A 3-INGREDIENT RECIPE FROM MARÍA’S KITCHEN

My garden tomatoes this year are small, but intensely flavored.

I learned to speak and cook Spanish in María’s kitchen in my early years in an Andalusian village.  María and her mother did all the cooking for the tapas bar the family ran. Every day of the year these women put out an assortment of tapas, ten or more different dishes, both hot and cold, that changed with the seasons and with what ingredients María had from the family’s huerta, vegetable garden, in the nearby campo, countryside. 

I would sit at the table in María’s kitchen several evenings a week. In the beginning I just watched and chatted, my vocabulary growing by leaps and bounds. Soon, I was asking questions and taking notes (where my recipe collection began). Eventually, I began to help peel and chop and even lend a hand at the stove.

In the summer, one of my favorite tapas was pollo con tomate, chicken with tomatoes. María’s husband, Paco, would come back from irrigating the fields with a basket of dead-ripe, fragrant tomatoes. María peeled them and added them to a pan with chunks of chicken browned in olive oil. She added salt and a bay leaf. Ya está. Nothing more.

The tomatoes cooked down to a thick sauce, savory with chicken juices. The dish was served in small tapa portions with chunks of bread for mopping up the sauce or as a ración, a larger serving, with patatas fritas, fries, as well as bread.

Not counting olive oil, salt and pepper, this dish can be made with only three ingredients. Over the years, I have gussied it up with Sherry, mushrooms and herbs, but, honestly, the intense flavor of vine-ripened tomatoes is all that’s needed to make a delicious dish.

Pollo con tomate--chicken with tomatoes--an easy summertime dish.

Fresh tomatoes cook up to a sauce the consistency of jam.

As a tapa, pollo con tomate is served with bread to mop up the sauce. How about some torn fresh basil on top?

Mix the savory tomato sauce with pasta. Add fresh rucula leaves on top.

Tender chicken legs in tomato served with rice--a whole meal.

Top the chicken with a 1-2-3 sauté of diced zucchini, red pepper, garlic and pine nuts. 

Chicken with Tomato

Pollo con Tomate

This recipe is pretty close to María’s original—three ingredients, chicken, tomatoes and bay leaf—except that I’m using legs and thighs instead of hacked-up chicken. Instead of bay, you could swap a different third ingredient (onion, garlic, red or green peppers, chile, pimentón, Sherry, brandy, mushrooms, ham, olives---). Add some fresh and flavorful herbs to the finished dish. Serve the chicken with bread, with pasta or rice or even with fries.

The tomatoes need to be skinned and the easiest way to do this is to blanch them in boiling water. You may also wish to remove seeds. To do this, cut each tomato in half crosswise and either scoop out seeds with a spoon or gently squeeze the seeds out. Cut the tomatoes roughly into pieces. After skinning and chopping, there should be about 4 cups of pulp and juice.

Serves 6.

3 basic ingredients
2 ½ pound chicken legs and thighs
4 pounds fresh tomatoes
2 bay leaves (or choice of another ingredient)
Free ingredients
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup olive oil

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Allow to come to room temperature.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut a slit in the skin of the blossom end of the tomatoes. Drop them in the boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain them into a colander and rinse in cold water so they do not continue to cook.

Tomatoes, peeled and chopped.

When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, slip off the skins, cut out the cores and break or cut the tomatoes into pieces.  (Remove seeds, if desired. I didn't.)

Tomatoes cook until jammy.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Slowly brown the pieces of chicken. Add the cut-up tomatoes, bay leaves and 1 teaspoon salt. Raise heat until tomatoes begin to bubble. Lower heat and cover the pan. Cook 15 minutes.

Turn the pieces of chicken in the sauce. Continue cooking, uncovered, until chicken is very tender and tomatoes are reduced to a thick, jammy sauce, about 25 minutes more.

Another version of pollo con tomate: Chicken Sautéed with Tomatoes.
Similar: Pork with Tomatoes (Magro con Tomate).

Tomato picking and Country Gazpacho.

Picking tomatoes in the huerta (1968).

THE CHOW REPORT

Cooks love feedback, yes we do. So I was really pleased to find that MY KITCHEN IN SPAIN—the book, not the blog—was Cookbook of the Month, along with THE NEW SPANISH KITCHEN by Anya von Bremzen, on Chowhound.com. Readers—home cooks—try recipes from the books and share their comments on the website. 

The Spanish theme continues through August. If you’d like to join the discussion, go to http://beta.chowhound.com/post/august-2015-cotm-spanish-table-kitchen-spain-1020813 and follow the links to the threads.

Some readers share photos of their finished dishes as well as opinions. Many have how-to questions that others in the community reply to. Lots of them share tips and serving suggestions. (I've quoted some of the comments, but the photos are all mine.)

I am fascinated to follow how home cooks adapt cookbook recipes. because it shows how the recipes I write really work. For instance, pickerel cheeks instead of dogfish shark for cazón en adobo; sea bass instead of halibut or hake; triggerfish instead of sea bream; pork chops for tenderloin, grapefruit for orange; oloroso Sherry instead of fino. Or,  “instinct” calls for less vinegar or more garlic or a different herb. Or, the recipe says cook the chicken 60 minutes, but “mine was done in 20 minutes”.

I love reading the rave reviews: 

Sherried Chicken with Mushrooms.

Sherried Chicken with Mushroom (pollo al Jerez, recipe here).
Allegra: “The Mister declared this the 'Spanish version of chicken marsala' and cleared his plate. I really enjoyed the deep earthy-woodsy notes of these luscious ingredients singing together.”

Pollo al ajillo--chicken with garlic.

Chicken Sauté with Garlic and Sherry (pollo al ajillo, recipe here)

Gio: “Everything came together easily and just as Ms. Mendel states. The timing was perfect. This is a clear, concise recipe to follow, with an informative intro that explains the whys and wherefores, which I love to read. We enjoyed every bite of this dish. The chicken was tender, juicy, and had a delicate but noticeable infusion of deliciousness from the browned garlic garnish as well as from garlic that's cooked with the chicken. All the juices plus the wines created a luscious unctuous sauce that was a delight with each mouthful. I served sauted new cabbage, and steamed rice as sides, but next time - and there will be a next time - Crusty bread will be absorbing the sauce.”

Home-Style Pork Chops in Lemon Marinade (chuletas a la casera).
Nikki: “One of the many things I love about this book is the headnotes. For this recipe, Ms. Mendel mentions the same technique with pork loin slices cooked and slapped on toasted bread as a tapa. yes!”

But, I was devastated to read a scathing review of my paella recipe! 

Fiesta Paella (recipe here).
“I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a bad paella but this was pretty close. I definitely wouldn’t make it again. Here’s why. The cooking process seemed ill-conceived and disjointed. Mussels cooked first then set aside. Some shrimp are cooked in advance, some left to cook in the paella  for 35 mins, ditto for the peas (including standing time), squid cooked for 47 mins. Needless to say, everything but the rice and the mussels were overcooked, the squid was inedible. I omitted the yellow food colouring as well. I’ve never come across that in a paella recipe before. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this one. We drowned our sorrows in a lovely Spanish wine mr bc selected for the occasion. The wine was worthy of a celebration unto itself.”

Not to sound too defensive, but I have to add that Spanish home cooks rarely use real saffron—they use powdered artificial yellow coloring to get that vibrant sunny color for paella. (More about this condiment here ) And, I wanted to make the recipe accessible to American home cooks who might not want to shell out for pricey saffron. In my kitchen in Spain, I only use the best La Mancha saffron--and the paella is never so yellow as the restaurant versions. About the timing, this is what I tell cooking class students:

Paella cooking class: We put in par-boiled green beans, frozen peas and all of the small peeled shrimp. Won’t they be overcooked? That’s not the point. Think of them as flavoring, adding to the total flavor of the rice.

 Many of the recipes from my cookbook that are reviewed on Chowhound have also appeared on this blog. One that hasn’t yet, Chicken Sautéed with Fresh Tomato, is perfect for this end of summer season. I’ll let Chowhound's “Breadcrumbs” provide the commentary.

Vine-ripened tomatoes!

Chicken Sautéd with Fresh Tomato
Pollo con Tomate

Breadcrumbs: “Prep is simple but the cooking time required for the sauce doesn’t necessarily make this the best recipe for a weeknight unless time isn’t an issue at your home. Fortunately for me, today time wasn’t a factor at all except when we started inhaling the tantalizing aromas of this sauce and then it was impatience vs a lack of time that proved to be an issue.

“Once the chicken is cooked, the sauce must then reduce to the consistency of a jam and this, my friends, is what takes time and patience. The sauce is well worth the wait, sweet, jammy and velvety. I think I’d have been happy with a bowl of sauce and some crusty bread, chicken be damned! I served this atop some lovely steamed fingerling potatoes. It would be equally comfortable with rice or pasta.

“Mr bc allotted this a 9 out of 10 and managed to consume a whopping 5 pieces of chicken! This is definitely worth a try. I think Kalamata olives would be lovely in this sauce and if mr bc had left me any, I’d be having the sauce with olives with an egg poached atop for breakfast tomorrow.”

 

Fresh tomatoes cook to a thick, jammy consistency.

Chop tomatoes in processor.

2 pounds chicken legs and thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 pounds fresh tomatoes (5 ½ cups chopped)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Sprig of thyme
1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons brandy
Chopped parsley to serve

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Plunge the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water until the skins split, about 45 seconds. Drain, cool, then slip off the skins. Alternatively, cut out the cores and microwave them for 2 minutes on one side. Turn and microwave for 2 minutes more. Drain, cool, then slip off the skins. Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally and squeeze out the seeds and discard them. Chop the tomatoes coarsely (they can be chopped in a food processor).

Heat the oil In a cazuela or deep skillet and brown the chicken pieces. Remove when browned. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the fat.

Add the chopped tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, pimentón, bay leaves and brandy. Cook the tomatoes on a high heat for 5 minutes.

Return the chicken pieces to the pot. Cook on a medium heat, partially covered to prevent the tomato from splattering, until chicken is tender, about 1 hour. Remove chicken pieces when they are done.

Continue cooking the tomato sauce on a medium heat until it is very thick and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes more. Return the chicken to the pot and reheat. Serve garnished with chopped parsley.

Chicken braises in fresh tomato sauce.

Here are the two Cookbooks of the Month on Chowhound:
MY KITCHEN IN SPAIN by Janet Mendel (HarperCollins; 2002) 

THE NEW SPANISH TABLE by Anya von Bremzen (Workman Publishing; 2005)