THE TORTILLA: VARIATIONS ON A THEME

 

A classic potato tortilla with the addition of wakame seaweed.

Do you ever come across a recipe on Instagram that you’ve just got to try? Me, rarely. But a post for potato tortilla with wakame seaweed from Porto-Muiños (#portomuinos), Galician harvesters and distributors of algae products, grabbed me. An interesting variation on a classic and I just happened to have all the ingredients to hand.

I can buy several types of algae at my local market at the “health food” stall. Wakame is my favorite. It tastes like a sea breeze smells and is nicely chewy. I use wakame in salad with sesame to accompany sushi, poke and tuna tataki. But, seaweed with potatoes cooked in olive oil? Yes! Wakame adds an interesting flavor as well as texture.  

Shards of dry wakame.

Wakame comes layered in stiff sheets that have been pressed and dried.  After 10 minutes of soaking, it turns from black to dark green and softens to a chewy consistency. Once rehydrated it can be used raw or cooked.

I accompanied the seaweed tortilla with a mushroom sauté al ajillo which also was a variation on a traditional recipe. Instead of the usual champiñones I used white shimeji mushrooms, a product that recently turned up at my local grocery store. With some cherry tomatoes the tortilla and mushrooms made a delightful vegetarian lunch. 

Tortilla is perfect for a vegetarian lunch.

Variation on a theme: champiñones al ajillo made with shimeji mushrooms.

Potato Tortilla with Seaweed

Tortilla de Patatas con Alga

The Porto-Muiños recipe calls for patatas gallegas, Galician potatoes. Those with the PDO Indicación Xeográfica Protexida Pataca de Galicia—protected geographic indication, potato of Galicia, are the Kennebec variety. Not always available where I live, I used ordinary russet-type potatoes for this tortilla.

Potatoes for tortilla are best cooked slowly—not fried—in lots of olive oil. The potatoes absorb very little of the oil, which can be strained and used again. I like onions in tortilla, although the recipe from Porto-Muiños didn’t include them. Your choice.  

½ ounce dry wakame 

1 pound potatoes

½ cup olive oil

Salt

3 tablespoons chopped scallions (optional)

6 eggs

Freshly ground black pepper

Wakame after soaking.

Break the wakame into several pieces. Place them in a bowl and cover with warm water. Soak 5 minutes. With the fingers, prise apart the layers of wakame and soak 5 minutes more. Drain. Discard any clumps that have not softened. Cut any large pieces into shreds. (Makes approximately 1 cup of ready-to-serve seaweed.) 

Cook eggs and potatoes to set.

Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the potatoes, lower heat and cook the potatoes, turning them frequently, without letting them brown. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. When potatoes are almost tender, about 15 minutes, add the scallions, if using. Cook another minute. Remove the potatoes and onions with a skimmer. Reserve the oil.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Add the wakame and potatoes. Let the mixture stand 10 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved oil to a small (8-inch) no-stick skillet. When hot, pour in the egg-potato-wakame mixture. Stir it gently for 30 seconds, then allow to set on the bottom, 3-4 minutes. Adjust heat so that it doesn’t brown or scorch. 

Have ready a flat plate or pan lid. Place it on top of the skillet and hold it tightly while reversing the skillet so that the tortilla turns out onto the plate. Carefully slide it back into the skillet to cook on the reverse side, about 2 minutes. Lift the edge of the tortilla and slide it onto a serving dish.

Serve the tortilla hot or room temperature. 

Shimeji Mushroom Sauté

Setas Shimeji al Ajillo

White shimeji mushrooms, also called beech mushrooms, are a cultivated version of a wild fungi. They somewhat resemble enokitake mushrooms—shell-like caps with slender stems. Sauté them quickly for a slightly crunchy finish or add them to stews and soups to cook to chewiness. 

Chopped ham is often added to mushrooms al ajillo. If you’re cooking a vegetarian meal, just omit it. 

Slice root-end off shimeji mushrooms.

Serves 2-4.

1 bunch (about 6 ounces) shimeji mushrooms

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

Red pepper flakes

½ ounce diced serrano ham (optional)

Salt

2 tablespoons dry Sherry

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Fry with garlic.

Wash the whole bunch of mushrooms in a bowl of water. Drain. Cut off and discard the clump of root ends. Separate the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and fry them 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and sauté 1 to 2 minutes. Add the ham, if using, and Sherry. Cook 1 to 2 minutes until the alcohol is cooked off. Serve the mushrooms hot garnished with parsley.

Shimeji mushrooms sautéed with garlic, finished with Sherry.

Follow me on Instagram #mykitcheninspain

More recipes with seaweed:

Hake Steamed with Seaweed.

Potato Salad with Seaweed Mayonnaise.

Tartare Sauce with Seaweed.

Baked Sardines Stuffed with Seaweed.

Seaweed and Squid Noodles with Ink Sauce.

Seaweed Salad with Sesame.

Poke Bowl with Ponzu Sauce.

Kombu Vegetable Stock for Fideo Noodles.

More about Galician potatoes here.

More tortilla recipes:

Classic Potato Tortilla.

Spinach Tortilla.

Tortilla with Fava Beans.

Eggplant Tortilla.

All-Onion Tortilla.

Potato Chip Tortilla

Potato Tortilla With Chorizo and Chard.

Tortilla with Potatoes and Zucchini.

SALMON, FOR EVERYDAY AND HOLIDAY

 

Salmon fillets on a bed of leeks and potatoes with crisp frizzled leeks. Special enough for a holiday meal.

Many years ago, I was thrilled when fresh salmon began appearing in markets in Spain. I had learned to love salmon while visiting family and friends in Seattle. Although in my Mediterranean markets I had an incredible array of fresh seafood, I didn’t have salmon.

The salmon shipped to Spain was—and is—farmed Atlantic salmon from Norway. (Where I shop, the label says it is sustainably farmed in Norwegian fjords without the use of antibiotics.) But I gradually became disenchanted with it--it just didn’t compare to the wild salmon from the Pacific Northwest and I stopped buying it. (Some wild salmon are still found in Asturias and Cantabria, northern Spain, but their numbers are diminishing.) 

Now that the price of fresh seafood in Spain has skyrocketed (even more so in the lead-up to Christmas feasting), I find that farmed salmon is a super bargain (€7.50 per kilo, or about $4.15 per pound). I buy a whole fish and have it filleted. Some of it I prepare fresh; some I freeze. Some I poach to use in fish cakes. 

I cook the salmon simply—oven-roasting a whole, thick fillet or pan-grilling individual portions—then I add a sauce—mayo-Dijon-dill-caper being my everyday one. Now that I am eating salmon more frequently, I’m searching for some different ways to showcase it, maybe special enough for holiday meals.

Today, I was inspired by a simple Basque recipe for leek and potato soup, porrusalda, to which bacalao, salt cod, is sometimes added. I turned the leeks and potatoes into a combination side dish/sauce for the salmon. 

A Basque Txakoli would be a good wine with the salmon. If not available, a Galician Albariño. 

Plate the vegetables and salmon with just a little of the pan juices.

Alternate way to prepare the dish: cut salmon in bite-size chunks and cook it with the leeks and potatoes.  Ladle into shallow bowls with lots of the savory juices. 

Serve the soupy version of the leeks, potatoes and salmon with a crisp-fried tangle of sea spaghetti. It makes a crunchy contrast. 

Salmon with Leeks and Potatoes

Salmón con Porrusalda

Individual portions of salmon can be pan-grilled and served atop the mélange of leeks and potatoes or, alternatively, cut into bite-sized chunks and cooked right in with the vegetable mixture.

Crispy fried leeks or fried sea spaghetti (seaweed) as a garnish add contrast in texture. 

Serves 4

4 (5-ounce) salmon fillets

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound leeks (3-4 without tops)

¼ cup olive oil + additional to cook salmon

1 cup chopped onions

2 cloves garlic, chopped

¼ cup diced carrots

20 ounces potatoes, cut in pieces

¼ cup white wine

2 cups chicken or fish stock or water

Pinch of thyme

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

Frizzled leeks or fried sea spaghetti, to garnish

Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper and allow it to come to room temperature.

Discard green tops from the leeks. Wash the leeks well. (If making the frizzled leeks, cut 2 (2-inch) pieces of leeks and reserve them.) Slice the leeks crosswise into ¾-inch pieces.

Simmer leeks and potatoes in wine and stock.

Heat ¼ cup of oil in a pan and sauté the onions and garlic on moderate heat, 5 minutes. Do not let them brown. Add the sliced leeks and sauté 5 minutes more. Add the potatoes and carrots and sauté 2 minutes. Stir in the wine. Let the alcohol bubble off. Add the stock or water, pinch of thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook, covered, until potatoes are very tender, 20 minutes. 

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy skillet. Brown the salmon fillets on both sides. Cook the salmon until it just flakes. (Alternatively, salmon can be cut into bite-size pieces and added to the leeks and potatoes.)

Stir the parsley into the leeks and potatoes. Use a slotted spoon to scoop them onto dinner plates. Place a salmon fillet on top of each and garnish with frizzled leeks or fried seaweed. (Alternatively, ladle the leeks, potatoes and bites of salmon into soup bowls.)

For the frizzled leeks:

Slice leeks into matchsticks.

Fry leeks until golden.

Crisp frizzled leeks.

   Cut the white part of a leek crosswise into 2-inch segments. Cut them in half lengthwise. Slice into thin threads. Fry the shredded leeks in ½ inch of hot olive oil until they are golden-brown. Remove with a skimmer and drain on absorbent paper. Sprinkle the fried leeks with salt. The leeks are best prepared shortly before serving, as they do not keep their crispness well.

Dried sea spaghetti, a kind of seaweed.

For the fried sea spaghetti. Soak the seaweed in water for 15 minutes to re-hydrate. Drain well and pat dry. Toss the strands with flour and shake off the excess. Heat 1 inch of olive oil in a heavy skillet. Fry the seaweed, in batches if necessary, until crisp and golden. Remove with a skimmer and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt, if desired. Fried seaweed stays crisp several days.

Sea spaghetti has been floured and fried in olive oil. 

Classic Basque leek and potato soup recipe: Porrusalda.

More recipes with seaweed here.

More salmon recipes:

Salmon with Cava Sauce and Grapes.

Salmon with Spicy Lentils.

COOKING WITH ALGAE

Every now and then a new product or ingredient shows up in my kitchen to pique my culinary interests. This week my son Ben came home from a trip to Galicia and Asturias (northern Cantabrian coast of Spain) with a bagful of cans and jars of products made with algae and a cookbook to go with them.

Where seaweed is coming from--intertidal waters on the Atlantic coast of Galicia. (Photo by Ben Searl.)

Cocina con Algas (Cooking with Algae) is an introduction to seaweed cuisine published by Porto-Muiños, a small, family-run company in A Coruña that packages edible seaweed harvested in Galicia and products made with seaweed.

In the book's intro, the company’s owner, Antonio Muiños, enthusiastically relates the firm’s mission as to take seaweed out of the exotic and make a place for it in the everyday diet. He’s collaborated with two well-known chefs, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch (Michelin-starred Disfrutar in Barcelona) who developed the recipes with the object of ending the prejudice that seaweed is only for Oriental cuisines and of bringing verduras del mar (“sea vegetables”) to a wider public.

Some of the seaweeds and products in the test kitchen of Porto-Muiño in A Coruña (Galicia). (Photo by Ben Searl.)

My adventures with algae began with processed seaweed products, packed in cans and jars, brought back from Galicia. I have wakame al natural; a Japanese algae salad (with three kinds of seaweed in a soy sauce dressing); mussels with wakame in escabeche. At my local health food shop I found a full range of dried seaweeds. I came home with a “starter kit” of sea spaghetti and kombu. 

The cookbook includes directions for preparing each of eight different seaweeds (in addition to sea spaghetti and kombu, they are sugar kelp, sea lettuce, wakame, Irish moss, nori and dulse).

Kombu requires 8-10 minutes soaking to rehydrate it, then 35-40 minutes cooking in water. Sea spaghetti, also known as "thongweed," long, brown “noodles,” requires 10 minutes soaking and only 10 minutes cooking. Both increase their volume about four times. Wakame needs 10 minutes to soak and 5 minutes cooking. It increases weight by ten times. (I used wakame canned in brine, so I didn’t need to soak and cook it.

How do they taste? Kombu has a pleasant iodine-y, seawater taste with a slight smokiness. It’s not at all fishy, but makes a good addition to soups and rice dishes in place of seafood. It’s chewy, in a nice way. The sea spaghetti is mild in flavor—sort of vegetable-y, think green beans and asparagus—with a texture like al dente linguine. Wakame has a delicate seafood taste, meaty texture and a slightly slimy consistency. Perfect in stews, I think.

Tips from the Porto-Muiño test kitchen:
•    Add a piece of seaweed to the pan when steaming open clams or mussels. Amazing flavor enhancer.
•    Spread dried seaweed (not soaked), such as sea spaghetti, kombu, sea lettuce, wakame, sugar kelp, nori or dulse, on a baking sheet and roast at 350ºF 5-8 minutes, or until very crisp. Break it up and crush in a mortar. Shake it through a sieve. Use the seaweed powder as a seasoning in place of salt. It goes well with eggs, fish and all vegetables.
•    After rehydrating sea spaghetti, drain it well, pat dry and toss in flour. Fry in olive oil until crisp and golden. ("Tastes just like chanquetes," says Ben.)

Here are some recipes adapted from Cocina con Algas.

"Russian" potato salad has pureed seaweed added to the mayo.

Filleted sardines are briefly baked with a filling of Japanese-flavored seaweed.

Noodles!--thin strips of squid, whole-wheat spaghetti and sea spaghetti (seaweed) with a garlicky ink sauce.

Potato Salad with Seaweed Mayonnaise
Ensaladilla Rusa con Mayonesa de Algas

Ensaladilla rusa, or “Russian” salad, is one of the most popular of Spanish tapas. It’s a salad of diced potatoes, carrots and peas dressed with mayonnaise. In this version, part of the mayonnaise is replaced with “tartare sauce” made with pureed algae.

I cooked the potatoes in a pan of boiling water with the kombu seaweed that I used to make the tartare sauce, adding the sea spaghetti for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Serves 6 as a tapa or side dish.

1 ¼ pounds potatoes (2 large)
1 carrot
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup cooked or frozen peas
1 hard-cooked egg, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped red pimiento or piquillo pepper
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 tablespoon chopped sweet pickle
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
½ teaspoon or more salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup seaweed tartare sauce (recipe below)
Vinegar (about 1 tablespoon)
Chopped chives to garnish
Bread sticks or regañas to serve

Put the potatoes and carrot in a pan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes, depending on size. Drain. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them and cut them in ¾-inch dice. Peel and dice the carrot as well.

Place potatoes and carrots in a bowl and add the oil. Add the egg, chopped pimiento, scallions, pickle, parsley, salt and pepper and mix well.

In a small bowl, stir together the mustard, mayonnaise and tartare sauce. Add a little vinegar to thin the sauce. Stir it into the potatoes. Taste and add more salt or vinegar as needed. Chill the salad.

Serve the potato salad in individual tapa dishes. Sprinkle with chives. Accompany with bread sticks or crispy regañas crackers.

Tartare Sauce with Seaweed and Olives
Salsa Tartar con Algas y Aceitunas

This is my own version of a seaweed tartare sauce, an ingredient called for in the recipe for ensaladilla rusa (“Russian” salad) in the algae cookbook. The sauce is produced by the Porto Muiños company, but I did not have a sample of it.

This makes about 1 ¼ cups sauce, more than you will need for the potato salad. Use the rest as a dip, straight or mixed with mayonnaise. Suggestions from the cookbook are to use it with smoked salmon, on toast with fresh anchovies marinated in vinegar; with stuffed eggs; with potato foam.

I used three kinds of seaweed in the sauce blend--sea spaghetti on the left, kombu on the right and wakame below.

½ cup cooked kombu
½ cup cooked sea spaghetti
½ cup cooked wakame
1 shallot, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup pitted and coarsely chopped black olives
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put the three kinds of seaweed in a blender or food processor and blend them until fairly smooth. Add the shallot, mustard, olives, oil, salt and lemon juice and process until sauce is very smooth.

Sauce keeps, refrigerated, for 1 week. 

Baked Sardines Stuffed with Seaweed
Sardinas al Horno Rellenas de Alga

Sardines with a Japanese flavor, seaweed stuffing and shitake sauce.

 

This recipe, straight from the cookbook, uses two prepared ingredients—Japanese seaweed salad (with sea spaghetti, wakame, kombu, olive oil, sunflower oil, soy sauce and sesame seed) for the stuffing and shitake mushrooms Japanese style for the sauce.

The recipe calls for the sardines to roast for only 2 minutes. I roasted them 3 minutes and they were barely done. Maybe the chefs intended for them to be raw-ish, a la Japanese.

Serves 2.

6 sardines
1 can Japanese algae salad (ensalada de algas a la japonesa Porto-Muiños)
Salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 can Japanese-style shitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
10 bean sprouts
6 sprigs of cress 

Use fingers to "unzip" the spine of sardines.

Remove heads, scales and guts from the sardines. Rinse them in running water. Using fingers, pinch the center spine of the sardine, carefully lifting it out. Cut away the spine at the tail. Use scissors to cut out the dorsal fin. Spread the sardines open and blot them with paper towels.

Open and drain the can of algae salad. Place a small mound of it in the center of each sardine. Fold the sardine over on itself to enclose the seaweed salad.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Season the sardines with salt. Place them on an oven sheet that has been lightly oiled.

Bake 2 minutes (raw in the center) or 5 minutes (done).

Open the can of shitakes and heat them in their juice.

Place 3 sardines on each plate. Divide the shitakes between them. Sprinkle with sesame seed and garnish with bean sprouts and cress.

Seaweed and Squid Noodles with Garlicky Ink Sauce
Tallarines de Alga con Tallarines de Calamares al Ajillo de Tinta

The chefs’ recipe for this dish calls for a Porto-Muiño product, a wheat linguine flavored with powdered nori. I didn’t have this specialty pasta, so I improvised, using half whole-wheat spaghetti and half sea spaghetti, the seaweed. I love this seaweed!

Squid ink adds extra flavor to this dish. You can use the ink sacs from fresh squid or, easier, frozen sachets of ink. Spoon the finished garlic-oil-ink sauce over the pasta. Don’t mix it, or it will blacken the noodles.

Serves 4.

1 ounce dried sea spaghetti
10 ounces whole squid, cleaned
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
4 cloves garlic, sliced crosswise
1 small chile
4 packets frozen squid ink
2 tablespoons water
Salt
4 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti or linguine
Chopped chives

Soak the sea spaghetti in salted water for 10 minutes. Cook it in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and reserve.

Cut squid into very thin "noodles."

Cut the body pouch of the squid open lengthwise. With a sharp knife, cut the squid lengthwise into very thin strips (1/8 inch wide). These are the squid “noodles.” Cover and refrigerate until ready to finish the dish.

Place ½ cup oil in a pan. Add the garlic and chile to the oil. Heat until garlic begins to fry and turns golden. Remove the pan from the heat and skim out the garlic and chile.

In a small bowl add the contents of the packets of ink to the water and stir to combine. Add the ink to the pan with the oil.

Cook the whole-wheat spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

Heat remaining ¼ cup oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add the squid and sauté just until it turns translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the cooked wheat spaghetti and the reserved sea spaghetti. Toss the spaghetti with the squid. Season with salt.

Carefully reheat the garlic-oil-ink sauce.

Divide the squid and noodles between four plates. Spoon the garlic oil over them. Sprinkle the reserved fried garlic on top. Sprinkle with chopped chives.

Tasting notes from my kitchen: 

I'm sprinkling that powdered seaweed on everything--corn on the cob, scrambled eggs, salad with tuna, green beans. Love it. It's intensely salty, but seems to enhance other flavors.

The only gripe I have about seaweeds is that they are drab brown, green, black in color. Can't really use it "straight" in place of mayo in the potato salad, because it would turn the potatoes grey.

I turned the leftover seaweed tartare into a sort of tapenade, by adding garlic, salt-cured anchovies and capers to the blend. Great as a dip or spread on toasts.

Sea spaghetti is going to be my new favorite no-carb dish! I was getting bored with zucchini noodles anyway. And that fried garlic sauce--just skip the ink--is so delicious.

Gatherers use a mesh bag to collect seaweed. "You just put on a wet suit and goggles and get in there." (Photo by Ben Searl.)

 

 

More recipes for potato salad: https://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2011/09/potato-salad-smackdown.html

More recipes with seaweed:

 Fideo Noodles with Tofu. 

 Vegetarian Brown Rice Paella. 

 More information about Porto-Muiños products and on-line ordering at http://portomuinos.com/