SPRIGHTLY SPRING HERBS

Fresh green shoots appear in the pots of parsley, mint and chives on my patio, while fronds of wild fennel pop up from the earth near the vegetable patch. Spring is springing forth! 

I love using fresh green herbs lavishly, in cooked dishes and in salads. Besides parsley, mint, chives and fennel, other herbs that signal springtime are dill, cilantro, tarragon, chervil, celery leaves and garlic scapes.

Fresh parsley and mint--and a tiny snail in the center.

In Spanish cooking, parsley (perejil) is absolutely the favorite herb of all. At the market where I shop,  a big bunch of flat-leaf parsley is often tucked in with the fruits and vegetables as a gift.  It is used, not just as a verdant garnish for a finished dish, but as an important ingredient, imparting a fresh grassiness to meatballs, stews, marinades, salads, fish sauces.

Mint (hierbabuena) is arguably the second most-used herb. It’s the finishing touch for any soup with ham bone or rich sausages, with fish soups and casseroles, with spring vegetables such as artichokes, peas and fava beans. Ferny fennel fronds, with their sweet anise flavor, also are chopped up into vegetable dishes. (Other recipes with fresh herbs are linked at the end of this post.)

Herbal how-to. Wash bunches of parsley under running water. Shake off excess water, then roll it in kitchen towel and pat dry. Store the parsley in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of fridge. Cut away stems before chopping (stems can be used for soup stock). To chop parsley, scrunch it tightly into a ball and chop. Mint can be stored in a glass of water or, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the fridge. Wash it and pat dry before using. Strip the leaves off the stems. 
 

Potatoes in green sauce.

Serve the potatoes as a side dish or as a starter.

Potatoes in Green Sauce
Patatas en Salsa Verde

These potatoes can be served as a side dish or as a starter. As a starter, they may have chopped egg and even a few shrimp added. They are usually prepared with regular potatoes, cut in thick slices. I’ve played up the spring theme by using tiny new potatoes.

Spring onions or “green” onions (cebolletas in Spanish) are immature onions along with their green tops. They’re fatter than scallions, which could be substituted. 

Spring onions, new potatoes.

Serves 6.

2 pounds small new potatoes 
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup chopped spring onions
3 cloves garlic, chopped     
1 cup chicken or fish stock or water
1/3 cup white wine
¾ cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Hard-cooked egg (optional)

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters. In a pan or cazuela, heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic until softened, 3 minutes. Add the potatoes, turning them in the oil so they don’t brown.

Add the water or stock and wine. Add ½ cup of the chopped parsley. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Season with salt (if using stock, less salt will be needed) and pepper and cook, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Shake the pan occasionally to prevent sticking.

Garnish with remaining chopped parsley and chopped egg, if desired. 

Roast Lamb with Spring Herbs
Cordero Asado con Hierbas

Herb marinade makes a tasty sauce for roast leg of lamb.

Sliced lamb with herb sauce.

Mini-processor to make marinade.

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
6 cloves garlic
½ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup mint leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fennel leaves
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
2 strips lemon zest, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Leg of lamb (about 3 pounds)

Use a mini-processor to grind together the onion, garlic, parsley, mint, fennel, rosemary, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Mix in the oil.

Spread the parsley paste on all sides of the lamb. Allow to marinate, refrigerated, for up to 8 hours. Bring the lamb to room temperature before roasting. Place it in a roasting pan.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Roast the lamb for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325ºF. Continue roasting until lamb is medium-rare, 145ºF internal temperature, tested with an instant-read thermometer.

Allow the meat to rest 10 minutes before slicing. Add a little water or stock to the roasting pan and scrape up all the drippings. Serve the sauce with the lamb. 

Cucumber, Cheese and Mint Salad
Ensalada de Pepino y Queso Fresco con Hierbabuena

Chopped cucumber, white cheese and mint for a fresh spring salad.

Queso fresco is a soft, uncured, fresh, mild-flavored cheese, usually of goat’s milk, that can be cut into dice. If not available, use feta, but use less salt in the salad.

1 cup peeled and diced cucumber
2 tablespoons diced radish
2 tablespoons diced celery with some of the leaf
2 tablespoons diced scallions or spring onions
1 cup diced queso fresco or feta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
Salad greens to serve

In a bowl combine the cucumber, radish, celery and scallions. Shortly before serving add the diced cheese, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the chopped mint and mix gently. Serve with salad greens.

Fava beans, peas, ham and mint. Recipe is here.

More recipes with fresh herbs:

Minted carrot salad.

Chicken soup with mint.

 Fennel and sausage soup.

Potato salad with parsley.

Hake in green sauce.

 

FISH ON FRIDAYS

I usually eat fish on Fridays, not for any religious reasons, but because it’s the day of the week with the biggest selection of seafood at the market. Now, with the beginning of Lent, the period leading up to Easter when many Catholics observe days of vigilia, or abstinence from eating meat, the fish markets are really sensational.

 

Colorful wrasse, something different at the fish market. This one has been gutted and scales removed.

The season brings a bigger variety of fish than usual, including some fish that I don’t find the rest of the year. So, it seems like the right time to sample seafood that I don’t usually cook.

This week it’s a wrasse. A beautiful reddish-orange fish, weighing almost 1 ¾ pounds. The market name in Spanish was bodión. But a search through my fish books—Alan Davidson’s The Tio Pepe Guide to the Seafood of Spain and Portugal (Santana Books); Seafood, A Connoisseur’s Guide and Cookbook, by Alan Davidson with watercolors of fish by Charlotte Knox (Mitchell Beazley), and Manual del Pescado by José Carlos Capel (R&B Ediciones)—led me to decide my fish was probably a (female) cuckoo wrasse or else a ballan wrasse, neither of which is a threatened species. (Check out threatened species at http://www.iucnredlist.org.)

While wrasse is not precisely a “trash” fish, neither is it commonly marketed. Because it’s not an A-list fish such as bass, sole, hake, its price is lower.

I found the wrasse to be “really good,” though not quite “excellent.” The flesh is white, lean and bland in taste; the texture is firm-flaky, like other rock fish; bones not unlike those of sea bass, which is to say, quite acceptable. Small wrasse are best in soups and seafood stews. (A good soup to try is cachorreñas, made with sour Sevilla oranges, recipe ) But my catch was definitely large enough to consider other ways of cooking.

Fish is baked with a spicy chermoula sauce and strips of preserved lemon.

I picked a Canary Islands recipe for baked fish, planning to serve it with spicy mojo verde sauce, made with green chile and cilantro (recipe here ). Then I happened upon a similar recipe for Moroccan fish tagine in Paula Wolfert’s Moroccan Cuisine (originally published as Cous Cous and Other Good Food from Morocco  in 1973). The fish is baked in the oven with chermoula sauce/marinade and preserved lemons. Chermoula is almost identical to mojo (after all, the Canary Islands are closer to Morocco than to mainland Spain). Plus, I just happened to have some preserved lemons waiting for just such an occasion.

Preserved lemon.

Salty preserved lemons are a Moroccan condiment. You can buy them at specialty food shops. I get the lemons at a local market that has several Moroccan butchers and food shops catering to the large Moroccan population in southern Spain. 

The sauce keeps the fish moist as it bakes and the lemons punch up the flavor a lot. Good way to go if a wrasse comes your way, but you could try it with sea bass or similar fish.

I like cooking whole fish. Leaving the head on helps keep the fish moist. And, it’s easier to lift the flesh off of cooked fish than it is to fillet raw fish.

Baked Fish with Moroccan Chermoula Sauce and Preserved Lemons

1 whole fish, about 2 pounds
Salt
½ cup cilantro (fresh coriander leaves)
½ cup parsley + 1 tablespoon
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika)
Few threads of saffron, crushed (optional)
Cayenne, to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 fennel bulb
½ preserved lemon
1 cup fresh or canned chopped tomatoes


Sprinkle the fish inside and out with salt. Cut 3 or 4 deep slashes in the fish, on both sides.

To make the chermoula, combine in a blender the cilantro, parsley, garlic, cumin, pimentón, saffron, cayenne, olive oil, lemon juice and ½  teaspoon salt . Blend to make a smooth sauce.

Spread the sauce on both sides of the fish and inside its cavity. Allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Fish ready for baking.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Cut the fennel in half, then cut it lengthwise into strips. Arrange them in the bottom of a baking dish large enough to hold the fish. Place the fish on top. Cut the preserved lemon rind into strips, discarding the flesh. Insert strips in the slashes in the fish’s flesh. Scatter the remainder around the fish. Spoon over the tomatoes and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.

Cover the baking dish with foil and bake the fish until it flakes and easily pulls away from the bones, about 45 minutes.

Sauce keeps fish moist while it bakes.

A WHIFF OF SPRING

Fennel fronds--a sure sign of spring.

Tramping through an overgrown field, I catch the first whiff of spring—the  unmistakable scent of wild fennel. The first sprouts of fennel, crushed underfoot, give off a distinctive sweet, springy-green, anise smell.

Wild fennel grows on dry slopes where I live in southern Spain. After spring rains, the plant sends up the first green fronds that grow to tall, rangy stems by the end of summer. Late in the year, the stalks bear yellow flowers (source of fennel pollen) and bracts of immature seeds. The seeds eventually turn brown and fall away and the  plant dies back in the winter.

Tender fennel shoots for spring soup.

In Andalusia (southern Spain), country folk gather the first feathery shoots of fennel to cook in a potaje, a stew with chickpeas or beans, wheat berries and sausage. Snippets of the fronds are also sprinkled on spring vegetables such as fava beans, peas and artichokes. 

To use wild fennel, choose only young, tender stems. They should be pliable and easily sliced with a knife. Strip off the feathery leaves, saving a few for garnish. If wild fennel is not an option, cultivated fennel bulbs, which you’ll find at the green grocer’s, can be substituted.

Fennel, whether wild or store-bought, loses its pungency with slow cooking, adding a subtle background flavor to the soup. A garnish of chopped fennel leaves, added just before serving, returns the sweet spring aroma to the dish.

Two versions of Fennel Soup, bottom, with sausage; top one is vegan.

Potaje de Hinojo
Fennel Soup with Chickpeas, Wheat and Sausage

The first version of wild fennel soup comes from the upland regions of Granada and Almería, where springtime can be blustery and cold. The robust soup is made with pork ribs, pig tail, fat and sausage (my interpretation is slightly modified) plus chickpeas or beans, sometimes both, and wheat kernels. Besides wild fennel, it might include other foraged greens, such as cardillo (also known as tagarninas), a kind of thistle, or wild asparagus. If morcilla sausage is not available, you could use any pork sausage in the soup.

Wheat berries are delightfully chewy. If not available, try brown rice in the soup, but don’t add it until the last 40 minutes of cooking. I used cooked chickpeas. I soak and cook chickpeas in large batches, then keep them in the freezer to use as needed—quickie hummus, salads, soups. If desired, you can start with uncooked chickpeas. Soak 1 ½ cups chickpeas 12 hours. Drain and place them in the soup pot at the very beginning of cooking. They need about 90 minutes to become tender.

Fennel soup with chickpeas, sausage and wheat.

Chopped fennel stems.

1 cup wheat berries
4 ounces pancetta or bacon
1 cup chopped wild fennel stems or fennel bulb
1 carrot, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
8 ounces morcilla de cebolla (blood sausage with onion)
2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas
2-3 potatoes, cut in pieces
1 cup green beans, cut in small pieces
1 thick slice bread
1 tablespoon vinegar
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
Fennel leaves for garnish

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the wheat berries and let them soak for 3 hours.

Drain the wheat and add to a soup pot with the pancetta, fennel, carrot and salt. Add 6 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Add the morcilla, chickpeas, potatoes and green beans. Simmer 30 minutes more.

Place the bread in a bowl and sprinkle it with the vinegar. Let it set until vinegar is absorbed. Place the bread in a blender with the garlic and pimentón. Ladle in enough of the liquid from the soup pot to soften the bread. Blend until smooth.

Stir the mixture from the blender into the soup and cook another 15 minutes. Remove the piece of pancetta and the morcilla from the soup. Use kitchen scissors to cut them into pieces. Return to the soup.

Allow the soup to settle for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped fennel leaves.



Potaje de Hinojo para Vigilia
Lenten Fennel Soup with Beans

This vegan version of fennel soup is suitable for Lent, which is right now. It has olive oil instead of pork fat to give it substance. I used cultivated fennel bulb for this soup. Cut it lengthwise in quarters, cut out the stem and slice it crosswise.

Canned beans make this soup easy to cook in a short time. If starting with uncooked beans, soak them 12 hours, drain and add to the soup at the very beginning of cooking.They need about one hour to become tender.

Mash the cooked vegetables.

The soup is thickened by a mash of cooked tomatoes, onions, pepper, squash, potatoes and garlic. The garlic is typically char-roasted before being added to the soup pot.

To char-roast a whole head of garlic, spear it on a fork or hold it with tongs over a flame (on a gas stove) or place under the broiler, turning until it is blackened on all sides. When cool enough to handle, rub off outer blackened layer. Cut the top off the head of garlic and add the whole bulb to the soup pot. After cooking, separate and peel  two, three or more of the cloves and add them to the blender mash.

Fennel, pumpkin and beans for a Lenten soup.

Cultivated bulb fennel.

2 cups chopped fennel bulb (1 or 2 bulbs)
1 small tomato, core removed
½ small onion
½ green bell pepper
1 head garlic, char-roasted
2 cups cut-up butternut squash
2-3 potatoes, cut up
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups water
½ teaspoon cumin
1 ½ teaspoons pimentón (paprika)
Pinch of ground cloves
1 cup cooked or canned white beans (drained)
Fennel leaves to garnish

Put the fennel in a soup pot with the tomato, onion, pepper, garlic, squash, potatoes, salt and 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the water, bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Skim out the tomato, onion, pepper, garlic, a few chunks of squash and potato. When they are cool enough to handle, slip the skins off the tomato and pepper and some of the cloves of garlic. Place them in a blender with the cumin, pimentón, cloves and remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add enough liquid from the soup to make a smooth puree. Stir it into the soup. Add the beans. Cook 10 minutes more.

Serve the soup sprinkled with chopped fennel leaves.

Fennel flower in summer.

More about wild fennel on this earlier blog post. http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2011/08/foraging-for-wild-fennel.html

Tagarninas, wild thistle.

And, about another foraged spring green, wild thistle, (Scolymus hispanicus) http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2010/01/wild-things.html