Sole with Lemon Sauce and Capers (Lenguado con salsa de limón y alcaparras)

Sole is a very delicate white fish. It is very common in Spain, as are the lemons and capers featured in this recipe. The Spanish word for caper is of arabic origin: "alcaparra." Spain is the largest producer of capers, a Mediterranean product. This recipe is quick and very simple to make.

Ingredients:

6 sole fillets

For the sauce:

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
juice from one lemon
1/2 small red onion finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons capers
Salt and pepper

Mix all the sauce ingredients and heat in a double boiler.

In a hot pan put 1 tablespoon olive oil and add the sole fillets. When they are turning a golden color, turn them and cook the other side. Remove from the pan and season, place on a plate and add the sauce.

Apple Roll with Blood Sausage (Pintxo de manzana con morcilla)

I will call this tapa a "pintxo" because it is held together by a toothpick. This is an easy, quick and simple pintxo to make.

Pintxo de manzana con morcilla

Ingredients:

1 Apple

1 half blood sausage

Slice the apple very thin, put in layers and then place in the oven at high heat. In the meantime, open the blood sausage and make little balls and then roll  to make cylinders.  Cook the sausage in a pan until brown. When both are done put the sausage on top of the apple and roll it. Hold the roll with a toothpick.

Homemade Potato Chips and Onion Duo

How about a cold beer or wine with a free tapa of homemade chips and onions? That would be something that you would get if ordering a drink in Granada or Madrid but in other regions of Spain you will have to pay for it.

Ingredients:

3 potatoes finely sliced

3 onions finely sliced

olive oil or vegetable oil

"Maldon" sea salt

If you have a mandolin you can decide how thin you would like to cut your potatoes and onions. Otherwise, you have to work your knife skills.

Fill a deep pan almost half full with olive oil or vegetable oil. When the oil gets really hot, pour the  potatoes in the oil one at a time and stir them, so they don't get stuck to each other. When they get golden brown remove them and put on a paper towel.

Do the same with the onions. Add "Maldon" salt or sea salt. This type of potato, since most  people buy them already made, is called "patatas de churrería," because where they make "churros", they also make chips.

Port Pork tenderloin (Solomillo de cerdo al oporto)

This recipe for pork tenderloin should be done with a sweet wine like a "Pedro Ximenez" or in this case a port with grapes and raisins. 

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup port

1 cup fresh grape juice

1 cup chicken broth 

1 tablespoon corn starch

1/2 cup raisins presoaked in water

salt and pepper

onion finely sliced and fried to garnish the dish

grapes for garnish

steamed asparagus

for the mashed potatoes:

6 big yukon gold potatoes cut in cubes

1 garlic head

salt

cream

Sear the tenderloins in olive oil on high heat and remove from the pan. Add the port to the pan, the grape juice, add the tenderloins and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes. Then add the corn starch diluted in the cup of chicken broth. Let it reduce about ten minutes and then add the raisins. Remove the tenderloin, and let the sauce reduce more to your likeness. 

Serve on a platter with the sauce, grapes, green asparagus, mashed potatoes, and fried onions.

Veal Fricassee (Fricandó de ternera)

"Fricandó"  is a traditional Catalan fall dish of veal and a sauce made of onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes and wine, with thyme, rosemary, and fall mushrooms. It is cooked slowly on low heat.

Ingredients:


6  veal steaks
flour
2 onions finely chopped
4 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 large carrot sliced
6 ripe grated tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine
2 boxes shiitake mushrooms (for lack of fall mushrooms)
2 boxes oyster mushrooms (for lack of fall mushrooms)


For the picada:


one handful pine nuts
2 slices of fried bread
1 garlic clove
parsley
salt
2 tablespoons chicken stock


Mix all the picada ingredients in a blender or mortar and reserve.


Flour the steaks and sear them in a pan with hot olive oil. When they are brown, remove them from the pan and reserve. In the same pan make the sofrito add the onion, garlic, and carrots and simmer until the onion turns translucent. Then add the grated tomato and as they start reducing add the wine. Cook everything until the mix is reduced. Put the mix in a blender and pureé.


Return the steaks to the pan, add the mushrooms, and put the sofrito (the mix from the blender) on top of the steaks. Let it cook for about an hour on low heat with the lid on or until the steaks are very tender to the touch of a fork. If you need more liquid, add chicken stock. To finish, add the picada and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Pears in Red Wine (Peras al vino)

Another two products that are abundant in Spain are fruits and wine. So what is better than to pair the two of them? Fall is a great season to combine them with the picking of ripe pears and the grape harvest. Some years the abundance of grapes and wine in "La Rioja" was so great that with the surplus they celebrated a festival called "la batalla del vino" (the wine battle). On this day groups of young (and not so young) people squirted wine on each other with sprayers. This celebration continues and is held June 29th in Haro, La Rioja, Saint Peter's Day. In this recipe we are going to mix both products.

Ingredients:

6 pears peeled but keep the stem on
1 liter bottle red wine or 4 cups
4 tablespoons sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 star aniseed


In a deep pan put the pears, sugar, wine, cinnamon stick and star aniseed. Let them cook until the pears are tender and then remove them from the pan. Reduce the wine until it becomes a syrup. Serve the pears with the syrup and vanilla ice cream.

Cauliflower au gratin (Coliflor gratinada)

"Coliflor gratinada" is great as a tapa or as a side dish to complement meats. My family tradition was/is to serve it on Christmas. Children love it because it has the creaminess of the béchamel and the softness of the cauliflower. The only person I know who didn't like it as a child was my older brother, Javier. Well, I hope he likes it now.

Ingredients:

the florets of 1 cauliflower

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

4 cups hot milk

salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

parmesan cheese (optional)

Boil the cauliflower with a pinch of salt until tender, remove carefully from the water and strain it.

For the béchamel:

In a sauce pan, put the butter to melt. While it's melting, be careful not to burn the butter. Afterwards, add the flour and stir it. When it is mixed, start adding the hot milk little by little, always stirring it. Add the salt and nutmeg, keep stirring until it thickens, or until it is the consistency that you like.

Put the florets on an ovenproof plater, add the béchamel on top of the cauliflower, add a few thin slices of butter, parmesan cheese (optional), and put it into the broiler until it browns.

Talo con Chorizo y Morokil (Corn Porridge)

TALO is like a "tortilla" in México and Central America or "arepas" in Venezuela and Colombia. They say the secret to a good "talo" is in the corn and the flour. During the XVI century many Basque people went to the Americas on expeditions. The Basque Country is mountainous, wet, and humid, with a lot of rain. For those reasons, there was not an area to grow wheat. In the Americas the Basque discovered corn. Bringing it and adapting it to the Basque Country was easy. They started harvesting corn to feed the animals and to grind in mills as flour. The "talo," or Basque bread, helped during winter months because people could avoid going hungry; it is very filling. Another use of the corn flour is to make "morokil," a mix of corn flour and milk to make porridge. The biggest difference with tortillas is the use of hot water. In the Americas they grind the corn by hand with a stone mill. In the Basque Country there are barely any functioning mills left.


This dish reminds me of my "tías" Eulalia and Josefín. I can picture them cooking "talos" and eating "morokil" for supper or breakfast. At school they used to reward us with a medal pinned onto our uniforms. My reward at home was a merienda of "talo" with chorizo, courtesy of "tía" Eulalia for going home with a medal. Sometimes I used to borrow a medal just to get a "talo." Once the daily bread, today it is the "hamaiketako," the eleven o'clock lunch during fairs and festivals, such as the day of "Santo Tomás" or "San Blas." At least we are keeping the tradition alive!

3 cups corn flour (yellow - amarilla)
hot water
salt
chorizo, txistorra, morcilla, bacon, etc...


Put the flour and salt into a bowl and add hot water from a kettle little by little. Stir, until it gets to be a mix like Play-Doh (humid and flexible). Make a ball and then put it on a wood surface. Dust with flour and pat it down, forming a circle. Place the "talos" in a hot pan. When done on both sides, serve with chorizo (boiled in beer or wine,) morcilla or bacon.


MOROKIL


The "morokil" is another traditional Basque dish. It is made with corn flour and hot milk, and it is usually eaten for breakfast or supper.

Ingredients:

1 cup corn flour (yellow-amarilla)

2 cups hot milk boiled with cinnamon and lemon peel

1 tablespoons brown sugar

agave honey or regular honey

wild fruits for toppings

The original dish didn't have cinnamon or fruits. A simple filling dish and an alternative for celiacs. 

Pigs Feet (Manitas o patitas de cerdo)

This is another traditional Spanish dish and in every region it is made in a different way. I made the pigs feet "Catalan style." I call this dish Catalan style because it is done with the famous "picada," which is a mix of a couple of slices of fried bread, garlic, almonds, pine nuts, a couple tablespoons of chicken broth and salt to help mash all the ingredients in a mortar.

During times when food was not abundant, when there were not large stores or supermarkets, and  before the industrial revolution that created work in factories, many people were farmers and they had to use everything or most parts of the animals they slaughtered in order to survive the winter months. This dish is one such example.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. pigs feet
2 red onions finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 ripe grated tomatoes 
2 large carrots sliced thin
1 dried cayenne pepper

1/2 glass white wine
3 cups chicken stock (low in sodium)
12 toasted marcona almonds
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 slices fried bread
5 garlic cloves
a pinch of saffron
salt and pepper
2 potatoes cut in cubes

In a deep 2 quart pan put the pig's feet to boil. After an hour remove them from the pan and discard the boiling water. Add clean water to the pan and then the pigs feet and boil them on  medium heat for three hours or until tender.

While the pigs feet are cooking, start the sofrito in a pan by cooking the onions, cayenne pepper and carrots in olive oil until the onions turn translucent. Then add the tomato and cook until the sauce starts thickening and the carrots are tender. Remove from the pan, put in a blender and puré. 

Put the pig's feet in the same pan that you used to cook the sofrito. Pour the puré over the pig's feet, add the wine, and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the chicken stock and let it reduce. 

While it is cooking, make the picada. The original picada was done in a mortar but I use a blender to puré the marcona almonds, pine nuts, fried bread, garlic, a pinch of saffron, about 1/2 cup chicken stock, salt and pepper. Pour the picada over the pig's feet and let it cook on low heat for about 30 minutes until the sauce starts thickening. Fry the potatoes and add to the pig's feet. They are just delicious!

Lime Soup (Sopa de lima)

We love to travel and two of our favorite destinations are Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. A year ago we discovered the beautiful Mexican state of Campeche and enjoyed this soup, very similar to one we had as we traveled from Guatemala City to Lake Atitlán.

Ingredients:

4 corn tortillas
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3-4 fresh serrano or jalapeño peppers, sliced
4 cups chicken broth
2 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 bay leaf
juice of 3-4 limes, fresh squezzed
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Toast the tortillas in the oven until crisp. Then cut in slices and set aside. Sauté the tomatoes, onion, garlic and peppers in olive oil until done.  Add the broth, chicken and bay leaf. As the soup heats, add the lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. Then add the tortilla slices and stir well. Remove the bay leaf and serve with additional lime wedges.

Apple Torte (Pastel de Manzana)

Sunday's lunch is the time reserved for sweet desserts; otherwise, a variety of fruits is the custom. This recipe, with other cakes, tortes, and sweets, is reserved for Sundays and holidays. 

Ingredients:


1 sheet puff pastry
3 apples
sugar
peach marmalade


Leave the puff pastry to defrost. Then, roll it with a rolling pin from the center to the edges. Peal the apple and cut it in small wedges. Sprinkle granulated sugar over it. Put it on a tray and into a preheated oven at 325˚F. The baking time will depend on the type of apple and the its thickness. When it turns brown, remove from the oven and add the peach jam. Serve with some strawberries, wild fruits, and cream.

Ham Sandwich with Colored Pepper Vinaigrette (Bocata de jamón dulce con vinagreta de pimientos)

This is a very simple sandwich to make but full of flavor, from the smokiness of the ham and the acidity of the vinaigrette to the buttery texture of the lettuce.

Ingredients:

1/4 green pepper finely chopped or cut in julienne

1/4 yellow pepper finely chopped or cut in julienne

1/4 red pepper finely chopped or cut in julienne

1/2 red onion finely chopped

1 teaspoon mustard (optional)

olive oil

wine or sherry vinegar 

smoked ham slices

butter lettuce

baguette

Mix the peppers, onion, vinegar and olive oil in a bowl.  If you like you can add a teaspoon of mustard.

Make the vinaigrette a couple of hours before you use it and keep in the refrigerator. Open the bread and layer the sandwich with vinaigrette, lettuce, ham and more vinaigrette.

Tripe Biscayne Style (Callos a la Vizcaina)

Tripe Biscayne Style, or "callos a la vizcaina,"  is a traditional Basque dish. The recipe also calls for cow cheeks and leg but I couldn't find these two ingredients. In some countries tripe is called "mondongo" or "menudo" and recipes may include cow feet or lamb feet, and cow cheeks. Maybe the best known tripe dish is "callos a la madrileña." Today's dish is going to be a simple version since some ingredients are hard to find here.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds cow tripe
1/2 cup vinegar
1 big carrot or 2 medium carrots
1 onion cut in quarters
5 garlic cloves
1 celery stack
1/2 green pepper

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large red onions, finely chopped
1 small leek, finely chopped
1/4 green pepper, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 or two dried cayenne peppers
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce or homemade tomato sauce
15 dried choricero peppers or 5 tablespoons of their meat (if you cannot obtain choricero peppers, use the equivalent amount of dried chile ancho)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Spanish chorizo, cut in small pieces
1/2 cup Spanish serrano ham, cut in small cubes

Clean the tripe with water and put it in a bowl with enough water and vinegar to cover. Let it rest for an hour and discard the liquid. Then put the tripe in a 2 quart pan, fill the pan with water, and add the carrot, onion, garlic, celery and green pepper. Cook for about 4 hours until the tripe is tender. Take it out of the pan and cut in small pieces about 1 inch by 1 inch. 

While the tripe is cooking, make the Biscayne sauce. In a pan put the olive oil, onion, garlic, leek, green pepper, and cayenne pepper and cook until everything is tender. Add the tomato sauce and cook for a couple of  minutes. Then add the meat of the dried peppers (rehydrated and the meat removed with a spoon), cook until all the flavors are mixed, and add salt and pepper to taste. Purée in a blender, until it becomes a velvety sauce. 

Add the sauce to the tripe along with the Spanish chorizo and serrano ham and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes until everything is mixed and the flavors blend. For maximum flavor, let the tripe rest overnight (or 8 to 10 hours) before serving in  small earthenware dishes. Now we have a "cazuelita" de callos and this is another way to eat in Spain!

"Cazuelitas" are small earthenware dishes and they hold small portions of food - the amount between tapas and a regular serving. It is typical in many bars, taverns and restaurants to have a "tapas" menu and a "cazuelitas" menu.

Here is an example of a "cazuelitas" and "tapas" menu from the restaurant "Los Parrales"

French Omelet Sandwich (Sandwich de tortilla francesa)

"Tortilla francesa" is an omelet with no fixings. The secret to this sandwich is  the rubbed tomato bread (pan con tomate) which is traditional in Catalonia. A simple and quick lunch.

Ingredients:


1/4 cup olive oil just to wet the pan
1 or 2 eggs whisked
salt
2 slices rustic bread or baguette
1 very ripe tomato
salt
extra virgin olive oil


Rub one side of each bread slice with a very ripe tomato. Then sprinkle the bread with salt and extra virgin olive oil. Whisk 2 eggs and pour them in a medium sauté pan. Start folding the omelet and cook to the desired doneness. Place the omelet on one slice of bread and top it with the other slice.

Leek Cake (Pastel de puerros)

Leeks are a very popular vegetable in the Basque Country. There are great dishes like "leeks and potatoes." They are used as part of many sauces, soups, blood sausage with leeks, or simply steamed. In today's dish we are going to make a leek cake with puff pastry.

Ingredients:

puff pastry (from the store)

4 large leeks or 6 medium leeks ( I bought mine organic at Just Local)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup whipping cream

2 egg yolks

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg whisked (to brush the top of the pastry)

Because leeks grow underground (they belong to the family of the onion), the first thing to do is clean them. To clean the leeks, cut between the green and white (as in the above picture), and then cut the white in the form of a cross and clean them, making sure to remove any dirt. Then cut in julienne and boil the leeks until tender. Strain them, sauté with the butter, add the flour, stir, and add the cream mixed with the egg yolks. Then season with salt and pepper.

Put the puff pastry in a mold, add the leek mixture and cover with another layer of pastry. Brush the top pastry with the egg and put the cake in the oven at 400˚F for about 30 minutes or until the pastry gets a golden brown color.

Filled Potato Balls (Patatas rellenas)

This is a dish that my kids love. It is made with mashed potatoes, filled with a tuna mixture, breaded in a beer batter, and deep fried.

Ingredients:

6  medium yukon gold potatoes

1 garlic head

1 quart water

1/4 to 1/2 cup cream

salt

For the filling:

1 small can albacore tuna

1 dozen black olives

1/2 roasted red pepper

1 boiled egg

For the batter:

2 whisked eggs

4 tablespoons flour

1/2 glass beer

salt

Red Sauce:

1 roasted red pepper if done at home or 1/2 jar roasted red peppers

2 anchovy fillets

1 hard boiled egg

1 cup homemade or 1 small can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon sriracha sauce

Put all the sauce ingredients in a blender and purée.

In a pan with a quart of water put the potatoes, the garlic head and salt. Boil them until tender. Strain the water and mash the potatoes and garlic with cream (add the cream little by little). Let the mashed potatoes cool.

In a sauce pan put a drizzle of olive oil and cook the onion until translucent. Add the tuna, red pepper, egg, olives, and tomato sauce and  stir to make a filling. Ones it is done let the filling cool. Then take spoonfuls of mashed potato, make a hole in the middle of each to fill with the mixture and then close. Dust  the  potato balls with flour and then dip them in the batter. Fry on high heat and when done remove from the pan and let them rest on a paper towel.

Serve on a plate with the red sauce.

Halibut in Green Sauce (Mero en salsa verde)

There is a saying in Spanish: "De la mar el mero y de la tierra el cordero" ("from the sea, halibut, and from the earth, lamb.") This traditional Basque recipe is usually made with hake but because of the difficulty of finding hake where we live I used halibut. It is a very delicate fish with a sweet flavor but easy to overcook. Like codfish, it has to be moist, juicy and flaky. This is a North Pacific Halibut and unlike the ones you buy in Spain, which usually are no more that a foot and a half long, they are huge and therefore sold in big fillets.

Ingredients:

olive oil

4 garlic cloves

1 cup parsley

3 halibut fillets divided in half

1 can green peas with its liquid. It gives a lot of flavor to the sauce. 

1 jar white asparagus with its liquid

1/2 cup water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch

6 hard boiled eggs (1 per person), cut in half

salt and pepper to season

One bite full of omega 3, vitamin B,  B12, proteins
and veggies  

Season the halibut fillets and place in a pan with olive oil and garlic. When the garlic and halibut start changing color,  flip the fish to the other side and cook just enough to give some color to the halibut. Remove from the pan. Add the parsley, green peas and asparagus with their liquid. Then add the water with cornstarch and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the fish to the sauce and cook each side for a couple of minutes until the fish is flaky. Avoid  overcooking because otherwise it will be very dry. Add the eggs and serve, pouring the sauce over the halibut and eggs. My kids love this recipe. The fish is moist but not fishy and the sauce with the peas is a hit.