SALPICÓN IS THE SALAD YOU NEED THIS SUMMER

 

Salpicón con pulpo--chopped salad with octopus and shrimp. 

Here’s a salad that will fit any need for your summer entertaining—lavish dinner party to grilling on the terrace. Starter or main dish. Grownups or kids. 

Salpicón is a chopped salad. (The word derives from sal, salt, and picar, to chop.) The popular tapa bar version of it is salpicón de mariscos, a shellfish cocktail with diced peppers and onions and a vinaigrette dressing. 

But salpicón as a cold supper dish goes back, at least, to the end of the 16th century. Remember the lines? En un lugar de La Mancha—Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches— What Don Quixote ate most days of the week: an olla—boiled dinner—with somewhat more beef than mutton, salpicón—leftovers—on most nights for supper. 

Don Quixote’s salpicón was a cold hash, made from chopping together the leftover cooked meat and vegetables from the midday olla and dressing them with salt, olive oil and vinegar. While you could use boiled beef or pot-roasted brisket in your salpicón, I’ve chosen to use grilled steak.

Strips of steak grilled medium-rare are tossed with diced potatoes, slivered onions and a tangy dressing.

Following are recipes for a seafood chopped salad with octopus and a chopped salad with grilled steak. 

Chopped Salad with Octopus

Salpicón con Pulpo

Colorful and fresh, this seafood salad can serve as a starter or main dish.

Cooked octopus tentacles.

You will need cooked octopus for this recipe. Vacuum-packed cooked octopus can be purchased in supermarkets and from fish vendors. (See directions below if you have whole, uncooked octopus.) The cooked octopus tentacles are ready to be used straight from the package. But, for this salad, I chose to add flavor by grilling the octopus tentacles on a plancha before cutting them up.

Instead of octopus, you can use any combination of shellfish and fish that you like—lobster and mussels, crab and scallops, monkfish and shrimp. You get the idea. Although not traditional, a little chopped jalapeño is a nice addition.

Serve the salpicón as a starter, as you would shrimp cocktail, with shredded lettuce in the cocktail cups. Spread it on a platter or shallow bowl for a buffet meal. Toss it with cooked pasta shells for the best pasta salad you’ve ever had!

Diced octopus and shrimp with peppers for salpicón.

Serves 6 as a starter

8 ounces small shrimp

8 ounces cooked octopus tentacles

Oil for the grill pan

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 cup diced green pepper

1 cup diced red bell pepper

1 cup chopped spring onion

1 small clove garlic, crushed

½ teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

Pinch of cayenne

3 tablespoons Sherry vinegar

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 hard-cooked egg chopped

3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Salad greens, to serve (optional)

Cook, peel shrimp for salad.

To cook the shrimp, have ready a bowl of ice water. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Add the shrimp. When water returns to a boil, remove the pan from the heat. Let the shrimp set 1 minute. Drain the shrimp and place them in the bowl of ice water. Once cooled, drain the shrimp well and peel them. Cut them in pieces, more or less ¾ inch. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Octopus tentacles on grill pan.

Heat a grill pan and brush it with oil. Grill the octopus tentacles until they are very lightly browned, about 1 minute per side. Remove them from the grill and allow them to cool. When the octopus is cool, use kitchen scissors to cut it into ¾ -inch pieces. Place them in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the extra virgin olive oil. Cover and refrigerate until ready to make the salad.

For the dressing, place the crushed garlic in a small bowl or jar. Add the pimentón, cayenne, vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper.Stir to mix well, then whisk in (or shake) the remaining 5 tablespoons of olive oil.

Combine the two kinds of peppers, onions, chopped egg and half of the chopped parsley in a mixing bowl. Add the cut-up shrimp and octopus. Add the dressing and stir gently to combine. Cover and chill the salad at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours. 

Serve the salad on a platter or in individual dishes, with salad greens, if desired. Sprinkle with remaining chopped parsley. 

Serve salpicón with chunks of bread or crackers for dunking. Pictured are pieces of regañá, a crispbread typical of Andalusia. 

Steak Salad

Salpicón de Carne

Steak salad could be served as a main dish. Add greens, sliced radish, tomatoes.

Grilled entrecôte steak.

I used thinly-cut entrecôte steak for this recipe, cooking it on a ridged grill pan to medium-rare. Any tender steak can be used, char-grilled or pan-cooked.  Alternatively, use deli-sliced roast beef. Use any cooked ham. I used lacón, Galician smoked shoulder-ham. 

 Soaking the slivered onions in salt and vinegar smooths out the onion’s harshness. They are not a true pickle. You will not need all of the sliced onion for the steak salad. Keep the remainder covered and refrigerated. 

By the way, Sherry vinegar, although mellow in flavor, is actually more acidic (7 percent) than white or red wine vinegar (6 percent). If substituting one for another, add more or less, to taste.

Serves 3-4 as a main dish.

Soak onion slices in vinegar.

1 red onion

Salt

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 cup water

1 medium potato

1 carrot

1 egg

8 ounces grilled steak

4 tablespoons Sherry vinegar

Salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon crumbled oregano

1 clove garlic, crushed

¼ cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon drained capers

1 cup (3 ounces) diced cooked ham

1/3 cup finely diced celery

Chopped parsley

Salad greens, to serve (optional)

Peel the onion, cut it in half and thinly slice from root end to stem. Place the sliced onion in a jar or bowl. Combine 1 teaspoon of salt, the white wine vinegar and 1 cup water. Pour over the onions and macerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. 

Cut steak into strips.

Cook the whole potato, carrot and egg in boiling salted water until the potato is tender when pierced with a skewer. Drain and cover with cold water. Drain again.

Slice the steak into strips or cubes. Place in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the Sherry vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper and oregano. Let the meat marinate while preparing the dressing. 

In a small bowl whisk together the garlic, mayonnaise and mustard until smooth. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of Sherry vinegar and the oil. Stir in the capers.

Drain about ¼ cup of the red onions and add them to the macerated steak in the bowl. Peel the potato and carrot, cut them in dice and add to the steak. Add the chopped hard-cooked egg. Add the diced ham and celery. Stir the dressing into the meat and mix well. 

The salad can stand at room temperature for up to 30 minutes. If it is to be kept longer, cover and refrigerate.

Mix chopped parsley into the salad immediately before serving. Serve with salad greeens, if desired.

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To prepare octopus: Fresh, uncooked octopus must first be tenderized by freezing it for three days. Defrost before cooking. Bring a large pot of water to a boil with salt, bay leaf and a quartered onion. Lowering the whole octopus, tentacles first, into boiling water three times then drop it into the pot to cook. The initial hot water dip causes the appendages to curl and the skin to tighten so that it is less likely to split during cooking.

Figure about 10 minutes per pound cooking time. Test after 20 minutes by probing the thick part of a tentacle with a skewer. The octopus is done when the skewer easily pierces the flesh. If not tender, cook 5 minutes more and test again. 

Remove the pot from the heat and leave the octopus in the cooking liquid for 20 minutes before draining. Remove the beak—a hard bit in the center of the tentacles. Turn the head inside-out. Discard the eyes and all the viscera inside the head. The fleshy head and tentacles are now ready for cooking according to the recipe.

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More octopus recipes:

Grilled Octopus with Pimentón Mayonnaise.

Octopus with Tomato Sauce.

Galician Style Octopus and Potatoes.

Octopus with Chorizo and Chickpeas.

More steak and beef recipes:

Spanish-English Steak Glossary.

Steak Sandwich with Mushroom Ketchup.

Hash with Beef.

THE MANY WAYS TO FRY

 

Samfaina con pollo is a dish of sautéed summer vegetables with chicken. The dish calls for three ways of frying--sofreir, saltear and rehogar. Easy steps that develop a lot of flavor.

Vocabulary tells us a lot about culinary techniques. And Spanish cuisine has almost a dozen words for different ways to fry food. 

Freir is “to fry.” But, sofreir is to pre-fry, or fry lightly. Refreir is to refry. Then there are saltear, sauté; rehogar, to brown; dorar, to brown or “make golden;” sudar, to sweat in oil; sellar, to seal or sear; pochar, to poach in oil, and caramelizar, to caramelize. All of these take place in oil. Olive oil, of course. 

Frying is the cooking process in which the food is immersed in hot oil. The verb comes with its corresponding nouns and adjectives—frito is, you guessed it, a fried food. Fritura means a plate of fried foods, such as fritura malagueña, Málaga’s famous mixed fish fry.  Patatas fritas, fries, are cooked in deep oil. Breaded and battered foods are fried—think croquettes, shrimp.

Fritura malagueña is a mixed fish fry, best when the fish are fried in olive oil. See the recipe here.

For Spanish fries, the potatoes fry in enough olive oil to cover them.  The recipe for how-to make Spanish fries is here. 

Deep-fry croquettes in olive oil. Recipes for three kinds of croquettes, mushroom, ham and cheese-potato, are here. 

Gambas rebosadas, batter-fried shrimp, are a favorite in tapa bars. The recipe is here.

Yes, you can deep-fry in extra virgin olive oil. Heat olive oil to a temperature of 360ºF/ 180ºC. This is well below the smoking point of olive oil, 380ºF to 410ºF.  At this temperature a crust forms on the surface of the food, so the oil doesn’t penetrate it, but it doesn’t brown too quickly, allowing the interior of the food to cook thoroughly.

Sofrito, though, is more than the act of frying. Sofrito is procedure, technique and result. It means gently frying ingredients in olive oil to give new flavors and complexity to a finished dish. 

Sofrito usually begins with slow frying of onions, garlic, sometimes peppers, in just a little oil and often finishes with the addition of chopped tomatoes. The tomatoes, too, are “fried” until their liquid cooks away. Sofrito, if sieved, can become a sauce in its own right. But usually it is the first step in a more complex dish. Paella, for instance, starts with sofrito, to which are added chicken or rabbit, other vegetables, seafood. Rabo de Toro, braised ox-tail, starts with a more complex sofrito with leeks and carrots as well as the onion and garlic to which the pieces of meat are added.

Sofrito builds flavor for paella. Start with garlic and peppers, add vegetables, brown chicken or rabbit, then add tomatoes, rice, liquid. Paella, step by step, here.

Pochar and hacer sudar are subcategories of sofreir. Pochar is a word poached from English. In Spanish, the word for poaching an egg is escalfar, not pochar. Pochar is used specifically to mean cooking something, usually chopped onions, in oil at a very low temperature without letting it brown. Figure 20 minutes. It’s okay to cover the pan. Sudar is similar, meaning “to sweat” the onions in oil until softened. Not exactly frying, although it does take place in the medium of olive oil. 

This brings me to the subject of sliced or diced potatoes destined to be incorporated in the famous Spanish tortilla de patatas. While a Spanish cook would probably say, “freir las patatas,” I tend to say, in English, “poach” the potatoes in olive oil. Because, although the potatoes are immersed in lots of oil (which is drained off),  you definitely don’t want high frying temperatures. You want the potatoes to cook slowly and never brown. (Don’t worry, if you use olive oil, they do not soak up a lot of oil.)

Saltear just means sauté. Writing recipes in English, I invariably use the word “sauté” when I mean for you to fry cut-up food in some oil. Sauté comes from the French word, sauter, meaning “to jump.” The idea is to keep the food moving around in the frying pan. The Spanish equivalent is saltear, which doesn’t actually mean “to jump,” (that is saltar), but “to skip over.” If you’ve ever watched an experienced cook flip a pan full of chopped onions with a jerk of the arm, you know what saltear is. Salteado de champiñones is a sauté of mushrooms. Salteado de guisantes or habas is a vegetable sauté of peas or fava beans. Either could be topped with a huevo frito, egg fried in enough olive oil to nearly cover it.

Salteado de champiñones, mushroom sauté, is the perfect side dish with grilled steak. Recipe is here.

Salteado de guisantes, a dish of fresh peas sautéed with ham, topped with an egg.  See the recipe here.

The Spanish way to fry an egg, immersed in olive oil. Directions for how-to are here.

A word that doesn’t exist in Spanish is for Chinese stir-fry. The technique of quickly frying cut-up foods at extremely high temperatures seems, well, foreign. I think this is because expert wok frying really does reach the smoking point of olive oil. If this is your thing, use sunflower oil, aceite de girasol. I do a lot of stir-frying. I do use olive oil, but I keep the temperatures below the smoke point. Basically, a Spanish salteado with soy sauce. 

Rehogar means "to brown in oil." Chefs sometimes say to “sellar” meat or chicken in a hot pan with a little oil. Although sellar means “to seal,” what they really mean is “to sear,” to rehogar or brown the surface, which develops the Maillard reaction, converting proteins and starches to deep, savory flavors. 

Brown chicken pieces in oil--rehogar--with a few cloves of garlic before adding liquid to finish their cooking. (Recipe below.)

A refrito of garlic.

Other terminology for frying includes refrito, which means refried, as in that Mexican dish, refried beans. In Spain, a refrito often is a quick fry of garlic, perhaps with ham, that is added to a cooked dish as a finishing touch. Spoon it over cooked vegetables, baked potato, grilled fish or lentil soup immediately before serving. The recipe for garlic refrito is here.

The recipe below for Samfaina con Pollo, a Catalan dish of sautéed vegetables with chicken uses three of these frying techniques. It starts with a sofrito, continues with a salteado, or sauté, with eggplant and zucchini. The chicken is rehogado, or “browned” before being added to the vegetables. Each step contributes flavor and complexity to the finished dish.

Sauté of Summer Vegetables with Chicken, Catalan Style

Samfaina con Pollo (Samfaina amb pollastre)

Ready for the sofrito, salteado.

You can vary the quantities and proportions of the vegetables. 

2 medium onions (10 ounces)

3 cloves garlic

2 frying peppers (8 ounces)

1 red bell pepper (8 ounces)

1 large zucchini (14 ounces)

1 medium eggplant (14 ounces)

4-5 tomatoes (1 ½ pounds)

3 + 2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Sprig of fresh thyme

For the chicken

½ chicken, cut up (1 pound 10 ounces)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Thyme

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons Spanish brandy

Water, if needed

For the samfaina:

Chop the onions finely. Slice the garlic. Cut the peppers into ½-inch pieces. Cut the zucchini and eggplants into ½-inch dice. Remove cores from the tomatoes. Grate them, discarding the skins.

Stir or flip the onions.

Sofreir the onions and garlic.

Place the garlic in a skillet with 3 tablespoons of the oil on medium-high heat. When garlic begins to sizzle, but before it browns, add the chopped onion. Sauté the onions, stirring or flipping them frequently, until they are completely soft, 10 minutes. Regulate heat so the onions don’t brown. 

Raise the heat and add the two kinds of chopped peppers. Continue to move the onions and peppers with a wooden spoon or paddle until the peppers lose their liquid and begin to sizzle. Turn down the heat and continue sautéing until peppers are sofritos, fried until soft.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Stir in the diced zucchini and eggplant. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, if using. Continue sautéing on medium-high heat until all the vegetables are softened, 5 minutes. Add the tomato pulp and juices and sprig of thyme. Turn up the heat until tomatoes begin to splutter. Lower heat and cook the samfaina, uncovered, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes more. 

Samfaina, ready to serve, is vegetarian. Add chicken to it, if desired. 

For the chicken:

Season the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and thyme. Allow them to come to room temperature. 

Heat a heavy skillet on medium-high. Add the oil. Lightly crush the garlics, without peeling them. Add them to the skillet. Place the chicken pieces in the skillet, skin-side down. Let them brown very slowly without moving the pieces around in the pan, about 5 minutes. Turn the pieces and let them brown on the reverse sides. When chicken is nicely browned, carefully add the brandy and cook until the alcohol is cooked off. 

Either add about ¼ cup of water to the pan to finish cooking the chicken or else transfer the pieces to the samfaina pan to finish cooking with the vegetables. 

Add chicken pieces to the samfaina vegetables. 

Samfaina is quite similar to Pisto, a summer vegetable dish that has appeared in various manifestations in this blog, vegetarian and with meat or fish added. Here’s one of them: Pisto with Pork.

THIS IS NOT BASQUE BURNT CHEESECAKE

 

Is this the original Basque burnt cheesecake? It's a quesada, not from Basque Country but from nearby Cantabria. High oven temperature gives the cheesecake a deeply browned top. 

This is not your Basque burnt cheesecake, the recipe that’s been trending for a couple years. This one, from Cantabria, may actually be the original. Cantabria is the region on the north coast of Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, that borders Basque Country. Santander, just up the pike from Bilbao, is its capital.

Inland Cantabria has verdant mountain valleys pasturing dairy cattle and nary an olive tree. Hooray for butter! And cream! And, cheese! The cheesecake of Cantabria, called quesada pasiega, is made with fresh cheese curds before they are compacted and aged to become queso pasiego. The cheese, made from cows’ milk, comes from the Valles Pasiegas, the valleys of the Pas and Miera rivers and their tributaries. 

The cheesecake is made with fresh cheese curds. Like the Basque version, it has no crust.

The quesada is good on its own, with fresh fruit or compotes, with sweet mosto wine. It's rich--but not decadent.

The cheesecake, like the more famous Basque version, has no crust. The Cantabrian recipe calls for queso fresco, fresh cheese, and butter instead of cream. Taking a cue from a Spanish blogger, Miriam García of El Invitado de Invierno, I decided to make my own queso fresco. (How-to for making queso fresco follows the cheesecake recipe.) However, if you’re not into cheesemaking, make the cheesecake using creamed cottage cheese in place of the queso fresco. It’s much more like the original than is Philadelphia cream cheese. 

If using queso fresco or cottage cheese, beat the curds with mixer or food processor until they are smooth and creamy. If they are very dry, add a little cream or whey. 

The quesada pasiega is usually baked in a flat square pan and cut into squares for serving. I chose to bake it in a parchment-lined, deep springform pan, making it much like the Basque cheesecake. It bakes at a high temperature, which caramelizes the sugar and egg, giving the “burnt” aspect. Careful, though, It’s not really burnt, but deeply browned.The cake will puff up like a soufflé, but deflate as it cools. Although It may not seem completely set when removed from the oven, the cake will set as it cools.

Cantabrian “Burnt” Cheesecake

Quesada al Estilo de Cantabria

Fresh chees curds and butter for this cheesecake.

3 cups (28 ounces) queso fresco (recipe below) or creamed cottage cheese

¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest

3 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1/3 cup)

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

½ cup flour

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Line pan with parchment.

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Line a 10-inch springform pan with baking parchment. (To fit a square of parchment into the mold, first fold it in quarters. Pleat or crumple the parchment, unfold it and tuck it into the bottom of the pan. Trim off excess.)

Drain off excess liquid from the cheese. Beat the cheese until creamy and smooth with mixer or in a food processor. Beat in the lemon zest and melted butter. On low speed, beat in the sugar, the eggs one at a time, the flour, cinnamon and salt. Do not over-beat. 

Not burnt! Deep brown.

Pour the cheese batter into the baking pan. Set in the middle of the oven. Bake the cheesecake until browned on top, about 35 minutes. It will not be completely set in the center. Remove and cool on a rack. 

When completely cool, refrigerate the cheesecake, still in the pan, for at least 8 hours. When ready to serve, remove from the springform. Spread open the parchment. Either slice the cake right on the parchment or carefully remove the parchment and place the cake on a platter.

Cheesecake puffs up like a soufflé, deflates as it cools.

Fresh Cheese Curds

Queso Fresco de Vaca

A tiny bit of rennet.

Rennet (cuajo) is an enzyme that causes milk to coagulate, that is, to separate into curds and whey, the first step in cheesemaking. Although there are vegetal and microbial rennets, most cheeses are made with animal rennet. Buy rennet in liquid, tablet or powdered form. In Spain, cuajo can be purchased in tiny jars at the farmacia, drug store. (Junket, cuajada, from which you can make milk pudding, contains rennet, but is not suitable for cheesemaking.) The concentration of the enzyme varies with different presentations of the rennet, so consult the package directions for quantities to use. You will need very little rennet for two quarts of milk. Use non-chlorinated water to dissolve the rennet.

Use pasteurized or raw milk for the cheese. Sterilized (UHT) milk will not work. No additional cultures are needed to make fresh cheese. (If you are into real cheesemaking, you will want to find out about cultures, calcium chloride, acidity, etc.)

Fresh cheese curds.

For the cheesemaking process you will need a method to keep the milk warm. An insulated container such as that used for yogurt-making, a turned-off oven, a container set over hot water (double-boiler). 

After draining, you will have loose, creamy curds, that, beaten smooth, can be used in the cheesecake recipe. Or, dribble them with honey and serve as dessert. Combined with salt and flavored with herbs, they make a good dip or spread for toasts.  If you press out more of the whey and compact the curds, they will make a fresh cheese that can be sliced or crumbled. The whey (suero) can be used in cooking or discarded. (My attempt to use the whey to make requesón/ricotta was not successful.)

Improvised double-boiler.

Makes 32 ounces of fresh curd cheese.

Utensils needed

Large double-boiler or nesting pans

Thermometer 

Colander

Cheesecloth or butter muslin for draining the cheese

Ladle

¼ teaspoon powdered rennet

2 tablespoons non-chlorinated cold water

Few grains of salt

10 cups whole cows’ milk (2½ quarts) 

2 tablespoons plain yogurt, room temperature

In a small bowl combine the rennet powder, cold water and salt. Stir to dissolve. (Use the rennet solution within 30 minutes.)

Place the milk in a pot and set it over a larger pot of boiling water. Place cheese thermometer in the milk. Heat the milk to 110ºF/45ºC. Stir in the rennet solution and the yogurt. Turn off the heat under the pan of water or leave it on low so that the temperature of the milk stays at about 100ºF/38ºC. Leave the milk without stirring for 1 hour 15 minutes until it has coagulated and separated into curds and whey. 

Drain curds in cheesecloth.

Line a colander with cheesecloth or a thin kitchen towel. Place the colander over a deep bowl or pan. Carefully ladle the curds and whey into the colander. Cover and refrigerate at least 12 hours or up to 20 hours.

Scrape the curds into a covered container and store refrigerated. (If a more firm cheese is desired, gather the cheesecloth up and squeeze the curds tightly to express as much whey as possible. Salt lightly and store covered and refrigerated.)

Fresh cheese curds are white, sweet. They can be salted and flavored for spreads or squeezed and compacted to make a firmer fresh cheese.

Is Basque Burnt Cheesecake really Basque? Here's another opinion (in Spanish):  The Changeability of Basque-ness.

More about cheesemaking:

Got My Goat (Cheese).

Everything But the Goat.

Catalan Fresh Cheese with Honey.

Where Manchego Cheese Is Coming From.

Land of 100 Cheeses.

THESE FISHBALLS ARE GATHERING STEAM

 

Chinese bamboo steamer in my Spanish kitchen.

Look what I’ve got! A Chinese bamboo steamer, inherited from a friend. I’ve never used one before. Steaming foods is not a thing in Spanish cooking. 

Searching for ideas, I pulled out the only Chinese cookbook in my collection, The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller (Grosset & Dunlap; 1970). Besides a useful how-to section, I found lots of recipes for steamed food. One of them sort of clicked, because it sounded so Spanish—steamed fishballs. The recipe calls for Sherry, but no soy sauce. With only a few adaptations, I turned it into a Spanish dish worthy of any tapa bar. 

Steaming makes very moist and delicate fishballs, so it’s a perfect technique for lean and flaky white fish such as sole or hake. I used (fresh) cod (which comes to Spain by air from Norway). The fish is not minced, but hand-cut into thin, short strips, so the balls have texture. I’ve added shrimp to both the fishballs and the sauce. 

Fish balls on two tiers cook over simmering water in a covered bamboo steamer.

Steamed fishballs, ready for plating. They are made with cod and shrimp, Sherry, mushrooms, serrano ham, red bell pepper, parsley.

Fishballs are served with sauce of shrimp stock and sherry with a few shrimp.

Steamed spinach goes nicely with the sherried fishballs.

A three- or four-tiered steamer, of bamboo or stainless steel, is perfect for cooking several foods at one time. If you don’t have a steamer, improvise with a heatproof colander or a shallow bowl set on top of an inverted cup in the bottom of a lidded pot. If using a bamboo steamer, to prevent foods from sticking to the slats, line the steamer baskets with leaves, such as cabbage, lettuce or grape, or cut a disk of baking parchment and poke holes in it for steam to pass through. 

Use a pan/skillet/wok wide enough to set the steamer in. Add water to the pan so it just comes up to the bottom rim of the steamer. Don’t let water into the basket where foods are placed. Bring the water to a full boil, turn heat down to a simmer, place the steamer with lid in the water, and allow the food to steam. The fishballs need 8 to 10 minutes. You may have to remove the lid and take one out to test it. For longer steaming, replenish with hot water so the pan never cooks dry. 

Steamer for vegetables too.

A steamer, of course, is great for simply steaming vegetables. I cooked a bunch of fresh spinach in it to go with the fishballs. If foods to be steamed include marinades, sauce ingredients, oil, place them in a shallow bowl and set the bowl in the steamer. 

The recipe for fishballs in the Chinese cookbook calls for dried black mushrooms, smoked ham, bamboo shoots, Chinese cabbage and ginger root. I have substituted dried níscalos (Lactarius deliciosus), serrano ham, red bell pepper and chopped parsley. I used olive oil to make the shrimp stock, adding a decidedly Spanish touch to the fishballs.

Steamed Fish and Shrimp Balls with Sherry Sauce

Albóndigas de Pescado y Gambas al Vapor, con Salsa al Jerez 

Sherry, Spanish ham to flavor fishballs.

Makes about 22 (1 ½-inch) balls

For the shrimp stock:

8 ounces small whole shrimp

Fish bones and trimmings (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 slice onion

1 clove garlic

4 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

For the fish balls:

¼ cup dried mushrooms

1 pound skinless cod fillet

1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon dry Sherry

1 egg white

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

¼ cup chopped red bell pepper

¼ cup chopped serrano ham

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Leaves or baking parchment to line steamer

For the sauce:

1 cup shrimp stock

3 tablespoons dry Sherry

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 tablespoons water

Shrimp

Chopped parsley 

Use shrimp heads, shells for stock.

For the shrimp stock:

Shell the shrimp, saving the heads and shells. Refrigerate the shelled shrimp. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the heads and shells, the slice of onion and the clove of garlic, lightly crushed. Fry the shells for 2 minutes. Add the water, salt and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, simmer 20 minutes, until liquid is reduced by half. Strain the stock and reserve it. Discard the solids. (Only 1 cup of the shrimp stock is needed for the sauce. Save the remainder for another use.)

Make the fish balls. 

Cover the dried mushrooms with hot water. Soak them for 10 minutes (or according to directions on the package). Drain the mushrooms (the water can be added to the shrimp stock). Chop them finely.

Cut fish in slivers; chop shrimp.

Slice the cod very thinly, then chop or sliver it. Set aside some of the shrimp to use in the sauce. Chop the remaining shrimp. In a mixing bowl, combine the cornstarch, Sherry and egg white. Add the cod and shrimp and stir to mix well. Add the parsley, mushrooms, red pepper, ham, salt and pepper. Combine well. 

Line bamboo steamer baskets with strips of cabbage leaves or a circle of parchment paper. (If using the parchment, poke holes in it with a skewer so steam can rise.) 

Form balls by hand.

The fish mixture will be quite squishy. Make walnut-sized balls of it by pressing in the palm of the hand. Place them in the steamer baskets about an inch apart. Stack two or more tiers, as necessary. Add enough water to the large pan or wok to come up to the bottom rim of the steamer basket. Place on high heat and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat so the water simmers. Place the steamer in the pan of water and cover the steamer with the lid.

Steam the fishballs until they are firm, 8 to 10 minutes. (Remove the lid and take out a fishball to test it for doneness.) Remove the steamer from the heat. Remove the lid to release the steam. Using protective gloves, lift the steamer out of the pan of hot water. 

Steamer basket is lined with baking parchment that has been perforated so steam can rise. The other basket is lined with pieces of cabbage leaves. 

For the sauce: 

Heat the shrimp stock with the Sherry until the alcohol has cooked off, 2 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and water. Whisk the cornstarch into the shrimp stock and cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and add the reserved shrimp. Stir in the reserved chopped parsley.

Serve the fish balls with the Sherry sauce. 

Fishballs with Sherry/shrimp sauce.

Here are some more sauces that would complement the steamed fishballs: 

Sour Orange Sauce.

Green Chile Sauce (Mojo Verde).

Garlic Mayonnaise (Alioli).

Ham and Mushroom Sauce.

Caper Dressing for Fish.

Olive Sauce.

Tartare Sauce with Seaweed.

Not Spanish, not Chinese, I'm going to slather those leftover fishballs with some creamy horseradish sauce. 

Another recipe for steamed fish: Hake Steamed with Seaweed.