into 6 nice little steaks, and served with the peppers, sweet potato puree and extra mojo verde. Also popped a bit of the delicious marinading juice from the peppers on there too - why not! Here is the final result and I have to say it really was delicious. The pork juicy, tender and flavoursome with that slightly charred mojo on the outside. The sweet potato was literally Moorish and moreish, and the pepper brought a slight vinegar bite to take down their sweetness. Buen provecho. I hope you have a try of at least the mojo and don't forget the other side dish recipes coming soon.....
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter please could you retweet or share and help spread the word about Spain On A Plate? Thank you! You can comment below about this recipe, or ask me anything or even request a recipe. Alex 'This is a deliciously fresh Thai inspired salad. Perfect for summer, crispy and crunchy. It;s really adaptable too, you miss out things you don't like and add in things you do. Everything tastes great with the dressing on it. There are actually three variations here. You can use Chinese leaf, rice or noodles to vary the texture and heaviness of the dish. Using rice or noodles will obviously fill you up more. You can use sweet mango, or a green under ripe one. If you can find them! Using the latter will give you more of a Thai taste experience. The same applies to papaya. Do take time cutting the veg up nicely it will make it much more appetising! Serves 4 INGREDIENTS FOR THE BASIC SALAD I large mango or 2 small ones thinly sliced 1 small papaya thinly sliced 1 small Chinese leaf, thinly sliced 1 red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced Small bag of fresh beansprouts 2 spring onions, thinly sliced 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped Some chopped fresh coriander Some chopped fresh mint Some chopped fresh Thai basil In total you need around 60g of fresh herbs. Add more if you want a punchier salad Grated zest of 1 lemon and the juice, or a lime 1 tbsp Mirin (If you don’t have it, let a tbsp liquid honey down in a little water) 60g roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped 50g flaked coconut (desiccated is too fine) 2 tbsp crispy onions or shallots METHOD Put all the fruit, vegetables and herbs in a large bowl and mix gently. Grate the zest of the lemon over the salad and squeeze over the juice. Drizzle over the Mirin, or diluted honey and mix everything again. Toast the flaked coconut in a dry pan until lightly browned. Scatter over the salad with the chopped peanuts. Serve and enjoy! If anybody has an allergy to peanuts, serve them on the side in a small bowl, or ramekin. You could do the same with the crispy onions or shallots. They contain gluten as they’re dredge with flour before frying. The 60g figure is just a guide. You can put out more if you want. We also serve peeled hard boiled eggs on the side to add a protein element to the meal. VARIATIONS Soak 250g of rice noodles in cold water until soft. Or follow the directions to soften them. Make sure they’re cold, then drain very well and add to the salad before mixing. Omit the Chinese leaf. RICE SALAD Put 100g of basmati, or jasmine rice in a pan with 1 tsp butter or oil and a couple of stems of Thai basil. Put 150g Camargue red rice in another pan and cook separately. If you cook both rice together, you won’t get separate coloured grains. You could use a wild rice mix, which already has various grains incorporated ready to cook together. Spread the rice on a tray to cool. Mix everything together once the rice has cooled. Omit the Chinese leaf.
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. I thought I would share a Spanish recipe from my cookbook - A Taste of Les Passeroses - The Cookbook 'Recipes from a retreat kitchen' which you can browse or BUY HERE
The ever popular Tortilla or Spanish potato omelette, so well known and loved when you get a tapas on your hols. But what about when you are back home? In my opinion it should be staple dish especially for vegetarians - because it is really easy and only has three ingredients, all of which you are bound to have around all the time. If I were being super strict and traditional about it there would be no onions, but I am not and they do bring a deeper flavour if you having it as a main dish not a tapa. Also controversially, I include pimenton - Spanish smoked paprika - in it, just to perk it up and give a bit of oomph. Not hot oomph, just flavour oomph. So this recipe is really adaptable as you can really bung in what you like or what is available as well. EG chorizo, feta and herbs, Manchego cheese - any cheese really, cooked mushrooms, spinach... well you get the idea! So for a lunch or dinner/supper (delete as appropriate!) that is filling, tasty, cheap and simple, I don't think it can be beaten, Plus of course it will remind you of sunshine, Spanish bars and holidays so what's not to like? Beun provecho! Serves 4ish 4 large waxy potatoes olive oil 2 Spanish onions 8 to 10 large free range or organic eggs salt, pepper teaspoon of pimenton dulce (Spanish smoked paprika) - optional Peel the potatoes and slice to 2mm on a mandolin or carefully by hand. Season well and either - Cook them very slowly in a large non stick frying pan with a lid on turning often, but trying not to break them. Use plenty of olive oil. OR pop into a microwaveable bowl mixing with olive oil with your hands to coat each slice as much as possible. Cover and cook on full power for 10 minutes. Mix again and keep cooking until they are just cooked through. Meanwhile, halve and thinly slice the onions and fry on a medium heat in olive oil until they are soft but not coloured. Add in the pimenton if using and cook for another minute, remove from heat. In a bowl break and fork or whisk the eggs until combined, season. Mix the onions into the potatoes then the eggs into that mix while everything is hot. Heat a deep frying pan (the one you have already used will be fine if it is big enough) and pop the mix in, shaking the pan to get rid of any air pockets. Cook gently with a lid on. This will take several minutes but you don't want to burn the bottom, so you should finish under a hot grill to cook the top, again being careful not to burn, or cook in a medium oven if your pan is suitable. Press firmly to see if it is cooked through - if it squishy at all, cook a litlle longer. You can test with a knife, but it is not always reliable! Allow to cool slightly in the pan before upending onto a serving plate. Serve simply with leaf salad or maybe the Artichoke, preserved lemon and Almond salad from the book! We love to have a very garlicky aioli alongside, it really goes well! From the sea, from the tree, from the ground. I am not sure that any other dish captures the essence of the southern Mediterranean coast quite as well as this salad originating from the Malaga region. My favourite non-food smell in Spain emanates from orange blossom, the heady aroma of which pervades the air in every village in the south in early Spring, carried on the rising heat which builds during the day. On the face of it, this mixture shouldn't even really work as a dish - fish and fruit? Well personally I am not a great fan of it! However, something magic happens with this super simple salad. It's easy to make, but do take the time to prepare each element properly - especially the fish! - and present it nicely! The acidity and sweetness of the orange cuts through the saltiness of the fish and olives, the olive oil brings it altogether with it's complementary fruitiness, the parsley adds an earthy note and the potatoes bulk it out and - more importantly - take on all the flavours and juices! I will be writing a piece on olive oil soon-ish and when I do I will link it HERE. For any salad recipe I recommend one of two varieties of Spanish extra virgin. Arbequino for its smooth, fruit first taste and smell or the green tinged Picual which has a lovely peppery finish. Any oil with an overly acidic aftertaste will ruin this salad! Taste before you use - or even better taste before you buy, if you can! THE RECIPE
This will feed 4 as a lovely fresh stater or two as a main dish. 400grms of the best salted cod or white fish you can find. 8 medium potatoes, new or salad potatoes are the best - eg Ratte, Yukon Gold, red skinned, Maris Peer 2 large oranges 1 cup full of good black olives, I prefer stoned ones for a salad just for the eating Arbequino or Picual olive oil if possible, or the best rounded tasting one you can get 1 small bunch of flat leafed parsley, roughly chopped Salt and fresh ground black pepper This salad needs a 3 day head start - yep 3 days! The salt cod needs soaking in cold water 5cm above its top, and that water needs changing 2 to 3 times each day for 3 days. This makes the cod finally edible! On the day you want to eat - boil the potatoes until just done and allow to cool, or if in a rush cool under cold water. While they are cooking, bring some water to a simmer in a pan large enough for the fish to sit in one layer and be covered by the water. Skin the fish carefully, be aware of where the bones are, but they are less fuss to remove after cooking. Pop it into the simmering water and cook until it is just done, do not let the water boil. It's impossible to tell you how long, as it will depend entirely on the thickness of the fish! It needs to flake when pressed. Remove from the water, allowing to drain and cool, removing any bones when it has. Remove the skin the cooled potatoes and slice into rounds about 5mm thick. Arrange these to cover the bottom of a large plate with a decent lip or shallow bowl with a flat bottom. Drizzle generously with olive oil and season lightly with salt and well with pepper. Next flake the fish over the potatoes as evenly as possible. Drizzle with olive oil and a little pepper - no salt, Then peel your oranges and carefully remove the segments, scattering them across the fish, more oil, a little pepper and little squeeze of the juice. Finish with the olives and the parsley. A further good smattering of oil across the top just as you serve is necessary, honestly. Don't refrigerate before eating, it needs to be eaten at room temp. Enjoy with crusty bread to help mop up that delicious oily dressing! |
AuthorAlex Gonnord-Luty, chef, aspiring good blog writer, Hispanophile, lives currently in France & Spain. Archives
September 2020
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