“VIBRANT RECIPES SURPRISE AND DELIVER”

 

Here's Donna Gelb in her New York kitchen with my cookbook, Flavors of al-Andalus. She’s the one who wrote those glowing words "vibrant recipes that surprise and deliver," that appear on the back cover of my cookbook. She's preparing to make Vegetable Paella, one of the recipes from the book.

Donna was on my select list of persons who received the advance (digital) edition of the book. Besides being a cookbook author herself she is also a board member of the Culinary Historians of New York. So I thought she might be especially interested in a cookbook with a historical angle (those flavors of al-Andalus come from Moorish Spain, 711 CE to 1492). Here’s what she wrote:

I’ve cooked with Donna in her New York apartment, where we prepared paella for family and guests—two paellas, actually, as we had a vegetarian amongst us. And she has joined me in my kitchen in Spain on several occasions.

We met when Donna was exploring the idea of writing a cookbook/memoir about being Jewish in Franco-era Spain. 

As a teenager she lived with her family in Madrid where her father had business interests. She remembers one Christmas season, her father was given one of Spain’s esteemed hams. Not to be enjoyed by a Jewish family, the ham was gifted to their housekeeper, Conchi. Donna recalls another occasion when the family was celebrating a Passover seder in a restaurant cellar* while barefoot penitents dragged chains past the windows during Semana Santa processions. 

*It was not until 1967 that Spain passed the law of religious freedom that allowed non-Catholics to practice their religions. In 1968 the ministry of justice repealed the Alhambra decree of 1492 that expelled Jews from Spain. My cookbook, Flavors of al-Andalus, has many recipes attributed to the Sephardic Jews of Moorish Spain.

Donna Gelb, food writer and recipe developer, is a native New Yorker. Her interest in food began as a teenager growing up in Spain, Switzerland, and England. She trained in New York at Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School, which led to regular recipe testing for The New York Times Magazine, and a column in The New York Daily News.  She collaborated with Francis Mallmann and Peter Kaminsky on the award-winning cookbook Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way (Artisan 2009); Mallmann on Fire (Artisan 2014), and Green Fire (Artisan 2022.), and with Ilene Rosen on Saladish (Artisan 2019) which won the James Beard Cookbook Award for Vegetable-Focused Cooking. An active member of the Culinary Historians of New York since 2003, she has served on the board since 2008.

Here is the recipe for Vegetable Paella that Donna noted in her blurb. I like this recipe because it’s so adaptable—suitable for vegetarian guests and, with sides of sautéd shrimp, clams, and chicken legs, for those who are not vegetarian as well. 

Vegetable Paella

Arroz de Verduras

The Arabs introduced the cultivation of rice in Spain, but did they invent paella? Perhaps they invented the precursor of paella. We know that most rice dishes of that era before modern milling were more like porridge, sweet or savory, made with pounded grains. A few were made with whole grains combined with meat and vegetables.

By strict Valencian terms, this recipe does not qualify as paella. It is simply un arroz, a rice dish. It’s best with seasonal vegetables, but good with frozen vegetables, too. The favas and peas don’t need as long to cook as the artichokes, so add them when the rice is half-cooked.

In Spanish homes, vegetable paella might have bits of fish such as bacalao (salt cod), a handful of clams, pieces of squid, or a few shrimp added for flavor. If you are not vegetarian, you could use chicken or fish stock instead of vegetable. If you are using a well-seasoned stock, you may not need salt, but if using water, add about 1½ teaspoons salt.

A picada sauce of ground almonds, garlic, and parsley, spooned on the finished rice, adds a burst of flavor. 

Makes 4 servings

For the paella:

¼ cup olive oil

½ cup finely chopped onion

1 small head garlic, top ½ inch sliced off

2 (4-ounce) artichokes

¼ cup dry white wine

¼ teaspoon crushed saffron threads

¼ cup hot water

4½ cups vegetable stock or water

1 bay leaf

1½ cups medium-grain rice

Fine salt to taste

¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1 cup shelled fava beans

1 cup shelled peas

Lemon slices, for serving

For the picada topping:

¼ cup fresh parsley leaves

A few fresh mint leaves (optional)

¼ cup toasted almonds

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon grated lemon peel

To make the paella, heat the oil in a paella pan or large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic head to the pan and fry until the onion is softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Snap off the outer leaves from the artichokes, pare the stems, and cut the artichokes in half. Add the artichokes to the pan, cut sides down. Add the wine.

Place the saffron in a small cup and add the hot water. Let it infuse for 5 minutes. Add the saffron water, 3 cups of the stock, and the bay leaf to the pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then stir in the rice. Add fine salt to taste and the pepper. Cook for 10 minutes, turning the artichokes and head of garlic occasionally. 

Add the fava beans and peas. Add another 1 cup stock. Stir once to mix, then do not stir the rice again. Cook until the rice is al dente, 8 to 10 minutes more, adding the remaining ¼ cup stock if the pan looks dry. Remove the pan from the heat. Remove the head of garlic and reserve. Discard the bay leaf. Cover the pan with aluminum foil or a kitchen towel. Let the rice sit for 5 to 10 minutes while preparing the picada topping.

Extract 4 cloves from the head of cooked garlic. Place them in a mortar or mini food processor with the parsley, mint (if using), almonds, and coarse salt. Grind to a paste. Add the oil and grated lemon peel and process well. Thin the paste with 2 to 3 tablespoons water. 

To serve, spoon some of the picada topping on top of the rice and vegetables. Serve the remainder in a small bowl. Garnish the rice with lemon slices.

Vegetable Paella with optional shrimp.

More with Donna Gelb:

Saladadish, a prize-winning book of salads.

Paella with Donna Gelb. 

Smashed Potatoes with Tapenade Crust.

Farmers' market with Donna Gelb.

In my kitchen in Spain-

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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)    $39.95 hardcover.

 Order on IndiePubs

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

***

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SALADISH—A FRESH LOOK AT SALADS

Congratulations to my friend, Donna Gelb, co-author of Saladish, by Ilene Rosen, which just won a James Beard book award for Vegetable-Focused Cooking. 

Ilene Rosen is chef and co-owner or R&D Foods, a Brooklyn shop, where she makes every salad herself every single day. She previously was a chef at City Bakery in New York, where her flair with salads earned her cult following. The innovative recipes in Saladish are hers. Donna worked closely with Ilene in recipe development and testing, following her on the job to get a feel for her work.

I´m always looking for inspiration in putting together salads and this book has it, cover to cover. They’re salads that can serve as light starters, sides or full meals. The recipes are mostly vegetarian (even vegan), but they are easy to embellish with meat, poultry, fish or cheese, according to your personal tastes.

Don’t expect a cliché tuna salad, nor a generic pasta salad. While there are four variations on potato salad, none of them is your old-fashioned sort with mayo (new potatoes with herbs and a yogurt dressing; potatoes and cucumbers with caraway-mustard dressing; jazzed-up potato salad with olive oil and pickled carrots, and, one I can’t wait to try, red potatoes with chorizo and roasted grapes.
 
Saladish opens with chapters packed with hints, “How to Assemble a Salad,” “The Saladish Pantry,” and “The Saladish Tool Kit.” Recipes (most beautifully photographed by Joseph De Leo) are divided into Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter chapters.

I’m working my way through "Spring," starting with snap peas, the last from my garden, with olive oil and lavish quantities of chives and mint. Easy-peasy. It’s too late for the Baby Carrots with Carrot-Top Pesto, as I pulled up the last of the carrots weeks ago. “Every-Leafy-Green-You-Can-Find Salad,”with an orange marmalade dressing (what a terrific idea) is coming up soon. The rice noodle salad with Asian herbs and smoked tofu salad with chive buds both sound like my kind of hot-weather dish. Spring brunch? Smoked trout and pumpernickel bread in a salad with cucumbers, apples and, yes, dill.

The recipe I chose to make this week is called “It’s All Green.” It consists of several different (green) vegetables cooked crisp-tender to be served with four different dips plus a sweet lime salt.

Many of these recipes are Asian-inflected, calling for rice vinegar and “flavorless vegetable oil.” I considered “flipping” them to Mediterranean, using my usual extra virgin olive oil, but decided that wasn’t a fair test. So I bought a bottle of sunflower oil. Pretty exotic for me!

It’s All Green
(Todo Verde)

These recipes are excerpted from Saladish by Ilene Rosen with Donna Gelb (Artisan Books; copyright © 2018). I’ve added recipe titles in Spanish and my comments in italic. The photos are mine.

Serve a selection of green vegetables for dippers with these unusual dips. The dips, clockwise from the top left. are cucumber shallot, cilantro cumin, avocado mint and, at the bottom, pumpkin seed hummus. They are accompanied by celery sticks, snap peas, asparagus, zucchini slices, Belgian endive, green beans and wedges of fennel.

You want approximately 3 to 4 pounds of whole vegetables for six people, and two or three dips to serve on the side, more if you are feeling green.

Serves 6 to 8.

Kosher salt
8 ounces green beans and/or sugar snap peas, trimmed, any strings removed
8 ounces asparagus, trimmed, tough stalks peeled
6 ounces zucchini, ends trimmed
2 large celery stalks
6 ounces Belgian endives
6 ounces fennel bulbs

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and ready a large bowl of ice water.
2. Add the green beans and/or snap peas to the boiling water and blanch just until they turn bright green. Remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer to the ice water. Return the water to a boil and repeat with the asparagus, blanching just until tender, about 2 minutes, before transferring to the ice water. Set aside.
3. Cut the zucchini lengthwise in half, lay flat on a cutting board, and slice on the diagonal into ½ -inch pieces.
4. Trim off and discard the ends of the celery stalks and cut the stalks crosswise into thirds. Cut the thirds lengthwise into thin sticks.
5. Trim the bottoms of the endives and separate the leaves.
6. Trim the root ends of the fennel and cut off the stalks, reserving any nice fronds to decorate the platter. Cut the bulbs lengthwise in half, then cut the halves into thin wedges.
7. Arrange all the vegetables on large platters or trays and serve with the dips. 

Cucumber Shallot Dip
(Pepino con Chalota)

This cucumber salad with a touch of Asian fish sauce and rice vinegar would make a terrific side dish with grilled fish.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

1 cup diced seedless cucumber
1 ½ teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Thai basil, or regular basil
½ cup finely minced shallots
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Combine the cucumber, fish sauce, vinegar, oil, lime juice and basil in the bowl of a food processor or in a blender and pulse to puree, scraping down the sides as necessary. Transfer to a small serving bowl and fold in the minced shallots and chives. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Pumpkin Seed Hummus
(Hummus de Pepitas de Calabaza)

This savory dip makes a great spread too.  Mix any leftovers with boiled new potatoes and beans.

Makes about 2 cups.

Toasted pumpkin seeds.

2 cups pumpkin seeds, toasted
2 large garlic cloves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
½ cup rice vinegar
¾ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup hot water, or more if necessary
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put the pumpkin seeds and garlic in the bowl of a food processor or in a blender and pulse until uniformly ground, scraping down the sides as necessary. The mixture will be rough and sandy looking.
2. Add the mustard and vinegar and pulse to combine. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Drizzle in the hot water, processing until it is the consistency of thick hummus. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a small serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

(Note: The pumpkin seeds I bought were dark green, not beige like the ones shown in Saladish. If you need to toast the seeds, here's how. Cook 2 cups pumpkin seeds in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain well and pat dry. Combine the seeds with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Spread them on a rimmed sheet pan and roast them in a 300ºF oven, turning once or twice, for 30 minutes. Cool.)

Avocado Mint Dip
(Aguacate con Hierba Buena)

Chopped mint with smooth avocado is sensational.

(Note: Mint with avocado! Radical. Did the authors intend to omit salt? I made the recipe as given—no salt—and loved it. A perfect dip with those leaves of Belgian endive.) 

Makes about 1 ¼ cups.

1 large ripe avocado
5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
A pinch of cayenne pepper
5 tablespoons water

Pit the avocado and scoop the flesh into the bowl of a food processor or into a blender. Add the lemon juice, mint and cayenne and pulse to puree, pouring in the water as you go. Transfer to a small serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cilantro Cumin Dip
(Salsita de Cilantro y Comino)

The cilantro-cumin combo is sort of Middle Eastern, but rice vinegar makes it completely different. I used leftover dip to marinate chicken thighs and roasted them on a sheet pan at high temperature.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

½ cup vegetable oil
5 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 ½ cups chopped fresh cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1. Pour the oil into a small saucepan and add the cumin seeds. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Let cool.
2. Put the cilantro, vinegars, and mustard in the bowl of a food processor or in a blender and pulse to combine. With the motor running, drizzle in the cumin oil and seeds until the mixture is emulsified. Transfer to a small serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Ilene Rosen (left) and Donna Gelb at the James Beard awards presentation. Their book Saladish won for best vegetable-focused cookbook.

I’ve cooked with Donna Gelb, in my kitchen and in hers, and she's helped me with recipe testing. Here are some earlier blog posts featuring her:
Mistress of the Fire.
Eating Around America.
Paella Made in the USA.
Shopping Organic.
Taste of Spain in New York.

Saladish (Ilene Rosen with Donna Gelb; Artisan, 2018, New York) is available here.

MY FRIEND, MISTRESS OF THE FIRE

What in the world is the feminine for “grill meister”? Is she “maistresse of the grill”? Grill mistress? She with the art and craft, learned from a master, is my friend Donna Gelb who visited me in Spain a few weeks ago.

Donna was recipe developer for Argentine chef Francis Mallmann’s acclaimed book, SEVEN FIRES. She worked alongside the chef on location at his exquisite little hotel in Garzon, a tiny village in rural Uruguay, in order to translate his grand designs into workable recipes, then returned to her New York City apartment to tweak them. (Read a review of SEVEN FIRES here.)

Fuel for the fire. Donna Gelb uses olive wood to prepare coals for grilling lamb on my patio in Spain. She came to Spain from Languedoc (France), after teaching grilling classes there, preparing guinea hens over vieilles souches (aged vines).

Donna inspired me to get out the grill, hardly used for several years, and cook up a meal for friends. Instead of grilling over charcoal, she suggested we make a fire using small branches of olive wood that I had stacked for use as kindling in the fireplace.

I planned the menu using some of her recipes and she provided the expertise.

Salad of cucumber granita, avocado and watermelon

Boneless leg of lamb with onion marinade

Grilled tomatoes

Smashed potatoes with green olive tapenade

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Onion Marinade

In Spain, lamb is generally smaller than what is found in American meat markets. We used the thick part of the leg, without the shank end. Donna boned it, opened it flat and, skin side down, cut through the thickest muscle, then pounded it with the side of her hand so that the meat was approximately the same thickness. Boneless leg of lamb, opened up, is always a somewhat ragged, uneven piece of meat.

An Iranian cook introduced me to a marinade for lamb kebabs that I have adapted and used for grilling leg of lamb. Grated onion in the marinade both tenderizes and flavors the meat.  I use a food processor to grate the onion. 

Grate 1 large onion and combine with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon fresh minced thyme, pinch of chopped rosemary, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the lamb in a non-reactive container and spread the onion mixture on both sides. Marinate at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours. Bring the meat to room temperature before grilling.

Here are Donna’s grilling notes:

I scraped off most of the onion marinade so that the meat would crisp rather than steam.

I let the coals get very hot - hand just above the grate til about "3 mississippi" (or “3 matador” as we said in 7 Fires). The lamb was grilled directly over the coals. The grate was about 3-4 inches above coals.  I let it get a good char on the first side without moving it  (about 5 minutes)  before flipping it. You can rotate it 90 degrees to cross hatch for another 3-4 minutes before turning it.   Same on the second side until it feels almost but not quite done.  It should still yield somewhat to the pressure of your finger.  You can cut into an edge with a knife if you are really not sure, or use a instant read digital thermometer - about 120º F for rare BEFORE resting. Take it off BEFORE you think it is done - it keeps cooking while it rests, and it must rest about  5 minutes for juices to redistribute. You can always throw it back on if you need to.

   Grilled lamb, a little charred on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside, with grilled tomatoes and tapenade-crusted smashed potatoes. 

Smashed Potatoes with Tapenade Crust
Adapted from Seven Fires:  Grilling the Argentine Way by Francis Mallmann/Peter Kaminsky (Artisan 2009).

Donna used small (2 ½ - 3 oz), all-purpose white potatoes for this recipe. They can be par-boiled in advance, but are best “smashed” while still warm. For the tapenade, we used my home-cured green olives, somewhat mushy after all these months, instead of black olives. The trick, Donna said, is to use a fair amount of olive oil so the potatoes crisp really well. They are really delicious!

Serves 4

8 to 10 small potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
Coarse salt
½ cup olive tapenade (recipe follows)

Put the potatoes in a pan and add the vinegar, 2 tablespoons of the oil, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the potatoes are tender enough to be pierced with a skewer, about 12 minutes. Drain in a colander, but do not cool the potatoes.

Place a potato on a clean dishcloth on a work surface, cover with another  cloth and, using the palm of your hand, slowly and gently press the potato to flatten it. Transfer to a tray. Repeat with the remaining potatoes. Spoon the remaining 4 tablespoons oil over the potatoes.

Heat a plancha or cast-iron griddle over medium-low heat until a drop of water sizzles on the surface. Put the potatoes on the hot surface, oiled side down, and cook until they are crisp on the first side, 4 to 5 minutes. Don’t move them! Transfer to a tray, crisp side down.

Spread a heaping tablespoon of tapenade on top of the potatoes and press down lightly to compact the crust. Slide a wide spatula under a potato and, with one quick move, flip it over onto the hot plancha, tapenade side down. Lower the heat slightly. Repeat with remaining potatoes. Brown them for about 7 minutes, until the tapenade forms a crisp crust. Remove the potatoes as they are cooked and invert onto a serving platter, tapenade crust facing up. Serve immediately.

Black Olive Tapenade

This is the recipe from Seven Fires, but, as noted above, it can be freely varied. We used green Spanish olives, chopped in a food processor. Tapenade, a French condiment/sauce, also goes well with vegetables, grilled tuna, hard-boiled eggs or spread on toasts.

Makes about 1 ¾ cups.

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, minced
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and minced
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the olives, capers, zest, juice and thyme in a bowl. Gradually whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste with pepper. The tapenade can be kept, refrigerated, for up to 1 week.

Cucumber Granita

I invented this this cucumber ice to serve as a garnish for tomato gazpacho. I froze part of it in ice cube trays and used it in salad combos. For this meal, I chunked up the cucumber cubes a bit and combined them with chunks of watermelon and avocado and dressed them with salt and pepper, a little lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil. Purple basil makes a fragrant garnish.

Serves 8 to 10 as garnish for gazpacho or salad ingredient.

2 cucumbers, each about 11 ounces
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 sprigs mint
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup water

Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Cut into chunks. Puree the cucumbers in a blender with remaining ingredients.

Pour the cucumber puree into two 9-inch metal cake pans (or ice cube trays). Freeze.

To serve, remove the granita from freezer 5 minutes before serving. Use a fork to scrape ice into mounds. Add scraped ice to gazpacho immediately before serving. Or, if using cubes, cut them into chunks and add to salad immediately before serving.