Simple Spanish Food

Grating Tomatoes (tomate rallado): a Basic Spanish Technique

Grated tomato (tomate rallado) is used in many different Spanish dishes.  In Andalusia it is smeared on toast and drizzled with fruity olive oil for breakfast. In Valencia grated tomato is a main ingredient in sofrito, which is used to make, among other things, paella. You can use grated tomato in pisto, an old fashioned gazpacho (the texture is quite different than when made in the blender), or as a base for tuna in tomato sauce (bonito y tomate). In fact  you can substitute fresh grated tomatoes just about anywhere you would use canned tomatoes.  It's a great alternative for people on low-salt diets, since tinned tomatoes usually have a lot of sodium.

If you've never grated a tomato before, you'll probably be surprised by how easy and quick it is.  Just rub the tomato against a grater over a bowl.

The flesh, juice and seeds go into the bowl, but most of the peel stays in your hand. When you've finished grating, discard the peel or use it for making stock. 

Grated tomato is not quite as refined as tomatoes run through a food mill, but it is quite different too from tomatoes finely chopped.  

I will be honest: for a long time whenever a recipe called for "tomate rallado" I just chopped the tomatoes instead.  When on a whim I tried grating tomatoes, I realized it really does make a difference in flavor and texture, and just makes Spanish dishes more Spanish. And it really isn't any more difficult or time consuming than chopping. 

 

An Easy Romesco for Fish and Shellfish

In my earlier post on Salsa Romesco I gave a recipe for a thick and flavorful romesco ideal for spreading on toast, much the way you would hummus. Today I'll write about a more delicate and lighter bodied romesco that would be more appropriate for fish and shellfish.  I got the idea for this quick and easy romesco from Jacques Pépin's Fast Food My Way, (and if I remember the episode well, he got the idea from Rick Bayless).

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of almonds

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 small onion, sliced

several small tomatoes or one big one, cut into wedges

4 guajillo type dried peppers (or substitute other mild dry peppers), stems and seeds removed

1/4 cup virgin olive oil

a dash of vinegar

salt

Fish or shellfish of your choice

 

First dry roast the peppers and almonds in a hot skillet for a few minutes. Stir and turn them to make sure they don't scorch.

Add the tomatoes, onion, and garlic and pan roast a few more minutes.

Add water and salt. Bring it to a simmer.

Simmer for ten minutes or so. The peppers should soften. Pour the mixture into a blender. Pulse until it forms a smooth sauce. Blend in the oil and a splash of vinegar. Taste, and add more salt if necessary.

You can serve this sauce with nearly any type of seafood--grilled shrimp, pan grilled swordfish, whatever you like. We had it with pan-seared cod fillets.

Esperanza's Escabeche

This escabeche is tangy, spicy, and even slightly smoky, as it contains pimentón picante de La Vera. It's a great way to turn leftover fish into something special.  When I see good fresh fish on sale (see my last post about the Spanish way to select fish) I will often buy a little extra just so I can make this escabeche.  It keeps in the refrigerator for several days, and, unusually for fish, the flavor will only improve.  

Esperanza, my mother-in-law, uses mainly "blue" fish for this escabeche, such as mackerel or sardines. But you can use any fish you like, including freshwater fish, also traditionally used in escabeche.   Even catfish would work. For this post I used trout.

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients:

a pound (or so) of fried or sauteed fish (leftover from dinner is perfect)

6 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 teaspoon  pimentón picante de La Vera (please see my post on pimentón de La Vera).

1 bay leaf

3  tablespoons of vinegar

Kosher salt to taste

Saute the garlic and bay leaf in one tablespoon of the oil. Remove the pan from the heat before the garlic takes on color. Wait for the oil to cool slightly. Add the pimentón. Stir. Add the rest of the oil and vinegar. Add salt to taste. (Keep in mind the fish may already have salt.) 

Place the fish in a non-reactive container.   Pour the sauce over it. Cover. Let the fish marinade in the fridge for 1-2 days, spooning the marinade over the fish now and then.

Serve at room temperature.

Escabeche is great with bread and a salad.  For this post we had it with a veggie paella

 

Salsa Romesco: a sauce, a spread, a dip

Romesco sauce is really popular these days. In July the New York Times published an article  The Allure of Romesco Spreads Far Beyond Spain.  Last year they did another piece on the traditional Catalan pairing,  Grilled Leeks and Romesco. I see fish served with romesco sauce in restaurants even here in Central Florida.

Romesco sauces vary greatly. One romesco can be so different from another that it's suprising that they all go by the same name.   The recipe that follows, which I have adapted from the Spanish recipes website Directo Paladar, is for a rich, full-flavored and thick romesco--really more a dip or spread than a sauce.

I would not serve this particular romesco with fish: it would be overpowering.  (I will post about a milder romesco for fish in the future.) This romesco would be great as a dip for raw vegetables--a pleasant change from hummus--or especially as a spread for toast.

The flavor of this romesco is almost like a tangy cheese dip--though it has no cheese in it. This is yet another tapa that is suitable for vegetarians, vegans, and people (like me) on a low cholesterol diet. Make no mistake, it's rich, but with good fat from olive oil and almonds.

Here's the recipe:

7 or 8 small tomatoes, or 3 medium sized

1 head of garlic

3/4 cup of almonds

3 ñora peppers, or a mild dried Mexican chile pepper or two (guajillo, pasilla, chili California. etc).

one slice of good bread

1 1/4 cup of virgin olive oil

1/2 cup of wine vinegar

a pinch of pimentón de La Vera

salt to taste

fresh mint leaves

First, soak the  ñoras or other dried peppers for an hour or two in hot water. They should become soft and slightly larger.

Here are  ñoras before soaking.

 

Here they are after:

Remove the seeds and stems from the peppers.

Next, lightly toast the almonds and bread in a little olive oil.  See my post on toasted nuts. 

Slice a small X across the bottom of each tomato. Place the tomatoes and the garlic cloves in a pan and roast them in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

When the tomatoes and garlic are cool, peel them. (This is easy now that they're roasted).

Now put everything--toasted almonds, bread, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic--in a blender or food processor. Add the olive oil, vinegar, pimentón, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  Blend it all to a smooth, thick paste.   (If it's too thick, add a little water to thin it). Taste it. Add more salt or pimentón if you like. Serve it with whole mint leaves or chopped mint.

 

 

 

 

A Simple Spanish Tomato Sauce, salsa de tomate

Today I'm posting a simple recipe for a good tomato sauce which you can use with all sorts of Spanish dishes--eggs cooked in tomato sauce, huevos en tomate; or Flemish eggs, huevos a la flamenca (including a vegetarian version); salt cod in tomato sauce, bacalao en tomate (pictured above), or simply tossed with pasta, which is just as much an Italian-Spanish dish as it is an Italian-American one.  There are endless uses for tomato sauce in Spanish cooking.

The best tomato sauces are made with vine-ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden,  but these days I rarely bother growing tomatoes (seems like we're always away just when they're ripening) so I use canned tomatoes, which make a very good sauce--if you start with the right can.  We always buy whole peeled "roma-style" tomatoes.  They don't have to be Italian San Marzano tomatoes, which are quite expensive, but they do need to be the plum-type, and they need to be whole. Avoid the pre-diced canned tomatoes, and especially those flavored with "roasted garlic" and such things. These are always of inferior quality.

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients 

1 large onion, chopped fine

2-3 garlic cloves (or more) chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

additional extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon of red hot pepper flakes (I use a cayenne-type, which I buy whole at a Mexican grocery and grind at the last minute)

a handful of chopped parsley

1 28-ounce can of whole peeled roma-style tomatoes

I rarely add salt as the canned tomatoes already have it

Heat up a 1/4 cup of olive oil in a heavy pan. Add the chopped onion.  Saute, stirring occasionally, until it is soft, translucent, reduced, and even slightly caramelized. Add the garlic and hot pepper. Stir. Add the tomatoes. Bring them to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium. Let the tomatoes  simmer. Break them up with the edge of a spoon as they soften. 

Simmer the sauce for 25-30 minutes.  Add the parsley, stir. Let the sauce simmer a few minutes more.   At the last minute, stir in a dash of extra virgin olive oil, and it's ready.

 

 

Canary Islands Green Sauce (mojo verde)

Canary Islands style green sauce, mojo verde,  is traditionally served with fish and potatoes.  Penelope Casas suggests using it as a dip for grilled shrimp in  Paella! Spectacular Rice Dishes from Spain. Janet Mendel, whose recipe I have used as a base for this one, serves mojo verde with "wrinkled potatoes" and sea bass.  You can find her original recipe in her excellent book  My Kitchen in Spain. Ms. Mendel also has a great Spanish food blog called My Kitchen in Spain.

This green sauce could be used in many other ways too--much the way pesto is.  You could mix it with grilled vegetables or chickpeas , or dip bread in it.  This sauce closely resembles chimichurri--or at least the version of it we enjoy in Spain, where Argentinian food is popular--and it would go very well with grilled meats. For this post we had it with boiled new potatoes as a side dish.

Here's how to do it 

Ingredients

3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground hot red pepper, such as cayenne, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

a handful of flat-leaf parsley, coarse stems removed

a bunch of cilantro, coarse stems removed

4 tablespoons of olive oil

3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 cup of water

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend it into a sauce. Taste it, adjust the seasonings, and serve.

 

A Latin American Twist on Tapas: Fried Green Plantains with Spicy Pimentón Sauce (plátanos machos con salsa brava)

Fried green plantains with a spicy pimentón dipping sauce is a fusion tapa I came up with simply because here in Central  Florida it is sometimes difficult to find really good potatoes, but usually easy to find quality plantains, thanks to Latin American grocery stores.   Green plantains are much easier to fry than potatoes. So long as the plantains are totally green (unripe) they always come out crisp. If you've never had plantains before, be aware that in their green stage the banana-taste is mild.  (Their taste becomes sweeter and more banana-like as they ripen). Crisp fried green plantains go very well with salsa brava.

Here's how to do it.

First prepare the salsa brava as I describe in my post on patatas bravas. If you've made the sauce ahead of time, heat it up before preparing the plantains.

To prepare green plantains, just peel them (cutting off the ends and slitting the skin longways in several places is the easiest way), slice them thin on the diagonal, making "chips." Fry them for 3-4 minutes in 2-3 inches of hot oil. Drain the plantain chips on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. You can spoon the salsa brava over them or serve it as a dipping sauce on the side. Serve immediately.

 

A Simple Tapa Recipe for Fries with Spicy Pimentón Sauce (patatas bravas)

Patatas bravas is basically a tapa of potatoes fried (or sometimes roasted) in olive oil and drizzled with a spicy tomato sauce. Patatas bravas are served as tapas all over Spain, in many different styles, from simple to luxurious.

Here's a picture of a tapa of patatas bravas from a wonderful little neighborhood bar in Madrid called Bar Luman.

The sauce of Luman's patatas bravas is simple:  sharp, sweet-sour and quite spicy. We have them with little glasses of cold lager, cañas.

At the other extreme are the patatas bravas served at the chic Madrid tapas bar  Estado Puro, whose chef, Paco Roncero, is a disciple of Ferrán Adriá, of the famous restaurant El Bulli. 

As you see, these patatas bravas are a completely different dish. The potatoes are cooked whole, the skins left on, and the sauce is deeply flavored, reduced, rich, and complex. I don't know Roncero's recipe--probably a secret--but fancy salsa brava often contains  meat broth, cognac, and sherry vinegar.

Today I'll write about simple patatas bravas more in the style of a Spanish neighborhood bar. 

Ingredients

for the fries:

Idaho or russet potatoes

olive oil

kosher salt

for the sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 28-ounce can of whole peeled roma-style tomatoes

2 teaspoons of pimentón picante de La Vera (see my post on pimentón for more information)

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (I use freshly ground cayenne), or to taste

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Here's how to do it:

First make the sauce. Heat the  olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the garlic. Don't let it brown.   Remove the pot from the heat and let the oil cool a little. Add the pimentón and hot pepper flakes. Stir. Add the tomatoes. Return the pan to the heat. Bring the tomatoes to a simmer. Break up the tomatoes with the edge of a wooden spoon as they cook.  When the sauce is reduced, the oil rising to the top--this takes 20-30 minutes--add the vinegar. Pulse the sauce in a blender until it's smooth.

You can make the sauce ahead of time. It keeps in the fridge a few days. Just heat it up before spooning it over the potatoes.

To cook the potatoes:

Peel and slice the potatoes in any shape you like (wedges, steak fries, etc.). Sprinkle them with kosher salt. Toss them well so that they're evenly salted.  When it comes to cooking them, you have a choice. You can fry them, as I describe in my post on French fries the Spanish way. Or you can toss the potatoes with olive oil, spread them out on a baking sheet, and roast them in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or so (depending on how you've cut the potatoes).

When the potatoes are done, put them on a platter, or individual tapas plates, and spoon the salsa brava over them. These are great with an ice cold lager or even an iced vermouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Easy Recipe for Spanish Mayonnaise

Many Spanish tapas and meals are accompanied by mayonnaise. These include boiled langostinos (or shrimp) with mayonnaise, ensaladilla rusa (Russian salad),  and albacore with mayonnaise, to name a few.  I will write about all of these in future posts, and all of them will be infinitely better with a homemade, Spanish-style mayonnaise. It takes only a few minutes to whip up in a food processor, and not much longer if you whisk it by hand.

Mayonnaise has a reputation of being bad for you.  But this mayonnaise is nothing but olive oil, lemon juice, and  an egg yolk--essentially an emulsified vinaigrette.

It it important to make this mayonnaise with a good, fresh egg.  Buy a reliable brand from a reliable source. Check the sell-by date.  Look over the shell carefully to make sure there are no hairline cracks.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 egg

1 cup of mild-flavored olive oil (a strong tasting oil doesn't make a good mayo). 

1/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt

1 lemon

Separate the egg yolk from the white. Reserve the white for another dish.

Put the yolk, about a tablespoon of lemon juice, and the salt in a food processor. Start the motor. Add the olive oil in a thin stream--not too fast.  The mixture should quickly thicken into  mayonnaise.

If you're making it by hand, just put the egg yolk, lemon juice, and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk. Keep whisking and drizzle the olive oil into the yolk-lemon mixture, very slowly at first, a teaspoon or so at a time. As the mayo thickens, you can add olive oil in a thin stream, but not too fast or it will separate.

Taste it. Add more lemon juice or salt if you like.

It's great spread on toasts with roasted peppers and white asparagus.