TRADITIONAL VILLAGE COOKING

 A traditional pueblo salad, salmorejo, with oranges, onions, olives and cod, looked so colorful when she placed it on the table that Remedios Valenzuela decided to photograph the plate. “That´s how I started,” said Remedios, 59, whose collection of recipes and village lore has been published by the Museo Histórico Etnológico de Mijas. “Every day I took a picture of what I cooked, downloaded it in the computer with the recipe.” As the project grew, she dug deeper into the local culture, talking to her parents and other older villagers, to dig out recipes for traditional dishes.

Collection of 63 traditional recipes.

She entered her collection of recipes, history, family reminiscences and photos in the Mijas bi-annual awards for research in ethnography and history. Her project won the ethnography award and the result is a book, Gastronomía Tradicional Mijeña (Traditional Mijas Cooking), published 2022 by Colección Osunillas, Museo Histórico Etnológico de Mijas. 

I was so excited to get my hands on this book! I learned Spanish cooking in the kitchens of Mijas, where I have lived for more than 50 years. My neighbors were delighted to talk about food. One kitchen led to another. An inquiry about new dishes got me sent off to a friend, a tía, the abuela, who could show me how to make them. I filled notebooks with local recipes, often dozens of versions of the same dish. My first cookbook, Cooking in Spain, is dedicated to “the women of Mijas who took me into their kitchens.” Most of those dishes and holiday sweets as well are included in Gastronomía Tradicional Mijeña.

Remedios (she is known as Reme) said she grew up eating traditional food and continues to cook it in her own kitchen. She said she fears the old dishes and the traditional Mediterranean diet are being lost, as younger generations turn more and more to ready-made foods. 

Mainly, she explains, she wanted to preserve the old dishes, in all their variety and richness, “to respect and protect our simple and humble roots”. The book, she writes in the dedication, is in memory of those who came before, in homage to those yet among us and as a legacy for those who might come after. 

Reme´s parents’ generation came of age in the “tiempo de hambre,” the “time of hunger” that followed the civil war. “In those times,” she writes, “food was so scarce that they sometimes had to resort to the picaresque and audacity just to be able to take home a crust of bread or handful of figs.” People who had a plot of land to grow food could manage to fill the olla with hot soup, but those with no land had to resort to begging, or scavenge for firewood to carry to the panadería for a few coins or a loaf of bread. 

Many people, even in the village, kept laying hens. The eggs were not for family consumption, but were collected by the recovera, a woman who peddled them in Málaga city and brought back in exchange products not available in the pueblo. Subsistence living.  

“Because of that,” she writes, “many of our typical dishes are made up of simple ingredients related to the land and the sea, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes, figs, chickpeas, olive oil, flour, fish, milk.” 

“Today we should be grateful for the richness and variety of typical Mijas dishes,” she writes. Many are still daily fare. “We should feel proud to be able to present, enjoy, and continue to preserve them.” 

Remedios Valenzuela

I got together with Reme in her modern kitchen to make one of the recipes from her book. Reme seemed pleased with the recipe I chose, Cazuela de Patatas con Pollo, a potato-chicken stew. It´s a basic recipe, she said, that “admite de todo,” to which anything can be added. In fact, she has three more versions of it, one with broad beans and pork, one with cazón (an inexpensive fish), potatoes and zucchini, and another with cuttlefish. To the basic stew, she said any seasonal vegetable can be added—carrots, chard, peas, artichokes, asparagus. And, to serve more people, just add more potatoes!

Potato and Chicken Stew

Cazuela de Patatas con Pollo

“Cazuela” refers to an earthenware cooking vessel, once used right in the coals of the hearth, as well as to the stew that cooks in it. Nowadays, the pan or stewpot is metal. A Dutch oven or deep sauté pan would be perfect for making this stew. 

This is one of those dishes that can be stretched to serve more people—just add potatoes. At its most frugal, it makes a filling meal with no meat or fish at all. (In my first cookbook, I have the identical recipe, but with no meat, chicken or fish.)

This one-pot meal would be the main dish for a family meal. Reme said that, typically, it would be served into a large bowl and placed in the center of the table. Family members would eat right out of the bowl. 

In past times, the “saffron” called for in the recipe was not real saffron, but colorante, a powdered yellow coloring. Today, Reme uses real saffron. While it doesn’t contribute such an intense golden hue as colorante, saffron gives the dish a subtle aroma and color. She calls for three whole cloves pounded in the mortar with the saffron, peppercorns and garlic. That’s more cloves than I am accustomed to, but I liked their spicy flavor with the potatoes. Interesting, how such small tweaks make so much difference in how a dish turns out.

Crush spices in mortar

Traditionally, the spices, herbs, garlic and almonds were crushed in the almirez or mortero, a brass or wooden mortar. A mortar is the most effective way to grind the hard spices, but the garlics and almonds are easier in a blender (add a little water if necessary).

“Start by cutting the potatoes in irregular pieces, so that when they are cooked, they break up and thicken the broth.” Use mealy potatoes for this cazuela. Their starchiness helps thicken the stew. 

Serves 4.

1 ½ pounds boneless chicken

2 pounds potatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

8 peppercorns

3 cloves

½ teaspoon saffron threads

1 teaspoon oregano

2 cloves garlic

15 almonds (blanched and skinned)

½ teaspoon pimentón (sweet paprika, not smoked)

1 bay leaf

Salt

Water

Cut the chicken into 2-inch pieces. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1 ½-inch pieces. 

Reme stirs the cazuela.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or sauté pan. Add the onion and two kinds of peppers. Sauté on moderate until onions are softened. Add the tomatoes and sauté until they release their juice. Add the pieces of chicken and sauté, turning, until golden. 

In a mortar, crush the peppercorns, cloves and saffron. Add the oregano and grind it. Add the garlic and crush them to a paste. Add the almonds and gradually crush them until fairly smooth. Add a little water to the mortar to make a paste. Stir the spice-garlic-almond mixture into the chicken and vegetables in the pan. Add the pimentón and bay leaf. Season with 1 teaspoon salt. 

Add the potatoes to the pan and distribute all the ingredients evenly. Add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover the pan. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are very tender, about 50 minutes. Let the cazuela settle 5 minutes before serving.

The cazuela is ready to serve. Potatoes thicken the cooking liquid. 

Accompanied by bread, the cazuela is a one-dish meal.

Reme serves a bowl of the cazuela to her mother, Francisca (Paca) Rey, 82, the source of many of the village recipes that Reme collected for her book. 

In her well-tended garden, Reme picks a bunch of acelgas (chard) for me to take home.

 

Sautéed Chard

Acelgas Rehogadas

Chopped chard is par-boiled then sautéed with garlic. 

Back in my kitchen with the bunch of chard from Reme´s garden, I found a recipe in her book for tortilla with sautéed chard.

 

Reme´s recipe notes that chard can be added to potajes (stews with legumes) in the same way as spinach. It’s also good simply sautéed with garlic, as a side dish with meat, chicken or fish or combined with eggs for a tortilla.

Serves 2-3 as a side.

1 bunch chard (½ pound)

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Wash the chard. Chop stems and leaves separately. Cook the stems in boiling salted water about 4 minutes. Add the leaves and cook until they are tender (about 4 minutes longer). Drain the chard well.

Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic. When it begins to turn golden, add the chard. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté the chard on moderate heat until it is very tender and thoroughly heated. 

Chard Tortilla

Tortilla de Acelgas

Tortilla of chopped chard and eggs.

I added some diced cooked potato to this recipe. 

Serves 2.

Sautéed chard (above)

1 cooked potato, diced (optional)

3 eggs, beaten

Salt 

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix chard and eggs.

In a bowl combine the cooked chard and potato, if using, with eggs. Season with salt. Heat the oil in a small non-stick skillet on moderate heat. Pour in the chard-egg mixture. Stir it a few times, then allow to cook until the eggs are almost set. Loosen the sides of the tortilla with a spatula. Place a flat plate on top of the skillet. Holding the plate tight with one hand, very carefully turn the skillet upside down, turning the tortilla out onto the plate. Slide the tortilla back into the pan to cook on the reverse side.

Lift an edge of the tortilla with a spatula and slide it out onto a serving plate. Serve the tortilla hot or cold.

Here are more traditional village recipes similar to the ones in Gastronomía Tradicional Mijeña:

Orange and Cod Salad (Salmorejo). This is the colorful salad that started Remedios on her recipe search. (Her version has green peppers too, even more colorful.) Elsewhere, the salad is called remojón or ensalada malagueña, but in our village it´s salmorejo--not the Córdoba salmorejo, which is a thick gazpacho cream.

Fish Soup with Sour Orange (Cachorreñas).

Mediterranean Seafood Chowder (Gazpachuelo).

Andalusian Soup Pot (Puchero).

Andalusian Legume, Vegetable and Sausage Stew (Berza).

Rice Pudding with Goat's Milk (Arroz con Leche).