2025: SAUCES ARE TRENDING

Do you follow the "what's trending" lists? In the story “9 Food Trend Predictions for 2025” the NewYork Times placed “a year of sauces” at the very top, promising a “global flavor journey.” Should you wish to journey further in saucy discovery of Spain, here are some suggestions to map the itinerary.

Sofrito, the "mother" sauce.

SOFRITO. Sofrito, which means “gently fried,” is procedure, technique and sauce. The initial frying of onions, garlic, and tomatoes in olive oil adds depth of flavor and complexity to foods cooked in it.  Sofrito usually it is the first step in a more complex dish, but, chunky or sieved, it can become a sauce in its own right. Paella starts with sofrito, to which are added chicken or rabbit, other vegetables, seafood. 

Penne with Sofrito and Chorizo. Rice with Shrimp in Paella.

Romesco sauce with grilled onions, shrimp.

ROMESCO. In the repertoire of Spanish sauces, romesco is, perhaps, the most well-known (it appears in the New York Times list along with tzatziki and harissa). A sauce that originated in Tarragona (Catalonia), it is made with toasted nuts (almonds and/or hazelnuts), dried ñora red peppers, garlic and olive oil. Romesco accompanies calçotada, grilled spring onions with butifarra sausage. It makes an excellent dressing for escarole, artichokes or other vegetables. As a cook-in sauce with added liquid romesco is brilliant with fish, shellfish or chicken.

Sheet-Pan Broil with Romesco Sauce.  Cod and Tuna Salad with Romesco.

Ingredients for pepitoria: almonds, saffron, garlic.

PEPITORIA, SALSA DE ALMENDRAS. Pepitoria or Almond Sauce is not usually a stand-alone sauce. It's a combination of seasoning and cooking liquid in which foods cook. Almonds, garlic, saffron and other spices are ground to a paste in a mortar such as the brass almirez shown in the picture or processed in a blender. The sauce is used with chicken, fish, meatballs and vegetables. Pepitoria is especially popular in Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha.

Turkey with Quick Pepitoria. Chicken in Almond-Saffron Sauce. Monkfish in Almond Sauce.  Cardoons with Almond Sauce. Meatballs in Almond Sauce. Braised Tongue in Almond Sauce.

Mojo verde has a touch of hot chile.

MOJO VERDE. Canary Island green sauce, with hot chile, lots of fresh cilantro and parsley, garlic, olive oil and vinegar is often served with simple grilled fish, but it's also a great dipping sauce for fried wings or salt-cooked potatoes. Mojo verde is a lot like Moroccan chermoula sauce.

Crispy Fried Chicken Wings with Mojo Verde. Wrinkly Potatoes with Mojo Verde.

Garlicky dressing for fish or vegetables.

ALIÑO. Aliño, an uncooked sauce, is a garlicky dressing often spooned over grilled foods or "smashed" potatoes. 

Grilled Hake with Garlic-Parsley Aliño. Smashed Potatoes with Tangy Dressing. Razor-Shell Clams with Garlic-Parsley Sauce.

Bake fish fillets with Vizcaina sauce.

SALSA VIZCAINA. Vizcaina or "Biscay" sauce is a classic Basque preparation usually served with bacalao (salt cod). It's made with a tomato sofrito with the addition of ground up choricero peppers, a dried, bittersweet red pepper. The sauce is incredibly versatile. Use it to accompany grilled fish or as a  sauce for baking fish fillets. It's good with shrimp, mussels or octopus. With snails, tripe or pigs' feet. With fried eggs, potatoes or on pasta.

Cod with Basque Vizcaina Sauce. 

Sweetbreads and mushrooms al Jerez, Sherry sauce.

AL JEREZ. Not even designated as "sauce," Sherry sauce is essentially the cooking medium for whatever food is cooked in it. The type of Sherry can vary--fino or amontillado, oloroso seco or palo cortado--depending on what the main ingredient is. Depending on what herbs and thickeners are used, Sherry sauce works with everything from fish to poultry to meat to vegetables. 

Sweetbreads and Mushrooms in Sherry Sauce. Lamb Kidneys in Sherry Sauce. Garlic Chicken with Sherry Sauce. Monkfish and Shrimp with Sherry Sauce.

Tangy orange sauce with batter-fried fish.

SALSA DE NARANJA. This tangy sauce made with the juice of sour oranges complements fried fish or vegetables such as artichokes and asparagus. 

Beer-Battered Fish with Tangy Orange Sauce. Sole with Orange-Caper Sauce. Duck Breast with Orange Sauce. Pork Tenderloin with Orange Sauce.

Three variations on alioli--clockwise from bottom left, alioli with chopped black garlic, parsley and lemon zest; with chopped scallions, cilantro and jalapeño, and with smoked pimentón and chopped piquillo peppers. 

Easy to make mayonnaise.

MAYONESA > ALIOLI. Mayonnaise and its garlicky variations are the epitome of Spanish sauces, made with ingredients to hand in every kitchen--eggs and olive oil. Said to have originated in Mahón on the island of Menorca (Balearics) (Mahón> mahonesa> French mayonnaise), the sauce. originally made with olive oil, is thoroughly at home everywhere in Spain. Once stirred laboriously in a large mortar, it is now made quickly in an electric blender.

Alioli just means "garlic-oil." Originally it was an emulsion of simply crushed garlic and olive oil, no eggs. Nowdays alioli sauce usually means garlic mayonnaise. 

Let the variations begin! Stir herbs or other seasonings into the basic alioli and turn it into a sauce for absolutely everything! 

Fried Squid Sandwich with Alioli Sauce. Sheet-Pan Chicken with Roasted Garlic Alioli. Broccoli with Alioli Gratin. Rice Abanda with Alioli. Pink Cocktail Sauce (Salsa Rosa) with Fish Terrine.

FOR AULD LANG SYNE—SIMPLE FOOD

 Old friends came visiting last week. Old friends and their younger offspring. What a joy to see them again and welcome them to my home. Being old myself, where once a dinner party for ten was a piece of cake, now I need to simplify the menu and spread the prep over a couple of days. 

Sunday lunch for eight. To start we have a (non-alcoholic) pomegranate punch for toasting; blue cheese dip with regañás crackers; home-cured olives (picked from the olive tree right outside the door), and my favorite winter salad of oranges, avocados and fennel with fresh lettuce and radishes from the garden. 

Chickens have been marinated with herbs then roasted with medium Sherry. Small chickens are done in one hour, ready to carve and serve.

The main course was my version of Chicken “Marbella.” As I have posted before, the “classic” recipe for Chicken Marbella, beloved for holiday meals (from The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins: Workman Publishing; 1979), is not really from Marbella. Just as the authors took liberties with Marbella, so have I with their recipe. I marinated four small chickens with caper brine, herbs, garlic and Sherry vinegar, then roasted them with home-cured olives, prunes and oloroso seco (medium-dry) Sherry. My son Ben carved the chickens and heaped it on a platter. The pan juices with jammy prunes and olives are ever-so-good spooned over quick-cook couscous. 

As a side dish I served a heaping platter of latkes, potato pancakes. These are a favorite food for the Hanukkah holiday and a wonderful side for any meal. One of my guests, from Cologne, Germany, declared the latkes were just like home, served with apple sauce and sour cream.

I fried three dozen latkes the day before the gathering and reheated them in a convection oven with fan. They crisped up nicely. I bet an air fryer would be perfect for reheating latkes. 

Dessert was Bread Pudding with Fruits and Nuts, waiting in the wings (freezer) for a special occasion. I served it with lashings of whipped cream. 

It was nearly sundown when lunch was finished, time to light the candles. And to wish old friends adios, hasta ahora. 

Here are links to the recipes for the foods served at my festive lunch:

Easy blue cheese dip served with crispy regañás. The recipes for both are here.

The recipe for Salad with Avocado, Oranges, and Fennel is here.

The recipe for my version of Chicken Marbella is here. Pictured here, four small chickens that have been marinated, ready for roasting. 

The recipe for Bread Pudding with Fruits and Nuts is here.

More about Peter Nielsen, artist and handyman who now lives in England (he is shown in the photo at the top), is here.

A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

 

Christmas morning. My grandson, Leo Searl, home from university, is spending a few days at my house. He makes breakfast on Christmas morning--smoked salmon on toast with cream cheese and scrambled eggs. What a pleasure to catch up with what's going on in his life.

What's in this strangely-shaped present under the tree for Ben?

Oh, wow! Look what's in my Christmas box! It's a sampler of ibérico ham, a selection of sliced ham, shoulder-ham, chorizo and cured fat from Dehesa Monteros, made from ibérico pigs of the Rubio Dorado breed. They start out eating chestnuts in the forests of Ronda and are finished on bellotas, wild acorns. 

Christmas lunch for three. On a sunny afternoon we started with sopa de galets, a rich chicken broth with giant pasta shells stuffed with pâté. Marinated "standing rib roast" of ibérico pork centered the main course, accompanied by potatoes and squash roasted with onions and apples. 

The pork loin has been boned to facilitate carving, but the rack of ribs tied back on for roasting to keep the meat moist. Ibérico pork with its marbling of fat is especially juicy. Ibérico pork is usually cooked medium-rare to medium--still pink in the center. (The recipe for the pork marinade is here.)

A side dish of chard sautéd with garlic, raisins and pine nuts was served in a colorful hand-made ceramic bowl by Tara Chapman, Leo's mum. 

I bought a kilo of locally-grown pecans, called nueces americanas, from a chica in my aerobics class. The pecans, which I adore, inspired me to make a nut torte just for me! It was sugar-free and gluten free as well. (I used this recipe for walnut torte, swapping King Arthur baking sugar substitute and gluten-free bread crumbs.) For the guys there were also fig brownies with real sugar, sweet figs and lots of nuts. Both desserts are good served with a dollop of rich Greek yogurt or whipped cream.

Pecan torte with a dollop of rich Greek yogurt.

From my kitchen to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.