Simple Spanish Food

Finding Great Spanish Olives at Bargain Prices

Whenever Ana is shopping in a discount department store like T.J. Maxx, Tuesday Morning, etc. she makes sure to check the gourmet foods aisle.  Many times she will find really good Spanish olives at rock bottom prices.

Her most recent finds were La Masrojana olives at the Maxx.  They were a steal at $5 dollars for a big jar, and they're good olives--very close in quality to what you could find at an olive stand in Spain.  

We tried the gazpacha olives--cracked olives in a thyme- and pimentón-spiced brine, packed with small pickled cucumbers and carrots (a typical Spanish combo). They're slightly tangy and great with beer or vermouth.

We also tried big, fat gordal olives (a favorite table olive in Spain).

My favorite were the black empeltres.  They had deep complex flavor, with lots of oak- and leather notes.  They're fantastic with sherry.

 

See my post on Spanish olives for more information.  You may also like to see La Tienda's olive page.

 

Pimientos de Padrón Are Now Available at La Tienda

The season for pimientos de Padrón, a great frying pepper from Spain, has finally begun at the Spanish on-line food store La Tienda.  Click here to see La Tienda's Pimiento de Padrón page. 

For more information about preparing, eating, and even growing pimientos de Padrón,  see  my post on Pimientos de Padrón, Spain's Great Frying Pepper.

 

Berenjena frita con miel de caña, Fried Eggplant with "Cane Honey"

 

Fried eggplant with honey is a dish typical of the South of Spain, but during our recent trip to the Canary Islands we came across another version with miel de caña, or "cane honey," which is not really honey at all but a mild, dark syrup made from cane juice--basically a mild molasses.  If you prefer to use real honey, try a dark, mild honey, such as wildflower honey or palmetto honey, which goes much better with fried eggplant than strongly flavored  clover or orange blossom honey.  Whatever you use, the point here is not to make the eggplant sweet but to offset their slight bitterness.

Personally, when I'm frying eggplant, I do it the simple way (which is the way many Spanish cooks do at home). I cut the eggplant into about 3/8 inch slices. I throw them into a bowl of well-salted water until I'm ready for them. I then grab a stack of slices, give them a light squeeze (which dries them).  I dust them with with flour, shake off the excess and  pan fry them in hot olive oil, about 2 minutes per side, until lightly browned and tender.

Does this method produce crispy, lighter-than-air fried eggplant like that served in the best bars of Córdoba? Nope.  But it's good home cooking.  It is no more oily than crisp-fried eggplant, and it's easy. 

If you insist on crispy fried eggplant, use any of the usual methods: batters, egg and breadcrumb or panko combinations, etc.  The white eggplant with miel de caña we had in the Canary Islands was fried with a tempura-like batter. It was very nice.

As for the "cane honey," a very mild molasses would work. I usually just make a quick light syrup of 3 parts brown sugar and 1 part water.  Just bring the mixture to a boil, drizzle it over the fried eggplant, and serve.

Berenjena frita con miel de caña makes a great tapa or appetizer.

 

 

Dried Fruits and Nuts Shops (tiendas de frutos secos y variantes)

 

All over Spain, in nearly every neighborhood of every city,  there are little shops that specialize in dried fruits, toasted nuts, seeds, and other traditional Spanish snacks. These places are called tiendas de frutos secos or sometimes tiendas de chuches (especially when they have a big selection of caramelitos, sugar candies), or fábrica de patatas fritas, because these stores also often make the best potato chips you've ever eaten--freshly crisp-fried in olive oil. 

If you've ever had a tapa of fantastic potato chips in a Spanish bar, chances are they came from the fábrica de patas fritas around the corner.

The dried fruits and toasted nuts are also of the highest quality.

Dried fruits and toasted nuts are  the oldest kind of Spanish road food, the sort of thing Don Quixote and Sancho Panza would have nibbled while wandering across La Mancha. These snacks are still perfect for traveling today.  When we take the bus to Granada or Córdoba or wherever, we always bring along a few bags of dried fruits and toasted nuts to munch on. They also make great instant tapas.

There is way too much variety in the typical tienda de frutos secos to list everything they carry, but here are some of our favorites.

Marcona almonds (they come toasted, fried, salted and not, caramelized, you name it, all delicious).

Habas fritas, fried bean chips. They're a little like fried green plantains.

Dátiles en rama, creamy sweet dates, still on the twig they  grew on.

Various sorts of toasted and fried garbanzos.

And, one of my favorites, toasted corn, maiz tostado o kikos. 

These shops also often carry chufas (tigernuts) for making horchata (see my post on horchata de chufa) and castañas pilongas, dried chestnuts, a truly ancient snack.

Andrés, my father in law, always used to set aside a few fresh chestnuts and let them dry, which makes  them slightly sweeter,  spicier (sometimes with faint cheese notes), but also harder.  The castañas pilongas at most tiendas de frutos secos  are quite hard and best for cooking (though I admit I will sometimes pop one in my mouth and eat it as I would a jawbreaker, carefully, taking my time). 

I could go on and on listing--toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas), dried apricots and other fruits, big plump raisins with the seeds still in. . .

Some of these snacks you can make at home. See my post on toasted nuts for some examples.   In the future I will post on toasting garbanzos, corn, and other things. 

You may also like to check out La Tienda's almond and frutos secos page.

 

 

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.

The Best Sherry Bar in Madrid? La Venencia

Whenever in Madrid, we make a point of going to the sherry bar La Venencia at least once. We go partly out of tradition (Andrés, my father-in-law, loved La Venencia), partly for the atmosphere (very "old school"), but mainly because the jerez and food are fabulous.  The prices are also very reasonable.  At La Venencia you can enjoy a truly world-class glass of sherry and a tapa for a few euros.

La Venencia is the only place that I know in the city that serves sherry the traditional way--from barrels--and this makes all the difference. Bottled sherry is great, but sherry stored in the barrel is even better.

Keep in mind, the sherry is not drawn directly from the barrel into your glass. It has to be chilled first.  So when the bartender pulls an unmarked bottle from the fridge to serve you, don't worry. He filled it up only a few hours ago from the barrel.

The varieties of sherry at La Venencia include fino  (a tangy light sherry), manzanilla  (an especially delicate type of fino), palo cortado, amontillado,  and--probably my favorite--oloroso (dark, nutty, and complex).   All of these are dry.  (Unfortunately, I have yet to find  in the U.S. any brands of oloroso or amontillado that have not been sweetened for the export market, and I rarely see palo cortado at all--so for these I give no links to sources).

The menu of pinchos or tapas at La Venencia is short and simple, but everything on it goes beautifully with these wines: salt-cured anchovies, anchoas en salazón (see my post "All About Anchovies"), paper-thin slices of smoke cured beef (cecina),  manchego cheese , cured pork loin (lomo), and of course Spanish ham (jamón) .  When you order a glass of sherry, you will receive a  complimentary tapa of aceitunas de Campo Real, probably my all-time favorite olive. 

La Venencia is located in the old city center, Echegaray 7, Madrid

 

 

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.

Pan-fried Artichokes, alcachofas a la plancha

 

 

Whenever we're in Spain early enough in the spring, we go to the old Madrid tavern La Trucha and order alcachofas a la plancha--artichokes pan-fried in olive oil.  It's the simplest way I know of to prepare fresh artichokes, and one of the best.  It does  require tender "baby" artichokes, which are rarely available here in Central Florida, but last fall a kind gardening friend gave me an artichoke seedling. I raised it in a split-barrel container, and now we're harvesting beautiful little artichokes and enjoying tapas of alcachofas a la plancha here too.

Here's how to do it.

Ingredients:

Fresh artichokes  (Small, tender artichokes are best for this.)

Olive oil

a lemon

salt

 

Heat up a pan.

Trim the artichokes minimally, removing only the hard pointed tips, if any.

Rub them with lemon juice as you work to prevent them from turning black.  The touch of lemon also brings out the full flavor of the artichokes.

Cut the artichoke into 1/4 inch slices.

Rub the slices with the lemon. If you see a fuzzy "choke" inside, cut it out, but if the artichokes are small, you usually don't have to worry about it.

Pour a little olive oil in the hot pan. Add the artichoke slices. Pan-fry them for 2 or 3 minutes per side, or until tender. If they get a bit crisp at the edges, they're even better.

Sprinkle with salt and serve hot.

 

Quick Spinach in Adobo, espinaca adobada

 

This is a modern twist on the traditional Spanish preparation of spinach or chard in adobo.    Basically, it's a quick stir-fry.

It is important to carefully dry the spinach before cooking it or else there will be too much liquid in the dish.  Otherwise this is easy, and the spinach retains a pleasant bite that boiled spinach lacks. 

Ingredients

1 bunch of spinach, or a bag of fresh spinach, washed and carefully dried

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 teaspoons of wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic, sliced

1/2 a teaspoon of pimentón de La Vera

salt

In a large pan, saute the garlic in the olive oil.  Before the garlic takes on color, remove the pan from the heat and let the oil cool some. Add the  pimentón and stir.

Add the spinach. Sprinkle it with salt. Toss it with the olive oil and garlic until the leaves are coated.

Return the pan to high heat.  Stir-fry the spinach until it's just wilted.

Put the spinach on a serving dish. Toss it with the vinegar.

Serve spinach in adobo as a side dish or as vegetarian tapa.