TWO CHEFS COME TO LUNCH

Here’s how I came to make lunch for two American chefs. An old friend, Gerry Dawes, got in touch, saying he was taking two young chefs around western and southern Spain on a mission to explore regional Spanish cooking. One of them, Ryan McIlwraith, will be the executive chef for a new, Spanish-inflected restaurant  in San Francisco (at 888 Brannon), part of the Absinthe Group (name and opening date still not announced). The other, Joel Erlich, will be the executive sous chef there.

Lunch at my house: Chef Ryan McIlwraith (left) and Gerry Dawes, gastronome.

I know Gerry from way back in the 1970s, when he lived in the same village where I live. Now he’s  an expert on Spanish gastronomy, wine and travel, who does specialized custom tours for culinary luminaries.

Gerry said they would be traveling from Sanlucar de Barrameda via Ronda to Málaga and would like to stop off in Mijas so he could introduce the chefs to me and to my cookbooks.

Sure, I said, come for a late lunch.

Ohmygod. Whatever will I cook for a couple of chefs? This would be Ryan’s third culinary trip to Spain, so he was no novato. He was previously chef de cuisine at Michael Chiarello's  Coqueta (San Francisco) where he garnered experience working with Iberian-inflected cuisine.

“What do you know about gazpachuelo?” Gerry asked me. “Ryan wants to try a version of that while we’re down there.  Is there any place we can have it?”

Gazpachuelo--Mediterranean seafood chowder.

Gazpachuelo, although it sounds like “gazpacho,” is not a cold soup. It’s a hot soup, typical of the traditional Málaga kitchen. The simplest version is made with nothing more than egg, olive oil and potatoes, although refined versions usually include fish and shellfish, ham and a bit of Sherry as well.

So, it would be gazpachuelo for lunch. As starters, I added another village dish, calabaza frita, sauteed pumpkin (I just happen to have a pile of pumpkins from the garden), and a salad of oranges, onions, olives and salt cod, called salmorejo in my village (yes, salmorejo is something entirely different in Córdoba).

Calabaza frita, pumpkin sautee, for a starter.

Another starter--salmorejo--salad with oranges, onions, olives and salt cod.

Chefs Joel Erlich (left) and Ryan McIlwraith in my kitchen.

Chef Ryan serves the soup.

Ryan and Joel joined me in the kitchen as I finished off the soup, poaching chunks of hake in fish stock, whipping up olive oil mayonnaise (Hojiblanca varietal oil, so typical of Málaga) and whisking it into the hot soup. Pros that they are, the chefs served the soup.

What did they think?

“I enjoyed it very much,” said Ryan. “Sure, my chef brain kicks in and starts reworking every morsel I put in my mouth. That just comes naturally after awhile. A little more salt and umami (ham bones, mushrooms in the stock, more Sherry) would have elevated the dish pretty quickly.

“I'm also always looking for acid, texture, and freshness. Would herbs or spices make this dish more exciting for American palates?  What about a topping of crispy potatoes or leeks?  What seasonal Californian vegetables would have brought texture and freshness to the dish—radishes, beets, cardoons, watercress, sun chokes—maybe all of the above,” he laughed.

“What local fish would work best? Lingcod, black cod, or petrale sole maybe. Maybe a finishing oil of chive or sorrel oil would give it punch and break up the flavors on the palate.  And, because we always eat first with our eyes, what dish would it be best served in? Some sort of local ceramic pottery or classic Spanish cazuela.”

“Wow!” says I. A glimpse inside the mind of a chef. I will definitely think about Ryan’s ideas next time I make gazpachuelo. My rendition absolutely needed  more salt and I completely forgot to add the lemon juice to the mayonnaise. Ham bone in the fish stock is a great idea. Crispy leeks would be fine. But, no, no, no beets in it! Don’t go there, Ryan!

Chef Ryan is not saying whether gazpachuelo will be on the menu of the new restaurant, nor revealing anything else on his menu yet. It's all still top secret.

The point of Ryan and Joel’s trip (Madrid-Ávila-Segovia-Sevilla-Sanlucar-Granada-Córdoba), planned by Gerry Dawes, who knows everybody in Spain who is part of the gastronomy world, was to familiarize themselves with regional dishes, with an emphasis on Andalusian-style tapas and dishes with Moorish and Jewish roots. 

“We visited all four of the ibérico ham regions,” said Ryan. “In California, we buy Cinco Jotas, so it was amazing to see their new facility and all of the history and science that goes into preserving the true Iberian pig.” They also spent time with Florencio Sanchidrian, a master ham cutter, to learn the art of slicing jamón ibérico.

“We’ve met so many outstanding people on this trip,” said Ryan. “One is Javier Hidalgo of Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana (Sanlucar de Barrameda).  He gave us a tour of his family’s bodega and a great education in Sherry.  We had lunch with him at Casa Bigote and went to the market with him in Sanlucar.  He is also a biologist and horse jockey, what a smart and interesting individual.

“Almost every morning for breakfast we had café con leche, fresh squeezed OJ, and pan con tomate with ibérico de bellota ham.  I would attack each day with a smile if that was my breakfast every day for the rest of my life.”

Ryan noted the absence of eggs for breakfast in Spain, with egg dishes appearing throughout the rest of the day.

“I’m a huge fan of eggs with dinner,” he said. “Fabulous scrambled eggs with wild asparagus for lunch or Spanish-style fried egg on top of vegetable and ham dishes are some that won’t leave my taste memory anytime soon.”

“Why a Spanish-themed restaurant in San Francisco?” I asked Ryan.

“Small plates with bold flavors, shared amongst friends—it’s my favorite way to dine," he replied.  "Spain has such a rich history of undiscovered gems that you find in all the different regions.  As a chef, studying Spain and Spanish food continues to drive me forward."


In my kitchen with the chefs--video by Gerry Dawes.


MEDITERRANEAN SEAFOOD CHOWDER
GAZPACHUELO

This is the recipe for gazpachuelo that I served to the chefs. Following their suggestions, I’ve added more olive oil and Sherry to the recipe. Oh, yeah, and salt. Important to taste! The fish I used was merluza (fresh hake). I used the head, bones and trimmings to make a fish stock.

Serves 6.

1 egg, room temperature
¾ extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
8 cups fish stock
1 ½ cups diced potatoes
¼  cup shelled peas, fresh or frozen
1 ½  cups boneless chunks of white fish
¼ cup chopped serrano ham
1/3 cup peeled shrimp (3 ounces)
Roasted red pepper, chopped (optional)
½ cup Sherry (fino or amontillado)
Salt, to taste

Place the egg in a blender container. With the motor running, add the oil in a slow stream until it is emulsified. Blend in the lemon juice and salt. Set aside.

Put the fish stock in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Add the peas and cook 5 minutes more.

Then add the chunks of fish, ham, shrimp and Sherry. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

With the motor running, ladle some of the hot soup into the emulsion in the blender. Remove the soup from the heat and whisk the emulsion into the soup. Serve immediately. The soup can be reheated, but do not boil.

Orange and Cod Salad
Salmorejo
In my village this salad is called salmorejo. But in Córdoba and Sevilla salmorejo is something else altogether, a thick gazpacho. The salad, also known as remojón or ensalada malagueña (Málaga salad) sometimes includes potatoes as well as oranges.

The cod is scattered on top almost like a seasoning. Chunks of canned tuna, drained; cooked shrimp, or strips of serrano or ibérico ham can be substituted for the dry salt cod.

4 ounces dry salt cod (bacalao)
4 oranges, peeled and pith removed
6 scallions or 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
10 green or black pitted olives
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar
Red pepper flakes (optional)

Place the cod in a bowl and cover with water. Soak it, changing the water once, for 12 hours. Rinse, squeeze out water, then pat dry on paper towels.

Toast the salt cod under over a gas flame or under the broiler until it is lightly browned. Shred or chop the cod, discarding any skin and bones.

Slice the oranges or else separate them into segments and cut the segments in half to make bite-sized pieces. Arrange on a serving plate. Scatter sliced onions on top. Arrange the olives on the oranges.

In a small bowl combine the minced garlic, oil, vinegar and red pepper flakes. Scatter the bits of cod over the salad and drizzle with the dressing.

The recipe for calabaza frita (pumpkin sauté), pictured above, appears here.

THE SOUP KITCHEN

Soups from round the world: Mexican tortilla soup.

On my calendar, February is Soup Month. When the weather is too chill for my daily salad lunch, what I want is soup. Spain is big soup country, so I have a lot to choose from.

While this blog is dedicated to Spanish cooking, Spanish is not the only food from my kitchen. So, this month, I’m taking my soup pot right around the world.

It started with a Facebook link to Saveur for a recipe for Mulligatawny, a spicy soup from India, by cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey (see the recipe here). The soup with red lentils, spices and coconut milk is topped with a sauce of more spices fried in butter. Except, I replaced the butter in the recipe with olive oil.

Not authentic! you say. Well, no. But, authenticity was never my criteria for a good soup, whatever it’s origin. I´m after big flavor, plenty of vegetables, and  stick-to-the-ribs satisfaction. In my humble opinion, olive oil is an improvement on butter!

Mulligatawny (Mediterranean-Indian)

Red lentils are flavored with ginger, garlic, onion, chilies, coriander, cumin and turmeric and finished with coconut milk. The red sauce on top is made with olive oil, Aleppo pepper, cumin, coriander and black mustard seeds. Made with vegetable stock, this is a hearty vegetarian soup.

 Mediterranean-New England Fish Chowder

  For this chowder, saute onions, celery and carrots in olive oil, add potatoes, zucchini and corn kernels and simmer in (homemade) chicken broth. Enrich the soup with evaporated milk. Add chunks of white fish and cook them until flaky. Serve with crisped bits of bacon or serrano ham.

Middle Eastern Meatball Soup

This recipe by Faye Levy, author of Feast from the Mideast, recently appeared in the Jerusalem Post (about Faye here ). I like that the meatball mixture includes chickpea flour. Poaching the meatballs in soup makes it unnecessary to fry them. The only tweaking to Faye’s recipe was to add some olive oil to the soup and to make the meatballs with ground chicken thighs instead of beef.

Middle Eastern Meatball and Vegetable Soup, by Faye Levy (used with permission).

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Vegetable Soup:
 7 cups water, more if needed
 Salt to taste
 2 medium potatoes, peeled if desired, cut into chunks
 ½ to 1 cauliflower, divided in medium florets
 4 carrots – 2 sliced and 2 diced
 2 squash, green or yellow, halved and sliced
 1 onion, chopped
 1 or 2 small celery ribs, diced
 1 or 2 Tbsp. chopped ginger root (optional)
 2 garlic cloves, chopped
 A few parsley stems (optional)
 1 tsp. ground cumin
 ½ tsp. turmeric
 ½ tsp. ground pepper

Beef and Chickpea Flour Meatballs:
 350 gr. (¾ pound) lean ground beef
 ¼ cup chickpea flour
 1 fairly small onion, coarsely grated (about ½ cup)
 2 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley
 ½ tsp. salt
 ½ tsp. ground pepper
 ½ tsp. turmeric
2 cups baby spinach leaves, or coarsely chopped large spinach, stems removed (to finish)
3 or 4 Tbsp. chopped green onion (to finish)

Bring 7 cups water to a boil with a pinch of salt in a stew pan. Add potato chunks and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Add cauliflower and sliced carrots, return to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes.

Add squash slices, return to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. Remove vegetables with a slotted spoon.

Add onion, diced carrots, celery, ginger root, garlic and parsley stems to vegetable cooking liquid.

Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Add cumin, turmeric and pepper. Discard parsley stems.

To make meatballs: In a medium bowl combine the beef, chickpea flour, grated onion, parsley, salt, pepper and turmeric. Knead until thoroughly mixed. Shape mixture in meatballs, using about 1 tablespoon of mixture for each one. Add them one by one to the simmering soup.

If there is not enough broth to cover the meatballs, add ½ to 1 cup hot water, pouring it near the side of the pan, not over the meatballs. Cover and cook the meatballs over low heat for 45 minutes, or until soup is well-flavored. If soup is too thin, uncover for the last 15 minutes of cooking; if it is too thick, gradually add ¼ to ½ cup hot water.

Just before serving, add spinach to soup and heat for 1 minute or until wilted. Return cooked vegetables to soup and heat through. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve soup sprinkled with chopped green onion.

 Chunky Ukrainian Borscht

 With the news from Ukraine this week, I have been thinking about Mila, who was from a small village in Ukraine. Mila smuggled herself into Spain to work for two years to earn enough money to help pay for a son’s wedding. (Yes, we have illegal immigrants in Spain, too.) She worked as a caregiver for a dear friend of mine. I learned to make this hearty version of borscht from Mila. (A similar recipe can be found  here .)

 Tender chunks of beef go into the soup with beets, carrots, turnips, onions and cabbage cooked in beef broth. I used olive oil instead of butter and substituted Greek yogurt for the sour cream garnish.

 Chinese-Style Hot-and-Sour Soup

My favorite Asian grocery store closed up shop recently, so I was without the sesame oil, tree-ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots and lily buds that usually go into this soul-satisfying soup. No problem. I added broccoli and chard stems and a drizzle of olive oil. Olive oil is surprisingly good in Chinese cooking. I use it in stir-fries as well. (A recipe for hot-and-sour soup is here .)

Strips of pork, cubes of tofu and beaten eggs go into a peppery  soup with mushrooms. Here, it’s served with white rice and bean sprouts on the side.

 Spanish-Mexican Tortilla Soup

 

This is one of my favorite winter soups, when avocados are in season. My tortilla soup is based on a recipe I clipped from Gourmet magazine (December 1990). Way back then, I couldn’t get corn tortillas in Spain (in Spain, tortilla is a potato-egg cake), so I brought fresh ones back from the US and stored them in my freezer. Then as now, I ad lib to the recipe to suit my mood. I almost always add a vegetable—zucchini or cut-up green beans, for instance. And, of course, I use olive oil instead of lard or other vegetable oil. Here’s my basic recipe.

Serves 4 to 6.

4 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
12 ounces boneless chicken thighs
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 or 2 fresh jalapeño chilies
3 cloves garlic
1 can (14-ounce) whole tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup sliced zucchini
½ teaspoon salt
6 corn tortillas
Olive oil for frying
To serve
2 avocados, sliced
Sour cream or Greek yogurt
Chopped cilantro
Quartered limes
Sliced radishes
Chopped green onions
Jalapeño chilies

In a soup pot combine the broth and water. Bring to a boil, add the chicken thighs, cover and simmer until the chicken is tender, about 30 minutes. Skim the chicken out of the broth and let it cool.

In a food processor combine the onion, chilies, garlic and tomatoes. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a small skillet and add the onion mixture. Fry on high heat until mixture is reduced and beginning to stick to the pan, about 12 minutes. Add ½ cup of broth to the skillet and stir. Add the skillet mixture to the soup pot with the zucchini and simmer the soup 15 minutes.

Shred or chop the chicken and return it to the soup.

Cut the tortillas in half and into crosswise strips. Heat the oil in a small skillet and fry the strips, a few at a time, until crisp and golden. Drain on paper towels.

Serve the soup garnished with fried tortilla strips, sliced avocado, a dollop of yogurt and cilantro. Serve limes, radishes, onions and chilies on the side.


Here are links to just a few of the Spanish soups that have previously appeared in this blog.
Cream of Pumpkin Soup http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/pumpkin-soup-fit-for-marques.html

Lentil Pot with Sausage http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/turn-up-heat-with-pot-of-lentils.html

Galician Soup with Beans and Greens (caldo gallego) http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2011/01/soup-garden.html

Chicken Soup (Sopa de picadillo) http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/soothing-chicken-soup.html

Basque Leek Soup (porrusalda) http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/like-leeks.html

Spain's garlic soup (http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2010/01/garlic-soup-for-morning-after.html)