Recipe CXLI - Judias Con Bacon y Zanahoria

In the long run, we come to a point where we need to ditch the rice. Today's recipe is a simple meal I was supposed to do with my daughter for a school assignment. But she, like all kids her age, have something against anything that may have once grown in a field. 

Unless it's called a potato. 

Anyway... it's such a simple thing to put together but makes it a pleasure to eat healthy, which is often the biggest problem with vegetables: they're often a very hard sell when you're not a dedicated vegan or vegetarian. 

Ingredients:

200g green beans, cut to your preferred size 

250g carrots, diced, sliced or cut into matchsticks 

150g bacon strips

1 large onion

6 cloves of garlic

A glass of white wine 

Olive oil 

Instructions:

Heat up the olive oil, add the onions and sweat for a couple of minutes. 

Add the beans and carrots, sweat some more.

Then the garlic, and put the lid on your pan on a low heat for 20 minutes. 

Add white wine if you want, just for a bit of sweetness.

I had mine with an Ibérico cutlet, but it's fine on its own as a starter.

(By the way, the kids had yesterday's spaghetti ragu from the fridge)

Enjoy!

Recipe CXL - Arroz con Secreto Ibérico

We have to talk about secreto ibérico. In English this translates as Iberian Secret, and its name is not ironic. Like a lot of Spanish food, it has been overshadowed by a small collection of more commercial fare to feed the masses on the Costas: gazpacho, tortilla española, paella... but these are the Spanish equivalent of a carbonara or a pizza: they're so popular it's easy to find places that make them incredibly badly.

Secreto ibérico is a cut of meat somewhere around the shoulder from the black pata negra pig. Not to be confused with the duroc sort, it has blackened feet (pata = animal foot, negra = black) and is usually dark in colour. The breed can be classed as indigenous, considering it is probably related to those brought over by early mercantile sailors from the Levant about 2700 years ago.

But what makes the pata negra pig so special is it has the most splendid life: it is a government-protected creature that is granted 5 acres of forest per animal to be allowed to wander the primeval oak forests eating acorns, mushrooms, and the wild vegetation found in these most rural parts of Spain. 

There are four designated areas where the true pata negra pig is raised: 

The town of Jabugo in Huelva province close to the Portuguese border;

Guijuelo, near Salamanca, also near the Portuguese border;

Valle de los Pedrochos, to the north of Cordoba; and

The region of Extremadura, right next to Portugal.

So due to its utterly idyllic existence giving it a supple muscle tone and a slightly nutty flavour, the meat for cooking has a marbled Wagyu-style fat arrangement that makes it supremely tender, and is therefore highly prized by any restaurant in Spain that doesn't cater to the masses. The ham from acorn-fed pigs is cured for up to four years, and they are hung up with their black trotters still attached to prove they are from pata negra pigs.

Ordinary pork is notoriously easy to overcook until it's as tough as a shoe sole, but secreto ibérico stays tender longer, allowing for it to be nicely browned on the outside, burnt even, and still retain its succulence on the inside, making it a barbecue essential. It goes well with many types of food, such as this delightful combination from a restaurant in Mestalla called El Rinconet (see the photo below), which I recommend very highly.

The cut of meat is generally a little like a beef flank steak and it's often cut into strips to make it easier to handle.

Secreto Ibérico from El Rinconet in Mestalla, central Valencia

But the recipe I have for you is another rice one - it's very similar to the last: I think I'm going through a rice phase. It is so simple and yet so delicious, you will travel for miles just to find some secreto ibérico for dinner every now and then!

Ingredients:

350g plain rice

450 g to 500 g of secreto ibérico, cut into strips against the fibres

1 large succulent onion

250 g shimeji mushrooms

6 to 8 cloves of garlic

1 litre of chicken stock

As many peas as you like

You are welcome to add diced carrots, green beans, or any other appropriate vegetable

Salt, ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Cut up your vegetables and slice the meat into strips against the grain of the muscles.

Fry the meat on a medium-high heat in some olive oil until they are sealed, adding salt and pepper. 

Remove them and place them on the side for a while.

Sweat the onion and mushrooms on a medium heat, add the garlic and whatever other vegetables you want, and mix them together well stirring all the time. Don't season with too much salt yet.

Add the rice, let it fry for a minute, stir continuously, then start pouring in the chicken stock. Once bubbling, turn the heat down and add more stock every now and then to keep the contents from drying up and burning.

After 5 or 6 minutes, put the secreto back in and mix all the ingredients well. 

From the moment the stock goes in, you will need between 12 and 15 minutes until ready to eat.

Recipe CXXXIX - Arroz Con Salchichas, Carne y Garbanzos

So I've rocked up in Spain. In August, we made the transition from Germany to Valencia and the chances of us returning north in the foreseeable future are pretty remote. What's more, I'd like to tell you about a theory of mine, based on this assumption: 

Spanish cuisine is head and shoulders above Italian. Why? Because it's been allowed to develop and adapt. And I think it's because of one very small but crucial difference - Italians name their food after either the place it was invented or the person who created it, and thus it is fixed in stone. Forever. There is no diversion from the recipe, or someone there will lose control and give your culo a good, hard schiaffeggio. 

In Spain, there are recipes named after places or people too, such as Paella Valenciana or Salmorejo Cordobés, but restaurant menus generally list items based on their ingredients, and for this sole reason, Spanish food has come on leaps and bounds in the twenty-first century, while Italian cuisine has painted itself into a corner, something the great Pellegrino Artusi would have definitely frowned upon.

Attempts at adapting recipes put most traditionalists (therefore most Italians) off - try adding some fresh sage in the ragù and watch them go nuts. Spanish restaurants not only offer a more diverse range of food, they are also much less pretentious. That isn't to say Italian food is bad; it's just a lot of it is underwhelming and rather outdated.

This recipe is one I adapted from a delightful dish I was served last week at the place round the corner from our office where we eat lunch three or four times a week. And this is the beauty of Spanish food - just choose the ingredients you want to add, which is why many of them below are optional.

Ingredients:

Four sliced longaniza sausages, or similar (thin pork sausages about 12cm long)

Two sliced black pudding sausages (optional)

350g diced veal

350g chick peas (optional - mine had some sliced truffles in)

3 diced carrots (optional)

Other diced vegetables, e.g. green peppers, peas, aubergine

1 large diced onion

2 to 4 cloves of garlic

350g traditional rice

1 litre meat broth

Olive oil for frying

A little salt and pepper

Some dried herbs (optional)

Some water (optional)

Instructions: 

Firstly, put your olive oil on medium heat and add your vegetables and garlic. 

Put a little salt and pepper in it and fry gently into a sofrito. Then add your sausages and meat and fry until they are sealed. 

Add your chick peas and the rice and start slowly pouring in your broth, letting it reduce before putting in some more. 

Keep this up for 15 to 20 minutes, then serve piping hot.

It should have a creamy and sticky texture.

¡Que aproveche!

Recipe CXXXVIII - Beef Wellington Made Simple

Yes, it's been a while since I posted... once I reached a hundred, I decided to relax a bit. Also, having three young kids and precious little time for such luxuries, means I'm more likely to spend my free time cutting the grass or repairing a leaking tap than I am writing recipes...

This was the meal I cooked on the last day of the festive season, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Take no notice of those who want you to be perfect with all the silly technical details - as long as you get the ingredients to your satisfaction, a Beef Wellington is actually less fiddly work than making a lasagne.

There are two adults and three small children in the house, so I didn't make a huge one, hence the final photo making it look like a pasty... I can assure you it was actually much bigger than that.

Ingredients:

Beef fillet

Olive oil

7 to 10 brown mushrooms

2 red onions

2 or 3 cloves of garlic

A small glass of dry white wine

A cube of butter

Fresh herbs - I used sage, as I love it, but thyme is the traditional one

6 or 7 slices of Prosciutto or Serrano ham

A roll or two of puff pastry

1 or 2 beaten egg yolks

An appropriate amount of clingfilm

A blender or a bowl and hand blender

Instructions:

Put the beef in the oven for 25 mins at 200°C. While this is going on, blend up the mushrooms, red onions, garlic, herbs, some olive oil to make a duxelle, then fry it gently in more olive oil, adding the wine to give it some extra flavour. When it's time, take the beef out and let it cool down: it shouldn't be too well-cooked.

Lay the pastry out flat and put it on some clingfilm, so you can remove the shop-made paper (it's sometimes sticky and can ruin your pastry).

Place the prosciutto on the middle of the pastry layer where your beef will eventually go, and put some duxelle on the prosciutto. Put the beef on top, and spread the rest of the duxelle on the beef until it is covered.

Wrap the pastry over the top, fold in the corners, and glaze the pastry with an egg, sealing all the joins. Make some incisions in the surface of the pastry with the back of your knife, making sure you don't make a hole.

Recommended but not obligatory: put it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Glaze the surface once again, place the whole thing in the oven for 25 minutes on 200°C.

Let it rest for a few minutes before carving, preferably using a sharpened knife. Enjoy!

Recipe CXXXVII - Pot Roast Melon d'Agneau

Fusion Food: two words, when seen together, that strike fear into any decent, self-respecting food lover anywhere. If you want teriyaki with empanadas or tagine-cooked pierogi, you are welcome but please don't even think about inviting me for some because first, I'd rather cut off my nipples with a sharpened spoon; and second, I will never be able to be seen with you in public ever again.

 Anyhow, there are some circumstances where this might work, so you are always free to suggest it... if you dare. And one of those circumstances took place in my kitchen this afternoon. I decided to combine my acquisitions from the greengrocer and butcher's shop in Sierck-Les-Bains with a great (acceptable) American culinary tradition and make a pot roast with French ingredients.

Ingredients (feeds between 4 and 6 hungry people): 

One boneless shoulder of lamb, bound like a ball.

Enough potatoes for your dinner guests

One or two onions

Five cloves of garlic (crushed with a knife)

Several carrots (I chose orange and red ones)

Brussels sprouts, halved

Three or four sprigs of rosemary

A lot of olive oil

A glassful of red wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Set the oven for 180°C. Cut, peel, slice the vegetables to your satisfaction; parboil the potatoes.

Take the lamb and sear it in a pan until the outside is sealed; cover it in salt, pepper and oil.

Take a large roasting pot with a lid and put the vegetables randomly in the bottom, giving them a stir in the oil. Add some salt.

Put the potatoes in with some more oil, and the lamb on top of that, with the rosemary and garlic spread around evenly. Cook for twenty minutes uncovered. Then add the red wine and put the lid on, reduce the temperature to 120°C for an hour, then take the lid off for a further 20 minutes. 

Remove the lamb, cut into slices, and apportion the vegetables accordingly. 

If you're feeling adventurous:

A good stuffing would round this meal off nicely. Here's one that would work:

Ingredients:

About two hands full of yesterday's bread, broken into very small pieces
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
Some fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme and sage should be good)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A binding agent like lemon juice, milk or an egg

Instructions:

Put the stuffing ingredients (except the bread) into a mixer and give it a thorough blitzing.
Then add the bread and turn it into a pâté-like consistency. Roll balls out of the mixture and add to the pot at random. Alternatively, spread it out over the top of the lamb.

Cook with the other ingredients.

Recipe CXXXVI - Summer Food: Potato Salad with Pickled Red Onions

This year's weather so far has been... well... forgettable at the best of times. Last year, by the end of March, we had already spent several days outside, lunches in the garden, walks by the river, socks put firmly in the drawers until October. Not so this year. Today was the first time we had breakfast outside, although it was still slightly chilly, but I didn't care. So by the time lunch came around, it was a pretty decent early summer afternoon. It reminded me of the summers of my youth, back before our current parlous state, when we would all be able to mow the grass without ending up with sunstroke and a severe case of dehydration. So to celebrate this gorgeous day of fluffy white clouds, a gentle breeze and the chirrup of birds, I made two salads to go with a lovely piece of duroc pork. This is a real crowd-pleasing recipe and one that you can easily take with you to picnics or BYOF gatherings.

Ingredients: 

1kg floury potatoes

A handful of chopped chives (optional)

Some olive oil

Some mayonnaise

3 medium-sized red onions

150ml+ apple cider vinegar

Sugar and salt to taste

Instructions:

Pre-boil the potatoes and leave them to cool. Floury potatoes are good for this recipe because they give off a creamy texture and go very well with the combination. Put in a small amount of olive oil as the potatoes will be sticky and this will let you separate them on the plate more easily. Once they are cool, add some mayonnaise and chopped chives. Not much mayonnaise, just enough to coat.

While the potatoes are cooling, you can make your red onion pickle. Heat some apple cider vinegar in a small saucepan on a low flame - you don't want to evaporate it, as it will be used later in the jar. Cut up the onions as small as possible and add them to the hot vinegar. Add sugar and salt to the pan until you get the right balance of sweet, salty and sour. The onions should be sweet more than the other two, as it will complement your potato salad very well.

Once you have the balance, pour the liquid and the onions into a jar and leave to cool. Add to the potato salad and serve cold.

I served ours with a piece of Spanish duroc pork and a crispy salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and mustard.

I shall be making this once more very soon.

Recipe CXXXV - Fish Pie

Another staple of Christmas in various parts of Europe is the fish. In central Europe, the carp is the most common type, as it's a freshwater species and can be sourced in large quantities and bought a few days in advance. It's quite common in Czechia or Slovakia to see huge tubs of carp on market squares with customers queuing up to select their own. As they are alive, they are transported home very carefully and usually kept in the bath until its big appearance on Christmas Eve. 

It is served then because 24 December is known as Štědrý Den (Generous Day), and the last day of Advent fasting. So it was considered to be a good way of kicking off the feast, as it is a rather tasteless and boring fish, but also a more substantial meal than what they would have previously had. 

So we're not going to make our fish pie with carp; we need something with a little flavour and maybe some character. I went for cod and sea bass. For anyone who knows me, they will be astonished that I actually made a fish dish at all, let alone a salt water fish dish. 

I actually despise fish - for me the word "poisson" has one too many Ss. But every now and again I get the urge to dig into a bit of briny sauce and yesterday was one of those days. 

Ingredients:

450g-500g mixed deboned fish, e.g. haddock, cod, sea bass 

300ml-400ml milk

4 or 5 carrots, sliced

A large red onion, cut into small pieces 

20 fresh ground peppercorns 

A bunch of fresh parsley, cut up small

A couple of tablespoons of flour

As many peas as you want, and some green beans if you want 

Some white wine (optional)

8 to 10 medium-large potatoes

300g butter

200g grated cheese, e.g. Cheddar or Gruyère

Instructions:

Cut up and roll the fish in some pepper and flour; check for bones. Put the oven on 200°C. Peel the potatoes and boil them gently in salted water until soft. Mash them up with some butter and pepper. While the potatoes are boiling, put some butter in a fairly large high-sided frying pan and while it's gently heating up, add the onions, carrots, and a little flour, followed by the white wine, peas, fish and parsley. When the white wine has reduced but before the pan dries out, add the milk and cook with lid on for about 15 to 25 minutes to let the flavours run.

Take a large, high-sided baking dish and pour the fish mix in there. 

Take the mashed potato and spread evenly on the top. Some like to make little dollops with an ice cream scoop but it's not important. Put the grated cheese on top and place in the middle of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. 

Serve immediately and enjoy!