MY KITCHEN IN SPAIN: A SUMMER MENU

What a pleasure to have dinner guests again! Although, I’ve totally abandoned my hostessing skills, I still enjoy putting together a meal for friends and sitting around the table to catch up—or get acquainted.

On a recent sticky July evening, I had one pescatarian and one vegetarian among my guests, so putting together a menu was a challenge. Ben suggested “a big fish” for the grill. I added several vegetable dishes, some inspired by my garden, and two sauces to go with everything.

Here’s a summer menu that you can adapt to every taste.

Rebujitos (recipe here.)

Rebujitos—spritzer with fino Manzanilla.

Salad cups with tomatoes, cucumber, melon, goat cheese and fresh basil.

Grilled corvina

Green chile-cilantro sauce (mojo verde)

Caper-yogurt sauce

Grilled vegetables (escalivada)

Potatoes with lemon dressing (papas aliñás)

Watermelon ice cream

Salad Cups with Melon and Cheese

Ensaladilla con Melón y Queso Fresco

Summer tomatoes, crunchy cuke, sweet melon, soft cheese and fresh basil.

I like queso fresco de cabra, a soft, fresh white goat cheese, with the raw vegetables and sweet melon. Feta would be good as well. The quantities can easily be increased to serve a crowd. With the addition of diced smoked ham the salad easily becomes a (non-vegetarian) lunch bowl.

Serves 4-6.

1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes

1 ½ cups diced melon

½ cup peeled and diced cucumber

¼ cup diced celery

2 tablespoons chopped scallion

1 cup diced queso fresco de cabra (fresh white goat cheese)

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

Salt

Handful fresh basil leaves

Salad greens

Pine nuts, to garnish

Combine the tomatoes, melon, cucumber, celery, scallion and cheese in a bowl. Add the oil, vinegar and salt to taste. Mix well. Salad can be prepared in advance and refrigerated, covered, until ready to serve.

Tear the basil into pieces and stir into the salad immediately before serving. Put salad greens in salad cups or small bowls and spoon the salad into the cups. Garnish with pine nuts.

Grilled Corvina

Corvina a la Parilla

Fresh corvina for the grill.

I had two whole corvina, a fish somewhat like sea bass, each weighing almost 2 pounds before being gutted. I left them unscaled, with the heads on for easiest grilling. We used a gas grill. A hinged grill made turning the fish easy.

We cut slashes in the fish so they would grill quicker. Grilling time depends on the size and thickness of the fish, heat source and placement of the grill. (Next time we will have the fish butterflied, opened up so they grill a la espalda, "on their back.”) These were done perfectly—the flesh was still moist, but easily lifted off the bone. Ben pulled off the skin and served the pieces of fish onto a serving platter.

Grilled corvina (fish) with grilled summer vegetables and two sauces. Green chile sauce (mojo verde) has green chile, cilantro, garlic and oil (recipe here). The other sauce is yogurt-mayonnaise-capers (recipe here ).

Grilled Summer Vegetables

Escalivada

Grill eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic. Peel the vegetables and dress with oil and vinegar.

The vegetables—eggplant, peppers, onions, tomatoes and a whole head of garlic—roast in the time it takes to char them. They can be grilled before putting the fish on the grill. Once cool enough to handle, pull off the skins and tear or cut into strips. Mash the cloves of roasted garlic and mix into the vegetables. Dress with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. (See the recipe for escalivada here .)

Potates with Lemon Dressing

Patatas Aliñadas

This side can be be prepared in advance and served room temperature or chilled. In tapa bars, it's often served with chopped tomatoes, olives and chunks of (canned) tuna.

Use mature, mealy potatoes that will soak up the dressing, but take care not to overcook them. Chilling the potatoes before peeling and slicing helps to keep them intact. Be sure to use lots of extra virgin olive oil and enough lemon juice to give the potatoes tang.

1 ½ pounds mature baking potatoes

Salt

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Hard cooked egg, sliced, to garnish

Cook the whole potatoes in boiling salted water until they are just tender when pierced with a skewer, 20 to 30 minutes, depending on size. Drain and cool.

Peel the potatoes. Cut them lengthwise into quarters, then slice the potatoes crosswise. Put a layer of potatoes in a bowl. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt and some of the oil. Add the remaining sliced potatoes. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt and most of the remaining oil. Add the lemon juice, parsley and red pepper flakes, if using. Stir very gently.

To serve, spread the potatoes in a shallow bowl. Garnish with sliced egg. Drizzle the remaining oil on top of the potatoes.

Watermelon ice, a cool finale.

Watermelon Ice is a cool finish to a summer meal. It is not ice cream, nor is it sorbet. Pureed watermelon combined with Greek yogurt give a smooth ice. No ice cream machine is needed, but you do need to blend or process the partially frozen ice. (The recipe for Watermelon Ice is here )