Potato and Leek Soup (Purrusalda)

"Purrusalda" is a Basque dish of potatoes and leeks, ingredients that are abundant in northern Spain. When my brother was little he fell a couple of times into empty swimming pools and both times he blamed the "purrusalda" for his misfortune, alleging that it made him dizzy. One day, he came home from a friend's house and when my Mom asked what he had for lunch he responded: "A wonderful dish of leeks and potatoes." I guess it is always better in somebody else's house. The moral of the story: When your kid doesn't like something, send him/her to a friend's home.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
5 Large Potatoes, peeled and cut in cubes
4 medium Leeks
5 Garlic Cloves
Chicken Stock 
1 Slice of Fried Bread per person

In a deep pan put the olive oil and garlic and then fry the bread on both sides. Remove the bread and then add the leeks. Stir and add the potatoes and the chicken stock to cover them. Let it simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Fried Wild Rice (Arroz Salvaje Frito)

We have visited Minnesota for many, many summers due to our involvement with Concordia Language Villages (a fantastic language and culture immersion program). First, my husband was a villager (camper), then a counselor, and now he is a professor. I was a counselor as well and our kids are now villagers in Bemidji. You cannot leave Minnesota without a bag of wild rice. After you buy the rice, you wonder how to cook it. Don't worry, there are thousands of recipes that you can make. The interesting irony is that I learned the most unorthodox way to cook wild rice through a Spanish cooking program with the famous Chef, José Andrés. One day my son, Alex, asked me to cook something extraordinary and different for his 4th grade class. Quickly, I remembered this crazy recipe where you deep fry the wild rice. Once the rice pops it looks like maggots. I thought either those 4th graders would think  it's cool or else.....; Well, it turned out they thought it was the coolest thing and they finished it all.

The wild rice pops up looking like maggots!!!

I must say that wild rice, even though it's called rice, is not rice but rather the seed of a grass found on the river banks and lake shores of Northern Minnesota. The rice from Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River, is especially famous. The collection of the rice is a Native American tradition of the Leech Lake Tribal Reservation. The Ojibwe get into their  canoes, paddle to the river banks and shores of the lakes, shake the grass and the grain falls into their canoes. It is black and brown in color and long.

Roasted wild rice

Truthfully, it makes a great snack and a conversation piece for those Viking and Green Bay Packer games. Don't forget to wear your Norse helmets and cheese heads while you are enjoying fried wild rice.

Deep Fried goes well with grapes

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Wild Rice

Oil

Salt

Utensils:

2 pans

strainer

Before you start, you need two deep pans. We add oil just to cover 1/3 the height of the pan and heat it. When it gets really hot, add the wild rice. When the rice starts popping and opening, remove it very quickly by pouring everything into a strainer covering the second pan. Remove the rice from the strainer, and lay it on a paper towel. Now we can cook a second batch in the second pan, the oil will be hot already. We can do this as many times as we need.

The wild rice cooked this way can also be used to top other dishes.

Basque Beans (Alubias)

This dish is very typical all over Spain and especially in the Basque Country. It is one of those weekly dishes that families make where legumes and meats are mixed. One of the greatest activities in the the Basque Country is hiking in the mountains on weekends so it is not uncommon to eat a good "plato de alubias" at the end of the hike in a local "caserio" (farmhouse) that has just two dishes on its menu: Alubias (beans) and Sopa (soup). This dish is rich in protein with the legumes and the meats. Unfortunately it also has fat but you can make it vegetarian if you don't add the meats.

Beans with Basque hot peppers "guindillas"

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Pound "Tolosa" Beans
1 Cipollini Onion per person (whole)
2 Leeks cut in 1 inch pieces
1 Head of Garlic 
2 Tablespoons Smoked Paprika
Chicken Stock to cover the alubias (beans)
1/4 Pound Salt Pork
2 Chorizos
Morcilla

Put the beans in water the day before you are going to cook them. Place the garlic, onions, and leeks in a deep pan, sauté them, add the paprika, and stir for about a minute. Add the chicken stock, beans and salt pork and cook until tender. Add the chorizo and morcilla at the end and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Rib and Potato Stew (Estofado de Costillas con Patatas)

Stews, they are cooked for a long time, and they have the great quality of tenderizing meats that otherwise will be tough. This is the case with this dish that after a 3 hour cooking process, the meat falls from the bone.

Ingredients:


2 Pounds of Ribs
6-7 Potatoes Cut in Quarters
2 Onions
1 Large Garlic Head 
1 Green Pepper
2 Tablespoons Smoked Paprika
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 Cups Chicken Stock, to cover the pot


In a pan put olive oil, add the ribs, and brown each side to sear the meat. Take them from the pan and put them aside. When you are done, you can start the stew. In a deep pan add 1 tablespoon olive oil, add the onions, garlic, and pepper. Cook it for about 10 minutes, add the ribs, and the smoked paprika. Stirring together very quickly, add the potatoes. Finally, add the chicken stock. Let it simmer for about 2 hours. At this point you can add the peas and let it cook for about an hour, or when the potatoes are done and the ribs fall from their bone.

Salmon Rolls (Rollitos de Salmón)

Salmon is a great fish, rich in protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and in vitamin D. Salmon is born in fresh water, swims to the sea, and comes back to lay its eggs in fresh water. Its habitat is the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, but also the Great Lakes. You can eat it poached, raw like in sashimi, grilled, baked, and lox (smoked or cured in brine, also known as gravlax). In this case we are going to use lox salmon. It already comes in thin slices and we are going to form rolls.

Ingredients:

6 Ounces of Pre-Sliced Wild Alaskan Salmon (lox) or Scottish Wild Salmon (Salmón Ahumado)

1 Cream Cheese Package

1/2 Cup Dill Finely Chopped

1 Lemon Zest

1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice

Other:

Plastic wrap

Kitchen String

Take the cream cheese from the refrigerator and let it sit until it becomes workable, add the dill, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix everything very well, so it becomes evenly mixed.

Overlap the slices of salmon over a plastic wrap and put the mix evenly over it. Start rolling with the help of the plastic. When done, twist the end sides and tie. Put in the freezer until it hardens so it is easier to cut in slices. Serve on a platter with dill and lemon, put the salmon on bagel crackers.

You will look great serving this rolls in this upcoming holiday season or any other occasion. 

Garlic Shrimp (Gambas al Ajillo)

It wouldn't be Spanish cooking without garlic. Something very typical is the shrimp with garlic, it could be cooked in an earthenware pan with olive oil, or grilled on its shell. The first way the shrimp is peeled and you eat it with a fork, the second way it is in its shell and you peel it with your fingers and then you lick them. Yes, you like them and it's ok, as a matter of fact it is a complement. That's where the expression: "está para chuparse los dedos," (it is so good you could lick your plate clean, but instead of our plate, we lick our fingers)comes from.

Ingredients:

Peeled Shrimp

2 Garlic Cloves, Finely Chopped

2 Whole Cayenne Peppers

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Parsley

In an earthenware, put a tablespoon olive oil, add the garlic, and the cayenne pepper and shrimp. When they are almost done take it off the burner, they will finish cooking on the earthenware. Sprinkle the parsley on top of the shrimp.

Chestnuts with Fennel and Black Truffel (Castañas con Hinojo y Trufa Negra)

The chestnut is a seed, as we mentioned in another entry. It is also a product of Northern Spain. It is encapsulated on a prickly shell.It can be roasted, baked or boil. In this recipe we will roast, but it works as well boiled.

Photo by Benjamin Gimmel

Fennel is a bulb and has long stems, it can get as high as four feet. It has yellow flowers, and you find it along the Spanish Mediterranean coast growing wild. When I was a kid we would get a stem and chew on it, on our way to the beach. For us it had an anisette flavor, minus the alcohol. Fennel is used with fish, and the Scandinavians use it a lot. It is very good to treat different illnesses and is very digestive.

Photo from Sabor Gourmet

Fennel flowers

The wonderful combination of flavors from chestnuts, fennel, black truffle, and walnuts make a great side dish or a hot salad.

                                  

Ingredients:

Butter

12 Roasted Chestnuts

1 Fennel Bulb Chopped or in Julienne

1/2 Onion Finely Chopped

Walnuts

Black Truffle

2 Teaspoons Sugar

In a sauce pan we add the butter, the onions, and fennel, add butter as needed. When the fennel is tender we add the chestnuts and we sauté for a couple of minutes, then we add the walnuts and the two spoons of sugar. Lastly, add the truffle chopped or sliced, and sauté for another couple of minutes. You can infuse the butter with the truffle before hand.

Shrimp Ceviche (Ceviche de Gambas)

The ceviche is the process of cooking raw fish with limes (it has to be marinated for at least 12 hours). The origins of the ceviche are not clear, some believe it could have been introduced to the Americas by Moorish women that went to Peru with the Spaniards, since the Moors introduced the citrus in Spain. What is a fact is that it is cook in all Latin American countries with multiple variations  at the time of cooking. In Peru it is considered the National dish of interest to humanity. This recipe is a combination of different friends' recipes.

Ingredients:

1 Pound Shrimp, if large, cut into pieces
5 Limes
1 Cup Tomato Juice
1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Leah & Perrins Sauce
2 Teaspoons Hot Sauce
1/2 Red Onion finely chopped
1 Red Pepper finely chopped
1/2 Cup Cilantro finely chopped

Mix all the ingredients together and let sit for at least 12 hours. Serve in a martini glass with tostadas (deep fried tortillas.)

Roasted Chestnuts

Every time I go to the supermarket in November and around Thanksgiving, I cannot wait to see chestnuts. They have a flavor and a smell that brings great memories of my childhood and youth. In my hometown the "castañero," the person who cooked the chestnuts, Serafin was his name, used to have a roaster that look like the engine of a train. It is the only place I have seen that type of roaster. He would methodically mark the brown seed with a knife one by one he would keep warm by the fire of the roaster during those frigid fall and winter months. We used to buy a dozen chestnuts at a time. He made a cone with a newspaper page, put the chestnuts in, and we quickly put them in our pockets. We used those hot chestnuts as hand warmers.

Ingredients:


Chetsnuts
Aluminum foil
Paper 


Cut into the chestnuts, making the form of a cross on both sides. Put them in aluminum foil and poke some holes in the foil, then cook them in an oven heated to 400˙. You can also put them in a pan on the stove. To serve make paper cones and put the chestnuts inside.


The chestnut is a very common tree in Northern Spain.

Spaghettis a la Carbonara

This is my sister's recipe and we all get to enjoy it very much. If you are, or know somebody who suffers from gluten intolerance, you can substitute the flour spaghetti for rice noodles easily found in a Chinese supermarket. This is a super easy recipe to make and it tastes wonderful.

Ingredients:


1/2 Onion, finely chopped
4-5 Bacon Slices pre-cooked in a microwave. Put paper towel down, then the slices and cook for 5 minutes.
8 Mushrooms
Cream
Spaghetti Pasta


Boil the spaghetti until done. In the meantime, in a saucepan, add olive oil, mushrooms and onion until it is translucent. Then add the bacon and the cream, let it simmer. When all is done add the pasta. Toss all the ingredients together.

Garlic Soup with Wrinkled Eggs (Sopa de ajo con huevos arrugados)

This dish has been one of the most humble and rustic soups since it beginnings but it is amazingly delicious and a proof that you don't need a lot of ingredients to make something great. Garlic soup came from the lack of or the inability to get meats or vegetables but people needed to eat something of substance in the morning before going to work in their trades, in the fields or taking care of their animals long hours until lunch. They had in the pantry garlic, dry bread from the previous days, water and maybe some eggs. Today it is the typical soup after the processions during Easter time. For the rest of us it is one heart warming soup.

The soup can be served with or without the egg.

Ingredients:

10 Garlic Cloves
1 Piece of Dry Bread Per Person
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Smoked Paprika from "La Vera Region" (Denomination of Origin)
4 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Egg per person (cook in the pot, hard boil or wrinkled)

In an earthenware pot put the olive oil. Add the garlic and the bread and cook until golden brown. Then add the smoked paprika, stirring for a couple of minutes. Do not burn it. Add the chicken stock and let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. To make a wrinkled egg, get a cup and put a plastic wrap loosely on top of the cup.  Add a little oil and the egg bringing all the corners of the plastic wrap together and twist. Then tie with a cooking string and add the plastic to boiling water, cooking the egg until the desired doneness. Then add the egg to the soup.



Sometimes I have blend everything, but I like this way.

Thanksgiving Dinner

If you can afford to spend a few more cents per pound. I recommend buying a fresh turkey. We have always bought it fresh with great success and yes, it makes a difference. We also brine the bird starting the night before it is cook.

Turkey with all the fixings gravy, squash, garlic potatoes, chestnuts and cranberry sauce

To brine the turkey:


After removing the giblets, wash the turkey and place it in a gallon of water with 1 cup kosher salt, (sal gorda). If you need to add an additional gallon of water to cover the turkey, then you add 1/2 cup salt. We place the bird in a 2 gallon container with the brine (these containers are easy to find in home improvement stores in the paint and tile section) and weigh it down to keep it submerged  overnight in a cool place.


Stuffing:


There are many recipes for the stuffing/dressing. I am going to use my husband's grandmother's very traditional recipe that can be multiplied to serve more people..


4 Cups Fresh Bread Cubes
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1/2 Cup Chopped Celery
1/2 Teaspoon Powdered Sage
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1-2 Cups Chicken Broth
Butter


Cook the onions and the celery in butter for 5 minutes and then add the rest of the ingredients. The miixture should be moist. Stuff the inside of the turkey with the mixture after the turkey has roasted for about an hour. More stuffing can be finished in a separate pan in the oven.


To roast the turkey:

Rinse the turkey and pat dry after you have taken it out of the brine. Rub it with butter to cover the whole bird and put it in a roasting pan in a preheated oven at 325 degrees to roast 20 minutes per pound.
Baste every half hour and if you see it getting brown cover with  aluminum foil. Yesterday a friend, Kathy, gave us a new way to roast the turkey inside a brown paper bag.


Cranberry Sauce:


1 Pound Cranberries
2 - 3 Cups Orange Juice
1/2 Cup Sugar


In a pan place the orange juice, the cranberries (they are bitter) and the sugar. Cook and let it reduce until the cranberries are open. Taste for a balance in bitterness and sweetness.


Mashed Potatoes:


1 Garlic Head
12 Medium Potatoes
Salt
Cream
Butter to Brown the Top

Peel and cut the potatoes (Yellow Yukon Gold) and boil them with a head of garlic until tender,when done, strain any excess liquid. Then mash the potatoes and garlic with a masher and add cream until they are smooth and velvety. Put the mashed potatoes in a pan with slices of butter and place under the broiler until the top gets to be a golden color.

Couscous, Kuskus or Cuscus

There are two autonomous Spanish cities in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla. The foods and flavors of those two cities are influenced by Andalusia and Moorish cooking since those cities have a mixed population - Arabic, Spanish, Jewish and Indian. This mix is manifested in their gastronomy with one dish being couscous. This recipe come from friends of my husband's family who owned a hotel in Tangier and I thought it appropriate. We have adapted it slightly. Couscous is a berber semolina, eaten mostly in the Maghreb, Northern Morocco and Algeria.

The dish is name after the grain

We use a couscous maker, a couscoussier, a deep pan where you cook the meats and vegetables, and on top goes another pan with small holes where you will steam the couscous with the aromas of the meats and veggies.  The top pan is covered with a lid.

This is our "couscoussier" 

You can serve the couscous in a Tagine, an earthenware dish, with the grain on the bottom and the veggies and meats on top or you can serve it in two tagines, one for the grain and the other for the meats and veggies.

"Tagines" from Tangier and Tetuan 

Ingredients:

1 lb. Lamb cut in serving pieces
2 lb. Chicken cut in serving pieces
Olive Oil
1 can Chick Peas (Garbanzos)
1 can Tomatoes, diced
1 large Green Pepper, diced
1/2 Onion, diced
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
3 Carrots, sliced
10 oz. Green Peas
1/2 cup Raisins
1/2 cup Prunes
1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1/8 tsp. Saffron
Salt and Pepper to taste

2 cups Couscous grain
2 cups Water
1 tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. Olive Oil 

Cook meats and set aside.  Cook vegetables for 25 minutes and add meats.  Mix couscous grain with water, salt and oil and put in top steamer. Cover and cook both parts 20 minutes more.

Great house to rent or sale in Morocco if you want to have the real experience:

http://www.maisons-maroc.com/spanish/property/rent/ref/1032-04540P/

Lamb Shanks with Baker's Potatoes (Espinilla de Cordero con Patatas Panaderas)

Lamb is one of the meats often eaten in Spain, especially on Christmas and Easter. The age of the lamb is important, usually the younger the more tender it is, so it's not uncommon to buy "cordero lechal" which is a lamb fed only by its mothers milk. The most popular cuts are the leg of lamb and the lamb chops. This recipe is a simple roast with a bed of potatoes.

2 Lamb Shanks
4 Medium Potatoes cut in slices
Olive Oil
4 Cloves of Garlic with peel
2 Sprigs of Rosemary
2 Sprigs of Thyme
Chicken Broth


In a roasting pan make a bed of potatoes, add the garlic, cover with the chicken broth, add the lamb shanks rubbed in olive oil and lastly, add the rosemary and thyme. Put the pan in a pre-heated oven at 400˙.  Baste often making sure that there is enough liquid to cover the potatoes, check for doneness. When done, serve on a plater. In a plater, first make a bed of potatoes, then add the shanks with the garlic and rosemary and thyme, and pour some of the liquid over it. Serve with a green salad mixed with finely cut onion and alioli on the side.

Langoustine Carpaccio with Orange Vinaigrette (Carpaccio de Cigalas con Vinagreta de Naranja)

This is just another way to cook a carpaccio or a langoustine. This dish is small in size and ready to eat in one bite just wrap the carpaccio in a green leaf to tickle your taste buds, this is what the French called "amuse bouche" (a teaser.)

Just a teaser

Ingredients:


1 Langoustine per person
1 Green Leaf
1 Orange (1/2 for the vinaigrette and 1/2 to     use with the carpaccio)
1 Green Olive


Fresh Orange Juice
Olive Oil


Cook and make individual capriccios by putting the langoustine in aluminum paper and pound until paper thing, put it in a green leaf, add a little orange segment, olive slivers. Make a vinaigrette with the orange and olive oil and drizzle over the carpaccio.  Eat wrapping the green leaf around the langoustine. 

Langoustines with Pink Sauce (Cigalas con salsa Rosa)

Nephrop norvegicus, also known as Norway Lobsters, Cigalas in Spain, Langoustine in the UK and Scampi in Italy are a crossed between shrimp and lobster. They are really sweet and a pleasure to the palate. In the Estates are hard to find I have a couple of providers and they always come frozen; However, in Europe you can find them fresh all over the place. These particular "cigalas" got to our house by accident.

Ingredients:

1 pound cigalas or langoustines

For the Sauce:

2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon Ketchup

1/2 Tablespoon Brandy or Scotch

Put water to boil when it starts boiling add the frozen "cigalas" cook until start boiling again.

To make the sauce add to a soup bowl the mayo, ketchup and brandy and work with a fork until everything is smoothly mixed.

To peel the "cigalas" pinch the tail from the sides and crack it. Deep the peeled tails in the pink sauce.

To buy "cigalas" in the Estates:

http://www.latienda.com

http://www.scottishgourmetusa.com/category/Scottish-langoustines-usa

http://www.lobsterplace.com/

Mussels in Green Sauce with Cashews (Mejillones en Salsa Verde con Anacardos)

Mussels are a good source of protein, iron, phosphorus and iodine. It is a mollusk like clams and scallops. They grow in clusters and are attached to rocks or a hard surface by byssal threads (beards.) During the summers when I was growing up, at my aunt and uncle's beach house on a cliff we would just go down to the rocks, pick a bundle of mussels and have them steamed as an appetizer.

Ingredients:


1 1/2 Pound Mussels 
1 Cup Water
2 Garlic Cloves
1/2 cup Parsley
1/2 Cup Cashews (in Spanish Anacardos o cajus)
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Cooking Water from the mussels
Salt to taste


Put the garlic, parsley, cashews and the olive oil in a blender and blend to a fine mix. To steam the mussels, in a saucepan put a cup of water and salt. When the water starts boiling add the mussels and cover, checking that they are open. In another sauce pan add the mixture from the blender and a half cup water from the mussels.


Arrange the mussels on a plate and spoon the sauce over them.

Rioja Style Potatoes (Patatas a la Riojana)

"Patatas a la riojana," as the name indicates, is a dish from the Rioja region of Spain that is famous for its wines.  The preparation is simple and the results are delicious.

  
Ingredients: 


2 pounds Potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 Green Pepper, diced
1 Onion, diced
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
Olive Oil
1 Bay Leaf
1 small dried Cayenne Pepper
3/4 tablespoon sweet Paprika
2 Spanish Chorizo links, sliced
Water
Salt and Pepper to taste


Sautee the green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender.  Add the potatoes, bay leaf, cayenne pepper, paprika, and chorizo. Cover with water and add salt an pepper.  Cook for approximately 40 minutes on low heat.  Serve with bread.  You will love it!

Rice with Mussels (Arroz con Mejillones/Mojojones)

Wow!!! When I was little, This was my favorite dish in whole wild world. Coming from a relatively a small town, many people but mostly friends of the family new this was my favorite dish ever, so every time they cooked rice with mussels (mojojones in the Basque Country) they will invite me. One day I will eat at my neighbors, the Izas, other day at the Arreguis, and so on. Probably I had mussels with rice 3 o 4 times a week. My kids enjoy this dish as much as I did...the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree!!!

Ingredients:


Olive Oil
8 garlic cloves
1 Cup "Bomba," "Calasparra" or Jazmin rice
3 Cups water
1 1/2 Pounds Prince Edward mussels
Salt
Parsley finely chopped to Garnish


In a wide pan put the olive oil and the garlic until they are golden brown, add the rice and water until it boils, turn burner to low and cover when the rice is almost done add the mussels mixing well with the rice until they open.


Add everything on a serving plate and add parsley.

Marinated Green Olives

We are going to start with a jar of olives or plain green olives.

Ingredients:


Olive Oil
4 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Tablespoon Sweet Smoke Paprika
Water 2/3 the size of the jar
2 Thyme Sprigs
1 Rosemary Sprig
10 Pepper Corns


Put the garlic in a pan with the olive oil until golden brown. Add the paprika, being careful not to burn it. Add water, it will splatter so be careful! Add the rest of the ingredients, bring the mix to a boil, and let it rest and cool off.


Add the olives and mix in layers into the original jar. Keep it refrigerated for a couple of days. Serve in a bowl with the liquid and garlic, add fresh thyme and rosemary.