SHERRY--THE WINE THAT GOES WITH EVERYTHING

A Sherry to accompany every cheese.

I got a little carried away, I think, getting ready for International Sherry Week, June 2-8. Every day is a fine time to enjoy a copita of Sherry. For me, that usually means a fino Jerez or fino manzanilla. But the occasion of a worldwide celebration seems a good excuse to branch out a bit.

Classic consommé with Sherry.

Sherry goes with absolutely everything, from soup to nuts, from aperitif to dessert. So, my week-long, intensive Sherry week was going to have to cover all bases.

I encountered an unexpected problem, however. I couldn’t find a range of Sherry types! Two supermarket chains in my area had only fino and manzanilla plus the sweet ones, oloroso, cream and PX. They did not sell a single amontillado, oloroso seco, palo cortado, or raya. (Note to you Sherry marketing guys—better placement in stores if you want to sell more wine.)

I eventually found a good selection of Sherry styles (though only from a couple different bodegas) at a dedicated wine shop. I dithered between amontillado and oloroso seco and finally chose the oloroso seco after tasting each. I already have fino, manzanilla and sweet PX. So, I’m all set for a grand week!

From soup to nuts. Sherry is a classic addition to consommé. Use either fino or amontillado. It's also a superb addition to cream soups, such as lobster bisque or mushroom.

Sherry is the original tapas wine.

Serve Sherry--fino, manzanilla, amontillado or oloroso seco--with Spanish tapas. Toasted almonds, thinly sliced ham, olives, sausages, pâté, grilled shrimp, oysters, salt cod, smoked salmon, stuffed eggs.

 Dry fino Sherry flavors tender lamb kidneys in a velvety sauce. See the recipe below.

Mellow oloroso seco Sherry glazes these succulent chicken wings. (Recipe below.) Here, served with a copa of fino.

 

Tipsy cakes--luscious sweet Sherry syrup soaks into squares of sponge cake. An easy dessert (recipe below). PX, a sweet dessert wine, is the perfect accompaniment.

Want to know more about the different styles of Sherry? See my post from last year’s International Sherry Day. http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/celebrate-sherry.html . And, to learn more about events worldwide during International Sherry Week, visit this site.

Riñones al Jerez
Kidneys in Sherry Sauce

Tender bites of kidneys in a velvety, Sherry sauce, this is a classic tapa bar dish. It can be prepared with lamb, pork or veal kidneys. (I used lamb kidneys, which only need about 12 minutes cooking.) The dish needs gentle cooking so as not to toughen the kidneys. Serve with chunks of bread to soak up the sauce. Chicken livers can be prepared in a similar manner.

Serves 4.

8 lamb kidneys, about 1 pound
Milk
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
½ pound small mushrooms, quartered
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
1 clove chopped garlic
½ cup fino Sherry
½ cup meat stock
1 bay leaf
Chopped parsley, to garnish

Cut the kidneys in half and remove the core of fat. Slice or quarter the kidneys. Place them in a bowl and add enough milk to cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Drain, discarding the milk.

Sprinkle the kidneys with salt, pepper and flour. Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the kidneys on medium heat. Add the mushrooms, onions and garlic. Stir in the Sherry and meat stock. Add the bay leaf. Cover and simmer until kidneys are tender. Sprinkle with chopped parsley to serve.

Pollo al Ajillo
Chicken With Garlic

The standard version of this dish is made with fino (dry) Sherry. But, use a mellow amontillado,  oloroso seco or even a slightly sweet Sherry and it becomes even better. The Sherry somewhat caramelizes and glazes the chicken pieces. The garlic is lightly crushed, but not peeled, and sauteed with the chicken. It flavors the sauce. Those who wish can squeeze out the soft garlic flesh to eat as well.

Makes about 24 pieces.

2 pounds chicken wings
1 head garlic
¼ cup olive oil
1 bay leaf
½ cup medium-dry Sherry
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Cut off the wing tips and discard (or save for stock). Divide each wing into two joints. Lightly smash the garlic cloves to split the skins.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet. Add the chicken pieces to the oil and fry them slowly, adding the unpeeled cloves of garlic.

When chicken is browned on all sides, add the bay leaf, Sherry, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the liquid is cooked away and the chicken begins to sizzle again. Serve immediately garnished with parsley.

Borrachos
Tipsy Cakes

This is a great way to use up stale sponge cake or you can also make the tipsy cakes with store-bought sponge. You may need to cut the cake crosswise so the layers are about 1 ½ inches thick.

The cakes can be cut into small squares and placed in fluted paper cups for easy serving to a crowd. Or, place slices on individual dessert plates and garnish with fresh fruit and a dollop of whipped cream.

Makes 12 cakes.

1 pound sponge cake, cut into 1 ½-inch thick slabs
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Strip of orange zest
1 cup dry Sherry
Toasted slivered almonds

Place the slabs of sponge in a flat dish or tray and prick them all over with a skewer.

Combine the sugar, water and orange zest in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Strain out and reserve the orange zest. Add the Sherry to the sugar syrup.

Spoon half of the Sherry syrup over the cake. Leave to stand for 30 minutes.

Cut the sponge into 1 ½-inch squares. Put a few slivered almonds on top of each square. Cut some of the reserved orange zest into fine slivers and place them on top of the cakes. Spoon over the remaining Sherry syrup. When the sponge has absorbed most of the syrup, place the squares in fluted paper cups.

GARLIC--HARVESTING FLAVOR

Garlic = flavor.

Between the olive trees on my terraced hillside are four small garden plots where I grow vegetables year-round —tomatoes, peppers and eggplant in the summer; broccoli, kale and chard in the winter; peas, favas and lettuce in the spring. But one plot yields, not exactly “food,” but flavor. That’s what I’m harvesting this month—flavor—garlic. Enough garlic to flavor my cooking for many months to come.

New harvest garlic.

Spain is one of the world’s biggest producers of garlic. And, the place that claims the title of Spain’s “capital of garlic” is Las Pedroñeras, a village southeast of Madrid, smack in the middle of Don Quixote country. A single growers’ cooperative in the town produces some 20,000 tons of the flavorful bulb in a year.

Most of it is the esteemed ajo morado, purple garlic, a variety of hard-necked garlic that has papery white layers enclosing cloves shrink-wrapped in violet skins. Purple garlic is both sweet and pungent, with a powerful bite. The purple garlic of Las Pedroñeras enjoys its own protected denomination of origin.

Surprisingly, the village doesn’t reek, even at the height of the summer garlic harvest, when bundles of garlic with their straw tops still attached are heaped in fields to dry. Not until some of those cloves of garlic are bounced into a pan of olive oil do they release that special smell.

A basket of garlic bulbs.

Garlic goes into all sorts of Spanish dishes—gazpacho, sofrito, soup, both hot (sopa de ajo) and cold (ajo blanco), sauces (notably alioli, garlic mayonnaise); stews, sautés, salads and more.

To celebrate my harvest, I decided to prepare pollo al ajillo, chicken sautéed with “a little garlic.” Which is tongue-in-cheek for “lots and lots of garlic.”

Pollo al ajillo--chicken sautéed in cazuela with whole garlic cloves.

Chicken Sauté with Garlic and Sherry
Pollo al Ajillo

This is a favorite dish in tapa bars. For tapas, the chicken is cut up into small pieces. I prefer to substitute wing joints, to avoid the bone splinters of hacked chicken. For a main course, I use a cut-up fryer—legs, thighs and breasts—preferably free range. Larger pieces need a longer cooking time than wings. Make this dish also with rabbit.

Whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic are sautéed with the chicken. The skins keep the garlic from scorching and becoming bitter. Serve the garlic with the chicken; guests can decide for themselves whether to partake of the sweet nuggets or push them to the side of the plate.

While dry fino Sherry, manzanilla or Montilla-Moriles is the traditional cooking medium for this dish, I must say that a medium Sherry such as amontillado or palo cortado adds so much mellow flavor.

Serve the chicken with chunks of bread for soaking up the garlicky juices.

Wings serve 12 as a tapa; cut-up chicken serves 6 as a main course.

A tapa dish of chicken wings.

2 pounds wings or cut-up chicken
Salt and pepper
1-2 heads garlic (10-20 cloves)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 bay leaves
Sprig of thyme
½  cup dry or medium-dry Sherry
¼ cup water or chicken stock
Chopped parsley

If using wings, cut off the wing tips and discard (or save for stock). Divide each wing into two joints. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and allow to set 10 minutes.

Lightly smash the garlic cloves to split the skins.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or deep skillet. Add the chicken pieces to the oil and fry them slowly, turning to brown all sides. Add the unpeeled cloves of garlic.

When chicken is browned (15 to 20 minutes), add the bay leaf, Sherry and water or chicken stock. Continue cooking until most of the liquid is cooked away and chicken is tender. Serve immediately garnished with chopped parsley.

Pollo al ajillo--chicken with garlic.