TOO HOT TO COOK

Cool summer melon.

The sun is blazing down; cicadas are buzzing in the olive trees; the grass is turning brown. It’s August in southern Spain, where daytime temps regularly soar over 90ºF and occasionally over 100º. After a sticky day of house cleaning, I need a dip in the pool and a cool drink to revive myself.   

Aahh, that’s better.

It’s just too hot to cook. I don’t turn on the oven at all from the end of May until mid-September. My cooking becomes minimalist. Here are some of my summer survival techniques:

• Use the microwave more.  Try this: diced zucchini, chopped tomato and olive oil; microwave on high for 3 minutes; stir, microwave 3 minutes more. Add salt after microwaving, with pepper and chopped basil.
• Cook outside on the grill.  
• Cook early in the morning before the sun has hotted up the kitchen.
•  Cook several foods in one pot. I boil small potatoes, romano green beans and a few eggs. Ready in the fridge, they make a salad combo or sides with grilled foods. 
• Use canned and jarred food in the pantry. Garbanzos + pre-cooked potatoes, green beans and eggs, chopped onion, olive oil, mustard, vinegar is a main-dish salad. Canned mussels in escabeche with cooked potatoes, olive oil, lemon juice.
• Let somebody else cook it (rotisserie chicken from the supermarket).
• Use quick-cooking foods, such as boneless chicken breast, shrimp, fish fillets. A flip in the skillet and done. Serve with sauce.
• Make no-cook sauces, alioli (garlic mayonnaise); romesco with peppers and almonds; piquillo. For the piquillo sauce, which also serves as a party dip, blend a can of drained piquillo peppers with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, cumin, and Sherry vinegar.
• Don’t cook. Pick tomatoes in the garden, slice and serve with extra virgin olive oil. Pick tomatoes in the garden and make gazpacho (recipe here). 
• Eat fruit. Right now it’s glorious melon, morning, noon and night. Melon, raspberries and nectarines with yogurt for breakfast. Cool melon soup for lunch (see that recipe here), melon with hand-sliced serrano ham as a starter for dinner or an aperitif. Nutty, salty, chewy ham is sensational with sweet and juicy melon.

Sweet melon with ham, summertime delight.

"Toad's skin" melon.

The most widely grown melon in Spain is the piel de sapo, or "toad's skin," so-called because of its rough, green skin. The pale yellow flesh is wonderfully sweet. Those grown in La Mancha, central Spain, have a Protected Geographic Designation. 

Serve ham and melon on picks as a tapa for a drinks party. It goes well with chilled fino, dry Sherry.

Melon with serrano ham makes a quick starter for a summer meal. Hand-sliced ham should be room temperature, the melon must be well-chilled.

 Melons ripen in hot, hot August days.

AJO BLANCO--A PRE-COLOMBIAN GAZPACHO

Almonds on the tree.

Once upon a time, there were no tomatoes in Spain. Tomatoes, of New World origin, were unknown in pre-Columbian Europe. (What ever did the Italians put on their pasta?) But there was still gazpacho, or its progenitor, a smooth cream of pounded bread and olive oil, flavored with garlic and almonds.

That white gazpacho, ajo blanco, is still a summertime favorite, especially in Málaga (southern Spain), where it is a traditional dish.

In a collection of recipes from Málaga, Papeles de Gastronomia Malagueña, the writer Enrique Mapelli recounts how making ajo blanco was a summertime ritual. In the late afternoon, village women would sit in their doorways with the almirez, a brass mortar, pounding garlic, almonds and bread to a smooth paste. Olive oil beaten into the paste creates a thick emulsion, to be thinned with vinegar and cold water and—the final touch—sweet moscatel grapes plucked from an arbor on the patio.

The basic oil and bread emulsion is the starting point for all authentic gazpacho, even the one with tomatoes. (see that recipe here).

Freshly shelled almonds.

Ajo blanco literally means, “white garlic.” It’s usually made with ground almonds, garlic, bread, olive oil and vinegar and garnished with grapes. Early in the summer, it is made with “green” almonds, those still on the trees which have not yet formed hard shells. In the springtime, pounded fava beans are used in place of almonds. And in the pine forests of the marismas, wetlands, pine nuts are used in place of almonds.

The almonds on the trees in my garden are maturing very early this year. Already the outer green husks are splitting open. Within a few weeks, the almonds in their shells will drop to the ground. I gather them for keeping through the winter, for making cookies, thickening sauces, noshing.

Blanched almonds, garlic and bread for ajo blanco.

Right now, I’m making ajo blanco. Tangy, salty, creamy, cold—it is better than the sum of its parts. The sweet grapes make a brilliant contrast of flavors. A bit exotic, ajo blanco surprises.

My grandson Leo cracked the almond shells for me (a 50-centimo job). Then I plunged them in boiling water for 30 seconds. While still warm, it’s easy to slip off the outer skins of the almonds, leaving the white nuts.

The traditional version of ajo blanco is made with mortar and pestle, but it’s quickly confected with a food processor or blender. For a really smooth version, the mixture can be sieved. But I rather like the graininess of almonds ground in a blender.

Sweet moscatel grapes are the traditional garnish, but seedless grapes can be used instead, or substitute diced melon or apples.

Serve ajo blanco in bowls as a starter, or in shot glasses to pass around at a party.

Ajo blanco shooters, great party food.

Ajo Blanco con Uvas en Copitas
White Gazpacho Shooters with Grapes

Makes 10 shot-glass servings.

6 slices day-old bread, crusts removed (6 ounces)
1 cup blanched and skinned almonds
2-3 cloves garlic
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
10 grapes

Soak the bread in water to cover until it is softened. Squeeze out the water and place in food processor or blender with the almonds and garlic. Pulse until the almonds are finely ground.

With the motor running, add the oil in a slow stream, then the vinegar and salt. Blend in some of the water, then pour the mixture into a pitcher and add remaining water.

Chill until serving time. Stir before serving. Pour into shot glasses. Spear grapes on cocktail picks and place in each glass. 

(Full disclosure: grapes are sinkers, not floaters. To show them bobbing on top of the ajo blanco, I propped them up on toothpicks!)

Ajo blanco con uvas, a delectable summer gazpacho.

THE OTHER BLUE FISH

Fillets of mackerel, a good substitute for tuna.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the guilty pleasure of eating fresh bluefin tuna. I made some half-hearted promises not to buy the endangered fish again. So far, I’m honoring that pledge.

This week at the fish market, alongside the slab of gleaming tuna, were large-sized mackerel, another blue fish. Weighing in at about 3 pounds, this was a meaty alternative to the forbidden.

While the mackerel (caballa in Spanish) would have been delicious simply grilled, I chose a recipe I had tasted in Sanlúcar de la Barrameda, a marvelous town on the Cádiz coast, where the Guadalquivir River empties into the Atlantic.

Besides superb seafood, Sanlúcar is known for good vegetables and, of course, manzanilla, its particular style of dry Sherry. Imagine a fisherman’s wife inventing this delicious dish with the remains of the day’s catch, fresh vegetables from her kitchen garden and a splash of the local manzanilla. With bread, rice or noodles it easily makes a main dish.

The vegetable melange is called pisto. In the summer it consists of eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and peppers, but it can also be made with green beans, pumpkin, carrots and potatoes. (There is another recipe for pisto here.)

The fish vendor, María, was happy to remove the head and spine from the mackerel, but that left the fiddly smaller bones. She suggested giving the fish a turn on the plancha (flat grill pan). Then it would be easier to remove remaining bones and skin and to cut it into chunks to add to the pisto.

Bluefish fillets are a good substitute for mackerel. 

Meaty mackerel with pisto, a melange of summer vegetables.

Fisherman’s Wife’s Vegetable and Mackerel Dish
Pisto a la Marinera

Serves 4 to 6.

2 pounds mackerel fillets
Salt and pepper
¼ cup olive oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1-inch dice
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
¼ cup manzanilla or fino Sherry
¼ cup water
1 bay leaf
1 sprig parsley
Chopped parsley or mint, to serve

Season fillets with salt and pepper. Brush a flat grill pan/griddle or heavy skillet with oil and heat. Lay the fillets on the grill, flesh side down. When lightly browned, 2 minutes, turn and grill skin-side down for 4 minutes. Remove. Cool slightly. Remove all remaining bones and skin. Cut the fish into large chunks.

In a skillet heat the oil and sauté the eggplant, carrot, pepper, garlic and onion, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini, tomatoes, manzanilla, water, bay leaf, sprig parsley, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes, adding additional water if necessary. The vegetables should be juicy, but not soupy.

Add the pieces of mackerel to the vegetables. Cook 5 minutes more. The pisto with fish can be served hot or room temperature. Garnish with parsley or mint.