Txistorra cooked in Txakoli Wine (Txistorra al Txakoli)

This is a typical Basque "pintxo" or "tapa" (see the difference between them in the entry "pintxo" or "tapa"). It is made of two Basque products: the sausage "txistorra" made of pork, panceta, bacon and paprika which gives the red color, boiled in "txakoli" which is a wine originally made in Basque farm houses for the owners own consumption, made of "green" grapes or grapes that are not ripe yet. If we have to find a similar wine we will be able to use the Portuguese vinho verde. Acidic, fuzzy, light, happy, and young. It needs to be served very cold.

Both of these products have DO (Denomination of Origin)


Ingredients:


1 txistorra
2 cups txakoli


Put the txistorra in a pan and cover it with the txakoli and boil it for about 10 minutes.

Pintxo "Eguzki"

I developed this "pintxo" or tapa (little dish) with three of my favorite products: monkfish, pimientos de Padrón, and quail eggs on top of a piece of rustic bread. I call this pintxo "eguzki" because in Basque it means sun, and the egg looks like a sun.

Ingredients:


6 monkfish medallions
6 Padrón peppers
6 quail eggs
Maldon salt


Dust the monkfish medallions with flour and pan fry, remove from the pan and add a few pieces of Maldon crystal salt. Poke the peppers with a fork and put them in a pan with about half an inch of olive oil and fry the peppers on a low heat until done on all sides. Remove from the pan add salt. Remove the oil from the pan, leaving a little bit. Add the quail eggs to the pan, carefully since they are very fragile. When the eggs are done to your liking, remove from the pan and add maldon salt.


To assemble:


Start with one slice of bread, then add the monkfish on top, then the pepper, and finally the quail egg.

Lollipop quail eggs (Huevos de codorniz en salsa rosa)

It is very common in Spain to find quail eggs in most supermarkets and markets. As a matter of fact, there are stands in the "Boqueria" market in Barcelona, where you can buy any type of egg, from quail and pheasant, to chicken, duck, emu, or ostrich eggs. We serve the quail eggs with a pink sauce, but that doesn't mean you cannot fry them, make deviled eggs, etc...The only difference is the size.

Ingredients:

1 dozen quail eggs

2 tablespoon mayonaise

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 to 2 tablespoons brandy or whiskey

Boil the eggs for about 5 minutes, remove from the pan, and put them in a dish with icy water. When cold, peel them and skew them, one at a time.

For the sauce: mix the mayo, ketchup, and brandy. Stir until everything is mixed evenly. Try and change measurements of any of the ingredients to create the sauce to your liking. Put the sauce in a small bowl.

Serve the eggs on a stick and dip them in the sauce.

Tomato and Cheese Brochette with Pedro Ximenez Vinegar (Brocheta de tomato y queso con reducción de vinagre de Pedro Ximenez)

Pedro Ximenez is a sweet, thick Spanish wine great for pairing with desserts. Today I made brochettes of cheese curds, tomatoes and herb crostini with a reduced Pedro Ximenez vinegar.

Ingredients:


micro greens
grape tomatoes
Wisconsin cheese curds or tofu
herb crostini bread
Pedro Ximenez vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt


Make the crostini ahead of time as follows: cut the bread in squares, toast it, rub with garlic and the herbs of your choice, and drizzle it with olive oil. Lay them in a pepper towel. 


In the meantime combine a cup of Pedro Ximenez vinegar and  1 tablespoon sugar and let it reduce. Remove from the heat and let it rest in the refrigerator.


Assemble the brochettes with tomato, cheese, crostini, cheese, and tomato. Lay them on a plate, add the micro greens, drizzle with some of the reduced vinegar, olive oil and salt. This is nice appetizer, tapa or little salad on a stick.

"Inma" Omelet with Morels, fiddleheads and ramps (Tortilla "Inma" con colmenillas, brotes de helechos y puerros salvajes)

I want to dedicate this dish to my sister Inma, an omelet lover.  

In keeping with the theme of spring flavors, this time I am going to combine the "spring trinity" in an omelet.

Ingredients:

1.5 oz ramps, cross cut

5 to 6 morels, cleaned and cut in quarters

3/4 pound fiddleheads

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 eggs

salt

Clean the morels and sauté them with the  fiddleheads and ramps. Add salt and cook covered for about 7 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Beat the eggs really well, add salt and keep beating. Add the mixture of morels, fiddleheads and ramps to the eggs, stir and pour in a nonstick pan. Once the omelet is done on one side, turn it with the help of a plate and let it cook on the other side. 

Melon and Ham (Melón con jamón)

This is a summer favorite for its simplicity, easy preparation, and the contrast between sweet and savory. It is a very refreshing dish.

Ingredients:


cantaloupe or any other kind of melon
Spanish Serrano ham


Utensils:


melon ball scoop
apple core remover 

Cheese and Fruit Brochette (Brocheta de queso y fruta)

The brochette is another fun way to serve cheese with grapes, which is the most common fruit to go with cheese. As a matter of fact, there is a Spanish saying "las uvas con queso saben a beso" (Grapes with cheese taste lake a kiss.) In any case, fruit and cheese make a good pairing. I added mango because I like the perfume and sweetness of this fruit. I also used the Spanish cheese Manchego from La Mancha and a smoky Basque cheese called Idiazabal.

Ingredients:


Manchego cheese
Idiazabal cheese
green grapes
red grapes
mango
skewers

Mushroom "Tapa" (Pintxo de Txampis)

This is one of the most famous "pintxos" from Pamplona, Navarre. Every year, all through Spain, there are "Tapas and Pintxos" meets where many of the bars, taverns, and  restaurants show off their best. This is a very simple and easy way to make a "pintxo." You may remember my previous entry that explains the difference between them. The word "pintxo" is used in the Basque Country and "tapa" in the rest of Spain. Also, "pintxo" uses a toothpick to skewer it.

Ingredientes:

12 mushrooms (2 per person)

6 minced garlic cloves 

12 shrimp

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt

Put the olive oil and the mushrooms in a pan. Cook for a few minutes, add half of the garlic, and season with salt. Remove the mushrooms and then cook the shrimp and the other half of the garlic, making sure that the garlic doesn't burn. Season with salt.

Squid Filled Pepper (Pintxo de pimiento relleno de txipiron)

What to do with leftover squid in its own ink? I had to disguise them and make a new dish so I made a tapa with peppers. They were fantastic!! I had eaten them once before but they were done with Gernika peppers.

Ingredients:


1 banana pepper per squid
olive oil


Cut the top of the peppers and remove the seeds and veins. Fry them in a pan with about 1/3 cup olive oil. When done fill them with the squid and put the top back. Heat them in the microwave. Lay  them over a piece of bread and put a "pintxo" or spear to hold it together.

Squid in its Own Ink (Txipirones en su tinta)

This dish is a gift from the Gods! Txipirones, chipirones, jibiones, calamares - whatever they are called is ok! I am going to say “txipirones en su tinta,” or squid in its own ink. This dish, along with bacalo al pil-pil and bacalao a la vizcaina, among others, are probably the greatest contributions to the culinary world from the Basque Country. They don’t come from the kitchen of a fancy chef but rather from the wives and fishermen of the Basque country. It is exotic, sophisticated and, yes, delicate. There are many other dishes but this one is really special.

It is laborious if you have to clean the squid but it is worth every second you spend on it. Today you can buy the squid already cleaned but if you cannot I will explain the cleaning procedure to you. The squid is covered by a membrane. It has wings, stomach, tentacles, eyes, beak and ink. I don’t use this ink because I buy the ink in small plastic bags. The ink is used by the squid to camouflage and escape from other predators.

From left to right: The squid as it is caught. Secondly, the squid's body when it is cleaned and turned outside in and ready to be stuffed. In the top right, the parts to discard (eyes, ink and digestive system).  Lastly, the clean tentacles to be stuffed in the squid body. Don't forget to remove the beak in the center of the tentacles.

First, pull out the tentacles and stomach and remove the membrane (it is like skin) from the outside of the squid until they are all white.  Inside you will find what is like a plastic. This is the equivalent of the human spine. Remove it, turn the squid outside in, and remove and discard everything else. Clean the squid under running water. Then clean the tentacles, keeping them, but discard the beak in the center of the tentacles. Then stuff the squid with the clean tentacles.

Squid cleaned and stuffed

Ingredients:

2 pounds cleaned squid with tentacles

2 red onions finely chopped

3 garlic cloves finely chopped

1/4 green pepper

3 tablespoons breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons brandy

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

2 packages squid ink (It is sold in all Spanish stores)

1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

In a pan put 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onion, garlic and green pepper and cook slowly on low heat. When the onion turns translucent add the bread crumbs and brandy and raise the heat to let the alcohol burn. Add the tomato sauce and the ink previously dissolved with flour and warm water to the mix. Then add about 2 cups water, season with salt and let the sauce simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Place this mix in a blender and blend until you have a smooth and velvety sauce.

In another pan put about a tablespoon of olive oil and cook the squid on low heat until tender or pink. If they pass the point of tenderness and you find they are tough, you can rectify this by cooking them longer with the sauce.

Add the squid with a spoon of the liquid to the sauce and cook them until tender (to the point when you can cut them with a fork). If the sauce gets too thick, add water and stir it. Serve with bread and a lot of sauce.

Pintxo de txipiron

Tapas, Pintxos or Banderillas?

Tapas, pintxos or banderillas? What is the difference? I will say that pintxos and tapas are mostly the same. In the Basque Country (Euskadi), originally we called any tapa that could be skewered on bread or pastry a pintxo. Now a pintxo is anything that is  bite size.


A pintxo is a spike. These spikes help keep together whatever we want to put on a piece of bread. When you go to a pintxos bar you see a long counter full of different delicacies and you just grab a plate and fill it with what you want to eat. When it gets time to pay you count the toothpicks or spikes and pay the same for each one. Let's say every pintxo is one euro and you have ten toothpicks - that will be 10 euros. The tradition in the basque country is to meet your friends and go bar hopping, eat pintxos and drink. This is known as txikiteo, from the word txiki "small" for the size of the glasses and amount of wine "txikito" or beer "zurito."

Pintxo with the spike

Tapa, might come from the Spanish word "Tapar" to cover. Legend says that in the posadas and taverns of Andalusia and Castilla men would drink sherry or wine.  In certain months of the year because of the hot weather there were flies so the men used to cover the earthware glasses with a piece of bread between sips. There are other legends but this one really makes sense to me. In some cities in Castilla León, León, Salamanca; In Castilla la Mancha Almagro; In Madrid and in Andalusia, Granada when you order a drink they bring you a free tapa, isn't that nice?


The "Tortilla de patatas" or "Spanish omelette" can be a tapa or a pintxo.

Tapa over a slice of bread, with a spike becomes a pintxo

Banderillas are the spears used in the bullfight. One end has the spear and the other ruffled paper of different colors. The banderillas in bars usually have a vegetable or fish preserved in vinaigrette or olive oil. The most famous banderilla probably is one named "Gilda" after the movie of the same name. When the movie arrived to be shown in Spain the censor considered the scene where Rita Hayworth took off her arm length glove to be very "picante" so he cut several scenes. The "Gilda" has guindilla (a hot green pepper) and a couple of anchovy stuffed olives, both preserves.  Other banderillas include skewers of midget pickles, onions, red pepper, anchovies stuff olives or tuna but no bread.

These are the famous "Gildas"