N T S E T N C O
Introduction Spring Spring vegetables, Cheese, Eggs, Preserved fish, Lamb, Sweet and savoury pastries, Chocolate Summer Summer vegetables, Fresh fish, Summer fruits Autumn Mushrooms, Chestnuts, Pumpkins, Pimenton, Seafood and shellfish, Beef, Rice, Saffron, Apples and pears Winter Brassicas, Olives, Pulses, Pork and ham, Spanish sausages, Offal, Poultry and game, Winter fruits and nuts Spanish wine and other drinks Directory Index UK Specifications Publication Date: October 09 Format: 250x210mm; hb plc Extent: 224 pages Word Count: 50,000 words Photographs: over 200 colour photographs ISBN; 978-1-85626-849-3 Price: £19.99 Rights: World, Kyle Cathie
Kyle Cathie Limited 122 Arlington Road, London, NW1 7HP www.kylecathie.com
US Specifications Publication date: 2010 Format: 9 inches x 8 ½ inches; cloth ISBN: 978-1-906868-09-3 Price: $32.95
Distributed by NBN Books 4501 Forbes Blvd, Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 Phone: (301) 459 3366 www.nbninternational.com
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Text copyright © 2009 José Pizarro and Vicky Bennison Design copyright © 2009 Kyle Cathie Limited (Dual measurements and terminology have been used in this blad, but there will be separate editions of the final book for the UK and US.)
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SPRING
KID STEW My Mum’s Way
These days, cabrito or kid (young goat) is very difficult to get hold of in my village. My mother has to ask around about a week in advance of when she wants to cook this stew, which she likes to make for a family get-together or celebration. You should try sourcing it from farmers or butchers you trust; or, if you live in a big city like London or New York, check out your local Caribbean store. Failing that, lamb makes a good substitute. Choricero peppers are medium-size peppers that have an intense sweet taste; they are always used dry, to add flavours to stews or soups. If you cannot find them, use mild smoked paprika.
Serves 8 1 whole kid, (approx. 5kg/ 10lbs.), jointed salt and freshly ground black pepper 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 4 choricero peppers, or 1 tablespoon pimentón dulce (mild smoked paprika) 4 garlic cloves 1 bottle dry white wine 2 bay leaves
Season the kid with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a big casserole, add the kid and the peppers and fry until the joints are browned. Remove the peppers and pound them in a pestle and mortar with the garlic cloves to make a paste. (If you are using paprika instead of the peppers, simply add this to the mortar with the garlic.) Mix the wine with this paste and stir it into the meat. Add the bay leaves then cover the casserole with a close-fitting lid and simmer slowly for about 1 hour, until the kid is tender. Add water or more wine from time to time to keep the meat moist.
SERVE WITH A GREEN SALAD
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SUMMER
MELON GAZPACHO
TOMATO SALAD
We’re all familiar with gazpacho made with tomato and cucumber; but in Spain the name covers lots of different chilled bread soups, all of them delicious. In my area of Extremadura, for example, we have our own version known either as gazpacho extremeño or en trozos, which means ‘in pieces’: the ingredients are chopped up instead of being whizzed in a processor, resulting in a chunky rather than a smooth soup. This is a fabulously refreshing soup made with melon, which isn’t so unusual when you think that tomatoes are fruit, too.
The first time I came to London, my dad and I visited Borough Market, where we bought some cherry tomato plants – something that we didn’t have in our village. Now they are a yearly feature in his vegetable garden. The best time to pick tomatoes is early in the morning, when they still smell earthy sweet.
When making a chunky rather than a smooth gazpacho, it’s even more important than usual to use the most flavoursome ingredients you can get hold of. Serves 4 ½ small mild white onion, finely diced 2 beefsteak tomatoes, deseeded and diced 1 small melon, deseeded and diced 1 long green (bell) pepper, deseeded and diced 1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar 1 litre/4½ cups water 100g/3½oz. white bread, in chunks salt and pepper, to taste
Simply mix all the ingredients together in a glass bowl, cover, and chill for at least 4 hours – to let the flavours develop and to ensure that the soup is properly cold.
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with Pimentón de la Vera
This salad is great with grilled fish. In the Brindisa restaurants, we like to use different coloured tomatoes, which looks very pretty and of course tastes amazing.
500g/18oz. tomatoes, ripe but not soft 1 garlic clove, finely chopped ½ red onion, finely sliced 1 teaspoon pimentón agridulce (bittersweet smoked paprika) 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons cabernet sauvignon red wine vinegar 1 sprig oregano, leaves stripped salt and pepper, to taste
Slice the tomatoes and arrange the pieces artfully on a plate. Sprinkle the garlic and red onion over the tomatoes, followed by the pimentón. Whisk the oil and vinegar and pour this dressing over the tomatoes. Finish off with some salt and pepper and a scattering of oregano leaves. Leave for 5 minutes to let the flavours develop before serving.
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AUTUMN Mushrooms * Chestnut s * Pumpkins * Onions and garlic * Pimentón de la Vera * Sea food and shellfish * Beef * Rice * Sa ffron * Apples and pears In Britain, the colours of autumn crocus. I cannot imagine cooking are browns, golds and reds. We without these spices. get these colours in Spain, too, but whereas the UK fades beneath There is the gentle sport of looking Despite being flecked with owers from January onwards, cloudy days, the thecountryside sky in Spain forflmushrooms, although someI don’t think springagain has arrived until I have picked mythis firstdoesn’t wild asparagus. a yearly returns to blue after the years happenItifisthe reminder, after the store cupboard reliance of winter, how food tastes best heat-sapping white of summer. weather has been too dry. The when it’s in season and better still, freshly picked. Appetites return, and recipes that I chestnuts, however, can always want to cook become more robust be relied upon, and they make a The hens start laying eggs again, right onwonderful cue to makesweet a delicious and warming. earthyasparagus additionrevueltos, to or scrambled eggs. And my Dad’s vegetable patch starts to produce baby broad beans stews and soups. and artichokes. These, simmered with asparagus and a little onion, make the best Now is when the peppers used vegetable stew.de Lent up meat it is hardship to make pimentón la used Vera to mean givingShellfi sh,and such ascertainly musselsno and razor with dishes like this. are harvested and smoked in clams, come back into season, so Extremadura, while over in La I am a happy man as the nights Fresh goat and sheep Mancha farmers pick thecheeses saffronstart appearing, drawand in. it’s a reminder to me, a committed meat eater, to look forward to kid and lamb; the tender flesh is brilliant stewed, roasted, grilled – and barbequed. I can never decide which way I like it best. Well I can, I like it best when my mother cooks it.
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AUTUMN
PIMENTÓN DE LA VERA Pimentón de la Vera is one of my favourite spices: just one whiff of its smoky sharpness and I feel hungry. Pimentón is the Spanish word for paprika, the vibrant, rust-red spice made by pulverising dried peppers. But Pimentón de la Vera is particularly special: it is smoked, and is made solely in La Vera valley, about an hour’s drive from my family home. Peppers (pimientos) grow easily all over Spain, but the peppers from Extremadura are special, thanks to how they were introduced to the country. Spanish conquistadors (several of who came from Extremadura) brought them back from Mexico in the 16th century. The peppers, along with potatoes and tomatoes, were a gift for the king and queen of Spain. Of course, the monarchs never got their own hands dirty, and instead gave the new vegetables to the monasteries, which became the custodians – and cultivators – of such discoveries. One such monastery was in Yuste, in La Vera valley, where the monks didn’t just cultivate the peppers, but also dried them and ground them into a powder, or pimentón. Eventually, the crop was adopted by local farmers, though it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the farmers began growing their peppers on a large scale and processing them into paprika. This spice is now La Vera’s main source of income. Dotted beside the pepper-growing fields in La Vera are little smokehouses. These two-storey buildings look normal on the outside, but inside the walls are totally black. In autumn, strings of fresh peppers are hung up in the rafters on the first floor, and then smoked over smouldering
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holm oak fires lit on the ground floor below. The peppers remain in the smokehouse for around two weeks. As well as imbuing the fruit with a heavenly mellow flavour, this smoking process almost completely dehydrates the peppers and ensures that they stay fiery red rather than become a dull brown colour. The peppers are then pulverised and ground to a soft powder. Most of the paprika is packed into large sacks destined for the sausage (embutido) and cured meats industry. Cooks buy the spice in pretty tins in varying sizes. There are three versions of pimentón de la Vera – sweet and mild (dulce), bittersweet and medium-hot (agridulce), and hot (picante) – made from different varieties of pepper. It is up to you how to use them, but in Spain the hot version tends to be used in winter soups and spicy chorizos. The sweet version has an extraordinary affinity with potatoes and firmfleshed white meat such as octopus, rabbit and chicken. The bittersweet pimentón, meanwhile, finds its way into game and bean stews.
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autumn
ARROZ CALDOSO Rice with Mushrooms and Langoustines
If you’ve never made paella because it sounds a bit complicated, this arroz caldoso or soupy rice is for you – it’s very easy to do and tastes fantastic. It is an adaptation of a caldoso that I came across in Catalonia, which featured lobster, the local fresh pork sausages called butifarra, and saffron milk cap mushrooms which are a pretty yellow colour and have a dense flesh. If you can find these ingredients that’s great! But if you’re heading to your local shops and not Barcelona, just make sure to source the best plain pork sausages (no herbs or spices, please), really good-quality stock, and meaty mushrooms. If you cannot find Spanish paella rice, use risotto rice instead.
Serves 4 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 large garlic cloves, chopped 400g/14oz. tinned chopped tomatoes 200g field mushrooms 4 large free-range pork sausages 250g/1¼ cups paella rice, (preferably Calasparra) 6 tablespoons dry white wine 1 litre/4½ cups chicken or fish stock 8 langoustines or jumbo prawns (shrimp), raw handful of flat-leaf parsley, choppped salt
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Use a big pan or casserole to heat the oil over a medium to high heat. Fry the garlic for about 3 minutes, until it turns golden, then add the tomatoes and cook until the juices have reduced. If you are using large, flat-capped field mushrooms, take a teaspoon and scrape out the brown gills – they will colour the rice and make it look unappetising. Pink-gilled mushrooms don’t need this treatment. Slice the mushroom caps and stalks into 2cm/1-inch slices. Cut the sausages into 2cm/1-inch slices. Stir in the mushrooms and sausage slices, and fry the mixture for another 3 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the rice, giving everything a good stir, then pour in the wine. The mixture will bubble nicely; let the alcohol evaporate before adding the stock. Season with salt to taste, give everything another stir, then turn the heat down. Leave to simmer gently until the rice is cooked, about 18–20 minutes. When the rice is very nearly done, add the langoustines. They’ll take about 5 minutes to cook, but remember they will continue to cook in the rice even after the pan has been taken off the heat. Scatter the parsley over the rice and serve immediately.
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