BRING BACK AN OLD FAVORITE

When I prepared a new edition of my first-ever cookbook, COOKING IN SPAIN (1987; 2006), I edited it down from more than 400 recipes to fewer than 300. The reason was to allow space for a fresh format and a more cook-friendly display of recipes. 

First edition of my first cookbook, COOKING IN SPAIN.

What was my criteria for cutting recipes? I thought about which dishes were still part of Spanish cooking. And, I considered whether my audience (English-speaking home cooks who wish to explore Spanish cuisine) would likely use the recipes. For instance, did I really need to include three different recipes for cooking tongue? Probably not, so I deleted two.

One of the recipes that didn’t make the cut was “Brazo de Gitano de Patatas,” or “’Gypsy’s Arm’ Potato Roll,” a roulade of mashed potatoes with meat filling. It just seemed really old-fashioned.

Then a couple weeks ago my favorite TV chef, Enrique Sánchez on Canal Sur Andalucía, prepared a cold version of brazo de gitano, with a filling of tuna and vegetables. (See that show here.) I was reminded of what a good dish it is, never mind how old fashioned. So, I pulled out my first edition of COOKING IN SPAIN. Here’s that recipe, resurrected.

I still can’t say why it’s called “gypsy’s arm,” a name that’s also used for a sweet cake roulade, except that the roll sort of looks like an arm. 

Why is this roulade called "gypsy's arm"? Well, it does sort of look like an arm---

“Gypsy’s Arm” Potato Roulade
Brazo de Gitano de Patatas

Use mature baking potatoes (such as russets) for this recipe. You can use pimiento-stuffed olives instead of olives plus chopped piquillo peppers. I used the rest of the can of piquillo peppers to make an easy sauce to serve with the roulade (that recipe is here.) Serve the roulade hot, room temperature or cold. It serves 4 as a main course or 6 to 8 as a starter or as part of a buffet meal.

2 ¼ pounds medium potatoes
Salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ pound ground pork
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped green pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 pound plum tomatoes (about 6), peeled and chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg yolk, stirred with 1 teaspoon water
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
½ cup pitted olives, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped piquillo pepper
1 egg, beaten with 2 teaspoons water
Hot pimentón (paprika)

Cook the unpeeled potatoes in water to cover with 1 teaspoon salt until they are tender when tested with a skewer, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and cool the potatoes.

Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the ground pork, breaking it up as it cooks. Add the cumin, onion, green pepper and garlic and continue frying until onion is softened, 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until tomatoes are thickened and all of the liquid has cooked off, about 15 minutes.

Mash or rice potatoes.

Peel the potatoes and either mash them or put them through a ricer. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a grind of pepper. Stir in the egg yolk. Fold the chopped parsley, olives and piquillo pepper into the mashed potatoes.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Line a baking sheet with oven parchment. Spread the potato mash on the sheet into a ½-inch thick rectangle, approximately 12 inches X 9 inches.

Spread potatoes on parchment.

Spread meat filling on potatoes.

Spread the pork and tomato filling on top of the potatoes. Starting from the long side of the rectangle, use the parchment paper to roll the potato slab over the filling, just as you would roll up a jelly-roll cake.  Brush the roll with beaten egg and sprinkle with pimentón. (Use smoked pimentón, if desired.)

Use paper to roll potatoes.

Bake the roulade until lightly browned on top, 20 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before slicing. 

Slices of the roulade reveal meat filling.

Piquillo pepper "ketchup" goes well with the potato roulade.

TIS THE SEASON--FOR COOKBOOKS

This cookbook's a classic!

It’s that time of year again, when newspapers, magazines, websites and opinionated bloggers publish their lists, Best Cookbooks of 2012. Cookbooks are big for the holiday season, both for gift-giving and for consulting recipes for holiday parties. So, let me tell you about a special cookbook, a real keeper.

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of my first-ever cookbook, COOKING IN SPAIN, still going strong after all these years!

COOKING IN SPAIN was published in 1987 by Lookout Publications. The book and recipes grew out of a monthly cooking column that I wrote for Lookout, an English-language magazine published in Spain. (I wrote food and other features for 30 years, until the magazine eventually folded.) Lookout Publications morphed into Santana Books, the current publisher.

I wrote COOKING IN SPAIN with expats like myself in mind, for people who needed to find their way around Spanish markets—what is that weird fruit? how do you cook that kind of fish? what are all these cheeses? sausages?—and, having tasted Spanish food in restaurants and tapa bars, wanted to try some of the dishes in their own kitchens. A Spanish-English glossary of ingredients, a cook’s tour of regional cuisines, shopping tips and more than 400 recipes made this the “bible” of Spanish cooking.

Years back, COOKING IN SPAIN was one of the very few books about this, at the time, almost unknown cuisine. Although the book was never distributed in the US, American tourists in Spain bought it to take home. It's a real pleasure to meet people, both here and in the US, who tell me how much they love the book and to talk to Spaniards who marvel that a "foreigner" could possibly know so much about authentic Spanish cuisine.

New edition, new look.

The new edition, which came out in 2006, has all the market and kitchen info of the original edition, but with a fresh format and new color photographs by Jean Dominique Dallet and Jerónimo Alba. You can order the new edition of this book, shipped direct from the publisher, Santana Books.

People frequently ask me, “what is your favorite recipe?” I couldn’t possibly pick just one! But, over many years of sampling Spain’s regional cooking, I have several recipes that I return to over and over.

Berza--vegetable pot (Photo by JD Dallet)

Quite a few of these have already appeared in previous blogs: berza (Andalusian vegetable and sausage stew); gazpachuelo (Mediterranean seafood chowder); meatballs in almond sauce ;  Fideuá (seafood pasta paella). Here’s another of my favorites, Basque-style hake. I love the simplicity of the dish—garlic, olive oil and wine complement the delicate fresh fish.

Merluza a la Vasca, Hake, Basque Style

Merluza a la Vasca
Hake, Basque Style

Hake is a wonderful fish, flaky and delicate in flavor. (Restaurant critic Jeffrey Steingarten once called it “rich-man’s cod.”) For this dish it’s important to use fresh, not frozen, fish. Fresh cod or haddock might be substituted if hake is not available.

Serves 6.

Hake steaks.

3 pounds hake, cut into 6 crosswise steaks 1 ½ inch thick
Salt
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, sliced crosswise
2/3 cup white wine
1 dozen clams (Manila or littlenecks)
1 dozen small peeled shrimp
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
6 cooked or canned spears of asparagus

Salt the fresh fish steaks and let them sit for 15 minutes. Pat them dry and dust with the flour.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or skillet. Add the garlic and the pieces of fish. Let them cook, without browning for 2 minutes on each side. Sprinkle with any remaining flour. Then add the wine, ½ teaspoon salt, clams and shrimp.

Cook the fish, shaking and rocking the casserole, until the fish is just flaky and clam shells opened, 10 to 12 minutes. The sauce should be slightly thickened.

Add the parsley and asparagus. Serve in the same cazuela.