Category: Cooking: Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain

I created a few “categories” of recipes: Tapas, Paella, The North, Andalucía and Valencia/Catalonia. This helped me narrow down what recipes to choose and covered where I traveled in Spain.

Tapas

Carrots:

This is a recipe I recreated from my travels.  I ate this in Seville after seeing it at many of the tapas counters throughout Spain.  It looked so simple with carrots and onions, chilled, I had to try it. It was amazing, sweet carrots and orange, rich olive oil and vinegar onions. It has been a hit with everyone, and I keep cooking it.  I realize I am beginning with dishes not in Roden’s book – but I had to include them.

Garbanzos and Spinach Garbanzos y espinacas

This is also a dish I recreated after trying in Barcelona and Seville. In Barcelona it was mixed with blood sausage giving it a deeper and richer flavor. In Seville it was much lighter without the sausage and still delicious.  Paco in Seville at La Maestro, where I went for a jamón tasting,  told me it was a local favorite and a must eat in Seville and I can see why, there is something about it that is so comforting.

Empanadillas with tuna and peppers – Empanadillas de Atun y pimiento

These were Delicious, most empanadillas are, you can’t go too wrong with pastry and meat.  I had never tried one with a filling of tuna and given the wonderful tuna fishing in the south of Spain I thought they would know best so I wanted to try them.  I did not see these on much of my travels, they are more popular in the Balearic islands: Majorca, Mayorca and Ibiza, and Valencia which I did not travel to so I decided to try them.

Ham Croquettes

These were everywhere I traveled; I did not come across a tapas bar who was not serving them.  We ate them everywhere we went – they were Dougs favorite – I thought they were filled with mashed potatoes. To my suprise they were filled with a bechamel! I cannot eat too many potatoes so I only tried a few bites when I was traveling and I would have eaten a ton more if I knew.  So I decided to make a batch so I could eat a pile of them. Small bite sized, creamy, fried ham filled – amazing.

Paella

I decided to make paella Valenciana, the original and traditional paella said to be the first type of paella made in the rice fields of Valencia. It is made with chicken, rabbit and beans – I ended up adding some extra vegetables I had because the mood struck me, so as it turns out it wasn’t true Paella Valenciana, but it was true paella. I learned a lot making this, made some mistakes like too much rice, but it was fun and I got a good socorrat on the bottom which is my favorite part. I will surely be making this a lot to perfect it.

The North

Roasted Red Peppers with Anchovies – Pimientos con Anchoas la Rioja

This was my second choice, I wanted to make the most popular pinxto in the north; Gildas Pinxto. I couldn’t find the essential pepper – guindillas – which is essential so I chose this instead.  I have a difficult time with strong flavorful fish, so anchovies were a bit of a stretch for me. I learned through my travels that they can be delicious if prepared properly, rinsed. I did a lot of reading about how to prepare them so I could get it right I bought very good anchovies and the dish turned out silky and delicious, a pleasant surprise.  I also had it with a glass of crisp txakoli which cut the rich oil and brightened it, which I am sure helped.

Beans with cured pork and sausages – Fabada Asturias

I chose this dish because it is a staple in this region, used as a weekly meal or in festivals it has a very long history. It is a very rich dish, and you can see why the working peasants would cook this, It sticks to the bones and would satisfy after a hard day of labor. I loved it, I love beans and these particular beans I brought back with me. It was not the best dish for summer and I will add this to my rotation for crisp fall days.

Andalucia/Mediterranean

Fried Goat Cheese with Honey – Queso de Cabra Frito con Miel 

Simple and delicious, I chose this because it had honey which was a Moorish addition to southern Spain, and to be honest I had some amazing goat cheese from salt spring island, BC Canada and local honey from a friend and I thought it would be wonderful and it did not disappoint. I did not come across this dish during my travels but I will be looking for it upon my return.

Shrimp and Garlic – Gambas de Ajillo

This dish is served all over Spain, it is so simple and much more than the sum of its parts. All of the shrimp at markets is so fresh and sweet and salty especially in Andalucía. I could have eaten this for every meal and when I saw it in Roden’s book I instantly craved it.

Fish in Onion and Saffron Sauce – Pescado en Amarillo

I chose this dish for the almonds; an ingredient that is in so many dishes in the south. Brought by the Moors, they were an intragal part of the cuisine by the time they were conquered and I wanted to make sure I represented them in the dishes I was cooking. I used halibut instead of monkfish because I had some and it was delicious.  A reminder of how Spanish cooking can be delicate and rich and complex with only a few ingredients.

Valencia/ Catalonia

Artichokes with Green Sauce – Alcachofas con Salsa Verde

Claudia was inspired by this recipe by one in Tia Victoria’s Spanish Kitchen and it had a nice little story of how the translator, a Catalan man living in London, missed home cooking and sent for his mother to write recipes and she wrote a book! I also wanted to cook this because I love artichokes and they were in season when I was in Spain. I chose to make them from fresh ones though hard to find and difficult at the end of July, but it was worth it. This is a delicious dish, the one of a kind flavor of an artichoke heart with an herby sauce with a kick – it balanced so well I could have eaten 10 of them.

Chicken and Shrimp with Almond Chocolate Sauce – Pollo con Langostinos

I chose this dish because it intrigued me, after visiting the chocolate museum I knew I would find a recipe that used chocolate in savory applications and wanted to include this in my sampling of cooking. It is an example of a mar y montaña dish Catalans are famous for, mixing meat and seafood in the same dish. Roden asked a Catalan man why they mixed meat and seafood, she was told “The mountain is right by the sea and we use what we have.” Pg359

Again I will at some point return to these recipes and my experience and write more about it I have so much to say and share. One theme that has shown itself throughout my travels and eating and especially through this cooking project is that Spaniards use what they have to create an amazing culinary world.

I read cookbooks for fun,  not just the recipes and how to prepare the dish, but I read the writing; cooks have so much more to say than give directions. It feels like we are so eager to know exactly how to make a dish we forget it has a very important story.  After a trip through Spain and a discovery of her work I devoured all 600 plus pages of Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain. By the end of the first page I was taken, it was clear she was setting me up for a journey of people and land and connections. Returning from my travels last quarter I came back with so many more questions than I had when I embarked. I wondered about the history and people and land and what I encountered there. She answered so many of them – in a cookbook! I would like to go on and at some point in my studies I will continue this writing, and for the sake of time I will leave you with this quote:

 It is surprising how dishes can appeal directly to the emotions. They say that with food, as with music, you can touch people and even make them cry.” Pg. 2

I decided to cook through some of the amazing recipes in her book to gain another level of experiential learning through the food of Spain. It was tough to choose, I wanted to cook everything but that would take a year and alas I had a quarter, so I began by slowly eliminating choices from my endless list and ended with a few recipes from the regions I visited and some iconic Spanish dishes. 

The kitchen is a place where I lose time and can fully immerse myself. I use all my senses when cooking and recipes are usually mere suggestions for me. I tried my best to follow the recipe as written through this process,  and it was so much fun it felt like I was cooking alongside Claudia.  Here is a snapshot of what I cooked – I can say it was all delicious!