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.

Almond Chicken (Pollo a la almendra)

Spain is the second largest almond producer in the world after the United States. The growing areas are the regions along the Mediterranean Sea and the origin of the almond is Asia, from the Aegean sea to Turkistan. The almond was introduced in Europe by the Greeks and Romans. The best of all varieties is the Marcona almond. It is also the most expensive because of its sweetness - it doesn't have the bitterness of other almonds. Given that Spain is such a big almond producer, it is understandable that there are many  different dishes with almonds as an ingredient.

Ingredients:


1/2 cup olive oil
1 slice bread
15 almonds
6 chicken thighs and 6 legs
1 onion, cut in julienne
4 cloves garlic
1 glass of white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken bouillon
a pinch of saffron
salt and pepper


For the "picada":


almonds
slice of bread
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup parsley
salt


Work this mix in a mortar until if forms a paste called "picada."


In a large pan, heat the olive oil and fry the almonds. When they start getting light brown, remove them from the pan. Then fry the bread, and when it gets light brown, remove it and set it aside. Add the chicken and brown it, then add the onions and garlic, and cook until the onions turn translucent. Next add the glass of wine to the pan and cook for a few minutes until the alcohol burns. Then add the chicken stock and cook everything on a low heat for about 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes add the picada to the chicken and let it cook for about 10 to 15 minutes more until everything is mixed. If you like a creamy sauce, use a chinoise to make it smoother.

Omelet rolls (Rollitos de tortilla)

Why not make something fun for a Sunday brunch? Let's make some omelets with our favorite veggies and cheese and serve them with potatoes  that are boiled and then broiled and a spicy tomato sauce. 

Ingredients:

2 whisked eggs per person
1/2 broccoli head
1 portabella mushroom cut in julienne
2 garlic gloves minced
cream cheese
1 medium yellow yukon potato per person
1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika
tomato sauce or your favorite sauce


Boil or steam the broccoli until it is done. In another pan with a 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, sauté the broccoli with garlic. Remove it from the pan, cut in small pieces and reserve. In the same pan sauté the mushroom, then remove it from the pan and reserve. In a non stick pan pour the eggs, making sure they cover the whole pan. First cook one side and, when it tuns brown, then turn it to the other side. Extend the omelet on a plate and add the broccoli, the mushroom, and cream cheese. Roll it so it is tightly closed. Cut and discard the ends and then continue cutting the roll in 1 inch pieces.


While working on the omelet, put the potatoes to boil. When tender, remove, peel, and cut in wedges. Preheat the oven to the highest number and coat the potatoes with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and Spanish smoked paprika. Then brown them in the oven on all sides by turning the potatoes every few minutes.


In a pan place the tomato sauce, pepper flakes and a pinch of sugar. Let it cook on low heat until it reduces.


Serve the dish on individual plates.

Catalan Cream (Crema catalana)

This is a traditional Catalan dessert made of milk, eggs, cinnamon or vanilla beans, lemon peel, and sugar. It is a very creamy custard topped with caramelized sugar. It is a staple of many holidays, especially for Saint Joseph or Father's Day in Catalonia, so some people know it as Crema de Sant Josep. Today it's eaten any day of the year and it's offered on many dessert menus year round. This dish is the equivalent of the French crème brûlée. The difference is that the French burn the sugar with a torch and the Catalans use a hot iron in the shape of a circle. 

Ingredients:

4 cups whole milk

8 egg yolks

2 tablespoons corn starch

6 tablespoons sugar plus 1/2 tablespoon more per dish to burn

1 cinnamon stick (I use 1 vanilla bean instead. If you use vanilla bean, cut the bean open and extract the vanilla with the tip of a knife.)

1 lemon peel

In a deep pan put 3 cups of milk (save one to mix with the corn starch), the cinnamon stick, and the lemon peel on a very low heat. Just before it starts boiling, remove the pan from the heat. While the milk is heating, take a large bowl, put in the eggs, the sugar and the corn starch previously mixed with 1 cup of milk, and stir. When the milk is ready, take a colander and add it to this mix little by little and keep stirring. Put everything back into the deep pan and cook it on a low heat, stirring continuously until you get a creamy consistency or until it gets to the boiling point. Then remove the pan from the burner and divide the cream evenly in small earthenware bowls. Put them in the refrigerator to cool off. Before serving, place about 1/2 tablespoon  of sugar on top of each dish and burn it to make a hard caramel.  I use a plumbers' torch.

This is a delicious combination of creamy cold custard with hot caramel. It's an easy and quick dish to make.

Cod with garlic and cayenne pepper (Cazuelita de bacalao al ajillo)

The cazuelita is another way to eat tapas in Spain. It is a small earthenware dish used to serve small portions of food that cannot be served on a piece of bread or on a stick because it contains a sauce or broth. In this case, the sauce is an infusion of olive oil with garlic and a cayenne pepper. This is a dish that we will always order in a bar in Gernika name "Forua" on our way home from the "Laga" beach in Urdaibai (Bizkaia).

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1.5 lb. cod fish, desalted and then rehydrated, torn into pieces
6-8 slices garlic cloves
2 whole cayenne peppers 
salt if needed

In a medium size earthenware dish (or if you don't have one use a regular pan), put the olive oil and then add the garlic and cayenne pepper. When the garlic is turning brown and the oil is hot, add the cod and remove the pan from the heat so the cod doesn't get overcooked. Let it rest for two minutes and serve in individual "cazuelitas."

Cod Salad (Esqueixada de bacallá)

La "esqueixada" is a Catalan salad of tomatoes, red onion, peppers, and the star ingredient: dried salted cod which has been desalted and rehydrated. The word "esqueixar" means to tear, and "bacallá" is cod. After the cod is desalted and rehydrated, tear the cod in pieces with your hands. This salad always reminds me of my aunt, Lolita, and my cousin, Alex, who one time made it with lox (salmon) instead of cod. Both of them got really excited when cooking and they produced great dishes from their hearts. This is a very refreshing dish.

Ingredients:

11 oz. desalted cod fish
4 medium tomatoes or 6 roma tomatoes
1 medium red onion cut very thin
3/4 green pepper cut in julienne
Kalamata olives

sherry or wine vinegar
good extra virgin olive oil (always have a good extra virgin olive oil for raw dishes, like salads)
Maldon salt (sea salt)

Mix all the ingredients. Then add the vinegar, olive oil and salt, and toss it.

Chicken with Peppers and Ginger (Pollo con pimientos al jenjibre)

This dish features a flavorful sauce  that combines ginger, soy sauce and vinegar.  It is very easy to prepare and great served with avocados and either basmati rice, cous cous, pasta or flour tortillas. I make it in a wok on high temperature but using a large pan would work equally well.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1 yellow pepper, cut into thin strips
1 green pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red onion, sliced
3 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 1/2" fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup water

Cut the chicken, peppers, and onions and place in a large bowl.  Add the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, cayenne pepper,  and sesame oil and set aside for 15 minutes.  Then heat the olive oil on in the wok, add all of the ingredients and cook on high heat, stirring frequently.  When the chicken is done and the peppers are tender, add the water and flour and stir well  to thicken the sauce. 

Swiss Chard with Chickpeas (Acelgas con Garbanzos)

This dish is a variation of the typical "acelgas con garbanzos." I use the leaves and the stems of the swiss chard. I fill both the stems and the hardboiled eggs with blood sausage. My kids love this dish, of veggies, legumes, potatoes, eggs and, of course, garlic.

Ingredients:

1 bunch swiss chard (separate the leaves from the stems)
1 head of garlic (half chopped and half sliced)
2 cans chick peas
6 small potatoes
1/4 morcilla de Burgos or 1 regular morcilla (blood sausage), crumbled
2 tablespoons milk
3 hardboiled eggs
olive oil
2 teaspoons flour

Separate the leaves of the swiss chard from the stems. Chop the leaves and place both the stems and the leaves  in a pan with boiling water. Add 6 garlic cloves and salt. When the leaves are tender remove them and let the stems cook longer. When they are done,  remove, set aside, and reserve the liquid. In another deep pan  put the potatoes with the skin on and the eggs and boil them. When the eggs and potatoes are done remove them from the pan.

Peel the potatoes, cut them in quarters, put them in a pan with non stick foil, and brown them in a 450˚ oven, stirring so they brown on all sides.

In a large frying pan, put 2 tablespoons olive oil, add the sliced garlic and sauté it until golden brown. Remove the garlic from the pan. Add the swiss chard (just the leaves) and chickpeas, then sauté and add some of the boiling water that was reserved.

In another pan cook the morcilla. Add 2 tablespoons milk and 2 teaspoons flour. Put the mix in half the swiss chard stems and close them with the other stems like a sandwich. Dust them with flour, moisten with egg and fry lightly in oil until golden brown.

To assemble the dish, first put the swiss chard and the chickpeas on a serving platter,  add the fried garlic, the potatoes, the stems filled with morcilla, and the hard boiled eggs. 

Braised Oxtail (Rabo de toro)

This is a stew from the XVI century. Originally from Cordoba, like many dishes it has evolved through  the years. This recipe is a more modern version from the XIX century and it has many variations. The original oxtail wasn't from an ox but from a bull. After a bullfight they would butcher the bull and people would buy parts of it or if it was a remarkable bull it was auctioned off. Now the recipe is made with bull, ox, or veal. You can blend and strain the sauce in a chinoise (conical strainer) or just leave the carrots, and other vegetables untouched. Braising is the cooking process of browning the meat at the beginning of the cooking process to sear it and then using a long cooking process with liquid covering the meat until it falls from the bones. Usually is done with tough meats to cook to the point of tenderness. In this case it took 4 hours. The result is just fantastic.

Ingredients:

4 pounds oxtail, cut in two inch thick rounds
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

3 carrots, peeled and cut in slices
1 medium onion
1 stalk celery
2 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt 
pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons cured ham, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1 bay leaf
1 cup white wine
3 tablespoons flour
2-3 tablespoons flour

In a deep pot, sear the meat in the olive oil until it turns brown. Cover the oxtail with water and then add the carrots, onion, celery, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, remove any foam, and then cover and cook on low heat for three hours. Remove the oxtails and reserve the liquid, skimming off the fat.  Clean out the pot and then put the oil in the pot to heat, followed the garlic, ham, onion, paprika and bay leaf. Sauté until the onion is translucent and then add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid and the cup of wine. Add the flour and stir well until the sauce has thickened. Return the oxtails to the pot, stir well, and taste for salt and pepper. Cover the pot and cook on low heat for one more hour. Serve with boiled potatoes or the vegetable of your choice.

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.

Egg on Toast (Tostada con huevo estrellado)

If you like potatoes, green peppers, serrano ham, and  eggs, then this is your Sunday breakfast - or in Spain it will be supper. There was a café/bar in Bilbao that made a sandwich with an egg in the middle of the bread. I like the idea so now I use it sometimes for my breakfast.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil
3 small yukon potatoes cut in cubes
1/4 green pepper cut in squares
1/2 jalapeño (if you like a hot flavor)
1/2 thick slice of serrano ham cut in cubes
1 slice rustic bread
1 egg
salt and pepper

My husband and daughter like to add sriracha sauce. It goes really well with eggs.

In a pan, place about 1/3 cup olive oil, the potatoes, peppers and jalapeño. Start with low heat and when they are cooked raise to high heat to give some color but do not burn the mixture. Remove from the pan and set on a paper towel.

Make a circle in the middle of the bread with a wine glass. Put the bread one side down in the pan to toast it first. Then turn the bread to toast the other side, add the egg, cover with a lid and check for doneness.

Serve the potatoes on a plate, top with the egg in bread, and add the serrano ham.  

Onion Filled with Orange Lentils (Cebollas rellenas de lentejas)

This is the vegetarian version of "cebollas rellenas." For many families in Spain, during and after the  Civil War, onions were one of the few foods they had to eat. I remember watching a movie of the period where the children would eat raw onions as snacks. Even the great poet Miguel Hernandez has a poem about the onion, "Nanas de la cebolla." It is a nursery rhyme for his son that he wrote in jail after learning from his wife that onions were the only food that she had at home to feed their son. The poem includes the words "cebolla y hambre" (onion and hunger.) It is interesting that the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda also dedicated a poem to tho onion: "Oda a la cebolla." In hard times filling it was better than just a bare onion. Now, like "shepherds crumbs," such onions have become a fancy dish on many menus.

Ingredients:

1 onion per person
1/4 onion chopped 
1 garlic clove chopped
1/4 green pepper chopped
2 mushrooms chopped
1/3 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cups orange lentils (also known as Turkish)
1 cup chicken bouillon
1 cup of the liquid used to boil the onions

Boil the onions in a pan with water until tender. Make the "sofrito" in another pan by cooking the chopped onion, green pepper, garlic and mushrooms until everything is tender Add the paprika and stir, then add the tomatoes and about 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon. Let everything simmer for about 5  minutes, then add the lentils, stir, and add the rest of the cup of bouillon. Simmer for about 40 minutes adding the water from the onions as needed.

Remove the inside of the boiled onions until you only have two outside layers. Fill the onions with the lentils and broil them until they get a light brown color. If you don't have a broiler, just put them in the oven on high heat for a few minutes.

Beans with Clams (Alubias con almejas)

This is a typical dish of northern Spain, especially Asturias and Galicia. My mom also makes it the Mediterranean way, being from Catalonia, with artichokes. The cooking is a little bit different and I like both ways.

Ingredients:

16 little neck clams (in Spain they will use smaller clams)
2 cans great northern white beans 
1/2 onion
1 - 2 garlic cloves chopped
1/4 green pepper
1 ripe tomato cut and peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
a pinch of saffron
salt and pepper
1 cup water
2 parsley sprigs
the liquid of cooking the clams

In a pan put the olive oil and start making the sofrito by adding the onions, garlic, green pepper, salt and pepper. When the onions become translucent, add the tomato and cook on low heat. In the meantime, put another pan with water, salt, garlic and parsley and add the clams. Cook them until they open, then remove from the pan. Strain the liquid and reserve to add to the beans.

When the sofrito is done, add the beans and  saffron, cover with the liquid of the clams, and cook for about 15 minutes. Add the beans to the clams. Serve in a bowl.

Clams in Green Sauce (Almejas en salsa verde)

This dish is a modified version of the typical Basque dish "almejas en salsa verde" or clams in green sauce. I used the same ingredients but instead created a pesto-like sauce, concentrating the flavor in the green sauce.

Ingredients for the sauce:

1 bunch of parsley

1/3 cup pine nuts

1 garlic clove

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt

Other ingredients:

4 to 5 littleneck clams per person

lemon wedges

water to cover the bottom of the pan

liquid of cooking the clams

lemon juice

In a blender put all the ingredients for the sauce, blend, and set aside. To make the clams just cover the bottom of a pan with water and season with salt. Boil, and remove the clams as soon as they open.  Take them out of the shell and set aside. When all the clams are ready add a bit of the boiling liquid and lemon juice to the sauce, stir. On a platter put the sauce and the the clams and add lemon wedges.