Simple Spanish Food

Calçots, cebolletas a la barbacoa: Grilled Green Onions

Ana found a good video in the Spanish newspaper ABC on how to make this Catalan specialty. (If you don't understand Spanish, don't worry: the images make the process, which is simple, clear.)

Basically you just grill the biggest green onions you can find until they're charred on the outside. Take them off the grill,  wrap them up in paper or foil and let them steam five or ten minutes, then peel off the charred outer layer and enjoy them dipped in a good olive oil or romesco sauce (my easy romesco works well). The hot taste of the onion becomes sweet and rich during the cooking, and the texture is tender.

At the end of the video there is an example of the traditional way to eat these grilled onions (not with a knife and fork!)

 

A Spanish Split Pea Soup, sopa de guisantes amarillos

This is an easy Spanish style soup that doesn't take too long to make. 

1 lb bag of yellow split peas

1 carrot, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 bay leaf

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

2-3 teaspoons Spanish spice blend

fresh parsley and, if you like, cilantro

salt to taste (one teaspoon or less)

Pour the split peas into a large pot.  Look them over, pushing them around, and remove any bits of stones or dirt. Rinse the peas 2 or 3 times.

Add enough water to the pot so that the peas are covered by 2 to 3 inches of water.  Bring them to a boil. Simmer for half an hour. When the peas begin to soften, add the bay leaf and carrot and continue simmering.

Meanwhile, saute the garlic in the olive oil. Remove the pan from the heat and let the oil cool some. Add the Spanish spice blend. Stir. Add this mixture to the simmering peas.

Let the soup simmer until the peas are quite soft. Add salt to taste (It doesn't need much, thanks to the spices, making this a good soup for people on a low-sodium diet).  Just before serving, add handfuls of fresh chopped parsley and--for an Extremaduran or Canary Island touch--a handful of coarsely chopped cilantro.

 

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.

 

Torta del Casar Cheese

Here's a guest post from Julianne at Trujillo Villas in Extremadura about Torta del Casar,  a soft, rich, creamy cheese that Ana and I often enjoy when we're in Spain.

Julianne writes, "Torta del Casar is a cheese made from sheep’s milk in the Extremadura region. It’s named after Casar de Caceres because that’s where the cheese originated from. The thing that is special about this cheese is that it is cured using a wild thistle. That ingredient lends a light touch of bitterness you taste along with the rich and slightly salty flavors of this cheese. Another part of torta del Casar's flavour comes from the fact that it is aged at least sixty days.

"The consistency of this cheese is not like many others. The inside is creamy and the outside is hard. The best way to eat torta del Casar is to cut the top off and scoop out the middle to enjoy it spread  on a piece of bread, crackers, or pita chips. A cool thing about this cheese is that only 10% of production from only 8 family-run dairies is exported!"

See La Tienda's Torta del Casar page for more information.   You may also wish to check out Trujillo Villas, where Julianne works. Looks beautiful!

Caldo Gallego in Thirty Minutes

I've posted before on a vegetarian or vegan caldo gallego. Here's another version you can make in just half an hour.  I used chicken broth for this, but you can use vegetable broth if you want to make your caldo vegetarian or vegan. If you prefer your caldo gallego with meat, just add slices of chorizo during the last ten minutes of simmering.

Ingredients

1 small bunch of kale or collards, washed and chopped

1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed

2 cans of chicken broth or vegetable broth

1 potato, diced

a few cloves of garlic, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon of pimentón de La Vera

In a medium pot, fry the garlic in the olive oil. Remove the pot from the heat and let the oil cool some. Add the pimentón. Stir.

Add the broth, the potatoes, the greens, and the beans. Bring the soup to a simmer. After fifteen minutes, test one of the potatoes with a fork. If it's soft, the caldo is ready.

Serve in small cups for a tapa, or in soup plates for an easy one-pot meal.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Spanish Cocktail Mix

Make this just as you would fried chickpeas (garbanzos fritos), with or without garlic and spices, but throw in a handful of nuts or seeds of your choice during the last few minutes of frying.  We usually combine fried garbanzos with almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, just to name a few.

You may wish to check out La Tienda's ready-made Spanish cocktail mix, as well as my post on dried fruit and nut shops (tiendas de frutos secos) for more information on this tapa and Spanish tradition.

 

Spicy Mushroom Empanada, empanada de champiñones adobados

I would call this a vegetarian version of an empanada de carne adobada, but it's a good empanada in its own right.  The pimentón gives it a nice smoky depth of flavor.  Serve as a tapa. It's fantastic with a dark sherry.

Here's how to make it.

Ingredients

empanada dough (see my post on Galician empanadas to learn how to make it).

1 lb of mushrooms, washed and sliced

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/3 cup of olive oil

1 teaspoon of Pimentón

1/2 teaspoon of thyme

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of pine nuts

a splash of sherry vinegar

 

Prepare the dough the same way you would for a Galician empanada.

Preheat the oven to 500.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic, thyme,  mushrooms, and salt. Cook them until the liquid has evaporated--about ten minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool a little. Add the pimentón and the sherry vinegar and stir.

Divide and roll out the empanada dough as you would for a Galician empanada.

Place one sheet of the dough on a baking pan and spread the spicy mushroom mixture onto it. Sprinkle on some pine nuts.

Put the other sheet of dough on top.  Crimp the edges and cut some vents for steam to escape.

Bake the empanada in a 500 degree oven for 12-15 minutes--or until the crust is golden.

Cut into squares or wedges and serve.

 

Seven Spanish Ways to Enjoy Spinach

Looking for Spanish recipes for spinach? Here are seven options. 

Rice, chickpeas, and eggplant (arroz, garbanzos, y berenjena)

A classic Catalan dish of spinach with raisin and pine nuts (espinacas con pasas y piñones)

One of my favorites: a spinach empanada

Spinach en adobo

Substitute spinach for chard in a dish of greens, sesame seeds and apples.

A hearty vegetarian one-pot meal of tomatoes, chickpeas, mushrooms and spinach

Or top fresh spinach with a compote of dried fruits, nuts, and Pedro Ximenez

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.

Garbanzos Fritos, Fried Chickpeas: An Easy Tapa

Fried garbanzos are a relaxed tapa, the sort of thing you munch while drinking a beer.  In Spain, you can buy them already prepared at dried fruit and nut shops (see my post on tiendas de frutos secos y variantes) where several different versions of fried and toasted garbanzos are usually available. They are often combined with toasted corn--kikos--nuts, and other fried beans in Spanish-style cocktail snack mixes. 

But fried garbanzos are easy to make at home. All you need is a can of garbanzos, a 1/2 a cup or so of olive oil for frying, and, if you like, some spices. 

Open the can. Rinse the garbanzos.  Dry them (I usually toss them in a hot wok for a few minutes) and put them in hot olive oil.  Be careful. Frying garbanzos tend to pop. I usually fry them outside on a propane burner.  Inside, I use a screen over the frying pan to reduce splatter. 

Stir the garbanzos now and then. When they turn golden--usually after 4 or 5 minutes--I usually throw in a chopped garlic clove and a little cumin. When the garlic is toasted and the garbanzos are crisp, remove the garbanzos from the oil, drain them, and sprinkle them with ground red pepper or pimentón, which adds a nice smoky flavor.  You can salt them too, but I usually don't because canned garbanzos are already salted.