THE JOY OF SPRINGTIME VEGETABLES

Springtime vegetable cornucopia.

At the market, a heap of peas in their pods drew me in. Now that I have no vegetable garden (lamentably, due to rooting wild boars), I miss the pleasure of picking and shelling peas, a few to eat raw, a double handful to sauté in olive oil. The market peas, of course, were not as fresh and sweet as those just picked, but, still, they had a springtime allure. 

I added more spring vegetables to my basket—fat artichokes, fava beans, leafy lettuce and spring onions. All of the fixings for pipeo, a vegetable stew from the inland village of Casarabonela (Málaga, southern Spain). That pueblo, on rich agricultural land in the foothills of the Sierra de las Nieves, has an annual Pipeo festival (this year, on April 22). 

Pipeo is a plato viudo, a “widowed” dish, bereft of meat or fatty sausages. It once was a thrifty way to feed a family, using seasonal vegetables from the kitchen garden, given substance with bread dumplings. Being vegetarian, it is well-suited for Lenten meals, when observant Catholics refrain from eating meat. 

Pipeo is a lovely springy dish. Serve it as a starter, vegetarian main or even a side.  

This vegetable stew has artichokes, peas, fava beans, romaine and potatoes plus bread dumplings. 

Dumplings made of bread crumbs add substance to an all-vegetable stew.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings

Pipeo

The name of this dish, pipeo, comes from "pipas," meaning "pips" or "seeds", as the peas, fava beans and almonds are all "pipas." 

The dumplings, called tortitas or pelotas, are first fried until browned, then cooked in the stew. I might add some grated nutmeg, freshly ground black pepper, even some powdered ginger, the next time I make the dumplings. 

Add the artichokes to the pan first, as they take longest to cook. Follow with the fava beans, lettuce and potatoes. Add the peas last. Tiny green peas, called lagrimas, or "tear drops," hardly need cooking at all. Use them to garnish the finished pipeo. The sauce for the vegetables is thickened with a typical majao, a paste of crushed garlic, almonds and fried bread. Make the majao in a mortar or speed up the process by using a blender. 

Pipeo is a dish with pips.

Serves 4.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup almonds

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 slice bread, crusts removed

½ cup chopped spring onions or scallions

1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika)

3 medium artichokes (18 ounces) or 4 smaller ones

5 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

1 large potato (10 ounces)

½ romaine lettuce

1 cup (4 ounces) shelled fava beans 

1 ¾ cups (8 ounces) shelled peas

½ teaspoon cumin

For the dumplings:

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

Olive oil for frying

Fry garlic, almonds, bread.

In a cazuela, deep skillet or stew pot, heat the 3 tablespoons of oil on medium heat. Fry the almonds and 2 cloves of garlic, turning, until they are golden. Skim them out and reserve. Add the bread to the oil and fry it until golden on both sides. Remove.

Add the chopped onions to the oil remaining in the pan. Sauté gently 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the pimentón.

Trim artichokes.

Trim the artichokes by removing several layers of outer leaves. Cut off and discard the top two-thirds of the artichokes, leaving the bottoms. Cut the bottoms in quarters. With the tip of the knife, cut away the fuzzy choke in the center. Drop the artichoke pieces, as they are prepared, into the oil in the pan. 

Cover the artichokes with 4 cups of the water. Add the salt and bay leaf. Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat and cover the pan. Cook the artichokes 5 minutes.

Make the majao.

Meanwhile, peel the potato and snap it into small pieces. Slice the lettuce crosswise. Add the potatoes, lettuce and shelled fava beans to the pan with the artichokes. Keep the liquid bubbling gently. Cover and cook 10 minutes.

In a mortar or blender, crush the fried almonds, garlic and bread with the cumin. Add the remaining 1 cup of water to make a smooth mixture. Add the almond mixture to the pan with the shelled peas. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until all of the vegetables are tender.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dumplings. Place the beaten eggs in a bowl. Add the minced garlic, parsley, salt and breadcrumbs. Combine all the ingredients to make a soft dough (add a little water, if needed). Roll or pat the dough into (8 to 10) walnut-size balls. 

Fry dumplings, then cook in the sauce.

Heat oil in a skillet to a depth of ½ inch. Fry the dumpling balls until they are golden brown on all sides. Remove them to drain on a paper towel. 

When the vegetables in the stew are tender. Add the dumplings to the pan. Cook them 5 minutes (or longer for soft and spongy dumplings). Let the stew rest 10 minutes before serving.  

More recipes for peas:

Sauté of Peas with Ham.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Potato and Pea Salad with Mint.

Tortilla with Peas and Fava Beans.

Another spring vegetable stew: Menestra.

Another dumpling recipe for Lent:

Chickpeas and Spinach with Cod Dumplings.

A TASTE OF VALENCIA FALLAS

 While most of us are chugging along with routines, thinking of spring holidays to come, the city of Valencia is celebrating its two-week festival, the Fallas, which culminates tomorrow (March 19) with a grand cremà, the burning of the ninots, gigantic effigies, creative, often satirical tableaux erected in the streets of the city. 

Besides brass bands, fireworks and dancing, food is an important element of the Fallas. This article (Las 9 Comidas Más Tipicas en las Fallas de Valencia)  lists “The Nine Most Typical Foods for the Fallas of Valencia”, so, without the gunpowder and noise, here’s a little Fallas flavor of Valencia.

1. Paella Valenciana. No sausage, no shrimp in Valencia paella. It's made with chicken, rabbit, wide green beans and butter beans. Check out the recipe here.

Fartons are buns for dunking in horchata.

2. Horchata con Fartons (Tigernut drink with Valencia sweet buns). If you like to dunk your doughnuts, you’ll love fartons. They are sweet buns—long and thick, like doughnuts gone straight. Fartons are perfect for dipping into a cup of thick chocolate or a tall glass of horchata. Horchata, or “orgeat,” is a sweet drink made with tigernuts (chufas). The recipe for fartons is below.

Puffy fritters made with pumpkin.

3.  Buñuelos de Calabaza (Fried Pumpkin Puffs). Sold at street stalls, but easy to make at home, these puffy fritters are real fiesta food. The recipe for the puffs is here.

Another Valencian rice dish.

4, Arroz del Senyoret (Rice for the Señoritos). A Valencian rice dish that’s not paella, cooked in flavorful fish stock with the addition of squid and shrimp. A version of it, arroz a banda, is here.

5. All i Pebre de Anguila (Eel in Garlic-Pimentón Sauce). I loved this dish in Valencia, but have never made it. No easy supply of eels. (Perhaps I will try the recipe with rosada.)

Fideuá, a pasta dish chock full of seafood.

6. Fideuá de Pescados y Mariscos. (Noodles with Seafood). While there's no seafood in Valencia paella, this pasta dish celebrates Valencia’s maritime tradition. Get the recipe here.

Bocadillo--a meal on a crusty roll. 

7. Esmorzaret (Snacks). This is the Valencian version of a segundo desayuno, or second breakfast, a meal between early breakfast and midday dinner. So important to keep a body going through days of festivities. Bocadillos, hefty sandwiches on thick bread rolls, eaten with draft beer or coffee, are typical. Street food or homemade. Here’s a selection of bocadillo ideas.

Churros with thick chocolate.

8. Churros con chocolate. (Fried dough strips with thick drinking chocolate). Street food for popular fiestas. Recipe for the drinking chocolate is here.

9. Cremaet (Coffee flambé). After all the burning, finish the Fallas with this concoction—rum, sugar and lemon peel flambéed in a glass to which espresso is added. Finale fiesta. And it didn’t rain!

Valencia Sweet Buns

Fartons

These sweet buns are perfect for dunking in coffee, drinking chocolate or horchata.

Horchata is a sweet and milky drink made by soaking ground chufas, tigernuts, in water (no dairy) and sweetening with sugar and cinnamon. 

Fartons have a light and spongy texture. 

For a light and spongy texture, use harina de fuerza, high-gluten bread flour, to make these buns. 

The buns are only slightly sweet, but a sugar-water glaze applied after baking adds to the sweetness. 

Makes 10 (7-inch) buns

1 ounce fresh yeast

¼ cup warm water

¼ cup sugar

2 ½ cups bread flour plus additional for rolling the dough

¼ cup sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

¼ cup vegetable or extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon salt

For the glaze:

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1-2 tablespoons water

Combine the yeast, water and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl. Stir well to combine. Let the yeast activate until bubbly, 10 minutes.

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the remaining sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and the egg. Gradually mix the flour into the yeast and egg. Add the oil, orange zest and salt. Use one hand to mix and squeeze all the ingredients together until the bowl comes clean.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead it until smooth and stretchy, about 4 minutes. Form the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic film and leave in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. 

Roll dough into balls.

Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces (each approximately 2 ounces). Working with one piece at a time, roll it firmly into a ball. Cover the balls of dough with a cloth and let them rest 15 minutes. 

On a lightly floured board, pat the ball of dough to flatten it, then roll it out thinly into a rectangle/oval approximately 7 ½ inches long and 5 ½ inches wide. Roll the dough into cylinder. 

Roll dough into a cylinder.

Place the rolls as they are shaped on baking sheet covered with baking parchment. Space the rolls about 1 ½ inches apart. They will spread during rising.

Let rise before baking.

Cover the rolls with a cloth and place in a draft-free place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Place the sheet of rolls in the oven and lower oven temperature to 400ºF. Bake the rolls 12 minutes or until golden. 

While the rolls are baking, make the sugar glaze. Combine the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice and water to make a thick slurry. Stir well to dissolve the sugar.

Remove the rolls from the baking sheet, separating any which have baked together. Place them on a rack. While they are still warm, brush the rolls with the sugar glaze. Allow the rolls to cool completely. If desired, brush on a second coat of the glaze and again allow them to dry completely.

ROSADA—THE PINK FISH FROM FAR AWAY

 “I took my guests out to eat local fish,” a friend told me. “Right on the beach. We had rosada. So fresh, so good.” 

I had to tell her that rosada isn’t local, isn’t fresh. Good, yes. And widely available, even at restaurants on the Mediterranean seafront, in view of the fishing port. (This was near Marbella on the Costa del Sol.)

In Spain, “rosada,” which means “pink,” is a very pretty name for the cusk-eel, fished in the South Atlantic, from Namibia to South Africa (Genypterus capensis), or, from even further afield, in the South Pacific, around Chile and Patagonia on one side and New Zealand and Australia on the other (G. blacodes). Rosada arrives on Spanish shores headless, boneless and usually skinless. Frozen solid. 

Fillets of rosada, a fine (imported) fish.

When rosada first started showing up in local markets, vendors thawed it and displayed it alongside fresh fish. If questioned, they insisted it was “fresh.” Restaurants used to list it on menus as “mero” (grouper), a much-esteemed fish. 

According to Esperanza Peláez, who wrote in Diario Sur (La curiosa historia de la rosada), the Málaga daily newspaper,  with improved refrigeration and transport, rosada now arrives fresh as well as frozen to Spanish markets. 

Felix sells fresh and frozen rosada.

I was able to confirm this at my local village market, where I bought skinned and filleted rosada. Felix, the vendor, showed me the bill of lading—the fish was labeled “refrigerado,” not “congelado” (€14.90/kilo).  He also had frozen rosada with skin and bones (€12.90/kilo); frozen fillet with a lot of extra weight in ice pack (€10.90/kilo) and, what he said was the best quality, frozen fillets, with skin (€17.90/kilo), from New Zealand.  

Rosada is a large fish, with pinkish-orange skin mottled with brown. It’s not a true eel, but has a thick, elongated body and a blunt snout. The fillets really are bone-free. It is not a threatened species, so is a good choice for food fish. Rosada could be used in any recipe calling for cod, conger, grouper, haddock or halibut. It’s good grilled on the plancha, sauced or in fish soups. 

 

Though it comes from far away, rosada has become naturalized in Málaga, where it’s ubiquitous in restaurants and tapa bars. Buchones de rosada—fried fish sticks—are one of the popular preparations.  

These fish sticks are cross-cut slices of filleted rosada, breaded and fried in olive oil. Here, served with fries (chips) and a non-traditional coleslaw. Garlic mayonnaise for dipping.

Instead of mayo, the slaw is dressed with yogurt and olive oil. Besides cabbage and grated carrots, it has diced figs. A nice condiment with fried fish. The fries are fried in extra virgin olive oil.

Rosada is a white fish, flaky but firm, very tasty.

Fried Fish Sticks

Buchones de Rosada

These fish sticks or fish fingers are not made with processed fish, like the frozen ones. The whole fillet of rosada is cut crosswise into strips, so their length and thickness depends on the size of the fillet. Or, cut the fish into smaller pieces and call them “nuggets”. 

Allow time for the fish to marinate in a simplified adobo of lemon juice, garlic and parsley. You can vary the flavorings as desired--oregano, tarragon or cilantro, for example, instead of parsley.

Bread the fish sticks with flour, egg and breadcrumbs. (I've added black sesame seeds to the flour for a little extra crunch.)

Serve the fish sticks with any favorite sauce. In Málaga, that is usually alioli, garlic mayonnaise. But tartar sauce or romesco, chermoula or chimichurri, remoulade or salsa verde, they’re all good. 

Cut fillets crosswise into strips.

Makes approx. 18 (4-inch) fish sticks.

1 ¼ pounds rosada or other firm white fish fillets

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon sesame seed (optional)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

Olive oil for frying

Fish marinates in adobo of lemon and garlic.

Cut the fish fillets crosswise into strips about 1 inch wide. Place them in a non-reactive container. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper, the parsley, garlic and lemon juice. Gently mix the pieces of fish with the adobo ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

Remove the fish from the adobo, leaving any parsley or garlic that clings to it. Drain the fish and pat the pieces dry with paper toweling. 

Dark specks in flour are black sesame seed.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, sesame, if using, and ½ teaspoon of salt in a shallow bowl or tray. Place the eggs in another bowl and the breadcrumbs in a third bowl. 

Dredge the strips of fish first in flour, patting off the excess. Dip them in egg, coating on all sides. Lift them out of the egg with a fork, allowing excess to drip off. 

Let breaded fish dry before frying.

Place them in the crumbs. Turn the pieces in the crumbs to coat well. Lift them onto a sheet pan covered in parchment. Allow the strips to dry at room temperature up to 30 minutes or, refrigerated, uncovered, up to 4 hours.

In a heavy skillet place the oil to a depth of ¾ inch and heat on medium-high. Fry the pieces of fish until golden-brown on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. 

Serve the fish sticks hot, room temperature or cold.

More versions of fried fish:

Mixed Fish Fry, Málaga Style.

Beer-Battered Fried Fish with Sour Orange Sauce.

Batter-Fried Cod (Soldaditos Pavia) with Piquillo Alioli.

Pan-Fried Hake with Pisto.

Marinated Fried Fish (Adobo).

GAZPACHOS—PERFECT ON A FRIGID WINTER DAY

 

Gazpachos for winter? Yes, this La Mancha stew is called gazpachos. What looks like squares of pasta are pieces of torta, a thin, unleavened bread.

Here’s a robust and warming stew, perfect for these frigid late winter days. Yes, gazpachos. Take note, this stew is “gazpachos”—plural—not to be confused with Andalusian cold soup (though the origin of the name is the same, as "gazpacho" refers to fragments of bread). 

Gazpachos is an ancient dish, with its roots in the pastoral life of La Mancha. Shepherds tending their flocks far from villages cooked whatever small game they could shoot or bring down with a slingshot, such as hare, rabbit, partridge, dove. Sometimes foraged greens such as collejas, bladder campion; wild herbs such as pebrella, a kind of thyme, or wild mushrooms were added. The meat was stewed over a wood fire and embellished with torta cenceña, a round, unleavened campfire bread that thickened the stew and served as an edible dinner plate.

Tortas for adding to gazpachos stew.

Over the years, gazpachos has been “domesticated,” prepared in home kitchens with chicken and farm-raised rabbit, rather than game. A commercial version of the torta is sold in La Mancha today. It’s a crisp, flatbread, about 15 inches in diameter, that looks, for all the world, like matzah on steroids.  (Tortas cenceñas, pictured at left, can be ordered in Spain from Rincon de la Mancha.)

Homemade torta--flatbreads cooked on a griddle.

Homemade torta is soft and pliable when fresh off the griddle, but, it quickly dries into hardtack. Break it into pieces before adding to the stew, where it cooks up like pasta.

If you don’t want to prepare the homemade version, substitute other unleavened bread/crackers, such as Hebrew matzah or water biscuits (crackers).

I am using dark meat turkey instead of wild game for this stew. The bone-in turkey makes a deeply flavored cooking liquid. Once the meat is tender, it’s skimmed out and stripped off the bones. Instead of foraged greens and wild mushrooms, I’ve added chard and (cultivated) oyster mushrooms. 

Instead of wild game and foraged wild greens, I've added turkey and chard to the stew.

Chunks of meat, soft torta, mushrooms and greens make a hearty winter stew. Serve gazpachos with a D.O. La Mancha Tempranillo wine. 

La Mancha Gazpachos Stew with Tortas

Gazpachos Manchegos

Dark meat turkey lends this stew a slightly gamey taste, reminiscent of wild hare. It's a firm meat that won’t disintegrate easily in slow cooking. If you are substituting regular chicken or farmed rabbit, take care not to overcook the meat. It can be left on the bone or deboned as directed for the turkey. 

Use the same sofrito and tortas to make vegetarian or seafood gazpachos. 

 

Serves 6.

Debone the turkey after cooking.

3 pounds turkey drumsticks and/or thighs

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

2 teaspoons pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

1 cup grated tomato pulp or crushed tomatoes

1 whole head of garlic

6 cups hot water

2 bay leaves

Sprigs of thyme

Sprig rosemary

Pinch of ground cloves

1 ½ cups sliced oyster mushrooms, sautéed in oil (optional)

2 cups chopped and blanched chard or other greens (optional)

6 tortas (recipe follows) or sheets of matzah or 24 water biscuits, broken into pieces

Sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper and allow it to come to room temperature.

Heat the oil in a deep pan or cazuela. Brown the turkey pieces on a medium heat, turning them to brown all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the turkey.

Stew turkey with garlic, herbs.

In remaining oil, sauté the onion until it begins to brown, 5 minutes. Add the two kinds of peppers and continue sautéing. Stir in the pimentón. Add the tomato pulp and fry a few minutes. Return the pieces of turkey to the pan.

 

Peel off papery outer layers from the head of garlic. Slice off the top of the head, leaving the cloves attached at the root. Tuck the head of garlic into the pan with the turkey. 

Add the water to the pan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves, rosemary and cloves. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook slowly until turkey is very tender, turning the pieces occasionally, about 1 hour.

Lift the turkey pieces and head of garlic out of the broth and reserve. Discard bay leaves and sprigs of herbs. When cool enough to handle, strip the turkey meat, with or without skin, from the bones, discarding bones and tendons. Cut the chunks of meat into pieces. Reserve. Squeeze softened garlic from the skins. Mash the garlic and return it to the broth in the pan. (The meat and cooking broth can be stored separately, covered and refrigerated, until the following day. Bring them to room temperature before continuing the stew.)

Add the mushrooms and chard, if using, to the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil. Break the tortas or matzah into approximate 2-inch pieces. Drop them into the pan. Reduce heat to a gentle bubble. Cook the tortas until they soak up some of the cooking liquid, 5 minutes. (If most of the broth has cooked away, it may be necessary to add water before incorporating the pieces of torta.)

Add the pieces of cooked turkey and cook until they are thoroughly heated, 5-10 minutes. Allow the stew to settle 5 minutes. The gazpachos stew can be served in the same pan in which it cooked. If desired, garnish with a fresh sprig of thyme.

Unleavened Flatbreads

Tortas Cenceñas para Gazpachos

Thinly rolled dough of flour, salt and water is cooked on a griddle until blistered and browned. 

Tortas can be made days before using in the gazpachos stew. They turn hard as they cool. Store them in air-tight zip bags. 

Roll the dough out as thinly as possible--cenceñas means "thin;" ácimas means "unleavened."

The tortas can be cooked—with no oil—on a plancha, griddle or cast iron skillet (I watched a YouTube video for homemade tortas where they were cooked on an upside-down skillet of rolled steel on a gas stove!) or baked in the oven. 

Break them up into small pieces to add to the stew. The pieces will soften in about 10 minutes of cooking in the liquid. You can also place a whole one in a bowl and ladle some of the liquid on top to soften it, then serve the stew over it. 

½ cup water

2 teaspoons salt

1 ¾ cups flour plus additional for rolling out

Place the water and salt in a pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir to dissolve the salt. Pour the water into a mixing bowl and allow it to cool to tepid.

Roll dough into balls.

Stir the flour into the water gradually. Once it comes together as a dough, press into a ball and turn out onto a board. Using a little flour if necessary, knead the dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky. Gather into a ball, cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into 8 equal-sized pieces. Roll them into balls. Keep them covered so the dough doesn’t dry out. Roll the balls out thinly into 8-inch disks. Stack the disks with parchment between them to make it easier to separate them. Cover again with damp cloth.

Cook the disks on a plancha, griddle or cast-iron skillet until they begin to blister and brown in spots, about 1 minute per side. Remove from the heat and allow the tortas to cool. They will harden as they cool.

Torta pieces for gazpachos.

Alternatively, the tortas can be baked (400ºF /15 minutes). Prick them all over with a fork so they don’t puff up in baking. If desired, they can be cut with a pastry wheel into squares. 

Store the tortas in an airtight zip bag.

Add torta pieces to the stew. They soak up liquid.

To use the tortas, cut or break them into pieces—any shape or size. Incorporate them into the gazpachos or other soup or stew during the last 10 minutes of cooking. They will soften, somewhat like pasta, as they cook and soak up cooking liquid.