SOOTHING CHICKEN SOUP

Sopa de Picadillo--Chicken broth with chopped garnishes.

I’ve got an upset stomach and a low-grade fever. My joints ache and I’m feeling a little woozy. I sure don’t want to cook or eat very much. But, still, there’s an empty place; I need something.

Ah, chicken soup. The worldwide panacea for everything that ails you. “Jewish penicillin.” Mama’s home remedy.

In Spain, the restorative soup is sopa de picadillo, a rich chicken broth that’s embellished with chopped egg, chopped ham, croutons and sometimes a shot of Sherry. Sopa de picadillo is considered a hangover cure and a wedding night pep-up. It’s what mamá feeds an ailing youngster.

Authentic sopa de picadillo is made with the leftover broth from puchero or cocido, a rich one-pot-meal of chicken, beef, salt pork and ham bone with vegetables and chickpeas.

Picadillo means “chopped mixture.” So the soup’s garnish is chopped hard-cooked egg, chopped ham, chopped chicken and diced bread. Some of the vegetables and chickpeas from the puchero can be added to the soup. Instead of crisp fried bread, rice or fideos (vermicelli noodles) can be cooked in the broth. Sometimes, instead of chopped egg, egg yolks are mixed with a little Sherry and stirred into the soup, or, any eggs from inside a hen, resembling egg yolks without the shells, are poached whole in the broth.

The sprig of mint, floated on top of each bowl of soup, is essential. It’s aroma sets off the flavors of chicken and ham so well.

My sickbed soup was a simpler version. I used homemade chicken broth that I stash in the freezer and some leftover cooked chicken. I didn’t even bother to fry the bread cubes, but used packaged picatostes, croutons.

Soothing, nourishing. I’m feeling better already.

Chicken Broth with Garnishes
Sopa de Picadillo

Serves 6.

Mint--essential garnish.

8 cups chicken broth
½ cup chopped cooked chicken
Cooked, diced carrots (optional)
Cooked chickpeas (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons dry Sherry (optional)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 slices bread, crusts removed and diced
3 ounces serrano ham, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Sprigs of mint

Heat the chicken broth. Shortly before serving, add the chopped chicken, carrots and chickpeas, if using, to heat. Add salt and pepper, if necessary. Add the Sherry, if using.

Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the diced bread until crisp. Set aside.

Ladle the soup into individual bowls (usually shallow soup plates). Add chopped ham, egg and bread cubes to each serving. Garnish each with a sprig of mint.

FROM MY NEIGHBOR'S GARDEN

Pears (and a few lemons) from my neighbor's garden.

Before they’re even ripe, the pears on my neighbor’s trees attract big jay birds that peck at the fruit. To save the crop, we’re picking the pears early. But after a week on a sunny table, they still haven’t begun to soften. I cut up some of them and made a batch of pear chutney. Now I’m making a Spanish dessert by simmering the pears in wine.

No, not red wine, as in the classic French way. These pears are cooked in sweet Málaga wine.

Wine label.

Málaga wine is made from Pedro Ximénez and Muscatel grapes that are “raisinified,” or sun-dried, before pressing, a process which intensifies the sugars. Sometimes called “liquid raisin,” it is a delightful dessert wine, but also goes nicely with toasted almonds, cheeses, sausage.

Málaga wine, Málaga raisins.

Serve Málaga wine, chilled, in liqueur glasses, Sherry copas or over ice. Diluted with soda water, it makes a nice tall drink. In the kitchen, sweet Málaga is a good addition to pork and chicken dishes, especially if balanced with a little vinegar.

I cooked the pears in the wine, with the addition of cinnamon, clove and lemon zest, until they were tender when tested with a skewer. As the wine is sweet, I didn’t add sugar. And, because the compote reminds me somewhat of another dessert cooked in wine must, arrope (that recipe is here), I added some chunks of pumpkin to the pears. Slivers of toasted almonds (the almonds also from my neighbor’s garden) made a crunchy topping.

The fruit is lovely topped with whipped cream or, my choice, dollops of unsweetened Greek yogurt.

Pears, pumpkin and raisins simmered in sweet Málaga wine.

Peras al Vino de Málaga
Pears in Málaga Wine

Serves 6.

2 pounds firm pears, about 10
   (or 1 pound pears and 1 pound pumpkin)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup sugar (optional)
2-inch cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 strip lemon zest
¼ cup Moscatel raisins
½ cup sweet Málaga wine
½ cup water
¼ cup almonds, blanched, skinned, toasted and slivered
Greek yogurt, to serve, if desired

Peel the pears, core them and cut in halves or quarters. If using pumpkin, remove skin and seeds and cut it into chunks. Place the fruit in a pan and toss with lemon juice. Add sugar, if using, cinnamon stick, cloves, lemon zest, raisins, wine and water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until the pears are tender when tested with a skewer, about 35 minutes.

FINS IN TINS

Canned seafood makes for easy meals.

It may be September, but in southern Spain this is still full summer. I want quick and easy meals, minimal cooking. So I’m taking my own advice (see a previous blog posting, Too Hot to Cook), and using canned seafood as the starting point for easy meals. With such a great variety, I’ve got lots of options.

There’s way more than canned tuna. Here’s what I’ve got in my pantry: bonito (white tuna or albacore), melva (frigate mackerel), caballa (mackerel), sardines and sardinillas (small sardines), anchovies, mussels, clams, cockles, scallops, octopus, squid.

Spain has long been a market leader in fish conserves.  Way back in Roman days, Spanish garum, a powerfully smelling, fermented fish paste flavored with herbs and packed in brine, was much appreciated in Rome.  Today tuna--albacore, skipjack and yellowfin-- represent more than 55 percent of Spain's canned fish production.  Sardines are second, followed by mussels, mackerel and anchovies.

Mackerel fillets in escabeche.

Tuna and bonito come packed in vegetable oil or olive oil; in escabeche, a vinegared marinade; with lemon; al natural, in brine without added oil, and in ensalada, which includes bits of pickles, carrots and onions.  Fish of similar family are melva, frigate mackerel (one brand markets it as melva de almadraba, captured in anchored nets), and caballa, mackerel.

Escabeche fish, with a piquant blend of oil, vinegar and pimentón (paprika) makes a ready-made dressing.  All that's needed is a good squeeze of lemon.

Canned fish in escabeche--readymade dressing.

Canned tuna, bonito, melva and mackeral can be used more or less interchangeably. All make fine salads and sandwich fillings. Best quality brands are those packed in extra virgin olive oil. But, if I’m making an ordinary tuna-salad-sandwich for the kids, I use cheaper brands, drain off the vegetable oil and stir in some olive oil. For something a little different in tuna sandwich, I like the capote served in tapa bars—tuna with mayonnaise and capers topped with strips of roasted red and green peppers on mini buns.

Canned sardines, whose bones are soft enough to chew, are an exceptionally rich source of calcium. The finest sardines are those packed in olive oil, but they also come in tomato sauce, in escabeche and picante, seasoned with chile.  Sardines make a great topping for pizza. I make a sardine “pâté” to spread on toasts. Combine drained sardines, chopped onion, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, dry Sherry, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper in a mini food processor. Serve on toasts garnished with sliced hard-boiled eggs and thinly sliced peeled cucumber.

I think of anchovies (in a tin, they’re called anchoas; they’re boquerones if they're fresh ones) as a sort of spice.  A dash of them adds pizazz to many different foods.  Chop some into boiled potatoes or mash with cream cheese to make a topping for baked potatoes.  Stir into butter with lemon and capers and pour over veal cutlets.

Squid in ink sauce, great for pasta.

Squid (calamares, pota or chipirones), cuttlefish (jibia, chopitos) and octopus (pulpo) all make fine additions to pasta sauces and, in a pinch, can be substituted for fresh squid in paella or seafood stews. Tinned ones are very tender. Today I’m using squid canned in ink sauce to make a topping for linguine. The meal is ready in less than 30 minutes! (See the recipe below.)

Linguine with squid in ink sauce, quick and easy.

Canned mussels (mejillones) in escabeche are so good that I pack them to take as gifts to friends in the US. (My mother was crazy for them.) They can be enjoyed straight from the can or turned into more complex presentations.  They’re great in a salad of wilted greens with fried croutons, crispy garlic and chopped egg.

Clams (almejas), cockles (berberechos), razor-shells (navajas), wedge-shells (machas), sea-urchins (erizos) and crab (cangrejo) are other shellfish in cans to be found in Spanish shops.

Imported Spanish canned tuna, sardines and shellfish can be found in many big supermarkets in the US or from La Tienda, The Spanish Table, or De España.


Linguine With Squid Sauce

Serves 3 or 4.

4 (80-gram) cans squid in ink (en su tinta)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 slices bacon, chopped
½  onion, chopped                                       
2   cloves garlic, chopped
1   red or green bell pepper, chopped
Pinch of fennel seeds
1/3 cup white wine
Red pepper flakes
½ pound linguine or spaghetti
Chopped parsley to garnish.

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the bacon, onion, garlic and bell pepper for 5 minutes. Add the fennel seeds, wine and red pepper flakes and simmer the sauce for 5 minutes.  Add the contents of the cans, cutting up the pieces if necessary, and simmer another 3 minutes. Add a little water if sauce is too thick.

 Meanwhile, cook the linguine or spaghetti in ample boiling, salted water.  Drain the pasta. Serve it topped with a spoonful of the squid sauce and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.