There are some days when I walk out of the door in the mornings, take a deep breath, and smell Spain. It's something about the crispness in the air, but a little bit of an acidic, bitterness as well. It transports me right back to Ronda, walking over the gorge, looking out onto the mountains where the sun is rising on my morning walk to school. Or to the gazebo overlooking the cliff where my friends and I would hang out, play chess, write in our journals, and watch the sun set. God I miss it there.
Someday I will go back and show my husband around the town and country that helped me to learn a lot about who I am. But for now, I've got to be content with traveling in a little simpler way...via food.
When I moved back home from my semester abroad, one of my Christmas gifts from my little brother was this cookbook:
I absolutely love it. It is nothing fancy, and the recipes aren't either, but they are truly Spanish. There are tapas that I actually ate at the little bars and not just someone's updated/fancy ideas of what Spanish tapas are. But there are also the recipes for things that I would eat every day in my host mother's home. Just by opening it's pages I feel like I'm stepping across the ocean.
So this night I decided to make a couple of my husband's favorites from the tapas restaurants we've been to, but are also the two things that I remember most from the bars and from my home away from home in Spain: Tortilla Espanola and Croquetas. They are simple but so full of flavor and definitely full of memories.
Tortilla Espanola
(from Cooking in Spain)
Note: I have had to "translate" the quantities a little because they are in metric.4 medium Potatoes
3 TB chopped onions, optional (in my humble opinion, onions shouldn't be optional in this recipe ;)
1/4 c. olive oil
4-5 eggs
1/2 t. salt
Peel the potatoes and either cut them in dice or into very thin slices. Heat the oil in the frying pan until very hot and add the potatoes, and onions if desired. Stir and continue frying without letting the potatoes brown, stirring them frequently. With the edge of a metal spatula or skimmer, keep cutting into the potatoes, dicing them as they cook. When they are quite tender (about 15 minutes) place a plate over the frying pan and drain off the oil into a heat proof container. Place the potatoes in a bowl. Beat together the eggs and salt until very well combined an stir the eggs into the potatoes and mix well.
Return the oil to the frying pan and let it reheat. Now pour in the egg and potato mixture. Let it set on the bottom, regulating the heat so it doesn't brown too fast. Use the spatula to firm the edges of the tortilla all around it's circumference. Shake the pan frequently to keep it loose on the bottom. Place the plate over the pan, drain off the oil and turn the tortilla out onto the plate. Return the oil to the pan, adding a little more if necessary and slide the tortilla back in to cook on the reverse side. Remove the tortilla when it is golden by sliding out onto serving plate. Serves two as a main dish or four to six as an appetizer or first course.
Aioli
(recipe from my grammar teacher in Spain)
1 egg
1 TB sunflower oil (I used canola)
juice from 1 lemon
salt
1 clove garlic
about 3/4-1 c. olive oil
Mix together the egg, sunflower oil, lemon juice, salt, and chopped garlic in a food processor or using a hand/immersion blender (I prefer to use an immersion blender because that is how I learned). As you continue to blend, add the olive oil very slowly, one drop at a time, so the mayonnaise doesn't break. Continue adding until the aioli is the desired consistency.
(This time around I let my aioli be thinner than a traditional mayonnaise so I could use it easier as a sauce for my tortilla. It still is great tasting this way and isn't quite as thick.)
Croquetas
(from Cooking in Spain)
3 TB oil
1/2 small onion, minced
4 TB flour
1 c. milk
1/8 t. grated nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
2- 7oz. ham steaks, finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten with a little water
1 1/2 c. dried breadcrumbs
oil for frying
for half of my croquetas I also used 4 oz. of goat cheese
Heat the oil in a saucepan and saute the minced onions until they are transparent. Do not let them brown. Stir in the flour and let them cook briefly, then whisk in the milk. cook, stirring constantly until this sauce thickens. Season it with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir in the ham (and the goat cheese if using. I did half with and half without.) Spread the mixture in a dish and refrigerate it until solid. Place the beaten eggs in a dish, the breadcrumbs in another. With moistened hands, form the croquette mixture into balls, cylinders or cones. Dip each croquette first in breadcrumbs (or flour), then in beaten egg, then again in breadcrumbs, taking care that they are well covered. Allow to dry in a cool place for 30 minutes. Heat oil in deep fryer and fry the croquettes, a few at a time, until they are golden, about 3 minutes.
And in correlation with these stories, I've decided to host a blog event. Take your Cooking with Love Story and make a recipe that somehow goes along with it. Post it on your blog, and then send me an email at chompdown@gmail.com (with Cooking with Love Event in the subject line) with the story, a pic of the food, and a link to your blog entry. You don't have to have a blog to participate, though! If you want to be included in the round-up and the competition, just shoot me an email without the link to your blog. ;) Also, if you don't want to cook something up and participate in the event, that's ok, too. I would still love to hear your stories!
