BEATING THE BIRDS TO THE LOQUATS

 

Loquats are not quite ripe.

The fruits on the loquat tree have turned from green to yellow. They’re not quite ripe, though. They need to be as orange as an apricot to be really sweet. Besides the color of their skins, I’ll know they’re ripe because the birds will beat me to them! 

Loquats (Eriobotry japonica) are called nísperos in Spanish. The egg-shaped fruit ripens in the spring, much earlier than apricots. The trees grow in subtropical climes along the south and east coastlines of Spain. Loquats grown in Alicante province have a protected quality denomination, Nísperos de Callosa d’en Sarrià.

Loquats are easy to peel—just cut off the stem end and strip back the skin. In the center are dark, knobby seeds (from one to five, but averaging three). Once ripe, the fruit is sweet, somewhat like a spicy pear in taste. The flesh is firm but juicy.

The loquats I picked early are juicy but more sour than sweet. They are just right in a sprightly spring salad. The combination of fruit with smoked ham (or smoked turkey) plus cheese will work just as well once the fruit is fully ripe. Use more or less lemon juice/honey in the vinaigrette to balance the flavors.

Sliced loquats, diced ham, and cheese make a sprightly spring salad.

Spring Salad with Loquats and Spinach

Ensalada de Primavera con Nísperos y Espinacas

Peel loquats, remove seeds. 

2-3 servings.

2-3 loquats (5 ounces)

4 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ -1 teaspoon honey

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon or basil

1 cup (3 ½ ounces) diced smoked ham

½ cup (2 ounces) diced mozzarella or fresh goat cheese

¼ cup slivered red bell pepper

1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves

Chopped pistachios

Chopped green onion

Peel the loquats. Cut them in half and remove the black seeds. Slice them into a bowl. Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

In a small bowl combine the mustard, honey, salt, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Whisk in the oil and the chopped herbs. 

Add the ham, cheese, and red pepper to the sliced loquats. Add half of the dressing and mix well. (The salad can be prepared up to this point and left to macerate 1 or 2 hours.)

When ready to serve the salad, place the spinach in another bowl and toss with remaining dressing. 

Divide the spinach between two or three salad plates. Spoon the loquat-ham-cheese onto the spinach. Scatter with pistachios and chopped onion.

More loquat lore: Loquat Mousse.

BACALAO FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Hello, springtime! Welcome to spring flowers and rain showers, to orange blossoms and artichokes. Oh, hello Holy Week too. Let’s bring them all together in a bowl—salt cod for a Lenten meal and spring’s fresh vegetables, artichokes, fava beans, and green onions. 

This recipe combines salt cod and spring vegetables with fideos, a kind of pasta. The dish comes from Albacete and Murcia (eastern Spain) where it is a traditional dish for Semana Santa, Holy Week, which begins tomorrow with Palm Sunday. 

Fideos are the same as vermicelli noodles, only in Murcia they are known as aletría. This word comes from the Arabic, itriyya, meaning threads of dried pasta. In case you were wondering where pasta came from, yep, the Arabs (Moors) introduced pasta made with hard durum wheat to Spain (and southern Italy) back in medieval times.

Pasta with Salt Cod

Aletría (Fideos) con Bacalao

Fideo noodles cook right in the pan with vegetables and cod. Saffron adds a sunny yellow.

Fresh artichokes, fava beans, green onions, potatoes and cauliflower go into this pasta dish.

Start this recipe two or three days before you intend to serve it as the salt cod needs to be soaked for 36 to 48 hours. Soaking in several changes of water rehydrates the flesh and removes the salt.

Most cuts of dry salt cod will have skin and bones. Soaking followed by a plunge in boiling water make it easy to pull the softened flesh away from the bones. If you start out with 12 ounces of dry cod, you’ll have 7 to 8 ounces of fish pieces after removing skin and bones. 

The artichokes can be cooked in the pan along with the potatoes or, if preferred, cooked separately and added to the dish at the end. (Frozen artichoke hearts can be substituted for the fresh ones.)

Peeled fava beans.

Fava beans: to skin or not to skin? Home cooks (and me) use the shelled favas as they are, with the outer skins. But they are a lovely spring green if you first blanch them in boiling water, then pinch the inner fava from its skin. And they don’t need additional cooking, can be scattered on top of the fideos. (When I prepared the dish that appears in the photos, I added half the favas, unskinned, to the pan with the cauliflower. The remainder I peeled the skins and added the green favas to the pasta at the end of cooking.)

 

Green onions don't have a bulb.

Use green onions—also called scallions—if they are available (cebolletas in Spanish). Chop some of the green part as well as the white. They need only a minute to sauté. If you’re lucky enough to find green garlic shoots, substitute them for the garlic cloves. 

Green garlic shoots.

Use No.4 fideos, the fattest ones, or else the Catalan-style pasta called fideua, which are short, thin noodles with pinholes. If fideos are not available, use spaghetti broken into 2-inch lengths.

Cod (left) has been soaked and bones removed.

Serves 4.

12-16 ounces dry salt cod

6 cups water

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 cup chopped green onion

2 cloves chopped garlic

Pinch of saffron threads

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika, not smoked)

½ cup peeled and chopped tomato

2 medium artichokes 

2 medium potatoes (8 ounces)

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup shelled fava beans

1 cup fideo noodles (4.5 ounces)

Chopped parsley, to serve

Cut the piece of cod crosswise into 3 or 4 sections (include fins too). Rinse them in cold water to remove excess salt. Place them in a nonreactive container and cover with cold water. Cover and refrigerate 10 to 12 hours. Drain the cod, rinse it, and cover with fresh water. Refrigerate. Change the water every 10 to 12 hours until de-salted, usually 36 to 48 hours. (Thin pieces or cut-up cod may need less soaking.) 

Bring 6 cups of water to a full boil. Place the pieces of cod in the water and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Let the cod soak 5 minutes. Lift it out with a slotted spoon. Save the water for cooking the pasta.

When the cod is cool enough to handle, use fingers to pull off skin and all the bones. (Skin and fins can be added to the reserved water and cooked 5 minutes.) The cod will naturally break up into bite-size pieces. Reserve them.

Heat the oil in a large pan or deep skillet. Fry the pine nuts until golden and skim them out. Add the onion and garlic to the pan on medium heat and sauté until the onion is softened, 2 minutes. Add the saffron, cumin and pimentón. Immediately add the chopped tomato. Keep frying the mixture until the tomatoes are reduced, 5 minutes.

Prepare the artichokes by removing outer leaves. Cut them in half and add the halves to the pan. Peel the potatoes and cut them into irregular 1-inch pieces. Add the potatoes to the pan. 

Strain the cod water (discard any solids) and add it to the pan. Season with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add the fava beans and cauliflower and cook 5 minutes. (Potatoes should be tender.) Raise the heat so the water comes to a boil and add the fideo noodles. Lower heat to medium and cook the pasta 10 to 12 minutes until it is al dente (or according to package directions). The pasta should be a little soupy, not dry. 

Add the pieces of cod to the pan and mix with the noodles. (If using pre-cooked artichokes, tuck them in now as well.) Heat thoroughly. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to set 5 minutes. Scatter the pine nuts on top and sprinkle with chopped parsley to serve. 

For another version of this dish, make the cod dumplings in this recipe for Chickpeas and Spinach with Salt Cod Dumplings. After frying the dumplings, add them to the fideos to finish cooking.

More recipes for springtime and Holy Week:

Broth with Fish and Clams.

Cod Fritters with Molasses.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings.

Sweet Toasts (Torrijas).

Creamy Rice Pudding.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Bread Rolls with Egg (Hornazos).

THE JOY OF SPRINGTIME VEGETABLES

Springtime vegetable cornucopia.

At the market, a heap of peas in their pods drew me in. Now that I have no vegetable garden (lamentably, due to rooting wild boars), I miss the pleasure of picking and shelling peas, a few to eat raw, a double handful to sauté in olive oil. The market peas, of course, were not as fresh and sweet as those just picked, but, still, they had a springtime allure. 

I added more spring vegetables to my basket—fat artichokes, fava beans, leafy lettuce and spring onions. All of the fixings for pipeo, a vegetable stew from the inland village of Casarabonela (Málaga, southern Spain). That pueblo, on rich agricultural land in the foothills of the Sierra de las Nieves, has an annual Pipeo festival (this year, on April 22). 

Pipeo is a plato viudo, a “widowed” dish, bereft of meat or fatty sausages. It once was a thrifty way to feed a family, using seasonal vegetables from the kitchen garden, given substance with bread dumplings. Being vegetarian, it is well-suited for Lenten meals, when observant Catholics refrain from eating meat. 

Pipeo is a lovely springy dish. Serve it as a starter, vegetarian main or even a side.  

This vegetable stew has artichokes, peas, fava beans, romaine and potatoes plus bread dumplings. 

Dumplings made of bread crumbs add substance to an all-vegetable stew.

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings

Pipeo

The name of this dish, pipeo, comes from "pipas," meaning "pips" or "seeds", as the peas, fava beans and almonds are all "pipas." 

The dumplings, called tortitas or pelotas, are first fried until browned, then cooked in the stew. I might add some grated nutmeg, freshly ground black pepper, even some powdered ginger, the next time I make the dumplings. 

Add the artichokes to the pan first, as they take longest to cook. Follow with the fava beans, lettuce and potatoes. Add the peas last. Tiny green peas, called lagrimas, or "tear drops," hardly need cooking at all. Use them to garnish the finished pipeo. The sauce for the vegetables is thickened with a typical majao, a paste of crushed garlic, almonds and fried bread. Make the majao in a mortar or speed up the process by using a blender. 

Pipeo is a dish with pips.

Serves 4.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup almonds

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 slice bread, crusts removed

½ cup chopped spring onions or scallions

1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika)

3 medium artichokes (18 ounces) or 4 smaller ones

5 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

1 large potato (10 ounces)

½ romaine lettuce

1 cup (4 ounces) shelled fava beans 

1 ¾ cups (8 ounces) shelled peas

½ teaspoon cumin

For the dumplings:

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

Olive oil for frying

Fry garlic, almonds, bread.

In a cazuela, deep skillet or stew pot, heat the 3 tablespoons of oil on medium heat. Fry the almonds and 2 cloves of garlic, turning, until they are golden. Skim them out and reserve. Add the bread to the oil and fry it until golden on both sides. Remove.

Add the chopped onions to the oil remaining in the pan. Sauté gently 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the pimentón.

Trim artichokes.

Trim the artichokes by removing several layers of outer leaves. Cut off and discard the top two-thirds of the artichokes, leaving the bottoms. Cut the bottoms in quarters. With the tip of the knife, cut away the fuzzy choke in the center. Drop the artichoke pieces, as they are prepared, into the oil in the pan. 

Cover the artichokes with 4 cups of the water. Add the salt and bay leaf. Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat and cover the pan. Cook the artichokes 5 minutes.

Make the majao.

Meanwhile, peel the potato and snap it into small pieces. Slice the lettuce crosswise. Add the potatoes, lettuce and shelled fava beans to the pan with the artichokes. Keep the liquid bubbling gently. Cover and cook 10 minutes.

In a mortar or blender, crush the fried almonds, garlic and bread with the cumin. Add the remaining 1 cup of water to make a smooth mixture. Add the almond mixture to the pan with the shelled peas. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until all of the vegetables are tender.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dumplings. Place the beaten eggs in a bowl. Add the minced garlic, parsley, salt and breadcrumbs. Combine all the ingredients to make a soft dough (add a little water, if needed). Roll or pat the dough into (8 to 10) walnut-size balls. 

Fry dumplings, then cook in the sauce.

Heat oil in a skillet to a depth of ½ inch. Fry the dumpling balls until they are golden brown on all sides. Remove them to drain on a paper towel. 

When the vegetables in the stew are tender. Add the dumplings to the pan. Cook them 5 minutes (or longer for soft and spongy dumplings). Let the stew rest 10 minutes before serving.  

More recipes for peas:

Sauté of Peas with Ham.

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish.

Potato and Pea Salad with Mint.

Tortilla with Peas and Fava Beans.

Another spring vegetable stew: Menestra.

Another dumpling recipe for Lent:

Chickpeas and Spinach with Cod Dumplings.

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).

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Intensely spring--the perfume of orange blossoms.

From my kitchen window I look down across rolling hills and a river valley to the blue Mediterranean Sea. After spring rains the hills are covered with a velvety growth of new grasses. Wildflowers spring up in meadows. In the rocky crevices of the arroyo I hear partridge calling for their mates. The nightingales are tuning up their moonlight arpeggios and the swallows have returned to nest under the eaves.

Bare, gnarled limbs of fig trees begin to sprout tender leaves, like green butterflies alighting on the tips of branches, some with nubbins of tiny new figs. Vineyards show new sprigs of green on pruned-back vines. A grove of orange trees borders my property. When they bloom in the spring the heady fragrance fills my valley. It is so achingly sweet.

Fresones--extra large, extra sweet strawberries.

The orange blossoms inspired a dessert for tomorrow’s dinner party.  At the supermarket I bought a two-kilo box of strawberries (about $5.00 for 4 ½ pounds). They are huge fresones, grown in Huelva province (southern Spain). You might think that berries this glamorous can’t possibly have any taste, but they are sweet and flavorful.

To go with the strawberries, I concocted an orange-blossom sauce, adapted from a recipe for Mulhalabya in Paula Wolfert’s Moroccan Cuisine. Her recipe calls for orange blossom water. I used real orange blossoms instead, steeping them in hot milk. The orange blossom infusion is wonderfully fragrant, but slightly bitter. I added powdered stevia to sweeten. Cornstarch and an egg yolk thicken the mixture to make a pouring custard.

Bring 2 cups milk to a boil. Remove from heat and add a strip of orange zest, 3 crushed cardamom pods and ¼ cup washed orange blossoms. Allow to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain the milk, discarding the blossoms and zest. In a small bowl, mix 4 tablespoons cornstarch with ¼ cup milk. Place the orange-blossom milk in a saucepan with sugar or stevia to taste (2-4 tablespoons) and whisk in the cornstarch. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Beat 1 egg yolk in a small bowl. Stir some of the hot milk into the yolk, then whisk it into the saucepan. Cook until thickened. Cool, then refrigerate until serving time. To serve, spoon the sauce over berries.

Alongside the strawberries with orange blossom sauce, I’ll serve crunchy almond meringue cookies, made with the leftover egg whites from a yolk extravaganza a couple weeks ago (see the recipe for Crema Catalana here). I saved the whites in the freezer. 

Crunchy almond meringue cookies with berries, orange blossom sauce.

Almond Puffs
Suspiros de Almendras

The puffs can be made with finely chopped almonds, but sliced or slivered almonds make a wonderfully crunchy cookie.

Sliced almonds.

Makes about 30 2-inch puffs.

2 ½ cups sliced almonds
2 large egg whites
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
Grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spread sliced almonds in a shallow oven pan and toast them in the oven, stirring once or twice, until they are very lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Remove and let them cool.

Reduce oven heat to 250ºF.

Place the egg whites in a mixing bowl. With a mixer on high speed, beat them until stiff. Beat in the sugar, lemon juice and zest.

Fold the almonds into the egg whites.

Line baking sheets with no-stick baking paper or, alternatively, have ready about 30 small (2 inch) fluted paper cups on a baking sheet. Spoon the almond batter onto baking sheets or into the paper cups, mounding it.

Bake 40 minutes in a slow oven. Turn off the oven and let the puffs cool in the oven. Store them in an air-tight container.

Crunchy almond puffs.