A RUSTIC STEW FOR OLIVE PICKERS

 

I’ve invited some friends to come round and help me with the olive picking. I plan to serve a merienda de aceituneros, olive pickers’ lunch. In advance, I’m trying out some easy, rustic dishes that I can serve to a crowd. 

In bygone times, when transport was on foot or by mule, olive pickers would spend the whole day in the olive groves, pausing for a midday meal cooked outdoors. Cured foods such as sausages and dry salt cod were packed along with bread and oil. 

That’s what inspired this potato stew. The traditional La Mancha version of this stew is made with salt cod. 

I’m going to serve ibérico ham as the centerpiece of the lunch, so I want this dish to be vegetarian. I sure don’t want to be stirring the pot while everybody is out picking and drinking wine, so I’ll cook the potatoes the day before and reheat them at lunch time. This is my rehearsal. What do you think?

Potatoes cook in a sofrito with onions and peppers. Eggs are added right before serving.

A bowl of vegetarian potato stew. 

Olive Pickers’ Potato Stew

Pote Aceitunero con Patatas

Let whites set, then cut eggs into the potatoes.

On my first attempt at this dish, following the original recipe, I stirred the eggs into the hot potatoes. They thickened the sauce nicely, but I didn’t think they looked very appetizing. I liked the presentation better when the eggs were allowed to set on top of the potatoes, then broken up to serve (as for huevos rotos, if you’ve ever tried that terrific tapa dish). The runny yolks combined with the broth of the stew create the sauce. 

The best potato for this dish is para freir, a variety best for frying such as Agria, Kennebec and MonaLisa. You don’t want potatoes that will fall apart with reheating. Take care not to overcook them, as they will cook 5 minutes longer when the eggs are added.

Serves 4 as a main; 8 as a side.

2 pounds potatoes

1/3 cup olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced onions

1 cup green pepper, cut in strips

4 cloves garlic

1 dried red chile (optional)

1 teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

½ teaspoon cumin

½ cup peeled and diced tomato

¼ cup white wine

2 cups water or stock + additional for reheating

Pinch of chopped fennel leaves or fennel pollen

Sprig of thyme or pinch of dried thyme

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3-4 eggs

Chopped parsley to garnish

Chopped scallion greens to garnish

Peel the potatoes and cut them in bite-size chunks. Place them in a bowl and cover with cold water. Soak the potatoes 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Drain them well and pat dry.

Fry potatoes in olive oil.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet on moderately high heat. Add the potatoes and carefully turn them in the oil. Allow them to fry without turning until they begin to brown on one side, about 1 minute. Turn and fry until slightly browned on the other side. The idea is to fry just enough to make a crust on all sides of the potatoes.

Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lift the potatoes out of the oil and into a cazuela or pot. Add the onions and green pepper to the oil. With the side of a knife, lightly crush the cloves of garlic and add them, whole and unpeeled, to the oil with the chile, if using. 

Sauté the vegetables until onion is softened, 4 minutes. Stir in the pimentón and cumin. Immediately add the tomato. Let the tomato cook until it releases its liquid. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol. Add the water, fennel, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce heat and let the potatoes bubble gently, uncovered, until they are nearly tender, about 10 minutes. There should still be some liquid left.

Break eggs on top of the potatoes.

If the potatoes are to be served the following day, transfer them to a covered container, cool and refrigerate. Let them come to room temperature before finishing the cooking.

Place the potatoes in a pan, adding enough water or stock so they are juicy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly heated. Carefully break 3 or 4 eggs on top of the potatoes. Cover the pan and continue cooking until the whites of the eggs are set, but the yolks still runny, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. 

Sprinkle the eggs with a little salt and pimentón. Garnish with chopped parsley and scallion greens. Immediately before serving, use a knife and fork to cut up the eggs. Let the yolks mix with the potatoes. 

The stew is accompanied by cracked, brine-cured olives with garlic, fennel and thyme. These are the last of the previous year's olives. This year I haven't yet picked any for curing because I'm still waiting for a good rain to plump them. It may not happen---- The olives to be picked by my invited crew will be taken to the mill and exchanged for new oil. 

Related recipes:

Olive Mill Breakfast (Desayuno Molinero).

Olive Pickers' Stew with Cod.

Curing Olives.

NEW WAY WITH RED POTATOES

My neighbors, who were returning to France, dropped off a bag with remains from their kitchen. Here’s a heap of red potatoes, several heads of garlic, red onions, oranges and most of the lemons I had given them a few days earlier.

What to cook with red potatoes? A sort of hot potato salad with lots of garlic.

Red potatoes. I never cook with them. Although they are widely available in markets, red potatoes were not traditionally grown in my region of southern Spain. What are their attributes? For one thing, this variety, less starchy than “baking potatoes,” doesn’t turn to mush when cooked and mixed with dressing, making it perfect for potato salads.

My mother used to make a German hot potato salad using red potatoes. I found a Spanish recipe, typical of Murcia, that reminded me of that old favorite. This one, patatas al ajo cabañil, or “shepherd’s garlic potatoes,” doesn’t start with boiling the potatoes. They are first sliced and cooked in olive oil, then finished in a sauce of crushed garlic and vinegar.

Potatoes are lightly browned, but not crisped, in olive oil. The finished potatoes are slightly juicy with the garlic-vinegar sauce.

The potatoes don’t fry, but “poach” in olive oil. This is the same procedure used when cooking them for a Spanish tortilla. So use plenty of olive oil and, if necessary, cook the potatoes in two batches. They need to lightly brown on the edges and be tender, but they don’t need to be crisp, as they will finish in the garlic sauce.

Lift the potatoes out of the oil with a slotted spoon and reserve them in a bowl. No need to drain on absorbent paper, as residual oil becomes part of the sauce. Strain the remaining oil and save it for another use. You will be surprised at how little oil is absorbed by the potatoes. I started out with 1 ½ cups of oil and retrieved 1 ¼ cups after straining. Olive oil, mind you. No other oil will give this result.

Serve the potato dish, hot or room temperature, on its own (a little chopped bacon would make it not unlike German potato salad) or, Murcia style, as a side with pan-fried chicken, rabbit or lamb chops. Sometimes the same aliño, or garlicky dressing, is added to the meat as well as the potatoes (make double the quantity of sauce). I'm thinking this is a perfect side with old-fashioned Midwestern meatloaf like my mother made.

The potatoes, with their tangy sauce of vinegar and garlic, are a great side with chops. Here alongside a thick-cut chop of ibérico pork. (The accompanying salad-relish is sliced oranges, grapefruit, avocado and red onion with olive oil.)

Red potatoes keep their shape.

Another way to serve the potatoes--topped with fried egg.

Potatoes with Garlic Dressing
Patatas al Ajo Cabañil

Rinse potatoes after slicing.

Serves 6 as a side dish.

2 pounds red potatoes
1 ½ cups olive oil
4-10 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds
Red pepper flakes (optional)
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup water
Salt
Chopped parsley

Peel the potatoes and cut them crosswise into ¼-inch slices. Place the slices in water. Drain the potatoes and pat dry on kitchen towels.

Moderate heat so potatoes cook gently in olive oil.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet. Add half the potato slices and cook them on moderate heat, turning gently, until they begin to turn golden and are just tender, 8-10 minutes. Skim the potatoes out of the oil and place them in a bowl (no need to drain on paper towels). Add remaining potatoes to the pan and cook them in the same manner. Remove.

When oil has cooled slightly, strain it into a jar and save for another use.

Place the coarsely chopped garlic in a mortar with the coarse salt, cumin seeds and red pepper flakes, if using. Crush the garlic to a smooth paste. Stir in the vinegar and water.

Return the potatoes and residual oil to the skillet on medium heat. Pour the garlic-vinegar mixture on top of the potatoes and gently combine them without breaking up the potatoes. Season with salt. Cook until all the liquid has cooked off, 5 minutes.

Serve the potatoes hot or room temperature, sprinkled with parsley.

POTATOES A LO POBRE, REVISED

“Patatas a lo pobre should have crisp edges,” said my in-house critic. I had made the dish—sliced potatoes baked with onions, peppers and wine—to accompany a roast pargo, an impressive 4-pound sea bream. 

It was a recipe I learned many years ago in pueblo kitchens. Potatoes and vegetables are layered in a roasting pan and fish (or pieces of chicken, lamb or baby goat) is placed on top. Lots of olive oil and a glass of wine and into the oven. The juices from the fish mingle with the potatoes. It’s a delicious dish, but, no, the potatoes don’t have crispy brown edges.

In fact, my potatoes were not true patatas a lo pobre. They were closer to patatas panaderas, “baker’s potatoes.” The verdadero patatas a lo pobre never sees the inside of an oven, but is done entirely in a deep skillet. While it got its name—“poor folks’ potatoes—as an economical family meal with no meat, now it is served as a side dish with fish, meat, chicken, rabbit or fried eggs.

Facing up to the criticism—and my own error in naming—I was determined to make real patatas a lo pobre, with potatoes with browned edges. Here are the results of my testing.

Potatoes first poach in olive oil, then brown in the oven.

Serve the potatoes as a side dish with meat, chicken, fish or fried eggs.

I got some crispy edges!

The oil keeps potatoes juicy. Delicious for breakfast, lunch or supper with fried egg.

Poor Folks’ Potatoes
Patatas a lo Pobre

Poach potatoes and vegetables in lots of olive oil.

The procedure—Cook the sliced potatoes, onions and strips of green peppers in a large quantity of olive oil. Spanish cooks say to “confitar” the potatoes. You will “poach” the potatoes in oil, without letting them brown. No wine or other liquid is added. Use a medium heat.

How much is a large quantity of oil? At least un dedo deep, or about ½ inch. That’s about 2 cups of oil for 2 pounds of potatoes. Don’t freak! Once the potatoes are cooked, you’re going to drain off the oil. (Strained, it can be used for other purposes, such as frying eggs to accompany the potatoes.)

Oil drained off.

I measured the oil drained from the potatoes; it measured 1 2/3 cups. Meaning only 1/3 cup of (flavorful) oil had been absorbed by the potatoes. Mind you, this only works with extra virgin olive oil!

How long to cook the potatoes in oil? That depends on the variety of potato you use. I recommend the Kennebec variety, which gets tender without disintegrating. I used a round white baking potato that was tender in barely 10 minutes. But, when I proceeded to the next step, the potato slices tended to break up. 

The next step is to drain off as much oil as possible. A heat-proof, metal colander or sieve is useful for this. You might want to ladle the potatoes out of the pan, as tipping a heavy skillet full of hot oil and potatoes is tricky. 

Return the potatoes to the skillet and turn up the heat. Let them brown somewhat on the bottom and edges, but don’t try to stir them.

Alternatively, to avoid breaking up the sliced potatoes: after draining off the cooking oil, carefully transfer the potatoes and vegetables to a baking pan. Preheat oven to 350ºF with convection fan or 375ºF conventional setting. Roast the potatoes until the edges begin to brown, 15-20 minutes.

Serves 6 as a side dish.

2 pounds potatoes, such as Kennebec variety
1 medium onion
2 bell peppers, green and/or red
3 cloves garlic
2 cups (approximately) olive oil
1 bay leaf (optional)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped parsley, to garnish

Slice potatoes ¼-inch thick.

Peel the potatoes and slice them about ¼-inch thick. Wash the slices in cold water, drain and pat them dry.

Cut the onion into quarters. Slice them, stem to root end, in julienne. Discard seeds from peppers and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Lightly crush the garlic just to split the skins. Don’t peel the garlic.

Put enough oil in a deep skillet or wide pan to measure ½ inch deep. Place on medium heat and add the potatoes. When oil is hot, add the onions, peppers, garlic and bay leaf, if using. Moderate the heat so the potatoes cook slowly, turning them with a wooden spatula, until they are tender when pierced with a knife. Do not allow them to brown. 

Drain off cooking oil.

Place a heat-proof (metal) colander or sieve over a heat-proof bowl. Either carefully tip the potatoes into the colander, allowing the oil to drain into the bowl, or use a slotted spoon to ladle the potatoes out of the pan, then drain off the oil. If desired, discard bay leaf and garlic cloves.

Preheat oven to 375ºF or 350ºF using the convection fan.

If using an oven-proof skillet or pan, return the potatoes to the pan. Otherwise, spread them in an oven pan. Add salt and pepper and carefully mix. 

Place the potatoes in the oven until they begin to brown on the edges, about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven. Scoop potatoes from the pan onto plates or onto a serving platter. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Some similar potato recipes:

Potatoes a lo Pobre (actually Panaderas).

Baked Fish with Potatoes.

Chicken Baked with Potatoes.

Roasted Kid-Goat with Potatoes.

Fried Egg and Potatoes (Huevos Rotos).

More about Kennebec potatoes in Spanish recipes.

The potato story.

POTATOES, RAMPANT

A stew of potatoes in all their glory.  I used both cloves of "old" garlic (top right) and, for garnish, chopped stems of green garlic (pictured on the left of the bowl).

If I asked you to name the single most important ingredient in Spanish cooking—after olive oil—what would you choose? Rice, as in paella? Tomatoes, peppers or garlic, as in sofrito? Pork/ham/sausage? Fish? 

The answer, by my count, is potatoes. In my first collection of Spanish recipes, COOKING IN SPAIN, there are 12 recipes for potatoes in the Vegetable chapter, plus another 16 to 20 recipes that include potatoes. While the Fish and Shellfish chapter is considerably longer than Vegetables, no single variety of seafood matches potatoes.

In the (almost) 10 years I’ve been blogging about the food of Spain, I have managed to feature potatoes month after month as either main ingredient or garnish. (Links to some of those recipes are below.) Here’s another traditional recipe from that first cookbook, Ajoharina.

Thickened with flour, sauce is the consistency of gravy. 

New potatoes plus asparagus and chopped green garlic give this dish a springtime flavor.

Serve, like soup, as a starter or main lunch dish.

“Ajoharina” means “garlic-flour.” It consists of potatoes stewed in a garlicky sauce that is thickened with flour. The dish traditionally is served, in place of soup, as a primer plato, first course. In poor households, it makes a sturdy, filling meal when nothing else is to follow. Ajoharina is typical of the Andalusian province of Jaén and of parts of La Mancha.  It can have scraps of pork fat added or, for Lent, salt cod. In the fall, wild mushrooms called níscalos (Lactarius deliciosus or saffron milk cap) might be cooked with the potatoes; in spring, spears of wild asparagus.

From my huerta--freshly-dug potatoes.

Onions, too, are ready to harvest. 

I’m using freshly-dug spring potatoes for this dish. Cut into 1-inch pieces, they needed hardly 10 minutes cooking time. Mature potatoes or red-skinned varieties will need longer cooking. Cook the potatoes until tender before stirring in the flour. Once thickened, the sauce should be the consistency of smooth gravy.

This recipe is usually completely vegan, but, if you like, add scraps of ham or bacon to punch up the flavor. The color and flavor come from pimentón (paprika). Normally, this is ordinary unsmoked pimentón, but, if you like, use some smoked pimentón de la Vera as well. Hot pimentón is completely optional; it does perk up potato stew quite a lot.

Garlicky Potato Stew
Ajoharina

Serves 6. 

2 pounds potatoes (about 8 medium), peeled
1/3 cup olive oil
½ cup chopped onions
½ cup chopped green peppers
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
1 ounce diced serrano ham, pancetta or bacon (optional)
4 (or more) cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika)
Pinch of hot pimentón or cayenne (optional)
½ cup grated tomato pulp
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1 bay leaf
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
12 asparagus spears, cut in pieces and blanched (optional)
4 tablespoons flour
Chopped green garlic, chives or scallions to garnish

Cut the potatoes in 1-inch chunks. Heat the oil in a cazuela or deep skillet. Add the potatoes and sauté them 1 minute. Add the onions, green and red peppers and ham, if using. Sauté them 4 minutes.

Flatten the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and chop them finely. Add them to the sauté. Stir in the pimentón. Add the tomato pulp, cumin, bay leaf and 3 cups of the water. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes are just tender, 10-15 minutes. Add the blanched asparagus, if using, during the last few minutes.

Shake flour and water.

Place the flour in a jar and add the remaining 1 cup of water. Close the jar tightly and shake it until flour is completely mixed with the water.  Pour the flour mixture into the pan with the potatoes and stir to mix well. Let cook 2-3 minutes longer until the liquid thickens. 

Thicken cooking liquid with flour. Stir to make a smooth gravy.

Serve the potatoes hot, sprinkled with chopped green garlic, chives or scallions to garnish.

The story of potatoes in Spain here.

More recipes with potatoes:

Potatoes La Rioja Style.

Olive Oil Fries.

Potato Salads.

Canary Islands Wrinkly Potatoes with Green Mojo.

Potatoes a lo Pobre.

Mushroom and Potato Stew.

Potatoes a la Brava.

Potatoes with Salsa Verde.

Potatoes with Mussels.

Potatoes in Garlicky Sauce (Ajopollo).

A POTATO FOR ALL REASONS

A potato is just a potato, no? That’s what I thought for years, when the only sort of potato I could find was the locally grown “Idaho” variety. It’s terrific for making Spanish potato tortilla and pretty good for patatas fritas (fries). It makes a flaky baked potato. But for making potato salads, it is a disaster, as this high-starch variety tends to disintegrate in boiling. Same issue when cooked in the olla, or stew pot. 

Only in the past few years have a selection of potato types begun appearing in markets. In the big hypermercados they are labelled, para freir (for frying), para asar (for roasting), para cocido (for boiling), para guarnación (small ones, for garnishing). Plus waxy red ones and—new!—purple potatoes.

Potatoes from Galicia.

Recently, I saw sacks of potatoes with Indicación Xeográfica Protexida Pataca de Galicia—protected geographic indication, potato of Galicia (PDO). Knowing Galicia (northwest Spain) is famed for its potatoes, I grabbed a bag.

First, I cut them up and boiled them to make mashed potatoes. These potatoes did not disintegrate! They mashed smoothly, but seemed to require greater quantities of olive oil and milk than I would use with the everyday potatoes. I looked at the labels on the sack again and saw that the PDO potatoes were the Kennebec variety, an all-purpose potato developed in the U.S., especially favored by producers of potato chips (crisps to the Brits).

To honor the Galician origin, I searched for a typical Galician potato recipe and found this nice dish of potatoes stewed with wine and mussels. Tomorrow I'll test them as baked potatoes alongside a Sunday roast chicken. Next week, it's patatas fritas. Galicia's potato for all occasions.

Chunks of potatoes cook with wine, chorizo and mussels for a typical Galician dish.

Crisp Albariño white wine from Galicia is the perfect accompaniment to potatoes with mussels.

Potatoes with Mussels
Patatas con Mejillones (Patacas con Mexillóns)

Some cooks recommend breaking the potatoes into cachos, or pieces, rather than cutting them with a knife. This is because the rough, broken surface supposedly releases more potato starch that helps to thicken the cooking liquid. 

Break, not cut, pieces.

To prepare the potatoes in this manner, cut them lengthwise in half or, if large, into quarters. Pick up one piece and, with a knife, start to cut a ½-inch slice. But don’t cut all the way through; break off the piece of potato with your fingers. Turn the potato quarter, make another incision and snap off the piece.

Chorizo in this recipe acts as a flavoring agent. Use cooking chorizo rather than dry-cured chorizo. If you choose not to use it, use an extra tablespoon of olive oil and stir in a heaping teaspoon of pimentón (paprika, smoked or unsmoked). 

If possible, use Padrón peppers in this dish. Padrón peppers from Galicia are bittersweet, with an occasional "hot" one. If not available, use any green or red pepper, cut in strips.

Chorizo adds flavour to the potatoes and mussels.

Serves 4.

2 pounds mussels

2 pounds potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup green pepper, cut in thin strips
1 (3 ½-ounce) chorizo, sliced (optional)
½ cup white wine
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
Pimentón and chopped parsley to garnish

Scrape the mussels and remove beards. Wash them in several changes of water.

Peel the potatoes and cut/break them into slices. Cover with water while prepping other ingredients.

Heat oil in a cazuela or deep skillet with a lid. Sauté the onion slowly until softened, 5 minutes. Add the garlic, green pepper and sliced chorizo. Fry, turning the chorizo to brown both sides. 

Drain the potatoes well and add them to the pan. Stir them with a wooden paddle to combine with the other ingredients. Pour over the wine and cook off the alcohol, 2 minutes. Add water to partially cover the potatoes, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Use a wooden paddle to turn the potatoes occasionally while cooking. Add additional water if needed, so that potatoes always have a little liquid and don’t scorch on the bottom.

Place the mussels on top of the potatoes. Cover the pan and continue cooking until most of the mussels have opened, 6-8 minutes. Discard any mussels that do not open.

Allow the potatoes and mussels to rest, covered, 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with a sprinkling of pimentón (smoked or unsmoked) and chopped parsley.

These peppers are tipo Padrón, not the authentic ones. If possible, use Padrón peppers with the potatoes and mussels.

All about potatoes here.

More recipes for potatoes;

Potatoes in Garlicky Sauce.

Fried Potatoes with Spicy Sauce (Patatas Bravas).

Potatoes a lo Pobre.

Wrinkly Potatoes with Green Chile Sauce.

Potato Salads.

Potato Casserole with Saffron.

Potatoes (Cachelos) with Garlicky Saffron Sauce.

Olive Oil Fries.

Purple Potato Salad.

POTATOES "A LO POBRE" ARE A CLASSIC

Potatoes "a lo pobre," baked in a cazuela.

I’m on a potato kick. A basket of freshly-dug potatoes has inspired me to cook them just about every day. As much as I love eating steamed new potatoes with olive oil and chopped parsley, after a few days I’m ready for some variety.

Inspiration: freshly-dug potatoes.

Spain has dozens of different potato dishes (I counted 35 potato recipes in one of my Spanish cookbooks). Many of them are meant to be sturdy, economical main dishes. Such is Patatas a lo Pobre—“poor folk’s potatoes”—a classic recipe. It may be poor in meat, but is rich in flavor. And, while it serves nicely as a vegetarian dish, it is more frequently encountered as a side with fish, poultry or meat. I serve it alongside herb-roasted pork loin or baked beneath a whole fish.

Some folks call the dish patatas panaderas—“baker’s potatoes”—if it is made in an oven. The two recipes are pretty much the same—layers of sliced potatoes, plenty of olive oil, onion, garlic and parsley. The version I learned to make in the village also has juicy tomato slices and green pepper.

Tomatoes, onion, peppers and garlic flavor potatoes.

Poor Folk’s Potatoes
Patatas a lo Pobre

You can vary the basic recipe for potatoes a lo pobre. I sometimes add other vegetables such as sliced zucchini or shredded chard. Chopped ham or bacon turns “poor” into something a little richer. Substituting smoked pimentón (paprika) for regular pimentón gives an extra flavor dimension, especially traditional in Extremadura (western Spain), where smoked pimentón is made.

The potato casserole can be cooked on top of the stove instead of in the oven, but you will need to use more oil and more liquid. Don’t stir the potatoes, but shake the cazuela occasionally. The bottom layer may form a crust—a delicious bit to scrape up.

The potatoes can be peeled and sliced in advance—leave them covered with water until ready to assemble the casserole.

The cooked potatoes should be nice and juicy. If they are cooking too fast, add additional water or white wine so they don’t dry out.

Serves 6.

Ingredients to flavor potatoes.

3 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
1/3 cup olive oil   
2 teaspoons salt
1 onion, sliced
1 green pepper, cut in strips
1 large tomato, quartered and sliced
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ teaspoon crumbled dry thyme (optional)
1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place half the oil in a 3-quart cazuela or other heat-proof casserole. Arrange half the sliced potatoes in the casserole and sprinkle with half the salt. Top with half the sliced onion, green pepper, tomato, parsley and garlic.

Add remaining potatoes, sprinkle with salt and remaining onion, pepper, tomato, parsley and garlic. Sprinkle with thyme and pimentón. Pour over remaining oil, wine and 1/3 cup water.

If using a heat-proof casserole, place on a medium heat on top of the stove until the liquid begins to simmer. Then cover the casserole with a lid or foil and bake until potatoes are fork tender, about 60 minutes.

Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Note, Sept. 2019: All these years later, I realize I have been incorrectly calling this potato dish patatas a lo pobre. It's really patatas panaderas, or "baker's potatoes," always prepared in the oven. A recipe for the verdadero patatas a lo pobre is here.

FRESH-SQUEEZED OLIVE JUICE

Ann and Kenton haul olives to the mill.

This is the story of a fellow-American living in Spain. She and her husband have a farm with 850 olive trees. They pick the olives themselves, take them to the mill, and bring home the oil

Even before the press starts to squeeze, oil begins dripping from the tower of mats spread with crushed olives. When the hydraulic press begins to slowly compress, the flow increases. Oil begins to pool in a trough at the bottom. This is pure “olive juice,” squeezed from fresh “fruit,” olives.

Old-fashioned olive press.

Watching are Ann Larson and Kenton Smith, who picked the olives on their 22-acre farm in Yunquera, a white village in the highlands of southern Spain, and hauled them to the mill. Later they will truck the extra virgin oil back to their farm.

The olive juice as it is drawn off into a settling tank does not look appetizing.

“The first time I saw it,” says Kenton, “I was horrified: ‘What have they done to our wonderful olives?’  It looked like old machine oil.”

Oil in settling tank.

Allowed to settle in a convex tank, the oil rises to the top, leaving the dark water and sediment at the bottom. The oil is pumped out into big plastic jugs. Greenish-golden and still very cloudy, the unfiltered oil is ready for use without further treatment. Extra virgin. Fresh-squeezed olive juice.

“We let it rest for a couple months,”says Ann. “It settles more and turns almost clear.”

The traditional olive press in the small village of Yunquera is one of very few still operating in Spain. The process is simple. First the olives are tumbled and air-blowed in a hopper to remove leaves and dirt, then crushed by stones or steel wheels to release the oil. The pulp is spread onto mats woven of esparto grass or of polymer synthetics. These are stacked on a spindle on a hydraulic press, which squeezes the pulp tighter and tighter, allowing the oil to flow out through channels at the bottom.

There is another, modern mill in the village. Like most oil processing in Spain, it uses a far more efficient centrifugal system to extract the oil. After crushing, the olive pulp is spun at high speed to separate the oil from the water and solids.

“Once or twice a week I see tanker trucks with Italian license plates pull up at the gates,” says Kenton. (A lot of Spanish olive oil is exported to Italy, where it is blended and marketed as an Italian export.)

The traditional press, not very different from those used for milennia, is slow, labor-intensive and costly, but, said Ann, the locals think it produces the best oil.

Ann pours new oil for tasting.

Back in the kitchen, where Ann and Kenton enjoy cooking together, Ann pours some new oil into a saucer and cuts up a mollete, fresh-baked bread roll, for dipping. The oil is fresh and fruity, a little herbaceous. For comparison, she sets out some of last year’s oil. It is heavier, more full-bodied.

“This year we started picking early in December,” explains Ann. “Mainly to avoid the high winds that make picking nearly impossible. The locals usually wait as late as possible—February or March—because the yield is greater, but then the olives are over-ripe and the oil isn’t as fresh tasting.”

Ann, who is originally from Sioux Falls, SD, and Kenton, from Suffolk, England, left jobs in information technology eight years ago and moved to their mountaintop farm in Spain.

“We were at the top of an interesting profession, but we were always at the office or on a plane. We never saw our house in daylight. I had to ask, ‘do I want to do the same thing another 25 years?’ “

They traded in their upwardly mobile lifestyle for an abandoned farm on a mountainside facing the Sierra de las Nieves national forest. There they built a small house amongst olive and chestnut trees with astonishing views to the tumble of white-washed houses of the village, across hills all the way to the Mediterranean coast.

“We grow almost all our own vegetables, and cook with our own olive oil,” Ann tells me, “very much enjoying the more natural, outdoor life here, and the open way of living. Most of our friends in the village are farmers like ourselves. They’re finding it hard to make a living with dropping agricultural prices. In fact, many are just abandoning their land, because farming just doesn't pay.”

Estate-bottled olive oil.

Ann and Kenton sell oil under their own label, Yunquera Gold, bottled in recycled wine bottles, or, for shipping to the US, in silver-grey Pepsi Light bottles. Now, that’s estate-bottled oil. But the oil is a hobby, not a business.

 “It’s too expensive to bottle mechanically,” says Ann. (http://www.yunqueragold.com for more about Ann and Kenton’s olive oil and life in Spain.)

A few years ago, Ann and Kenton started using their virgin oil to make artisanal soap for Christmas gifts. Stirred up in their small kitchen, the soap was scented with locally grown herbs and flowers.

“We were stunned at the difference between our soap made from olive oil and commercial soaps,” says Ann. Instead of just clean skin, we had clean, soft and moisturized skin. This is because commercial soaps have all kinds of additives in them and the manufacturers strip out the ‘good stuff’ (glycerin) for use in other beauty products.”

Silky olive oil cream has spicy scent.

Besides soap, Ann and Kenton developed blends of olive and other oils for body and face creams as well as hair care products. Easier to ship world-wide, the beauty products are proving quite successful. (http://www.lujos.co.uk for more information.)

Ann has been collecting recipes from the locals, starting with Manuel, a neighbor, who has coached them through olive harvests and pruning. This is a traditional Yunquera dish—a “soup,” often cooked outdoors on a wood fire.  (The recipe for Sopa y Bollo is compiled by Ann Larson and used with permission.)

Sopa y bollo, cooked outdoors during olive harvesting. (Photo by Kenton Smith, used with permission.)

Yunquera Soup and Accompaniments
Sopa y bollo

Ann’s notes: The sopa is served first. When people have eaten almost enough, bollo is made from the remaining sopa. This is because the bollo contains expensive ingredients! My grandmother did the same by serving my farmer grandfather fried potatoes first, then the meat and veg afterwards.

Olive oil
5-6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 large onions, sliced
4 long green peppers, sliced
1 large tomato
A few fava beans, cut into ½ inch pieces, but not shelled
A few asparagus stalks, torn into small pieces
1 head garlic, broken into cloves but not peeled
1 loaf day old bread, torn into small pieces


Heat olive oil, then add potatoes. Turn occasionally, so they don’t burn on the bottom, but don’t turn too much or they will break apart.

When softened, add the onions and garlic; cook a few minutes more, then add the green pepper and tomato, and other vegetables. Cook until potatoes are ‘al dente’.

Add water to cover the potatoes; after it boils, heat through a few minutes. Add the torn bread and cook until the liquid has been absorbed.

When people have nearly eaten their fill, prepare the bollo.

Bollo

1 tin tuna, not drained
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1 orange, peeled and chopped

Add the above ingredients to the remaining sopa, and stir.