I had images of barbecuing all weekend, kicking it in the sun while languidly listening to the waves lap against the side of our boat, reading my Kindle and favorite food mags.

But instead of sun we got rain.
Lots of rain.
And wind. (Give me a moment to dab my eyes).

Mean Mother Nature waylaid those grand plans (can’t you go down to the fires in LA where they need you?), and we’ve been stuck inside like it’s already fall. Instead of barbecuing we’ve been cooking up an International storm indoors. Last night, inspired by his days long ago in Spain, Barnaby created a fabulous forget-about-barbecue meal that made us feel like we were sitting in a Madrid cafe.

The day before, we made the picturesque trek over to Taylor Shellfish in Shelton, WA and picked up an assortment of oysters, mussels and clams. On our way home we stopped off Pike Place Market for chanterelle mushrooms and a visit to The Spanish Table for chorizo.

Off to our warm and dry shelter for dinner! Barnaby gently sweated some garlic in olive oil then cooked the chanterelles, topping them with freshly chopped parsley. In another pot, he sauteed slices of the smoky, bold chorizo with tender fingerling potatoes. Adding white wine and bay leaves he simmered the clams into a dish known in Spanish as Almejas con Chorizo. The aroma alone was enough to make you want to dance the Flamenco.

We served it up with a warm rustic bread, tender green salad, a good Rioja, and even better company.

Go to Foodista for the recipe:

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There’s a lovely Spanish restaurant in Menlo Park that Barnaby and I used to frequent when we lived in the Bay Area. We’d ride our bikes the one or so mile from our apartment in Palo Alto to the charming little bougainvillea covered building. We rarely sat in the main dining room, and instead headed to the tapas bar where we’d cozy up in one of the intimate two-person booths or sit back in a pair of the over-sized leather chairs.

We had a repertoire of tapas dishes that we’d always order, but one of my favorites was jamon serrano; gorgeous ham hand-sliced from a whole leg which, clamped in a beautiful wood and iron stand, sat upon the bar counter. Sometimes we’d have it on toasted bread rubbed with garlic and tomato (called Pa Amb Tomaquet in Catalan), other times we’d simply ask for a few nice slices to go with our olives.

Another favorite preparation, Italian-style with fresh juicy melon (called prosciutto crudo in Italian). Spanish or Italian, you can’t go wrong with this ham.

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Derived from the Arabic word meaning “bowl”, Cazuelas are traditional Spanish terra cotta dishes and cookware. Like many classics, the dishes are minimalist, made of earth fired clay, but have thoroughly modern attributes as well. They can go from stove top to microwave to oven to table with equal aplomb. The glaze is lead free and the pans are suitable for a wide range of cooking and serving applications.

The dishes must be soaked prior to first use but thereafter are simple to clean and maintain. A true multipurpose item, in our kitchen we like these so much we call them “super pans”! There are some weeks, particularly in casserole season, when I barely reach for anything else. The pans also hold their heat for ages, ideal for keeping food hot during serving and at the table. Also very forgiving when the “side” dish is ready ahead of the main, not that this ever happens to us except when it does.

Cazuelas can be found online at The Spanish Table, and La Tienda and also at many gourmet retailers and restaurant supply stores. We get ours locally in Los Angeles at Surfas in Culver City, however the selection is better at the Spanish specialty sellers for sure.

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Croquettes, or in Spanish croquetas, are small, lightly breaded fritters that are deep fried. A common variety in Spain is the potato and ham croquette, or croquetas de patatas y jamon. Fluffy and smooth mashed potatoes mixed with small bits of ham make these a perfect appetizer, side dish, or your own at-home tapa. A delicious comfort food any time of year.

Potato Croquettes with Ham
Recipe adapted from 1080 Recipes

1 cup finely chopped Black Forest ham, prosciutto, or other dry cured ham
3 1/2 lbs red potatoes, unpeeled
2 eggs, separated
1 clove garlic
Sunflower oil, for deep-frying
Salt

Place potatoes in a large stock pot, fill with cold water, cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, then continue to cook for 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Drain, peel, and mash the potatoes before they cool. Mix the diced ham with the mashed potatoes and beat in the egg yolk.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a small skillet. Add the clove of garlic and cook until slightly browned. Remove from oil and, in a mortar or on a cutting board, mash with a pinch of salt to create a paste. Add the garlic paste to the potato mixture.

Whisk the egg whites and a pinch of salt in a bowl until they form soft peaks. Fold into the potato mixture.

With damp hands, shape the mixture into croquettes (cylinders or small patties). Heat the remaining oil in a deep-fryer or deep saucepan to 350-375 degrees. Add the croquettes in batches of about 6 and cook until golden brown.

Drain well and serve immediately. Delicious with garlic mayonnaise!

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Not long ago I posted a recipe for a chunky California-style gazpacho. It was such a hit that I thought I’d share with you a more traditional, but just as delicious, recipe.

Allow me to take you on a little trip to Spain…

Gazpacho
The following recipe is adapted from the famous Spanish cookbook 1080 Recipes.

2 1/4 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1/4 onion, coarsely chopped
1 small cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 small green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped, plus a little extra for garnish
4 1/2 cups bread crumbs
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Salt and fresh ground pepper

Put the tomato, onion, cucumber, bell pepper, bread crumbs, oil, and vinegar into a food processor or blender and process until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, then add a bit of cold water. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until fully chilled (about 2 hours).

Season to taste with salt and pepper, and garnish with a bit of diced green bell peppers and tomato. A drizzle of a good quality extra virgin olive oil is quite nice too.

Serves 4-6

How easy was that! Enjoy!

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Whenever I go downtown to Pike Place Market I’m always sucked into the Spanish Table. There’s no way around it, and I always end up parting ways with more dolares ($) than I intended. Needless to say, it’s a wonderful establishment and I always leave happy – usually with a bunch of anchovy stuffed olives in my hand.

Today I was thrilled to find a shipment of Padrón peppers had just arrived from Happy Quail Farms located in East Palo Alto, California. When we lived in Palo Alto we frequently bought from Happy Quail Farms, and we were delighted to find their produce had made it all the way up to the Pacific Northwest.

Padrón peppers, named after the Spanish municipality in which they are grown, and are a typical tapa. They’re small, sweet and mild, although occasionally you do come across an errant hot one. Peppers grown in June/July tend to be milder, while those grown in August/September tend to pack more heat. But that’s not a strict rule of thumb, so it’s a bit like playing Russian Roulette. I hope you enjoy spicy surprises, you just may get one!

1. Start with 1/2 to 1 pound of pimientos de Padrón
2. Wash the peppers and dry on a paper towel.
3. Heat a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan
4. Add the peppers when the oil begins to smoke just a bit
5. Fry the peppers shaking the pan so that all sides cook
6. As the peppers start to blister, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt.
7. Once the peppers are slightly browned and blistered on all sides, remove from heat and cover in pan for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add a bit more salt, hold by the stem, and eat while they’re hot!

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You can’t have tapas without having a good sausage or two, and the two that top my list are cantipalitos and morcilla.

Cantipalitos are little red sausages with smoked paprika – an essential ingredient in Spanish cooking – and garlic (among a few other things). They are smoky sweet with a nice garlic tang, and are wonderful grilled over an open flame or stewed in red wine.

Morcilla is blood sausage (known as blood pudding in the UK). Yes, it is a blood-based food – and I know the prospect of dining on blood sounds a bit vampiric – but I promise, it will knock your socks off, and in a good way. I really don’t recommend you read too deeply the history or preparation of this deliciously rich and tender food as I’m afraid you won’t eat it! But trust me, it’s worth the mystery.

We grilled both sausages and served with green olives, (smashed, drizzled with olive oil, and tossed with lemon zest and sliced garlic), roasted and marinated zucchini and a simple green salad.

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There is a Spanish restaurant, Iberia, in Menlo Park, California that we used to love to go to for tapas. One of my favorite things to have was pa amb tomàquet. Catalan for “bread with tomato,” pa amb tomàquet is simple to make and simply delicious. It consists of toasted bread rubbed with tomato and is sometimes accompanied or topped with sausage, ham, anchovies, grilled vegetables or cheese. My favorite version at Iberia is served with a layer of hand-sliced cured ham, which is cut off of a beautiful leg perched on the bar.

This easy appetizer, or meal if served with salad, takes no culinary skill to prepare. Simply toast slices of a good quality bread, cut a tomato in half and rub it on one side and lay a slice or two of prosciutto on top.

Delicioso!

(Thanks to Tinet.org for their beautiful image).

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After graduating from high school I went to Madrid, Spain. I’d studied Spanish for 4 years and spent a summer living with a family in Mexico. When I arrived to attend the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, I had a great language base, but was totally unprepared for a whole new food world that greeted me. At that time, tapas were relatively unknown in the U.S. and there were no Spanish cheeses to be found here. Even today, I feel that Spanish food is one of the least understood European cuisines in America.

When I landed in the late summer of 1986, I went directly to a pensión (an inexpensive hotel) suggested by a friend and couldn’t believe how alien everything felt. School wasn’t scheduled to start for a few weeks and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. My first mistake was to go straight to sleep and stay on New York time…it took me several days to get my internal clock in order….I felt very strange. My salvation was the “bar” across the street from the pensión.

It’s worth mentioning that bars in Spain are very different. Rather than dark places designed for drowning your sorrows, Spanish bars are brightly lit, community gathering places to grab a light supper or snack throughout the day. They usually feature a broad selection of tapas, served in small portions, and at the time a very low price. If you ordered a draft beer, the most common size was a caña, which cost 50 pesetas (about $0.35) for roughly 4 ounces….but here’s the kicker, every beer was served with a little tapa. For me, it was like a Crackerjack prize or toy in a McDonald’s Happy Meal. The best thing about getting all these little bites was that I could taste and learn without needing to know any of the names of the 30-40 new foods.

Sensing how lost I was, the owners of Bar El Aguila sort of adopted me and patiently walked me through their entire selection of bits and bites. I ate oreja a la plancha (griddled pigs ear), mejillones en escabeche (pickled mussels), queso manchego (sheep’s milk cheese from La Mancha), and jamón de pata negra (dry cured “blackfoot” Iberian ham). My absolute favorites were boquerones en vinagre, literally “anchovies in vinegar,” now available here in many places labeled “white anchovies.”

If you’ve had a bad anchovy experience, perhaps accidentally eaten on a pizza, put those canned-dark-bony-fishy-super-salty little guys out of your mind! Boquerones are served boneless, fresh and tangy, kept refrigerated with only a bit of salt. They are wonderful as an appetizer on crusty bread, pairing well with a crisp white or dry red wine. Look for boquerones and check out what became a comfort food for me in a foreign land.

To prepare your own, check out El Mundo de las Tapas

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Now I know what you’re thinking. “When would I ever want to eat octopus, let alone tenderize it?” Octopus is a highly under-rated and under-appreciated seafood here in the States. Its diminutive cousin, calamari, is popular, so why not octopus? If properly prepared octopus is delicious, if not, then it’s like you’re chewing on an eraser.

We’ve always slowly simmered octopus for a long period until it becomes soft and tender, but I just found this unique method of tenderizing using wine corks. Apparently cork contains an enzyme that helps tenderize the octopus and reduce the cooking time. You can use the corks from red or white wine – no need to clean them. Here’s how (this is based on a 2 1/2 lb octopus and you want one cork per quart of liquid):

• Heat your oven to 350 degrees F
• In a large saucepan bring 4 quarts of water to a simmer
• Brace yourself now, you need to clean your little sea critter. To do this grab a couple handfuls of coarse kosher salt and rub into the octopus as if you were applying moisturizer. (I find it helps to sing the theme song to the Little Mermaid to get you through this process. I never said they were cute, just delicious). Once it gets frothy rinse in cold water. Pound with a meat tenderizer (a few good swats in each place) and rinse again.
• Add 4 wine corks to your simmering water and lower your octopus into the pot. Once the tentacles begin to curl remove from the stove and place in your heated oven for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, or until tender.

For a Spanish tapas-style dish called Pulpo a la Gallega (as in photo) we cut the octopus into about 1″ pieces, place on top of 1/4″ slices of boiled potato, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with smoked paprika and course sea salt.

Give octopus a chance!

For more recipes check out:

The Gourmet Headhunter’s Baby Octopus in Red Sauce
Cooking Diva’s Pulpo Asado (Grilled Baby Octopus)
Over a Tuscan Stove’s Octopus Salad

I’d love to know what you think. Click the Comments link below and share your thoughts.

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