Spanish inspiration: Salmorejo and Almond Cream

M and I recently got back from a trip to Spain. It was lovely, if too short. We visited Granada and Madrid, saw some good friends, and took in all kinds of beautiful things. The culinary highlight was without doubt our tasting menu experience at La Oliva in Granada. La Oliva is, as the proprietor Francisco is quick to tell you, not a restaurant. It is a specialty foods store. He became an accidental chef of sorts after doing a tasting for a couple that was so happy that they spread the word loudly and proudly on Trip Advisor. He does a meal a few times a week in his shop. Him and his family members use a hot plate in the back to prepare 15 or so different small plates that pair with 5 different local wines. It was amazing! We tried all manner of local products and dishes and had a lovely time hearing his explanations. I was particularly impressed by the fine olive oils - they were incredibly flavorful and spicy. My favorite tasted kind of like cut grass.

I recreated one of the first plates we enjoyed at La Oliva this past weekend as an appetizer for a meal with our friends T and G. It's mild and pleasant. Even their 10 month old loved it.

Romaine Lettuce with Almond Cream
Cream serves ~8 as an appetizers (get extra lettuce if there's a crowd)

Make almond cream:
Place 1/2 lb Marcona almonds, 1 clove ("tooth") garlic, 1-2T EVOO, and ~1/4c warm water in a food processor and process until almost smooth. Add more water if needed for desired consistency. Add salt to taste if the almonds are not already salted.

Rinse, separate and pat dry 1 head of romaine lettuce. If you have enough lettuce to be choosy, use the medium sized leaves - ones that fit nicely in the hand without a whole lot of excess leafage flopping around.

Place a spoonful of almond paste in the center of each lettuce leaf and arrange on a plate to serve.

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We followed that with Salmorejo, adapted from this recipe by Jose Andres. The link includes a very energetic video of him making it on TV. We tried salmorejo in Jaen, the olive oil capital of Spain, where we stopped on our drive to Granada. We ordered soup and a plate of the ubiquitous Jamon, thinking that this would be a light lunch, and somehow accidentally ordered an enormous plate of mystery meat (which turned out to be some part of the cow's neck - paraspinalis? platysma?) Of course, with a dish with this few ingredients, high quality ingredients is key.

Salmorejo
Serves 4 (small dinner portions)

Hard boil 2 eggs
Place 1.5lbs plum tomatoes (~5 tomatoes), quartered, in a food processor. OK to leave the skins and seeds on.
Add 6 slices of "rustic, day-old white bread" with crusts removed. I used Whole Foods' paesano loaf - I think sour dough would work well, too. I also bet that it'd be fine with the crusts on, as long as the crusts aren't too hard.
Add 2 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled.
Add 1.5T sherry vinegar (or 1T red wine vinegar and 1/2T balsamic vinegar).
Add 1/4c EVOO, salt and pepper to taste.
Process all of the above until almost smooth.
Top with sliced eggs, torn pieces of Serrano jamon (use ~4 slices or 1 oz total), and a drizzle of EVOO.
Serve with additional bread.

We were fortunate enough to wash this all down with some delicious red wine from Tagonius (near Madrid) that we had brought back from Spain, as well as a delicious Maryland red from Blackfoot (?). And, of course, delightful company.

Rant of Lamb, or the Gluten-Free Lunch that had some Glaring Glitches

We had a lovely birthday lunch for Louise out on the patio, but it did not unroll as smoothly as I'd hoped.  All of us brought our dietary parameters to the table:  Louise and Joel are going gluten-free, Reeves had his usual limitations, and I was on day 1 of the low-fiber diet for my upcoming colonoscopy.  I had planned to do rack of lamb, cottage cheese bread, cauliflower with plum sauce, and a cake for Louise.
I made the cottage cheese bread out of Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free bread flour. 

I used the recipe on the bag, substituting roasted almond oil for melted butter and eggbeaters for eggs.  The recipe called for proofing the yeast in the 1 3/4 c. of milk called for, heating the milk to 110 degrees.  In the interests of making it a little tastier, I substituted cottage cheese and yogurt for 1 1/2 c. of the milk called for, and substituted hot water for the remaining 1/4 c. of milk so that I could proof the yeast.  I added 1 c. of onions.  I realized to my dismay that I couldn't add sesame seeds or dill seeds, as I am forbidden seeds.  Happily I saw on my recipe the note that Jody had substituted wheatberry.  I started cooking the wheatberry and realized that I was losing the whole gluten-free idea.
By this time, I was getting a little exasperated.  Gluten-free bread seems like an oxymoron anyway, since I thought that the dough traps the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast with the sheets of gluten that build up from kneading.  Indeed, Bob adds guar gum and xanthan gum to his flour to perform this function.  I think it also gummed up my bread machine:  I can't get the pan out anymore.  It had been leaking a bit into the spinner underneath, and now it seems like it's permanently glued.  The bread was ok. 
Undaunted, I went on to make birthday cupcakes out of Bob's All-Purpose Baking Flour. 

The recipe I found for gluten-free cupcakes mentions using Namaste All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour.  It has xanthan gum.  Bob's All-Purpose Gluten-Free does not.  I just loaded the recipe with baking powder and hoped for the best.  Again, I used roasted almond oil and eggbeaters.  I think the chocolate glaze carried the day.
The lamb was very docile.  I discovered that I was nearly out of garlic, but then I found the mustard mixture I'd left on the countertop at Easter (see following post).  (Yes, it had returned to the frig on Easter.)  The only alteration was using bread crumbs from the gluten-free bread, and that worked fine.
My main takeaway about gluten-free cooking is never, never taste the dough.  If you had a bad habit of enjoying dough as you cook, you will be cured.  Cooking seems to help the taste.  Compared to the dough or batter, the products are divine.  Enough said.

Update:  The FedEx guy "dropped off" the new breadmaker on Tuesday.  I could hear it land on the front porch.  Right before leaving for my colonoscopy on Wednesday, I got it going with a whole wheat, wheatberry onion loaf.  Forget low fiber!  Forget gluten-free!  (Just put in yeast, 1 t salt, 1/2 chopt onion and 1/2 c wheatberres w/ 1 c water, warmed on power level 5 for 10 min in the microwave.  Then add King Arthur Whole Wheat, maybe 3 c or until it looks right.  I forgot the oil.)  When I got back, ravenous, my bread was 8 minutes away. 

Easter encore, Chez S

We celebrated Easter in Fed Hill with our wonderful hosts Suzanne and M and with Cheryl, Strom and Jessica.

Not pictured:  Dan.  What was up with that?
Suzanne gave us the bunny cake, the carrot and raisin version, on a bed of green grass (coconut shavings).  I'm not sure there was any left over.  I had two pieces.

The rack of lamb was out of this world!!  Huge chops!!  Suzanne had snagged it at Cross Street Market, and the butcher in addition gave her what looked like rack end pieces that just had eensy ribs on them.  Cheryl, Suzanne and I cooked the racks, and Cheryl seared the end pieces in order to give them more cooking time.  (They had the back bone with them.)  (We do not know what became of those morsels.  Dan???)  I had carefully made a mustard/thyme/garlic glaze which enjoyed the afternoon sitting on the island at White Chimney.  Suzanne and M came to the rescue with mustard and garlic, and we added rosemary.  We had the lamb with a fairly fruity New Zealand pinot noir that seemed to suit it.
We had French green beans with almonds of Suzanne's.  And the mac 'n' cheese outdid itself this year.  M did something a little different, and I can't remember what it was (a different cheese?), but it was splendid.  As our appetizers we had foccacia, stuffed eggs, and stuffed peppers from Trinacria.
Michael had an idea which should be a separate post in itself:  use the forgotten mustard glaze with salmon.  I did just that the next night, glazing and then broiling it.  It was excellent, and would be even more excellent if next time I sear the salmon, then paint it with the glaze and put it into a 400 oven for 9 or so minutes.  Had it with a Rioja which was sublime.  
A beautiful, bountiful celebration.  Thank you all!!

Pulperia Salad

During my stay in Uruguay last winter, I was introduced to the most amazing restaurant - Pulperia. It's a restaurant of the parilla (grill) tradition, which is key to Uruguayan culture.  It's located right around the corner from my friend S.'s apartment, where I stayed while I was in Montevideo. We spent quite a few nights there, hanging out at the outdoor tables, ordering more and more food, and going through caraffes of the house red wine.

Ranching is huge in Uruguay - all beef cattle are grazed on pasture and factory farming/feedlots aren't used. Beef is cooked on wood fired grills and all kinds of weird cow parts are cooked. All in all, Pulperia is a very simple looking restaurant that serves some of the best meat in the world. No point in even posting the recipes because the quality of the beef broadly available in the US doesn't even come close.... one of the reasons I suspended my vegetarianism while I was there!

The sides were also fantastic - grilled provolone wedges, fries, sweet potatoes, bread, chimichurri sauce, and a great green salad. With help of S., we've obtained the recipe for the salad. Simple but surprisingly delicious.

Pulperia Green Salad

• Thinly slice 1 white onion. Marinate with ~1/4c lemon juice, ~1/4c EVOO, ~2T white wine or red wine vinegar, ~1T white sugar, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Marinate for at least 2 hours, up to several. The onions soften up surprisingly quickly. Try to cover the onions with the marinate - add more vinegar or maybe even water if needed to achieve adequate volume. This could probably use all kinds of tweaking, depending on your tastes - am still working on getting it just right!
• Shred 2 heads of green lettuce
• Thinly slice 1 large or 2 small tomatoes
• Layer the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions in a large bowl, pouring the onion marinade over the whole concoction as a dressing.

Tzatziki salad

Last year, the cucumbers I planted on the roof failed miserably. I was pretty convinced that this meant cucumbers are poorly suited to container gardening and was ready to give up on them. But, you know, I already had the seeds, so I went ahead and tried again this year. Only one of the two vines I planted grew, but grow it did! I had really good intentions about training the vine to a trellis, but it seemed to grow in leaps and bounds overnight and it ended up just twisting around our railing. And my tomato bushes. (Nature fight: which plant will win??) As a result, some of the cukes grow outside of the roofdeck over the little uncovered part of the roof, and I have to perform all kinds of gymnastics to get to them. Don't worry mom, it's safe. All this to say I have received an abundance of cucumbers this year, and I've been amazed at how flavorful they are. They have a wonderful green tinge to the flesh. Most of them we've been eating sliced as simple appetizers on the roof with glasses of white wine. I finally saved a few to make this salad, which turned out really nicely and really allows the flavor of fresh summer cucumbers to shine. The concept is essentially a combination of traditional raita and tzatziki. I used Joy of Cooking's tzatziki recipe as a starting point. Makes a great cooling side (especially to tomato pie! Yum!)

Tzatziki Salad

Cucumber plant in the background. Cocktail hour in the foreground.

Slice 2 cucumbers. Peel and seed them if they're firmer/late season- if you're unsure if you need to, take a slice from the middle and bite into it. If you encounter and are bothered by the skin and seeds, then... Skin and seed it (duh.) Put in a medium sized bowl.
Slice 1/4 red onion (optional) and a large handful of cherry or grape tomatoes (optional... Unless you've recently raided your mother's garden, in which case you really ought to add some.) add to the cukes.
For the sauce, whisk together 1c plain yogurt, 1 large clove garlic (minced), 1T EVOO, 1T red wine vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in a small handful of basil leaves (8 or so) and 1-2 sprigs mint, chopt. You could also use dill instead of the basil, or oregano in place of the mint, or omit one of the herbs altogether- just use what you have.
Stir the sauce over the veggies and serve cold.
Serves 4 (as a side).

Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is one of those awesome summertime dishes that I only make when tomatoes and herbs are cheap and plentiful. It's also a treat to have a filling, cool dish on a warm, summer evening. The version I'm posting here is adapted from the Joy of Cooking. We added chick peas to make it a more filling vegetarian main dish. Feta cheese would probably be a nice addition as well, or perhaps just a little sprinkled on top. All in all, the dish is very flexible- the tomatoes, bulgar, and herbs are important, things like beans, feta, olives, cucumbers, and onions are all optional and you can mix and match depending on your taste and availability. You can adjust your parsley and mint ratio according to taste, as well. We topped ours with squash blossoms- doesn't make much of a difference in flavor, in fact, I don't even think they taste that good, but they're elegant! Ours fell off our zucchini plants. Basically, this recipe should be seen as a jumping off point- be creative!

Tabbouleh

Prepare 1 cup bulgar- place bulgar in a glass or other heat safe bowl. Add 2.5 cups boiling water and about 1/4t salt. Cover and let sit for 30 min or until most of the water is absorbed. Bulgar should be  chewy. Drain excess water (being careful not to lose any grain) at the end.

Meanwhile, dice (large dice ok) 3-4 large tomatoes. We used mostly brandy wine tomatoes, which are soft and sweet, but anything fresh and ripe will do.

Slice 1/2 red onion thinly, add to tomatoes.

Chop up to 2c parsley and up to 1c mint, add to tomato mixture.

Stir in 3c or so chick peas.

Stir in 1-2 finely diced jalapeños and a handful of chopped olives (optional).

Toss the above with 1/3c lemon juice and 1/3c EVOO, as well as salt and black pepper to taste. 

When bulgar has finished cooking, mix all ingredients together in whichever bowl is larger.

Enjoy!

Summer corn salad

I made this corn salad last night along with tomato pie. It was a perfect light late summer meal, full of produce from our CSA share, Mom's garden, and a few gems from our roof. It's a delicious way to eat corn without having to heat up your kitchen or grill. I made just a few changes, so I'll reproduce the recipe here:

Corn salad
Serves 2-3

Shuck 3 ears corn. Cut off kernels and place in a large bowl.
Thinly slice or dice 1/4 red onion and add to bowl.
Whisk together 1T brown sugar, 1.5T walnut oil (sunflower would also be good), 1/4t salt, and 2.5T lemon juice. Alternatively, place these ingredients in a clean and empty jam jar and shake to mix.
Toss together the corn, onion, and above dressing.
Mix in a generous handful of sunflower seeds (toasted or raw works fine), a generous handful of chopped cilantro, and about 1-2t chopped fresh oregano. You could use different herbs - I think parsley, chives, etc would also taste good, just try to use fresh rather than dried.

The tomato pie turned out really well, too - I actually made a crust from scratch this time, which took a little longer but made a huge difference in flavor: