READING THE BOOK SHELVES

Do you try to read the titles on the bookshelves behind the talking heads on TV? During lockdown, newscasters, doctors, scientists, historians, actors, authors, now come to you from their homes, usually with a backdrop of bookshelves. 

Over my shoulder: My home office is a corner of the bedroom. Here are shelved Spanish cookbooks, guidebooks and histories that I use as reference in my writing. 

This shelf is out-of-reach in the kitchen. Cherished classic cookbooks that I never use anymore. The photo of me balanced on top of the books was taken by Arturo Macias for a Mijas town hall project about "working women of the 60s and 70s". 

My rule is to discard cookbooks that I never cook from. But, on the highest shelf in the kitchen, totally out-of-reach, are some “classics” that I can’t bear to dispose of, even if I never use them anymore. In that category are Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, by Shizuo Tsuji; Diana Kennedy’s My Mexico; Great Italian Cooking, by Luigi Carnacina (I cooked my way through this tome back in the late 1960s); The Joy of Cooking; The Spice Cookbook by Avanelle Day and Lillian Stuckey (seven recipes for potato salad!); two volumes of Julia Child.

The most used books--global cuisines.

Closer to hand are old favorites, books I use regularly. They once provided me with an introduction to cuisines of many countries—Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, Paula Wolfert’s Moroccan Cuisine; George Moudiotis’s Traditional Greek Cooking; The Original Thai Cookbook, by Jennifer Brennan; Good Food from Mexico by Ruth Watt Mulvey and Luisa Maria Alvarez; Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham, and A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden. Now, I tend to open to a single recipe that has become a favorite over the years.

Next to the dining table, more cookbooks. Many were gifts from authors and editors. (If you don't see yours, it's probably on a different shelf.) I've been delving into many of them during these days of "kitchen quarantine."

This long period of lockdown has been a great opportunity to delve into more of my cookbook collection.

Here’s a recipe from The Philippine Cookbook by Reynaldo Alejandro (Perigee Books, 1985). The book was given to me by my Filipina sister-in-law, Rosa Gereña Mendel. Leafing through it, I am amazed to find, along with exotic Asian ingredients, many Spanish dishes—adobos, estofados, even paella!

Not so surprising when I am reminded that, in 1521, Ferdinand Magellan explored the Philippines for the Spanish crown. They were named las islas filipinas, in honor of King Philip II. The Spanish colonial influence lasted until 1898 and had a lasting and monumental effect on the Philippines.

Chicken pieces cook in a rich savory sauce of soy and vinegar with garlic and pepper. A similar process to Spanish adobo, but with different flavorings.

Serve Filipino adobo with white rice.

Chicken Adobo (Adobong Manok Sa Gata)
Pollo Adobado Estilo Filipino

I love the simplicity of this recipe. It requires little prepping, no browning of chicken or sauteeing as for a sofrito. All the ingredients simmer together, creating a dish of tender chicken and flavorful sauce.

If the amounts of soy sauce and vinegar seem excessive, be assured that they mellow in cooking, finishing with a subtle sweetness. While you probably won’t need additional salt, neither will the chicken taste too salty. The whole peppercorns are a matter of taste. I find them thrilling, like chile. But, if biting into a whole peppercorn is not to your taste, use ground black pepper instead. 

My Filipina sister-in-law, Rosa, uses coconut vinegar for her adobo. The recipe in this cookbook calls for apple cider vinegar. I used white wine vinegar. Rosa, who lives in the Los Angeles area, is from the Visayas region of the Philippines. She says she has modified her traditional recipe to use less salt, sugar and fat. 

I love foods with coconut milk, so I chose to make the enhanced version in the cookbook.  

(Recipe adapted from The Philippine Cookbook by Reynaldo Alejandro.)

Serves 4.

2 ½ pounds chicken legs and thighs
½ cup soy sauce
2/3 cup white vinegar
12 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 bay leaves
½ tablespoon peppercorns
½ cup coconut milk (optional)
Sliced green or red chilies (optional)
Steamed rice to serve

Marinate chicken before cooking.

Combine the chicken pieces, soy, vinegar, garlic, bay and peppercorns in a deep pan. Marinate 2 hours.

Place on high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook the chicken 20 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces and cook 15 minutes longer or until chicken is tender.

Preheat broiler.

With tongs, remove the pieces of chicken. Place them on a sheet pan or rack. Place the rack under the broiler until chicken is browned and lightly glazed, 10 minutes.

Broil chicken to brown the skin.

Add the coconut milk, if using, to the remaining sauce in the pan. Raise the heat and boil until the sauce is reduced by half.

Return broiled chicken to the adobo sauce.

Cover the broiled chicken pieces with the sauce. Garnish with sliced chilies, if desired. Serve hot accompanied by rice.

Some Spanish adobo recipes:

Adobo Marinated Fish.

Pork Tenderloin in Adobo.

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.