TWEAKING THE RECIPES

 Do you follow recipes exactly? Or, like most of us, do you embellish, adapt, substitute or otherwise make a recipe your own? 

When I was testing recipes for my new cookbook Flavors of al-Andalus, I tried to be very specific and accurate even though I know full well that most cooks will make changes.  And, full disclosure—I do it too! 

Having invited friends to Sunday lunch, I opened my new cookbook, FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain, and picked a few recipes suitable for a sizzling August day. 

How about chilled gazpacho? The recipe for Winter Gazpacho with Oranges did not sound exactly seasonal for late August. I just happened to have a bag of oranges that needed to be used and I could swap luscious fresh figs for the dried ones that the recipe called for. <<<

Served chilled, this version of gazpacho was perfect for a hot August lunch. I used fresh figs instead of dried, added sliced radishes for crunch.<<< Just a little tweaking, otherwise the recipe is straight from the book. (See below for a more radical tweak.)

Like all gazpacho, this one starts with an emulsion of bread, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil. It has oranges and lettuce added. Other versions have only cucumbers.  Or tomatoes.

Fideo Noodles with Octopus, a pasta paella with seafood, sounded like a good choice for pescatarian guests. But, in fact, most of my pescatarian acquaintances refuse to eat octopus. (Re.: the film “My Octopus Teacher.”) Maybe I should have thought of that when compiling recipes for the book, but I do make the point throughout that you can always change up the ingredients, tweak the recipes to your tastes. So I used squid and anglerfish instead of octopus. <<<

Stock and sofrito are the base that gives Spanish paella and pasta dishes so much flavor. In this day and age sofrito is made with tomatoes slowly fried in olive oil. But the recipes in the book contain no tomatoes! That’s because tomatoes come from the New World and were unknown in Moorish Spain. But we don’t live in Moorish Spain and I had plenty of tomatoes. Should I use them?

No. I made the sofrito as given in my recipe—carrots add bulk and color, a spoonful of vinegar or wine gives a tangy flavor boost. It was perfect, deeply flavorful. 

Sunday lunch: Beatrice serves fideo noodles with fish, shrimp, and vegetables.

Fideo Noodles with Octopus

Cazuela de Fideos con Pulpo

The recipe in Flavors of al-Andalus calls for cooked octopus (and even tells how to cook it). But you can change the octopus for fish or squid.<<<

Fideos are thin, round noodles, the sort you might put in chicken-noodle soup. They range in thickness from threads of angel’s hair to spaghetti-like cords. The name comes from the Arabic, fidaush, which means fresh pasta (the Arabic word for dried pasta is itriyya).

Fideos have been toasted.

The method of cooking fideos is quite different from Italian-style pasta dishes. The dried pasta is usually toasted in olive oil. And rather than cooking it in a pot of boiling water, the fideos cook right in the sauce, soaking up the flavors. For this recipe, use thick fideos, designated grueso or no.4. If fideos are not available, substitute spaghetti broken into short lengths.

You will need stock both for the sofrito and for cooking the noodles. Use a simple stock made from fish trimmings and shrimp shells or store-bought stock. (There is a recipe for Simple Fish Stock in Flavors of al-Andalus or in this blog post.  

For the sofrito

Makes 1 cup sofrito, half of which is needed for the noodle recipe.

Sofrito after blending.

¼ cup olive oil

1 ½ cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped carrots

3 cloves chopped garlic 

¼ cup chopped fennel bulb (optional)

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

¼ cup water, chicken, or fish stock

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Herbs (optional)

Heat the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, and fennel, if using, and sauté for 15 minutes or until the onions are golden and beginning to brown. Add the parsley, vinegar, and water or stock. Add salt to taste, ½ teaspoon if using water. Season with pepper and herbs, if desired. Cover and cook the mixture 5 to 10 minutes, until the carrots are soft enough to mash.

Transfer the mixture to a mini food processor and process until the sauce is fairly smooth. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 6 months.   

To cook the fideo noodles

>>>You can substitute pieces of squid or firm-fleshed fish such as angler or halibut for the octopus.

Serves 4

¼ teaspoon saffron threads, crushed

3 tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces whole shrimp, peeled, heads and tails reserved

1 pound thick (#4) fideo noodles or spaghetti broken into 1 ½- inch pieces

1 ½ cups sliced asparagus from a 10-ounce bunch

½ cup sofrito (recipe above)

¼ cup white wine

5 cups octopus cooking water or fish stock 

Freshly ground black pepper

Salt to taste

½ cup shelled peas

8 ounces cooked octopus tentacles

Sprigs of mint to serve

Sliced lemon to serve

Place the saffron in a small bowl and add ¼ cup hot water. Let it infuse 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a cazuela, paella pan, large skillet or flat-bottomed wok over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp heads and shells and fry them, pressing on the heads to extract the flavorful juices. When the shells begin to brown, remove the pan from the heat, tip it so the oil runs to one side, and lift out the heads and shells. (The fried shrimp shells and heads can be added to stock or discarded.)

Add the fideo noodles and asparagus to the oil remaining in the pan and fry them, stirring, on medium heat until the noodles just begin to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the sofrito, wine, and saffron water. Stir to combine well. Add the octopus cooking water or fish stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer the noodles 10 minutes. >>>I toasted the fideos and skimmed them out before sautéing the pieces of fish and asparagus. I stirred in the sofrito, returned the fideos to the pan, then added the stock and continued with the recipe.

Stir in the peas and shrimp. Place the cooked octopus tentacles on top of the noodles. Cook until noodles are al dente, 5 to 8 minutes. Add sprigs of mint, cover the pan with foil or a cloth and let the noodles sit 5 minutes.

Serve the noodles in the pan garnished with sprigs of mint and lemon slices. Use scissors to cut the octopus into bite-size pieces. 

The fideos I served to guests has monkfish, small pieces of cooked squid, shrimp, asparagus, peas, and artichoke hearts from a jar. 

(Winter) Gazpacho with Oranges—with the addition of sliced avocado and shrimp.<<<  Use dried figs instead of fresh ones, change the summery colors for winter ones and this would make a gorgeous starter for Christmas dinner when oranges and avocados are in season. 

Dessert was a nod to a recipe in Flavors of al-Andalus. Tortas de aceite—crispy olive oil cookies—formed the base of a sort of napolean dessert with sliced peaches, cream, and caramel sauce. There is a recipe for the tortas in Flavors of al-Andalus. Only I didn’t bake these; I bought packaged Inés Rosales® tortas. (The peaches were macerated in oloroso Sherry. The cream was equal parts whipped cream and cream cheese with vanilla and grated lemon peel--no sugar. The caramel sauce was straight out of a squeeze-bottle.) 

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My new cookbook,

FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain, published by Hippocrene Books, is available from your favorite bookseller. For more about what’s in the book, see Meatballs with Backstory. 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times. Dishes from this era include exotic spices such as saffron, the use of fruits and almonds with savory dishes, and honeyed sweets and pastries. The flavors of al-Andalus live on in modern Spanish cooking and are what makes Spain’s cuisine distinctive from the rest of Europe. (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

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