¡Invitados!

Last week Spain celebrated Dia del Padre. Javi got a nice bracelet and had two huge feasts. Both Friday and Sunday my family had guests over, went out for pintxos and wine, and then came back for a huge formal meal. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Thank you, Javi, for being a padre and giving me the chance to eat this deliciousness.

Smoked Salmon

Confit

Patatas y Cebollas Rojas

La unica duda que tengo es ojalá que fuera una mejor fotógrafa. Qiuero mostrar la verdad pero es dificil sin probandola.

Queso

I am obsessed. There is constantly cheese in the house and eating it for a postre after a meal is hands down one of my favorite parts of spanish food culture. Manchego is king, but there are so many other types. Its endless….

Everyday Queso

Cheese Fair

Pintxos

Pintxos are tapas in País Vasco (Basque Country). The word pintxo is very representative of basque language or Euskerra. The “tx” combination makes a “ch” sound. So if you ever find yourself among basque people you will know how to pronounce this important word.

These tasty morsels usually consist of some type of meat (generally jamón), fish (usually anchovies or shrimp), or tortilla (a tortilla here is basically an omelete) on top of a baguette slice. Some are beautiful and others are disappointingly full of mayonnaise. Side note: Mayonnaise is the staple topping here. Its on everything in large quantities. I am not a fan.

People generally eat pintxos mid day before going home for lunch, but you can get them after the siesta as well. Since lunch is so late (my family eats at 3:30), these are little snacks help keep the stomach grumble away. Bars that serve pintxos are everywhere. Literally everywhere. Some bars are more hip and cosmopolitan than others, but a lot are just mom and pop places where old friends gather to drink and have a snack.

I’ve also found it interesting that people take their small children to bars. Sometimes there is a little plastic play set in there for the kids. Its not bad parenting at all because really no bars here are shady places to get hammered. They are such an integral parts of Spanish life. This becomes apparent on Sundays especially, when everything else is closed and people just hang out at the neighborhood bars with their family and friends.

A few weeks ago, my cooking class went on a pintxo tasting excursion and I was able to take a bunch of pintxo pictures. Enjoy!

Jamón, Brie, Cucumber and Nuts with a delicious glaze

Croquetas and Jamón

Shrimp et. al.

Pintxo Bar

Eclectic Mix

Ensalada con Asparagus

Notice that the asparagus are white. This is typical in Spain. They are white and have been pickled slightly so they don’t have the normal crunch that our green asparagus have. The flavor is a little . . lacking, but I have grown to appreciate them for the subtle hint of sump’n sump’n that lingers.

Next, check out the tuna! This is also really normal. The Spanish seem to have found a way to sneak tuna (as in the canned variety) into just about everything. This includes pizza, omeletes (or tortillas), sandwiches and of course, salad.

The rest of the salad is pretty underwhelming (comparitively speaking). It tastes great but its nothing that different aside from the above mentioned points. Tomatos, hard boiled eggs, and green olives make up the rest. The dressing is ALWAYS olive oil and white wine vinegar with some salt. White salad dressing (e.g. Blue cheese, ranch, caesar) are really difficult to find here.

Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic Bread Crumbs

Please Note: This is not my picture; I got it from Foodnetwork.com.

This was absolutely fabulous. My cooking class went to a txoko for the first time today and cooked these tomatoes, paella, and a postre closely resembling french toast. Here I’ll focus on the tomato because it was the best plato and the reipe I remember most.

Begin by crushing day old bread to a granular texture to get crumbs, or just buy prepared plain bread crumbs. Add some chopped garlic, oregano, salt, and olive oil. Forgive me, I have no real concept of the proper proportions but use your judgment, nose and taste buds to guide your decisions. It should be kind of pasty, but still pretty dry. The oil binds the ingredients together, but don’t over do it in this step. You will add more oil later.

Next, cut tomatos (hot house, heirloom, roma, vine ripened, whatever you prefer), in half. You might want to slice off a bit of the bottom (non-cut) side to create a more stable surface area for the roasting phase.

Place the tomatoes face down in a pan with some hot olive oil. Leave them in there just long enough to get some charred color and flavor, maybe about three to five minutes.

Take them out and put some of the bread paste on the open side. Before cooking them in the oven for a bit, drizzle a bit more olive oil over the prepared tomatoes. I’m thinking a 350 degree oven for ten minutes should do it, but keep an eye on them. If you’re anything like me the oven is like a magical “forget about your dinner until it burns and you smell it when you’re in the bathroom and you have to run out before you’re really ready” machine. So set a timer? I just always seem to think I’m too good for timers or something. Oops.

Anyways, the tomato should be soft at this point. It might be fun to experiment with sprinkling some sort of grated cheese (parmeseano? Manchego?) over them and letting the cheese turn golden, but I haven’t actually tried this.

Enjoy the “recipe.”  ¡Buen provecho!

La Boquería

Barcelona’s central market is at once uniquely Spanish and identical to other world markets. This is partly why I love food so much; it is one of those things that binds us together. The basics are the same everywhere, people eat essentially the same things with little variations here and there. The predominance of one ingredient, spice, or preparation mechanism over another transforms ordinary products from the earth into beautiful works of art specific to a certain region or set of hands. The market in any city really highlights this idea to me, so whenever I travel I have to see the market.

Compared to Costa Rica, Vietnam, and Chile, Spain has considerably better refrigeration and a cleaner atmosphere in which to shop. I was considering which kind of meat or fish to buy until Caitlin suggested we cook lentils.  I would have immediately opted for something vegetarian had we been shopping at one of the markets in the above countries, but the meat and fish seemed exceptionally fresh, clean and safe in Spain.  

Enjoy the pictures! 

Barcelona!

This past weekend I went to Barcelona and stayed with my friend Liz, who is studying design there for the semester. Since she is sharing an apartment with some locals (rather than living with a family or in a dorm), she graciously let me roam around her kitchen for a few days. See below for the things we made: 

Lentils and Green Beans 

Jamón: An Introduction

I’d like to talk a bit about ham in Spain. Mostly because I enjoy this meat a lot, but also because its in my face constantly here. You can find various types of ham hanging around, which I’ll describe to the best of my ability.

• Jamón Serrano: after the above description this seems a little weak, but rest assured this cured meat carries more than its own weight. After being covered in salt for two weeks, the ham is hung in a dry place for six to eighteen months. 

• 

  He graciously let me take his picture, but he was a bit weirded out, I think. So what's new?

• Pata Negra or Jamón Ibérico: a cured, fatty ham; the finest of the cured meats. Named as such for their black hooves. These bad boys have been bred and raised with the utmost care, including a diet of acorns and sunshine. This, my friends, is the Kobe Beef of Ham. Cholesterol-phobes should be happy to learn that the fat from Jamón Ibérico transforms into a beneficial kind of fat, like olive oil, that helps reduce the bad kind of fat. This happens over a process of two years, considerably longer than the six months it takes to cure the Serrano variety. It is extremely difficult (i.e. expensive) to get Pata Negra outside of Spain, but its possible.
• Chorizo: Not to be mistaken with the Mexican variety, Spanish chorizo is cured and does not need to be cooked further. It consists of chopped up cured pork and its fat, among other seasonings. There are many variations of this delicious sausage-shaped meat. Note: It secretes an orange-ish oil (pictured) so beware of where you put your hands after handling.. . a good rule of thumb in general. 

 

• Jamón York: Lunch meat ham. Similar to the Oscar Mayer variety, entiendas? 

Before concluding this post, I’d like to point out that the type of cured hams I’ve been describing here are not a Spanish variety of the Italian Prosciutto. I’m not exactly sure of all the technical differences other than the fact that prosciutto is more salty than Jamón Serrano y Pata Negra. 

Sources

 I found most of this information at the following websites: 

http://www.spain-recipes.com/jamon-iberico.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamón_ibérico

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamón_serrano
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorizo

I’m a dufus

I have realized that I spelled sojourn incorrectly. I feel like an idiot, but can’t change it. So here’s to spanishsoujourn.wordpress.com!

Mickey Sandwich

This is just comical. Its ham (jamón york) and cheese (cheddar blanco) grilled in a panini maker that puts Mickey’s face on your sandwich.