THE POTS AND PANS OF POLITICS

Pan-braised chicken is juicy and tender.

What a racket! Banging pots and pans, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Barcelona at the government delegation headquarters.  They were protesting government corruption and calling for the resignation of Presidente Mariano Rajoy, who has been accused by the opposition of taking kickbacks from a secret slush fund, in the ‘caso Bárcenas’. 

This noisy protest is called a “cacerolada,” or, “pan banging.” A cacerola is a pan, usually metal, with a lid, for cooking foods on top of the stove. It can be a small saucepan, a two-handled pot in which you might boil up potatoes, or a deep sauté pan.

In solidarity with the protestors, I banged some pans in my kitchen. Now, what to cook in this big cacerola? Chicken braised with wine seemed a natural.

Small chicken just fits in a lidded sauté pan.

I had a whole chicken that I intended to cut into serving pieces. But, then I realized that it would fit snugly under the lid of the wide pan.

While oven-roasted chicken is so satisfying, I gotta say that a whole braised chicken is ever so tender and juicy. It’s delicious served hot or cold, with or without the winy sauce from the pan. Done in about an hour, it's an easy summer dish that keeps a cool kitchen. (No hotheads here.)

The Barcelona protestors, by the way, may have made a dent in their pans, but not in the ongoing political stew. Presidente Rajoy has yet to answer questions about who knew what when.

Browned in olive oil, chicken is ready for pan braising.

Cacerola de Pollo al Vino
Chicken Braised with Wine

Use the tag end of any bottle of wine to cook the chicken--white, rosado (rosé), red, cava (sparkling) or Sherry. If you like, add vegetables--carrots, potatoes, zucchini-- to the pan with the chicken. Chopped parsley or chopped olives can be added at the end as a garnish.

Serves 4.

1 small whole chicken (3 ½ pounds)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 sliced onion
3 cloves garlic
3 plum tomatoes, quartered
Sprig of fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
2/3 cup white wine
Vegetables, as desired

Tie the chicken legs and wings together so the chicken stays compact. Sprinkle with salt and pepper inside and out. Allow to set at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a deep sauté pan. Brown the chicken on all sides. Turn it breast side up. Add the sliced onion. Lightly crush the unpeeled garlic cloves and add them to the pan with the tomatoes, rosemary, bay leaf and wine. Cover and simmer the chicken for 40 minutes.

Turn the chicken, breast side down and continue cooking until chicken is tender, about 20 minutes longer.

If chicken is to be served hot, remove it to a cutting board and allow to set for 10 minutes before carving. Pour the pan juices through a strainer, discarding the solids. Skim excess fat off the top of the sauce and serve with the chicken.

If the chicken is to be served cold, allow it to cool completely in the pan. Then remove the chicken to a covered container and refrigerate. Strain the sauce and refrigerate separately.

Wine-braised chicken with zucchini, ready to serve.

Carved and plated, braised chicken is good hot or cold.

ALTERNATIVE ICE CREAM

Ice cream with fresh plums.

No cream, no sugar. No ice cream maker either. Is it ice cream? Maybe not, but my house helado (the Spanish word for ice cream just means “frozen”) fills all the summer requisites—it’s icy-cold, refreshingly flavored and sweet to the taste.

My basic mix is pureed fresh fruit, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, non-fat plain yogurt and enough artificial sweetener to sweeten the mixture to taste, which for me, is not too sweet.

Blend to break up icy chunks.

I use a hand-held blender to puree all the ingredients in a bowl. The bowl goes into the freezer until the mixture is partially frozen (about 2 hours). Then I use the blender again to beat it smooth and incorporate some air in the mix.

I pour the ice cream mixture into individual cups (juice glasses, about 2/3-cup capacity), place them all on a tray and return them to the freezer. That way, I can remove one or two cups at a time, rather than softening the whole batch to dipping consistency. Individual cups are also an easy way to serve a crowd.

My original helado recipe was with nectarines (unpeeled—the flecks of skin don’t bother me), yogurt and liquid sweetener (cyclamate/saccharin). Since then I’ve been spinning off variations.

Fresh fig ice cream.

I use whatever fruit is in season—strawberries, apricots, loquats, peaches, raspberries, figs, prickly pears (that recipe is here), mangos. This week I’m using up a basket of fresh plums (see another plum recipe here). I pureed the plums, then sieved the pulp to get rid of the skins.

The plums were tart, so I needed quite a lot of sweetener. Other fruits, such as mango, need hardly any sweetening. (Mango also creates an especially creamy emulsion.)

Stevia--a natural, no-cal sweetener.

Instead of liquid sweetener, this time I used stevia leaves picked from plants that I have growing in pots (thanks, Charlotte!). Stevia, also called “sweet leaf,” is intensely sweet with a slight bitter-herb flavor. The plums were so tart that a small handful of leaves, pureed with the fruit, did not provide sufficient sweetness. So I added stevia extract, a white, no-calorie powder commercialized under various brand names, until it was sweetened to my taste.

In my next batch of ice cream (peaches coming up), I will try steeping stevia leaves in hot milk, to see if the sweetness intensifies.

Whether you use an artificial or natural sweetener, including sugar or honey, I suggest adding it to the mixture little by little, to taste.  

For the dairy component, I use part no-fat yogurt, part full-fat Greek yogurt and part non-fat queso batido, a thick, creamy quark cheese somewhat like no-fat sour cream. For an especially rich and creamy ice cream, I use a small carton (about 1 cup) of mascaparone in place of the Greek yogurt.

The mixture of fruit, yogurt and quark adds up to about 6 cups, with the fruit puree making up between 1 and 2 cups of the total.

Fresh mint complements plum ice cream.

I also experiment with added flavorings. Mint goes well with plums and with prickly pears. Basil, rosemary or thyme pairs with nectarines and peaches. Ginger is a natural with mango. Figs want vanilla. Cardamom spices up apricots.

Creamy and icy at the same time.

This home-made ice cream needs to soften 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Then it’s creamy, but with a slight icy texture. Personally, I love it that way.

Some more ideas for home-made ice creams appear here.

Leche merengada, ice milk with egg whites and cinnamon.

A PLUMMY GOOD SUMMER

Like jewels, summer's plums.

When my grandson Leo arrived to stay with us, he was toting a bag of toys and a bag of golden yellow plums (ciruelas; ciruelas-pasas are prunes), picked on his Nana’s finca (farm). I’ve been enjoying them for breakfast every day. Now I’m branching out—looking for other ways to use them up.

Plums, which are naturally sweet and sour, go especially well with pork. This sauce could also be cooked with small game hens, with lamb chops or with salmon.

This recipe can be freely varied, using whichever variety of plums is available. I pitted but didn’t peel the plums, as the skins contribute tart flavor. I removed some of the partially-cooked plums to use as garnish with the meat. Then I pureed the rest with the sauce and put the sauce through a sieve to remove the bits of peel.

You can use any slightly sweet wine for the sauce. I have tried martini rosso and white vermouth. This time I used Pale Cream, from Montilla-Moriles, because that’s what I had available. Pale cream Sherry from Jerez is the equivalent wine. Taste the sauce; if too tart, add just a little honey.

Sage, rosemary, thyme

Mediterranean herbs—thyme, rosemary, sage—complement the plums. My favorite is thyme, but I decided rosemary was the best pairing.

Pork tenderloin is the most tender cut of all. But, because it has little fat, it can be dry if overcooked. If possible remove the pork when it is still a little pink in the center. About 145ºF if you have an instant-read meat thermometer.

Plum sauce with rosemary complements pork tenderloin.

Solomillo de Cerdo con Salsa de Ciruelas
Pork Tenderloin with Plum Sauce


Serves 4.

2 pork tenderloins, each about 12 ounces
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup chopped shallots
Crushed red chile (optional)
1 pound plums, pitted and sliced (2 cups)
½ cup pale cream Sherry or Montilla or other sweet wine
¼ cup water
Sprig of fresh rosemary

Sprinkle the tenderloins with salt and pepper and allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a pan and brown the pork on all sides. Remove them. Add the shallots and chile, if using, and sauté 3 minutes. Add the plums and sauté another 2 minutes. Add the wine, water and rosemary. Return the tenderloins to the pan. Cover and simmer 8 minutes.

Remove pieces of plums to use as garnish for the meat. Turn the tenderloins. Cover and cook another 8 minutes (to an internal temperature of 145ºF).

Remove the meat to a cutting board and allow to set 5 minutes. Remove the sprig of rosemary.Transfer the sauce in the pan to a blender and puree it. Pass it through a sieve.

Slice the tenderloins. Serve the meat with the reserved plums and the sauce.

Tender pork and tart-sweet plum sauce, a perfect combo.