The Glory That Is Spain: Four Distinctive Dishes 🌞

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Pork Loin Cooked in Milk Wiih Caramel
{ lomo de cerdo con leche y caramelo– navarre and basque country }

I had eaten pork cooked in milk in Venice, but the idea of caramel seemed
strange (there is also a Spanish version of this recipe without it); the
beautiful flavor was a delightful surprise. The milk sauce will curdle, but
that is how it is. This is good both hot and cold. Serve with sautéed
mushrooms.

SERVES 6

3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 boneless pork loin roast (about 2 pounds) or 2 or 3 pork tenderloins
About 6 cups whole milk, heated
Peel of 1 lemon or orange, removed in strips with a small knife
2 cinnamon sticks
Salt
6 black peppercorns
6 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup water

Heat the butter and oil in a large casserole, and brown the meat on all
sides over medium heat.

Pour in enough milk to almost cover it. Add the citrus peel, cinnamon sticks, a little salt, and the peppercorns and bring to a boil—watch it, because it can boil over very suddenly. Put the lid on slightly ajar and cook at a bare simmer for 1 to 1½ hours, until the meat is very tender, turning it so that it cooks evenly. The milk will gradually curdle. Remove the meat, and discard the citrus peel and cinnamon sticks.

To make the caramel, put the sugar and water in a small pan over low
heat until the sugar dissolves. As the syrup begins to color, swirl the
pan continuously so that it browns evenly, and cook until it turns a deep
golden brown and the smell of caramel fills the kitchen. Remove from
the heat and pour in a ladleful of the hot milk. Be very careful, as it spits.
The caramel will harden. Return the pan to the heat and stir until the
caramel has melted and dissolved, adding a little more milk if necessary.
Pour this milky caramel into the milk sauce, stir well, and cook 10 minutes
over low heat to reduce the sauce. It will be a milky brown coagulated mass,
which is as it should be, but if you like, blend it to a cream using an immersion
blender. Remove the peppercorns before blending.

Return the meat to the pot and heat through, adding salt if necessary. Cut
the meat into slices, and serve with the sauce poured on top.



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beef stew in red wine
{ estofado de buey–asturias }

Young Luis Bertran Bittini Martinez teaches at the biggest cooking school in Madrid. It is part of the Fundación Tomillo (tomillo means “thyme”), an independent nonprofit organization whose aim is to be of service to society in many different fields. It teaches dropouts, adolescents who have been expelled from school, youths in trouble with the police, the unemployed, handicapped people, and elderly people who wish to remain independent. Luis teaches youths between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one who want to be professional cooks. At the time he invited my friend Alicia and me to lunch at his house, many of his students happened to be Latin American, from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The year before, they had mostly been Moroccan. He said that when he comes into the class, the students jokingly intone, “Right! Onion, garlic, pepper, tomato!” It is the way so many Spanish dishes start. As we watched him prepare the meal, he told us about what he was teaching. While we ate, his father, Rafael Bittini, told us about how it was when he was young, and Luis’s wife told us that young people now bought ready-cooked pasta dishes to heat up.

Use boneless beef shin, brisket, or flank, chuck, blade, or skirt steak. Luis cooked the meat in a sweet Spanish white wine but said that we could use port or red wine. I used a cheap port and it made a splendid sauce. If you
want to cook the stew in the oven, use a casserole that can go on the stovetop and also in the oven. Serve it with mashed potatoes.

SERVES 6

6 to 8 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 red or green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
1 carrot, chopped
1 leek, trimmed, washed, and chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tomato, peeled and chopped
2 pounds boneless beef (see headnote on page 417), cut into 1¼-inch cubes
About 2 cups sweet red wine or port
2 bay leaves

Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of the oil in a wide casserole. Put in the onion, pepper,
carrot, and leek and sauté for about 25 minutes, first over low heat until softened,
then over medium heat to brown and caramelize them a little. Turn them often
and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato and cook for a few minutes more.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil and brown the meat on all sides in a
large skillet over high heat; do this in batches, adding more oil if necessary—if
the meat is crowded, it will stew rather than brown. Lift the pieces out as they
are browned and add them to the vegetables.

Pour the wine into the casserole, add enough water to cover and the bay leaves,
and season with salt and pepper.

Cook, covered, over very low heat, at a bare simmer, for 2 to 3 hours, adding water
as necessary to keep the meat covered, until the meat is very tender, stirring
once in a while to make sure that it does not burn at the bottom. If there is too
much liquid at the end, remove the lid to reduce the sauce.

Luis lifted out the meat and blended the sauce to a cream with an immersion
blender, but he said it is not necessary to do that. I like to leave the sauce as it is.

VARIATIONS•

Alternatively, put the casserole, with the lid on, in a preheated 325°F oven and cook for 2½ to 3 hours.

• For a version from the Pyrenee mountains, use 1 cup red wine and ½ cup brandy instead of the sweet wine.

Pour the wine into the pot with the water. Heat the brandy in a small pan and carefully light it with a long match. Let the flames die down, then pour it into the pot. Add 2 cinnamon sticks and 5 cloves.

• For an estofado de toro con chocolate from Navarre, add 1 tablespoon grated bittersweet chocolate, ¼ cup red or white wine vinegar, and 2 cinnamon sticks. Toward the end, add 1 pound new potatoes, peeled, boiled,
and halved, to heat through.


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meatballs in almond sauce
{ albóndigas en salsa con picada de almendras–catalonia }

In Spain, meatballs and ground meat stuffings are made with a mix of different
meats, most commonly a half-and-half mixture of veal and pork. I asked why.
The answer was that veal was once the prestigious expensive partner and pork
the plebeian one that made the mix cheaper and provided some fat, but you can
use one or the other meat alone. The bread soaked in milk or water and the egg
make the mix go further and give the meatballs a soft, moist texture.

Meatballs are poached in various sauces. Here the sauce has white
wine and is thickened and given a characteristic Catalan flavor with a picada—
a paste of fried almonds, bread, and garlic.

The meatballs are traditionally rolled in flour before frying, but some
cooks now omit this step. Meatballs are supposed to be poor man’s
food, but these are anything but—the flavors are an extraordinary combination.

SERVES 4 TO 6

FOR THE MEATBALLS

1 large egg
1 pound ground pork or veal, or ½ pound of each
4 slices firm white sandwich bread (scant 4 ounces), crusts removed, soaked
in water, and squeezed dry
½ small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
Flour for dredging
Olive or sunflower oil for frying

FOR THE ALMOND SAUCE

1 cup chicken stock (or 1 cup water plus ½ bouillon cube)
1 cup fruity dry white wine
A good pinch of saffron threads
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
1 thin slice firm white sandwich bread, crust removed
¼ cup blanched whole almonds
3 to 4 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil

For the meatballs, lightly beat the egg in a large bowl. Add the meat, then add the bread, mashing it with your fingers, the onion, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Work with your hands into a soft, wellmixed paste. Shape into balls the size of large walnuts and roll in plenty of flour.

Heat about ½ inch of oil in a wide skillet until it sizzles when you throw in a small piece of bread. Add the meatballs, in batches, and fry briefly, turning to brown them all over; then lift them out with a perforatedskimmer and drain them on paper towels. They do not need to be cooked through, as they will cook further in the sauce.

For the sauce, pour the stock (or water and bouillon cube) and wine into a wide skillet and bring to a boil.

Add the saffron, lemon zest, salt and pepper to taste, and the sugar.

Make a picada: Fry the bread, almonds, and garlic cloves in the oil in a small skillet until golden brown.

Lift them out and let cool a little, then grind to a paste in a mortar or food processor. Stir the picada into the sauce.

Add the meatballs and simmer, covered, over very low heat, turning once, for about 20 minutes, until cooked through, adding a little water if necessary.


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potatoes with chorizo
{ patatas a la riojana–la rioja }

This is an earthy, strong-flavored dish that is served as a first or main course. By tradition, the potatoes are cut only halfway through with a wide knife, then snapped apart by twisting the blade—this is meant to release more starch so as to make the sauce thicker and also to allow the potatoes to absorb more flavor. Small pork ribs, shallowfried or roasted in the oven, are sometimes added to make this a meatier dish. It is usual to add pimentón, but I did not add any, as there was enough pimentón from the chorizo; taste and see what you think. Soft semi-cured or fully cured chorizo can be used.

SERVES 2 AS A MAIN COURSE; 3 TO 4 AS A STARTER

1 large onion, chopped
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
7 ounces cured or semi-cured spicy chorizo, cut into ½-inch-thick slices
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pound new potatoes, peeled and cut into 1- to 1½-inch pieces
½ to 1 teaspoon pimentón dulce (or sweet paprika; optional)
Salt

Sauté the onion in the oil over low heat in a wide skillet, stirring
often, for 20 minutes or longer, until it is really brown, almost
caramelized. Add the chorizo and garlic and cook, stirring, for
about 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes,
turning them over. Add the pimentón if desired and salt to taste,
then pour in enough water to cover. Simmer over low heat for about
25 to 35 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the liquid is very
much reduced, turning the potatoes if necessary so that they are
well cooked all the way through. You should be left with a sizzling
sauce that coats the potatoes and chorizos. If there is too much
liquid, increase the heat and let it bubble away.

VARIATIONS

• Chop ½ green and ½ red bell pepper, add them when the onion is soft,
and continue to cook until the pepper is lightly browned and the onion
is well browned.

• Add 1 tomato, peeled and chopped, to the fried onion.

• Add a whole dried or fresh chile pepper to the onion.



All the above from "The Food of Spain"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10335641-the-food-of-spain

Ahhh Spicy! Enjoy!

[surfered]

1. Thank you. The beef stew in red wine sounds yummy for this weather.

[justaprogressive]

2. thinking that myself!