Fabada Asturiana rehearsal

We watched a video of Jose Andres with chefs  preparing a Fabada Asturiana and wanted to give this iconic dish a try. At the market, we looked for the (domain-protected) Asturian fabes de la Granja, but the closest we could find were Catalan Mongetes Ganxet. We also found a butcher with a bundle of the meats appropriate for a fabada.  Today's cold, and I didn't think to soak the beans last night, so today I'll treat this as a rehearsal for when I have the correct beans and time to soak them. 

Despite the compromised time and beans, this came out quite well: rich, intense, but not thick and sticky. The beans -- the star of the show -- held together and were creamy with a delicate skin. The sausages were intense. A simple recipe with quality ingredients treated with respect.

Fabada, pan catalana, Basque cider

The Cookful suggests cooking dried beans for about 25 minutes in an Instantpot, but I wanted to be careful with the texture -- I don't want the beans to explode. Here, I'm doing a high-heat fast soak from The Spruce Eats fabada recipe. Ingredients and techniques come from there, plus Saveur, Spanish Sabores, and the Guardian. The recipes, scaled for for 2 people, range from 140 to 300g dried beans, so I'll use 200g. Quantities of the ingredients aren't critical. 

Simple: beans, onion, pimenton, garlic, saffron, oil

Serves 2 hungry shepherds or 3 sedentary adults

200 g      dried Mongetes Ganxet ("crochet beans" due to their curve)

           Olive Oil, Spanish

150 g      small Onion

  1 clove  Garlic, minced

  1 g      Pimenton Dulce

150 g      Tocino (pork belly, slab pancetta)

115 g      Spanish Chorizo (1 link)

120 g      Morcillo (1 link)

pinch      Saffron

 ~4 g      Salt

Put the Beans into a large pot, cover generously with water, bring to boil for 1 minute, then turn off and cover, and let sit for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, cut the Onion into large chunks you can fish out later, then sauté in Olive Oil until soft but not browned. Add the Garlic and Pimenton and sauté a few minutes more to bloom the flavors.

Drain the beans, add back to the large pot with the Tocino, sautéed Onions, Garlic, and Pimenton; add water to cover.

Bring to boil over high heat and skim any scum. 

Reduce to medium, add Saffron and Salt; simmer covered until Beans are slightly al dente in the center; check after an hour, but it might take 90 minutes.

Do not stir as it will break the delicate beans.

Make sure the water just covers the beans, add some if needed.

Remove the Onion.

Add Chorizo and Morcilla, and continue simmering until beans are velvety and cooked through, about 15-45 minutes more; it's OK if a few beans break apart.

Remove the Sausages and Tocino, slice into thick coins.

Adjust Salt. 

Ladle stew into bowls, top with Sausages and Tocino.

Serve with crusty bread and an good quality Asturian, Basque or other Spanish cider. Ours was Basque, and not expensive.

I'd make this again, even with my unsoaked Catalan beans. The chorizo was intensely flavored -- salty, vinegar-y, full of pimenton --  definitely an ingredient rather than something you'd put on a bun. This particular morcilla (blood sausage) was not to our liking: Chris found it too coarse and scary, Irene said it was too heavy on the vinegar; next time I'd seek out a more smooth morcilla. The 1 g of Pimenton was probably not necessary, given how much the chorizo contributed.

Chicken Sous Vide with Miso, Mushrooms, Aubergine Sail (a la Restaurant Jules Verne)

We're trying to recreate Irene's favorite dish from Restaurant Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower, but without doing a lot of research or going to too much trouble: just improvise, we can tweak later. It was a little fussy but not difficult; the Aubergine Sail was the most finicky part. I think we'll make it again with some improvements described below. 

Chicken, mushrooms, miso, aubergine sail; with roast potatoes

The restaurant dish was called "La Volaille Fermière: Pochée au Miso, Champignons, Aubergine et Jus gras": free-range chicken poached in miso, mushrooms, aubergine, and "jus gras". Jus gras is a traditional fat-enriched, stock-based sauce, reduced to intensify and emulsify; it had a few tiny mushrooms in the pooled sauce, hidden under the "aubergine caviar" sail.  The dark sauce was miso-based, rich, and quite salty. The chicken was cut with dramatic angles, and set down on the intersection of the two sauces. In the photo, the chicken seems to be coated with the jus gras, glossy.

Restaurant Jules Verne is more refined; dark miso sauce, tan jus gras; the sail hides the mushrooms

I made up the chicken and sauces from what we had on hand, plus seasonal mushrooms from La Boqueria. Irene did a lot of research for the sail in our Modernist Cuisine books. The marinading is overnight; the sous vide cooking, making the sauces, and final prep is about 2 hours. Quantities below aren't critical. 

Serves two.

230  g    Chicken Breast, boneless, skinless, almost frozen

100  g    Miso paste, white

100 ml    Chicken Stock, frozen

 75  g    Cooked Aubergine Puree (see below)

  1       Egg White, beaten

          Salt

100  g    Rossinyol Mushrooms (girolle, chanterelle), cleaned

100  g    Butter

200 ml    Chicken Stock

The day before

Cut the Chicken into 4 pieces while still a little frozen in order to get distinct edges;  add to a sous vide bag.

Add Miso Paste and frozen Chicken Stock to the bag.

Vacuum and seal. 

Freezing the Chicken preserves the shape (but see below), while freezing the Stock prevents it from being sucked into the machine.

Let marinade in the fridge overnight, massaging once or twice to ensure the Miso and Stock are well distributed. This ruined the well-defined shape of the Chicken, but it's just visual.

The day of the meal...

Sous Vide the Chicken at 60C/140F for 1.5 hours.

At this temperature, the Chicken is gently firm and not at all stringy, a texture that's unusual with traditional techniques; higher temperatures will create a more stringy, conventionally-textured chicken.

While it's cooking, prepare the Aubergine sail and Mushroom sauce.

The Aubergine (eggplant) we got was a striped reddish variety, probably Rosa Bianca, not the usual deep purple Globe/American or Italian Eggplant. When cut, the inside was pure white, not yellowish and spongy like the deep purple ones we usually get.

Cut the Aubergine in half and pressure cook with steam 5 minutes.

Puree with stick blender: with skin on because this variety can't really be peeled.

This variety blended very smooth, despite the skin and seeds it didn't need to be sieved.

The result was very wet.

Combine 75 g of the puree with the beaten Egg White.

Add a bit of Salt.

Use an offset spatula to spread as thinly as possible on a Silpat nonstick baking sheet.

Microwave 5 times at full power for 1 minute to try and dry out.

This didn't work terribly well, so Irene placed it in the sun, and later finished baking in a hot oven (200C) until it started to crisp up and become toasty color.

This was a very delicate crisp.

While that's cooking,  clean the Mushrooms. 

We used Rossinyols because they're in season here, and had an attractive color; Irene chose small ones from the market.

Sauté slowly in Butter to soften.

Add the Chicken Stock, warm through so the Butter is released from the Mushrooms into the Stock, then remove the Mushrooms for later so they don't overcook.

Reduce the sauce, whisking occasionally to emulsify the Butter in the Stock; it should thicken a bit and turn a little sticky, but not as dense as a glaze.

Hold on very low heat for service.

Just before serving...

Add the Mushrooms to the reduced Stock sauce to warm through.

Remove the Chicken from the sous vide bag, and squeeze out the Miso/Stock juices and paste into a bowl.

Wipe off any paste from the Chicken into the bowl, and return the Chicken to the bag and place in the sous vide bath to keep warm for service.

Press the Miso sauce through a small sieve into a pan to get a smooth sauce; heat and reduce a little to thicken. 

Plating...

Spoon out the Miso sauce onto two plates.

Add the Chicken pieces.

We had a lot more mushrooms than the restaurant, so we couldn't put the chicken on top; just spoon it out next to the Chicken.

Top with a piece broken off the Aubergine sail.

The result

The Chicken was an excellent texture, firm and moist, not at all stringy. But it lost its well-defined edges so wasn't as dramatic as hoped. The Miso sauce was intense, salty, and felt rich; the amount was about right. The Stock/Butter Sauce barely coated the amount of Mushrooms we had, so it doesn't really qualify as a sauce, but it tasted good -- ours was more about the mushrooms. We didn't sauce the Chicken with the Butter/Stock sauce like the restaurant, so the Chicken looked a little naked.

The Aubergine Sail wouldn't dry and crisp in some areas, soft and a bit gummy in others. It required much too much effort to dry and crisp.

Everything on the plate was the same color palate, it needed some color

Next time

Don't cut the breast into 4 pieces, only 2; it may not be necessary to cut almost frozen to get clean edges.

The vacuum of the sous vide bag deformed the edges of the chicken. If we want to preserve the sharp edges, seal the Chicken with Stock and Miso in a bag without vacuuming; sous vide as normal, but ensure the chicken is submerged for good heat transfer. Or just poach in a lot more Chicken Stock conventionally, at the same temperature, until cooked. Or cook the entire breast sous vide, then carefully slice at a dramatic angle. Or don't worry about the shape and just use the sous vide!

The speckled aubergine we used didn't have a lot of flavor; use a conventional fat purple one.

Use red miso instead of white, for color contrast. Will this color the chicken? No problem if we nap it with the jus gras sauce.

To better approximate the restaurant, use just a few mushrooms and use more sauce so we can coat the chicken. We enjoyed the mushrooms, so maybe just make more Stock/Butter sauce, coat the chicken and serve the Mushrooms next to it.

For the Sail, don't beat the Egg White. Use a drier Aubergine, like the usual dark purple variety. Make individual schmears so we don't have to break a monolithic sheet.

Serve with something a contrasting color instead of the same-color roasted potatoes.

Variations

The Stock/Butter sauce approximated the restaurant's "jus gras". The Modernist Cuisine books synthesizes a "cream" sauce from stock (71%) and chicken fat (29%), emulsified and reduced. This sounds like a fun thing to try and should be ridiculously flavorful.

We could make the same but with a firm fish (sous vide at a lower temperature and time), with miso and fish stock, enoki mushrooms, and a toasted sushi nori sheets.

Leek Stuffed with Chicken Mouse, Garlic Cream Espuma (not successful)

This was an experiment which was not successful, for a variety of reasons. It tasted fine enough, but the textures and shapes were all wrong. It's a learning experience and provides clues to things we can improve.

The idea was to take a leek (ha!), pull out the individual cylinders, stuff them with a chicken mousse, and cook both to soften the leek and set the mouse. I wanted a hot foam of whip cream with a garlic flavor on top. It was based on two dishes we'd done before: Cannelloni of Chicken Mousse (2007) and Bacalao Espuma. 

The Espuma is pretty nerdy and requires some unusual gear. I'll give the ingredients and procedure, then discuss what went wrong, and some ideas for future experiments.

Leeks, Espuma, red peppers, zuchinni

Garlic Cream Espuma

 100 ml    Cream (35% fat)

   4 clove Garlic

   1 g     Agar Agar (powder from Tienda Parami)

  30 ml    Water

Leek and Chicken Mousse

   1 large  Leek

 230 g      Chicken Breast

  35 ml     Cream (35% fat)

  70 g      Egg White

0.75 g      Salt

Use a garlic press or mince the Garlic and add to the Cream.

Simmer very low for 30 minutes; we want to extract the flavor.

Hydrate the Agar Agar in Water and whiz to disburse.

Add to the Garlic Cream and bring to bubbling simmer for 5 minutes to fully dissolve the Agar Agar.

Whiz to disburse the Agar gel in the cream.

Chill until it gels.

Whiz the gel to create a "fluid gel" and return to heat at 65C / 150F; don't go too high because it will denature the fluid gel.

Load into an iSi Whipper and charge with two N2O cylinders.

Hold in water bath at 65C / 150F serving temperature

Cut the root and dark green end from the Leek. Separate the cylindrical layers -- this turned out to be much more difficult than I expected. Keep the good cylinders for stuffing, reserve the rest for something else.

Whiz the Chicken Breast in a food processor or blender until pretty smooth, without heating so you don't cook it. Add the Cream, Egg White, and Salt, and process a bit more until as smooth as you can get.

Fill a pastry bag with the Chicken Mousse and then stuff the Leek cylinders: you'll probably have to fill from both ends if you have a long leek.

Steam for 45 minutes.

Remove the cooked Leeks and Chicken, and plate.

Invert the iSi and dispense the Garlic Espuma on top.

Serve.

What went wrong

The Egg Whites in the Chicken Mouse caused them to expand and blow out the Leeks.

The Leeks split along their fiber lines. In retrospect: totally obvious. They're tough fibers across the grain but with the grain they tear easily.

The texture of the Chicken was not mousse-y enough, it was rubbery: too much Egg White and perhaps overcooked.

The Chicken Breast was mono-dimensional in flavor. 

The fluid gel set up well but never returned to a ketchup-like viscous liquid after whizzing. This thickness prevented the iSi from being able to express a foam.  The meager amount may not have been enough for the iSi vessel size anyway; the previous Bacalao Espuma used a larger volume. The two person serving size was probably too small to be workable in the iSi.

Future guidance

Leeks are a pain in the butt to separate: the inter-layer film grips strongly. I'm not sure what I could do to reduce the friction. Maybe I shouldn't use Leeks. What then? Restaurant Alinea (Chicago) fills Palm Hearts, but that's not as large as I was looking for.

Leeks will always split along their fibers: we can't have any filling which expands. Perhaps skip the Egg White and increase the Cream to ensure it's soft enough to pipe into the Leeks.

The Cannelloni Mousse we based this on used a mixture of light and dark meat as well as chicken liver to provide a rich flavor. Do that again, or just use dark meat chicken and liver.

The fluid gel needed to be fluid before going in the iSi. There are different strengths of Agar, even at the store I got this from, Parami. Perhaps this one was too strong, that others would be softer. Try halving the Agar. If you have different Agar, try gelling and whizzing and see if it creates a saucy texture. I think there are a lot of opportunities for warm/hot foams -- "espumas" -- with Cream so it might be worth spending a few bucks on Cream and N2O to find out what proportions work, before worrying about flavors.

Perhaps increase the amount of the Garlic Cream, even if we don't use it all, so the iSi Whipper has enough to work with.

Panellets: Bonny Boniato

It's fall in Barcelona which means it's time for Castanyas/Castañas (roasted chestnuts) and Panellets, little confections of patata (potato) or moniato/boniato (sweet potato). There are little stalls on street corners selling roasted chestnuts and boniatos; it seems kinda strange to see cooked sweet potatoes for sale on the street, but it's a tradition. October 31 is actually celebrated as Castenyada/Casteñada in northern Spain. After I spent a fortune at the bakery last year on "two of each", Irene made a bunch with potato and they turned out quite well. This year, I wanted to use boniato because I figured the earthy sweetness of the spud would work well with the nutty coatings. 

This turned out a bit more moist than last year's with potato, which was more appropriately biscuit-y. You might want to increase the ground Almonds to compensate for the Boniato's wetter texture.

For the dough:

150 g Boniato (1 medium)
250 g Almonds, finely ground

200 g Sugar
1/8   Lemon Peel, grated fine on a microplane

For the coatings:

  2   Eggs, separated
      Almonds, coarsely ground (we had sliced, so chopped them)

      Coconut, shredded, unsweetened or sweetened 
      Pine Nuts

 

Boil the Boniato until it's cooked; let cool and peel.

Boniato, cooled, cooked, and peeled

Press through a potato ricer or mash them as best you can.

Mix in the Ground Almonds, Sugar and Lemon Peel.

Let cool so the dough firms up.

Now it's time to shape and coat them. Traditionally, each different coating uses a different shape: spheres, pyramids, cylinders, etc. For simplicity, we made balls for all of them. 

Lightly butter two cookie sheets or use non-stick baking sheets.

Use a disher or spoon to scoop out little balls, then roll them in your palms to make smooth spheres. 

Separate the Eggs into bowls for white and yolk.

Put toppings -- Chopped Almonds, Shredded Coconut, Pine Nuts -- into separate low bowls.

Dip some of the balls into yolk and then Coconut, roll to cover, then place on the nonstick baking sheet.

Repeat with more balls using Egg White and Almonds.

Dip the remaining balls into a mixture of the Egg White and Yolk, then coat with Pine Nuts: this is the most fidgety part, as the Nuts are so large they don't want to stick well to the Boniato balls.

Apply a bit of the egg mixture as a wash to all the Panellets to help them brown nicely.

Bake about 15 minutes in 225C convection until the nuts are barely golden and attractive.

Let cool.

Serve with Moscato sweet wine. 

Turbot with Creamy Leek Sauce a la Restaurant Le Jules Verne

My favorite dish at Restaurant Le Jules Verne (in the Eiffel Tower, Paris) was a Turbot with creamy leek sauce that was a bit fluffy: it was completely smooth and my photo hints it might have used an iSi whipper to get the light texture. It tasted distinctly of leeks and was topped by a couple charred stems of what looked like baby leeks which exuded a beckoning allium aroma. 

Merluza with Leek Sauce, charred Garlic shoots; served with Mashed Potatoes

I'm trying to reverse-enginerr this and expect it will take a few tries. This turned out pretty well, a tasty dish, good enough to serve to friends, but not an accurate recreation. It's worth trying again with some minor tweaks, but -- happily -- the sauce texture was rather good without resorting to an iSi and hydrocolloids; to pursue nerdiness for finesse and fluff, see below the recipe for leads.

Jules Verne had more green, finesse; and no side dish

I'm starting with proportions from Martha Stewart (who discards half of her batch and uses chicken stock), Charlotte Puckette (whose recipe is straight forward, adding parsley perhaps for color), and Food.com (which adds Lemon Juice instead of wine). 

David Lebovitz says to cook the leeks long and slow in butter with a bit of oil to prevent the butter from browning, and the comments say that letting them brown brings out bitter tastes. The Guardian (and others) says not to waste the green part as it has more flavor but should be cooked longer; it also suggests slicing the dark green parts thinly and then frying until crispy which seems like a good garnish.

For 2 portions:

250 g   1 giant  Leek, white to light green, cut in thin rings

 30 g       2 T  Butter

 15 ml      1 T  Olive Oil

 pinch           Salt

 60 ml    1/4 C  Dry White Wine

120 ml    1/2 C  Heavy Cream

  ?              Lime Juice (half of one lime, not all used)

  2 whole        Garlic Shoots [these have a Catalan name]

340 g            Turbot steaks (I used Merluza because I had it)

                 Olive Oil

Trim Leek root and ragged ends.

Slice from white part to green to quarter but leave bulb end intact; wash any sand, then slice thinly crosswise.

Sautée Leeks in Butter and Oil on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until quite soft, about 20 minutes. 

Add Wine, increase heat, and reduce until evaporated.

Add Cream and simmer 5 minutes.

Transfer to blender and whiz until it won't get any smoother.

I had to add another 90 ml Wine because it was too thick to blend well.

The result was fairly fluffy -- not as airy as Jules Verne's, but good enough for serving.

Strain through a medium sieve: I had 350 g before, 290 g after sieving.

Trim the Garlic Shoots, slice carefully lengthwise, and cook on a heavy pan to brown. Use a filim of oil since we're trying to char and crisp, not sautée. Cover and weigh down; I used a chunk of granite kitchen counter top sample. Cook on medium, carefully turning to brown both sides. Try and brown the stems too.

The restaurant menu said "cuit au naturel", which we believe translates as steam or poach. My interpretation is they don't want to give the fish any color or flavor from browning you'd get from a sautée.

This didn't occur to me, this time, so I filmed a pan with Olive Oil, and cooked the Merluza (Hake) fairly slowly, covered, to avoid browning. Season with Salt and flip when about half done. Flip once more and check the fish to see if it flakes readily.

While the fish cooks, heat the Leek Sauce; if it sags, fluff with a whisk.

To serve, put a layer of sauce on the plate, add the fish, and top with more sauce.

Garnish with the browed Garlic Shoots.

Served with golden mashed potatoes, too similar in color.

Tasting

This is good, but not leek-y enough. And not green enough. Not what I was aiming for -- a faithful rendition of a Michelin-starred restaurant dish --  but I'd be happy to serve this to friends, even fancy foodie friends. I'd like more leek-taste and Irene wanted less butter.

The Merluza/Hake had a good texture, large firm flakes when cooked gently to 57C/135F or a bit above.

Next time...

Use one 150g Leek, not a 250g behemouth. 

Use dark green leek bits to get more flavor and the deeper color that Jules Verne had. 

Blanch and shock the green parts first so they don't turn grey when cooking.

Less butter: there was plenty for the 250g leek, so cut the butter at least in half.

Since I had to add Wine to thin it enough to blend, why add the Wine to the pan and reduce it away? Instead, add to blender, then cook off after blended and strained, so we can get the saucy texture we want.

Use Turbot, since that's what Jules Verne used. Or not: the Merluza/Hake was good for this -- firm with large flakes.

Cook the fish sous vide from frozen ("naturale" on the menu suggests steamed or poached).

Fry some green leek rings, or rings from the garlic shoots.

When charring the garlic shoots, use a minuscule film of oil: we want the char.

There was no color contrast when served with mashed potatoes. There wasn't much contrast between the Merluza and the Leek Sauce either. Try and get a more intensely green sauce. Serve a side dish of a very different color: arroz negro, sepia ink pasta,...,  something more dramatic. Or use Salmon for the fish: we don't have to use Turbot or anything similar.

To get a really fluffy/airy texture, try the iSi Whipper with Agar Agar fluid gel. It'll be a lot more work but it's "'playing with your food". 

iSi Whipper for Fluffy "Espuma"

TL;DR: after reading the below, I'd try the following:

After the first medium sieve,  I'd run it through a fine sieve to prevent clogging the iSi. Then add back to the pan, add 0.6-1.0% by weight of Agar, bring to simmer for 5 minutes, then chill until gelled. Whiz to make a fluid gel, heat to serving temperature, 65C/150F, then put in the iSi. Charge with an N2O cylinder and hold at serving temperature in a water bath.

Below are links to techniques and materials:

How can I use an iSi whipper to make a hot foamy sauce, an "espuma"? In my research for Bacalao Espuma, I found Xanthan and Agar Agar didn't gel well, and ended up using potato for the starch.

Cuisine Technology points out "milk holds bubbles better while hot, and cream does better when it’s cold", and "starches is that they work in either hot or cold" but we want to avoid it getting too thick. Also "Lecithin works (and dissolves) in both hot and cold water", and that Agar, once set, will stabilize up to 185F/85C so fine for a hot foam, but the procedure is a bit complicated in that you have to make a "fluid gel".

Amazing Food Made Easy talks about fluid gel foams, amongst others. 

There are pointers to lots of inventive preparations on Molecular Recipes. This one for an clam chowder espuma doesn't use anything to bolster the cream before going into an iSi whipper -- like I used in this first attempt for leek cream sauce. 

Whipped Miso Butter: great on almost everything!

We had miso butter on good bread as part of selection of fancy butters at restaurant Tartaria: it was delicious, a little exotic, but still familiar. We whipped some up recently and found it was really tasty on just about anything: beans, steak, toast, potatoes, and as an ingredient in other dishes instead of plain butter. It's dead simple to make.

Recipes we've found tend to use 5:1 or 4:1 butter to miso, but I wanted to make the salty umami of the miso a little more forward, so I'm bumping it to 3:1; adjust according to your taste. Some recipes add garlic, sriracha, olive oil, or other flavors, but keeping it minimal makes it more versatile.  Some recipes melt the butter then whip in the miso over an ice bath, but that's needlessly fussy; this just takes a little planning ahead to soften the butter. You can use whatever style of Miso you prefer; we used a white miso for this because it's what we had from a local Asian market.

The photos show us using a mini food processor but I've switched to using a whisk attachment on a stick blender as it's easier. We have a little mini food processor attachment for our stick blender and it works well for this quantity. If you have a large processor, you'll probably need to scale up the recipe. If you have neither, a single beater on an electric mixer would probably work too.  If you're trapped on a desert island, you could just smear it together with a fork once the Miso and Butter are soft enough.

150 g Butter
 50 g Miso Paste

Cut the butter into cubes directly into the bowl of a mini food processor while measuring.
Likewise, measure the Miso into the same processor bowl.
Let the butter soften for 30 minutes or more at room temperature so it's easy to mix.
Whiz it, whiz it good, scooping down occasionally until it's uniform and smooth.
Store in a covered container, or wrap in parchment into a log shape, then refrigerate.

This amount only lasted a week in our house!

This firms up rather solid in the fridge; we may try adding a bit of Olive Oil so it's more spreadable.

Saffron Ice Cream: no churn

My favorite ice cream is saffron but here in Barcelona, I don't have my old churn. I'm basing this recipe on Leite's Culinaria no-churn vanilla ice cream, converting to metric, then scaling to match the common size of Cream we find here.

Saffron ice cream in cones, with sweet Moscatell dessert wine

This turned out well, though it was not as fluffy as my churned version. It was a little firm, so I'll let it soften a bit in the refrigerator before scooping. It was intensely saffron-y, probably because I can get good quality saffron here at reasonable prices. The Sweetened Condensed Milk gave it a slight caramel flavor which I'd like to reduce, but backing it out it would reduce the sugar which would make it even more firm.

0.2 g    1/8 tsp    Saffron Threads (1/2 of a 0.4 g jar)

 15 ml     1 Tbs    Brandy (or Rum)

200 ml   2/3 C      Heavy Cream, chilled

200 ml   2/3 C      Whole Milk, chilled

340 g     12 oz     Sweetened Condensed Milk

  1 pinch  1 pinch  Salt

Crush and infuse Saffron threads in Brandy for 30 minutes or longer.

Whip the Cream until small to medium peaks form, about 8 minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine Milk, Condensed Milk, Salt.

Mix in the infused Saffron Brandy.

Gently whisk in the Whipped Cream into the Milk Mixture.

Pour into a loaf pan or other container; I used a 500g plastic sorbet tub with tight-fitting lid.

Cover with plastic wrap or lid and freeze until fully set, at least 4 hours.

Serve directly from the freezer, or if it's too firm, let warm up a bit in the fridge until it's scoop-able. 

Butifarra con Garbanzos: Pork Sausage with Chickpeas

Butifarra (pork sausage) is omnipresent here in Barcelona, and we're using the basic mild form rather than negre/morcilla (blood), ous (egg), or other forms. Chickpeas are also super popular, like the many forms of beans and legumes. We've got plenty of both on hand, so wanted a dinner that combines these, not necessarily together in a stew, but as complements. 

I'm taking ideas from José Andrés "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America": Moorish-style chickpea and spinach stew, and Butifarra amb Mongets del Ganxet "Daniel Patrick Moynihan" (so "inside the Beltway"!); and Penelope Casas "¡Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain" recipe Espinacas con Garbanzos a la Sevillana. Chickpeas combine synergistically with spinach: earthy, rich, and much more tasty than it sounds; it's a classic dish here, and there are many variants, including ones with bacalao around the holidays.

Irene cooked up a mountain of dried chickpeas in the Instant Pot: it makes fast work of the beans, so I'm using her pre-cooked beans and some of the left over cooking liquid here. 

Serves 2

 35 ml     Olive Oil (2 Tbs)
  2        Butifarra (225 g total)

  3 clove  Garlic

250 g      Chickpeas, cooked
 80 ml     Chickpea cooking water

  1 slice  White Bread, 1 cm thick, crust removed
  1 Tbs    Sweet Pimentón
  1 Tbs    Spanish Sherry Vinegar
250 g      Spinach, chopped
  1 g      Cumin, ground (1/2 tsp)

  1 g      Rosemary, fresh, minced (or 0.5 g dried)
to taste   Salt
to taste   White Pepper

Sauté Garlic and Butifarra in Olive Oil; when the Garlic is lightly browned, about 3 minutes, remove and reserve; continue the Butifarra until cooked, 8-10 minutes total; reserve.

Brown the Bread on both sides, a couple minutes each; remove.
Let the pan cool then add the Pimentón, then Sherry Vinegar to prevent Pimentón from burning; remove pan from heat.
Smash the Garlic and toasted Bread in a mortar to make a thick paste.

Add the Chickpeas, Chickpea cooking liquid, and Spinach to the pan and simmer to lightly cook the Spinach, about 5 minutes.
Add the Garlic/Bread paste, it should be a thick stewy sauce.

Season to taste with Salt and Pepper

Add more Chickpea Liquid if it's getting too dry.

Reduce heat to low; place the cooked Sausage next to the stew to warm it through and let the flavors combine, 5-10 more minutes.

Plate the Sausage then ladle the Chickpeas stew next to it.

Salsa Crujiente de Chile: Spanish "chili crisp" sauce

We made a variation of Laoganma’s Chinese Chili Crisp sauce in Arlington, guided by Serious Eats (watch the video): it was excellent -- intense, rich, crunchy, very fiery, and had the "Málà" numbing affect from the Szechuan chilis. Now that we're living in Barcelona, I wanted to make a variation using local flavors: tasty chilis that aren't so hot, garlic (of course!), pimenton, olive oil, etc. I'm taking inspiration from that recipe, plus The Kitchn's (which references Chinese ingredients by proper names), and this Guide to Herbs and Spices in Spain. 

This turned out well: plenty of crunch, rich flavors, and mild enough you can put it on anything; I could just pile it onto plain rice or couscous and eat it for dinner. 

The chilis, olive oil, and almonds here are obvious Spanish substitutions; the ginger and fennel are more in line with the original, and should be amicable flavors. I have no intention to be authentic, only zesty and crunchy! 

Served on fried egg on top of boniato (sweet potato)

After deseeding and grinding the chilis, it's easier to measure the other mostly-dry ingredients directly into the bowl, rather than using a dozen mis-en-place dishes. A mandolin will speed slicing the Shallots, Fennel, and Garlic thinly and consistently. After slicing the Shallots and starting them frying, you can prep the Fennel, then Garlic while the previous one fries.

Makes about 500 ml

 25 g      Chili Choriceros

 25 g      Chili Ñora/Nyora

0.5 g      Chili Cayenne (Pimienta Cayena, 30-50K Scoville)[5 small]

 25 g      Almonds, sliced (use good quality)

 15 g      Ginger, fresh, sliced into thin match sticks

  1 g      Anise seed

  6 g      Dried mushroom powder (grind dried mushrooms into powder)

 10 g      Sugar

 15 g      Coarse Salt

  1 g      Black Pepper

 12 g      Pimenton

  8 g      White Sesame Seeds

  1 g      Rosemary, minced

  1 whole  Orange Zest, chopped fine or coarse grate

1/2 stick  Cinnamon, whole [1 g]

  1 whole  Bay Leaf, whole

300 g      Olive Oil (doesn't need to be extra virgin)

100 g      Shallots, sliced 1mm thick

100 g      Fennel, sliced 1mm thick

 50 g      Garlic, sliced 1 mm thick [8 clove]

Mise en place isn't necessary

Deseed the Chilis by slitting and shaking out seeds (gloves are a good idea here); discard the seeds.

Grind the chilis in a spice grinder (in batches) until about 2-4 mm chili-flake sized, not a powder.

Place in heatproof bowl large enough to accommodate boiling oil, at least 2 Liter.

Add the other (mostly dry) spices and herbs: Almonds, Ginger, Anise Seeds, Mushroom Powder, Sugar, Salt, Black Pepper, Pimenton, Sesame Seeds, Rosemary, Orange Zest, Cinnamon, and Bay Leaves.

De-seeded chilis, herbs, spices wait for hot oil

Now for the crunchy bits!

Make sure the Shallots, Fennel, and Garlic are fried until fully crisp to remove all water; they should crisp up once they are removed from the oil for a minute.

Set a fine-mesh strainer over a 1 L heatproof bowl.

Add Olive Oil to a 2 L saucepan.

Add Shallots and cook over high heat until they are light golden brown, about 15 minutes; strain and retain; return oil to pot.

Add Fennel and repeat the process; it may take a bit longer to remove the water from the Fennel.

Add Garlic, cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until barely golden brown; strain, retain, return oil to pot. 

Reserve the crunchy fried Shallots, Fennel, and Garlic.

Heat the flavored Oil to 190C (375F).

Pour into the large heat-proof bowl containing the Chilis, spices, herbs and other seasonings; it will bubble up ferociously!

Stir well so the hot oil cooks everything evenly. 

If you think everything isn't quite browned enough, you can put it back on the fire (a metal bowl can go directly on an induction burner) but be careful not to burn things. 

Let cool about 30 minutes.

Remove the Cinnamon stick and Bay Leaves. 

Mix in fried Shallots, Fennel, and Garlic.

Pour into jars and store in fridge; it should last at least 3 months.

Served on plain white rice, makes for a zesty side dish

Fideuà all’Assassina con Albondigas: crunchy culture clash

I first heard about spaghetti all’Assassina in Cooks Illustrated (pay wall, try a "reader view" plugin) and  New York Times and others describe it well. The pasta is cooked in the manner of risotto then is finished in a way that provides an interesting a crusty texture. We loved the intensity (no water to dilute the pasta flavor) and crunch.

I thought it would be fun to make a Catalan-oriented mutation. Fideuá is kinda like a paella but made with short pasta strands: I wanted to use these for my crunchy texture, so I added a step of browning the fideuà noodles in oil.  I used a simple tomato sauce to hydrate, and decided to add meatballs to make it really inauthentic -- in a fun Italian-American way; "albondigas" are Catalan meatballs, typically served as a tapa by themselves, not on pasta. :-)

This was easy to make, and kinda fun. Irene makes our meatballs and albondigas, but the first time we made this we used ones pork+beef ones our grocery store sells pre-madeeef ones, and they were fine. The measures are approximate, use onions and garlic in the sauce as you like. 

Serves 2 for dinner.

  2 cloves Garlic, minced

125 g Meatballs, small
xxx g Onion, diced
125 g Fideuà noodles (mine were quite thin)
500 g Tomatoes, canned, with their sauce
      Spicy Chili peppers
      Olive Oil

Saute the Onions and Garlic in some Olive Oil.

Whiz the canned Tomato and its Juice until smooth; add Chili peppers, Onions and Garlic, and whiz again.
Add to a pot and warm the sauce.

Add Oil to a skillet and brown the Meatballs on all sides, continue until cooked through; add to the sauce to keep them warm.

To crust the pasta, I strongly suggest a non-stick skillet, as the sauce's acidity can damage the patina of carbon steel and possible a well-seasoned cast iron pan.
Add some Olive Oil to a non-stick pan on medium, add the Fideuà, and stir occasionally to brown through a bit.

Add the sauce, a bit at a time -- like risotto -- until it's absorbed; continue until the pasta is mostly cooked through. Leave the meatballs in until serving time.

Now it gets interesting: Turn up the heat, and when you hear a sizzle, use a spatulu to flip over the pasta to the hot skillet to create a crust; don't be timid here, press it down a bit to get good contact. When it's developed the crunch, flip again. Continue until you've got lots of crusty bits -- it's the best part. 

Combine with cooked Meatballs and serve.