Simple Spanish Food

Old-School Anchovies, anchoas "a la antigua"

Whenever we're in Spain, Ana tries to pick up a few tins of Ortiz anchoas "a la antigua"--anchovies prepared "the old fashioned way." We have not been able to find a source for these in the U.S., and even in Spain it isn't always easy to find them (the supermarket chain Carrefour sometimes carries them), but they are well worth searching for. Of all the tinned anchovy fillets, these come the closest to the salt-packed anchovies (anchoas en salazón) served in the very best tapas bars.   

You can sometimes find Ortiz's anchoas "a la antigua" in miniature packets, about half the size of the standard 50 gram anchovy tin. These are perfect for when you want to make only one or two tapas. (An open tin of anchovies in olive oil just doesn't keep very well even in the fridge, so it's best to eat them all the day you open the can).

Basically Ortiz anchoas a la antigua are first-class anchovies  (you can still see bits of silvery skin attached to the fillets, just like in a good tapas bar), packed in an excellent virgin olive oil with herbs.   The texture is firm. The flavor, like that of any good anchovy, is not at all fishy. At the same time, these anchovies are  unique because of the quality of the ingredients, the way they are prepared, and the herbs. 

Open a tin of these, serve them with good bread and wine, and you have an instant tapas party.  

While La Tienda doesn't carry anchoas "a la antigua," they do have other quality Spanish anchovies on their anchovy page.

 

Rice with Shrimp, arroz con gambas

The first time I went to Valencia I was surprised to find many restaurants did not serve paella. Instead they offered simple but highly flavorful  yellow rice served with meat or fish or vegetables on the side. 

Here's my quick and simple version of Valencian-style rice with shrimp. 

Ingredients

1 lb of shrimp, with heads if you can find them

1 bay leaf

1 cup of Spanish rice, such as Calasparra, Bomba, or  La Marjal. Or use Italian arborio.

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon of Pimentón

a pinch of saffron

1/4 cup of olive oil, plus more for pan frying the shrimp

 

First peel the shrimp and reserve the shells and heads (if you can't find shrimp with the head on, just use the shells).

Put the shrimp shells and heads in a pot with three cups of water and a bay leaf. Bring to a simmer.

It's best to let the shells simmer for at least fifteen minutes.

Strain the broth.

Heat  a frying pan or a small paella pan.

Saute the garlic in the oil.  Add the rice and stir. Let the rice "fry" for two minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat. When the rice has cooled a little, add the salt, saffron, and Pimentón. Stir.

Add the broth.  Bring the rice to a boil. Stir it once. Turn down the heat to medium and let the rice simmer uncovered for 18 minutes. 

Towards the end of the cooking time, check the rice with a spoon. It should form a crust on the bottom, but if it looks like it will burn, turn down (or off) the heat and cover the pan.

Let the rice rest ten minutes.

While the rice is resting, prepare the shelled shrimp any way you like. For this post I quickly pan fried them with garlic.

Serve the rice with the shrimp around it.

Green Salad with Fatty Tuna (Tuna Belly): ensalada con ventresca de atún o bonito

This is very easy and elegant. If you've never had ventresca, it's like premium tuna fish, but buttery and tender--one of my favorites.  La Tienda sells ventresca bonito del norte, fatty albacore, which in Spain is considered to be the best. You can sometimes find tins of ventresca de atún claro, regular fatty tuna, at gourmet food stores, such as at World Market. Both types are fantastic. 

Ingredients

Salad greens of your choice, carefully washed and dried

good olive oil

a tin of ventresca bonito del norte, or ventresca de atún packed in olive oil

salt

Toss the greens with a little good olive oil until just coated.  Add a pinch of salt and toss again.  Place the strips of ventresca over the greens and drizzle the olive oil from the tin over the salad.

Check out my post on ventresca with tomatoes, piquillo peppers, and thyme.

 

 

Favorite Tapas: Mejillón tigre, A Mussel Croquette on the Half Shell

In Spain, croquettes of all sorts--bacalao, jamón serrano, and even chicken--are extremely popular as tapas, but one of the most unusual and delicious is the mejillón tigre (literally, "tiger mussel"), which is  basically a mussel croquette fried with one half of the shell.  They seem to be especially popular in Madrid, where every neighborhood has a bar that makes the mejillón tigre one of its specialties.   In barrio de Prosperidad, where we stay, it's Luman (where we took the picture above). If you're visiting the Prado, you may want to cross the street and try the mejillón tigre at Espacio Puro. They're fantasitc, and the place has a neat retro atmosphere.

Wherever you are, ask around and someone will probably point you in the direction of the best mejillón tigre.

A Quick Tour of La Vegueta Market, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

La Vegueta, the old market in Las Palmas, is packed with stalls selling local fruits, vegetables, fish, meats and cheeses--much of it unique to the Canary Islands.

These rose-colored beans and thick stubby carrots are used in delicious Canary-style pucheros o potajes (stews).

The Canary Islands are famous for fruits, especially bananas, which are quite different in both flavor and texture from the South American varieties usually sold in U.S.  supermarkets. Bananas are used in all sorts of desserts, as well as savory salads. I'll post on both in the near future.

Papayas are another specialty. See my recent post on papaya con miel.

Many of the fish--viejas, sama, sargos--are completely different from those found in the  pescaderías of the peninsula.  I've never seen some of these fish even in Madrid's huge seafood markets.   See my post "Scenes from Spanish Fish Markets" for a comparison.

Have you ever seen clearer, brighter eyes on a fish?

We tried the cherne, gallo, and viejas pictured below, and all were fabulous.

We did not get to try the morena--eel--another Canary Island specialty. Maybe  next time. . .

El mercado de Vegueta also has many local cheeses, chorizos, morcillas, and other meats, both fresh and cured.

Instant Tapa: mejillones de lata, Tinned Mussels from Spain

As I have said in a previous post, tinned seafood from Spain-- Galicia, in particular--is so high in quality it can be even better than fresh. Hard to believe? Think of the way a confit can be better than fresh duck, or how a first-class homemade pickle can beat a plain cucumber. Neither comparison is an exaggeration.The best tinned seafood from Galicia is an artisan product (with a price to match). It has nothing to do with the smoked oysters and canned clams you find on supermarket shelves here in the U.S. 

I love mussels prepared in all different ways (see my posts on mejillones a la marinera and also  arroz con mejillones), but Galician mussels tinned in escabeche have to be my favorite.  Preserving the mussels in the spicy sauce transforms them into something completely new (again think of confit or an excellent homemade pickle).  And nothing could be easier.  Just open the can,  put a mussel or two on a slice of good toast along with a drizzle of the escabeche, and you have a first-class tapa, almost instantly.

For a great (and authentic) tapas party with almost no work, serve mejillones en escabeche along with other ready-to-serve Spanish foods, such as Cantabrian anchovy fillets in olive oil, queso manchego, jamón serrano and of course olives. This is what Spaniards do at home.

New York Chefs Embrace Spanish-style Anchovies

“Anchovies were the thing we joked about as kids," says  Seamus Mullen (chef at the restaurant Tertulia) in a recent article in The New York Times. "In Spain, it was completely the opposite. In Spain they were revered as this delicacy.”

“We’ve turned so many people on to anchovies,” Mr. Mullen goes on to say. “Ninety-nine percent of these people will say, ‘Oh, my God, I never knew anchovies could be so good.’ ”

Other New York chefs, such as Renae and Neill Holland at Smorgasburg, are also embracing Spanish-style anchovy preparations, such as fresh fried anchovies or boquerones.

See my post "All About Anchovies" for more information on different  Spanish anchovy preparations.  Another post,  "All About Anchovies II" , focuses on Spanish anchovy fillets packed in olive oil--and just how different they are from the anchovies sold in most U.S. supermarkets.

Click here to see Jeff Gordinier's article "The Lowly Anchovy: Customers Finally Take the Bait" in The New York Times.

 

Empanada de vieiras, a scallop empanada

 

Many of the best Galician empanadas are made with exotic seafood ingredients, such as fresh berberechos (cockles) or congrio (eel) that are difficult if not impossible to find in the U.S. Empanada de vieiras (scallops) is an exception.  It's delicate, rich, almost buttery (though there is no butter in it), and yet can be made with the previously frozen scallops available in most supermarkets. It tastes like the best seafood empanadas of  Galicia, and it's easy to make. 

Ingredients:

For the crust

2 cups of flour

1 egg

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup of water

 salt

For the filling

1 onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1/3 cup of olive oil

1/2 pound of scallops

saffron

salt

First  mix the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl.

Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Let it rest an hour or so.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 525. 

Saute the onion and pepper in the olive oil. When the onion is soft and translucent, add a pinch of saffron and a pinch of salt.

Divide the dough evenly in two. Roll out each piece into a round or rectangular shape until the dough is the thickness of a coin. 

Place one sheet of the dough on a baking pan.

Spread the onion and pepper mixture evenly onto the dough. Slice the scallops 1/4 thick and arrange them on top.

Put the other piece of dough on the top. Crimp the edges. Cut some vents.

Bake the empanada for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cut the empanada as you would a pizza and serve it as main course or as a tapa.

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.

Grilled Scallops with Watercress, vieiras a la parrilla con berros

Ingredients:

scallops

olive oil

salt

pepper

watercress salad (see my recipe for simple watercress salad, ensalada de berros)

Sprinkle the scallops with salt and black pepper. Rub them with olive oil.

Grill them over hot coals, a minute or two per side, depending on the size of the scallops.  (Or, if you don't have a grill, cook them in a hot iron skillet.)   Be sure not to overcook them. They only need searing. They will continue to cook when you take them off the grill.

Arrange the grilled scallops on a bed of watercress salad for an elegant tapa or first course.