MUSHROOMS TO STUFF

Mushrooms are almost 3 inches across!

Having already enjoyed my annual Holy Week bacalao day, I am finishing the week with vegetarian meals. Today’s was inspired by a lucky find at the market—huge mushrooms. I couldn’t bear to slice them up. These beauties were meant for stuffing.   

The stuffing is chopped spinach mixed with beaten egg that bakes with a cheesy topping. Baking the mushrooms briefly before stuffing allows some of their moisture to cook out so that it doesn’t mix with the raw egg in the stuffing mix. 

Big, meaty mushrooms are perfect for stuffing.

Serve the mushrooms as a starter.

 Stuffed Mushrooms

Champiñones Rellenos

Serve the mushrooms, one per person, as an appetizer or starter, or two or three on a bed of rice for a main dish.

5-6 large (2 ½ inch-) mushrooms (1 pound)

2 tablespoons olive oil + additional for the pan

1 cup chopped spinach, packed (2 ounces)

¼ cup chopped scallions

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons grated cheese

Arugula to serve

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a damp cloth. Twist the stems and remove them, leaving hollows for the stuffing. (Save the stems for another use.) Lightly oil an oven pan. Set the mushrooms in it, hollow side down. Drizzle a little oil over the mushrooms. Bake them for 8 minutes.

Heat the oil in a small skillet. Sauté the spinach and scallions until spinach is wilted and all the liquid has cooked off, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with the salt and pepper. Add the spinach and mix well.

Mushroom caps baked with spinach, egg, cheese.

Remove the mushrooms from the oven. Turn them right side up. Fill the mushrooms with the egg-spinach mixture. Top the mushrooms with grated cheese.

Bake the mushrooms until the eggs are set and top lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Serve the mushrooms hot or room temperature. Garnish with arugula or salad greens.

Another way to stuff a mushroom: Quail Eggs in Mushroom Nests.

BACALAO FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Hello, springtime! Welcome to spring flowers and rain showers, to orange blossoms and artichokes. Oh, hello Holy Week too. Let’s bring them all together in a bowl—salt cod for a Lenten meal and spring’s fresh vegetables, artichokes, fava beans, and green onions. 

This recipe combines salt cod and spring vegetables with fideos, a kind of pasta. The dish comes from Albacete and Murcia (eastern Spain) where it is a traditional dish for Semana Santa, Holy Week, which begins tomorrow with Palm Sunday. 

Fideos are the same as vermicelli noodles, only in Murcia they are known as aletría. This word comes from the Arabic, itriyya, meaning threads of dried pasta. In case you were wondering where pasta came from, yep, the Arabs (Moors) introduced pasta made with hard durum wheat to Spain (and southern Italy) back in medieval times.

Pasta with Salt Cod

Aletría (Fideos) con Bacalao

Fideo noodles cook right in the pan with vegetables and cod. Saffron adds a sunny yellow.

Fresh artichokes, fava beans, green onions, potatoes and cauliflower go into this pasta dish.

Start this recipe two or three days before you intend to serve it as the salt cod needs to be soaked for 36 to 48 hours. Soaking in several changes of water rehydrates the flesh and removes the salt.

Most cuts of dry salt cod will have skin and bones. Soaking followed by a plunge in boiling water make it easy to pull the softened flesh away from the bones. If you start out with 12 ounces of dry cod, you’ll have 7 to 8 ounces of fish pieces after removing skin and bones. 

The artichokes can be cooked in the pan along with the potatoes or, if preferred, cooked separately and added to the dish at the end. (Frozen artichoke hearts can be substituted for the fresh ones.)

Peeled fava beans.

Fava beans: to skin or not to skin? Home cooks (and me) use the shelled favas as they are, with the outer skins. But they are a lovely spring green if you first blanch them in boiling water, then pinch the inner fava from its skin. And they don’t need additional cooking, can be scattered on top of the fideos. (When I prepared the dish that appears in the photos, I added half the favas, unskinned, to the pan with the cauliflower. The remainder I peeled the skins and added the green favas to the pasta at the end of cooking.)

 

Green onions don't have a bulb.

Use green onions—also called scallions—if they are available (cebolletas in Spanish). Chop some of the green part as well as the white. They need only a minute to sauté. If you’re lucky enough to find green garlic shoots, substitute them for the garlic cloves. 

Green garlic shoots.

Use No.4 fideos, the fattest ones, or else the Catalan-style pasta called fideua, which are short, thin noodles with pinholes. If fideos are not available, use spaghetti broken into 2-inch lengths.

Cod (left) has been soaked and bones removed.

Serves 4.

12-16 ounces dry salt cod

6 cups water

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 cup chopped green onion

2 cloves chopped garlic

Pinch of saffron threads

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika, not smoked)

½ cup peeled and chopped tomato

2 medium artichokes 

2 medium potatoes (8 ounces)

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup shelled fava beans

1 cup fideo noodles (4.5 ounces)

Chopped parsley, to serve

Cut the piece of cod crosswise into 3 or 4 sections (include fins too). Rinse them in cold water to remove excess salt. Place them in a nonreactive container and cover with cold water. Cover and refrigerate 10 to 12 hours. Drain the cod, rinse it, and cover with fresh water. Refrigerate. Change the water every 10 to 12 hours until de-salted, usually 36 to 48 hours. (Thin pieces or cut-up cod may need less soaking.) 

Bring 6 cups of water to a full boil. Place the pieces of cod in the water and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Let the cod soak 5 minutes. Lift it out with a slotted spoon. Save the water for cooking the pasta.

When the cod is cool enough to handle, use fingers to pull off skin and all the bones. (Skin and fins can be added to the reserved water and cooked 5 minutes.) The cod will naturally break up into bite-size pieces. Reserve them.

Heat the oil in a large pan or deep skillet. Fry the pine nuts until golden and skim them out. Add the onion and garlic to the pan on medium heat and sauté until the onion is softened, 2 minutes. Add the saffron, cumin and pimentón. Immediately add the chopped tomato. Keep frying the mixture until the tomatoes are reduced, 5 minutes.

Prepare the artichokes by removing outer leaves. Cut them in half and add the halves to the pan. Peel the potatoes and cut them into irregular 1-inch pieces. Add the potatoes to the pan. 

Strain the cod water (discard any solids) and add it to the pan. Season with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add the fava beans and cauliflower and cook 5 minutes. (Potatoes should be tender.) Raise the heat so the water comes to a boil and add the fideo noodles. Lower heat to medium and cook the pasta 10 to 12 minutes until it is al dente (or according to package directions). The pasta should be a little soupy, not dry. 

Add the pieces of cod to the pan and mix with the noodles. (If using pre-cooked artichokes, tuck them in now as well.) Heat thoroughly. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to set 5 minutes. Scatter the pine nuts on top and sprinkle with chopped parsley to serve. 

For another version of this dish, make the cod dumplings in this recipe for Chickpeas and Spinach with Salt Cod Dumplings. After frying the dumplings, add them to the fideos to finish cooking.

More recipes for springtime and Holy Week:

Broth with Fish and Clams.

Cod Fritters with Molasses.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings.

Sweet Toasts (Torrijas).

Creamy Rice Pudding.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Bread Rolls with Egg (Hornazos).

BLOOMING ROSEMARY

 

The sprightly blue flowers of rosemary blooming by the steps give off a faint resinous scent. A few bees lazily graze the bush. I reach out and pluck a sprig of the rosemary wherever I find it. I put it to my nose and may pocket it to sniff again later. 

The blooming rosemary reminds me of the old saying in Spanish: Quien va al monte y no coge romero, no tiene amor verdadero. Who goes up the mountain and doesn’t pick rosemary will never know true love. 

In some parts of Spain, rosemary is especially linked to Palm Sunday (this year on March 24). Legend says that the herb had a white flower until one day the Virgin Mary hung her blue cloak on the bush and changed forevermore its flowers to a glowing blue.  Branches of rosemary blessed by the priest on Palm Sunday are placed over doorways and on balconies as a protection for the house.

Rosemary (romero in Spanish), which belongs to the same plant family as mint and sage, has been used medicinally and culinarily since time immemorial. It is said to be the “women’s herb,” useful treatment for “female problems.” Rosemary infusion makes a relaxing drink. Added to bath water, it helps relax tired muscles. (If using fresh rosemary, wrap it in a cloth so its needles don’t go down the drain.)  

The scent of rosemary makes me think of roast meat. Lamb, chicken, and pork all are enhanced by rosemary. Nevertheless, rosemary is not widely used in traditional Spanish cooking. Sometimes a sprig is added to the paella pan or to a stew of wild rabbit. Rosemary wood once was widely used to fuel wood-fired bread ovens, so its unique perfume enhanced country-style bread. 

Freshly picked rosemary is less pungent than dried. Add the fresh herb to soups, stews, and sauces during the first five minutes of cooking, then fish it out. Or, lay a sprig on top of cooked foods (such as paella) just as they finish cooking. The residual heat extracts the volatile oils from the herb.

Here’s a rosemary twofer, a fairly traditional recipe for patatas panaderas, oven-cooked potatoes with rosemary and roasted pork tenderloin with a garlicky, herbal rub.

The rosemary-spiked potatoes bake for almost an hour while the pork tenderloins marinate. The pork roasts on top of the potatoes.  

Garnish the pork with sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Oven Potatoes with Rosemary

Patatas Panaderas al Romero

Baking time for the potatoes will vary with the variety of potato used. Use a mealy type such as russets, not red potatoes. Test after about 40 minutes, but don’t be surprised if they take more than an hour to get nicely tender. 

Serves 4 to 6.

Patatas panaderas plus rosemary.

1 ¾ pounds potatoes

1 cup chopped green onion

1 clove slivered garlic

¼ cup chopped green pepper

½ cup peeled and chopped tomato

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup white wine

½ cup hot water

Peel the potatoes and cut them in ¼-inch slices. Place in a bowl. Add the onion, garlic, green pepper, tomato and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. 

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Spread 1 tablespoon of oil in the bottom of an oven-safe casserole. Add the potatoes and vegetables to the casserole. Drizzle with remaining oil. Pour over the wine and hot water. Cover with foil. Bake until potatoes are tender, 55 to 60 minutes. 

Raise oven temperature to 400ºF before adding the pork.

Pork Tenderloins with Rosemary

Solomillo de Cerdo con Romero

Serves 4 to 6.

2 pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each

1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

½ teaspoon coarse salt

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped

¼ teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons lemon or sour orange juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sprigs of fresh rosemary 

Spread garlic-rosemary mix on pork.

With a knife tip, remove the layer of fat and membrane from one side of the tenderloins. Place them in a shallow bowl.

Place the rosemary in a small bowl. Crush the salt and peppercorns in a mortar. Add the garlics and crush. Mix in the pimentón. Scrape the mixture from the mortar into the bowl with the rosemary. Add the mustard, lemon juice and oil and mix well.

Spread the rosemary mixture on all sides of the pork. Let the tenderloins marinate while potatoes are baking,

When potatoes are tender, raise oven temperature to 400ºF. Remove foil from the casserole. Place tenderloins on top of the potatoes. Put a few small sprigs of rosemary on top. Roast the pork, uncovered, until medium rare, internal temperature of 150ºF. If desired, turn on the broiler to 500ºF and place the meat under the broiler until it browns, 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer the tenderloins to a cutting board. Discard charred sprigs of rosemary. Turn off the oven. Cover the potatoes with foil and return them to the oven until ready to serve. Let the pork set 5 minutes before slicing into medallions. 

Serve pork and potatoes garnished with rosemary sprigs.

More recipes with a touch of rosemary:

Pork Tenderloin with Plum Sauce.

Roasted Red Mullet with Picada Sauce.

Turkey Roulade with Rosemary-Fig Stuffing.

Rustic Valencia Paella with Rosemary.

Skewer It!

 From espetones to pinchitos, kebabs to brochettes, satay to kefta, foods cooked on skewers are favorite fare right around the world. They may have been invented for easy cooking over a wood fire, but brochettes are especially adaptable to pan-grilling in the kitchen. This makes them perfect for winter when the gas barbecue on the patio has been stored for the season.

Marinated swordfish grills on a plancha.

Plancha means “metal plate.” (The same word is used for an “iron” for pressing clothing.) The kitchen plancha is a griddle or cast-iron grill pan that sets over the stovetop burner. It can be reversible, ridged on one side, flat on the other. Modern versions are electric and have no-stick surfaces. 

How to grill on a plancha: Place the plancha over high heat until very hot, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with coarse salt (same procedure whether using a flat or ridged grill pan). Place food to be grilled on the plancha. Keep the heat on high to get a good sear on the food. Don’t move it around. Turn the food when the bottom is browned.

 Be sure to turn on the extractor fan to draw out the smoke from grilling. If you don’t have a plancha, substitute a large cast iron skillet. Use any type of skewer that fits the grill surface—metal or bamboo. Bamboo skewers are usually soaked in water before use to prevent their scorching.

Skewered and grilled foods usually benefit from a marinade. They may or may not be served with a sauce. Those espetones—whole sardines threaded on skewers and grilled at the beach—for instance, need only a squeeze of lemon. 

Easy meal--skewered swordfish, side dish of cous cous. The cous cous can be served hot or cold, like a tabouleh salad.

Swordfish Brochettes

Brochetas de Pez Espada

If swordfish is not available, any “meaty,” solid-fleshed fish can be substituted. Possibilities are monkfish (rape); dogfish shark (cazón), tuna (atún or bonito) or salmon. 

Garlic, parsley, lemon and cumin for marinade.

Makes 7 or 8 brochettes.

1 ¼  pounds swordfish fillets or steaks

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup chopped parsley

3 cloves chopped garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon cumin 

Onions cut in wedges stem to root

Lemon wedges to serve

Coarse salt (for grill-pan)

Quick marinade adds flavor.

Remove skin and center bone from swordfish. Cut the fish into 1-inch cubes. Sprinkle it with salt.

In a bowl combine 1 teaspoon salt, parsley, garlic, oil, lemon juice, pepper, and cumin.  Add the swordfish cubes and mix gently. Cover and marinate, refrigerated, at least 1 hour or up to 3 hours.

Thread fish on bamboo skewers.

Remove swordfish from the marinade, saving the marinade. Thread 3 or 4 cubes of fish on skewers, alternating with onion wedges.

Heat a grill-pan. Brush the brochettes with some of the remaining marinade. If using a grill, stick a lemon wedge on a fork to wipe the grill rack to prevent the fish from sticking. If using a grill-pan, sprinkle it with coarse salt. Grill until fish is lightly browned on one side. Brush with any remaining marinade and turn the brochettes. Grill until done on reverse side. Serve accompanied by lemon.

Lamb kebabs grilling on a plancha.

More ideas for skewered foods:

Lamb Kebabs.

Adobo-Marinated Fish Kebabs.

Lamb Kidney Kebabs.

Spicy Skewered Pork (Pinchitos).

Mini-Kebabs with Chicken.

Skewered Lamb Kefta with Harissa.

MOVE OVER, BACALAO, TRY SARDINES

 

Salt-cured sardines, three for one Euro in today's market.

One million eight hundred thousand (1,800,000) kippered sardines were purchased in a single day, February 8, 1434, the beginning of Lent, in the city of Barcelona, according to tax records*. These were salt-cured sardines shipped overland from Galicia. 

Over the centuries the Catholic Church, with its many days of abstinence when meat is proscribed, has been the best promoter of eating fish. In the days before refrigeration, people who did not live near the shores where fresh fish were available depended on salt fish of many kinds.

In present times, bacalao, salt cod, is the most prevalent, but those salt sardines are still produced, still sold. Give them a try! It turns out, those stiff, smelly sardines are delicious and ever so versatile.

In Spanish, these are called sardinas arenques or “herring-sardines.” They are not herrings, but they are cured similarly. The word “kippers” usually designates smoked fish, but it actually means fish that is salt-cured and either air-dried or smoked. These sardines are not smoked.

My pueblo fish vendor always has a wooden tub of them, three sardines for one Euro. (In the 15th century, they were three for one maravedi, or approximately 10 centimos.) Felix, the fish seller, said he himself had never eaten a salt sardine! Some of his customers told me how to prepare them. They said that, in order to loosen the flesh from the skin and spine, people used to wrap the sardines in parchment, place them in the door jamb, and slam the door. Pepe said he had never tried that. His directions, “just put them on the plancha (grill) for a minute.”

That´s what I did. A quick turn on a grill just to soften the small fish. Then it was easy to pick the flesh off the bones. 

I tasted a piece of the sardine. Salty, yes, but, like anchovies, it had a umami whammy, that yum factor that’s exactly what’s needed to add pizazz to pizza. 

Once warmed, easy to pick flesh from bones.

To prepare kippered sardines: Unlike salt cod, salt sardines do not need to be soaked. Nor do they need to cook. Heat them in a heavy skillet (be sure to turn on the extractor fan). While they are still warm, cut off the heads and tails. Use a spoon to scoop out the desiccated innards and the skin and scales. With a knife tip, lift the fillets off the spine. 

Here are some traditional recipes for using the filleted kippered sardines.

Spicy Sardines on a Bun (Guardia Civil).

Málaga Salad with Oranges, Potatoes and Cod. (Swap sardines for the salt cod.)

Catalan Flatbreads with Mushrooms (Coca). (Substitute salt sardines for the sausage.)

"Cobblestones" Bean Salad (Empedrat). Use sardines in place of cod. 

Traditional pan con tomate: toast rolls or slabs of country bread, scrub them with cut tomato, sprinkle generously with extra virgin olive oil, add toppings such as fillets of salt sardines.

Pasta with Sardines (Pasta con le Sarde)

Pasta con Sardinas, Pasas y Piñones

The salty umami sardines turn a simple pasta dish into spectacular. This version has spinach, raisins, pine nuts and sprigs of fresh wild fennel.

This is a Spanish adaptation of a Sardinian (Italian) recipe. The salt sardines can be replaced with canned or fresh ones. 

Per 1 serving:

1 teaspoon raisins

Pinch of saffron

2 tablespoons hot water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon pine nuts

1 tablespoon chopped onion

1 clove chopped garlic

1 cup chopped spinach

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces spaghetti

1 sprig fennel or slice of fennel bulb

3 cleaned and filleted sardines

1 tablespoon toasted bread crumbs

Place the raisins and saffron in a small bowl and add the hot water. Let them soak 5 minutes. Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the pine nuts until golden. Skim out the pine nuts and reserve them. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and sauté on medium for 5 minutes. Add the spinach and the raisins, saffron and water and cook until the spinach is wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the spaghetti in boiling water with the sprig of fennel. Add ½ cup of pasta water to the pan with the spinach. Drain the pasta. Break the sardines into 2 or 3 pieces and mix them with the sauce in the pan. Add the pine nuts and the spaghetti. Heat thoroughly. Serve the pasta and sauce into a bowl and top with the crumbs.

*The information about commerce of salt sardines in Barcelona comes from this paper   EN TORNO AL COMERCIO DE PESCADO ATLÁNTICO IBÉRICO EN EL MEDITERRÁNEO CATALANOARAGONÉS  by Roser Salicrú i Llunch IMF- CSIC (Barcelona)