Daily Dinner #7: The last supper

We've been showing off our "daily" home cooked meals and figured we'd continue while we were living in Barcelona for August -- to see what we could turn out in this small kitchen devoid of all our knives, tongs, and other tools.

2015-08-28 Ñora blackened Tuna

I've been working long hours and knew we wouldn't be able to get out in time for dinner, so we picked up some deeply-red tuna from the fish monger.  I've not had flavorful tuna in the states in decades; I suspect all the good stuff is sent to Japan, or our consumers are happier to pay less money for farmed stuff from Asia (oh, the irony of transnational shipping). This tuna looked awesome, a deep almost beef-like red, glistening garnet.

The moon was rising as I took a break from the laptop and started to prep; cooking relaxes me, a good change from coding.

I cast around to see what we had bought that we needed to use up or toss before we left. Ah, some Spanish ñora peppers, dried like chilis are. I whizzed them up in the house's blender, which made a racket like someone threw frozen turkeys into a jet engine.

It turned out ok: I was looking for a fairly fine powder to dust the tuna with.

We had also picked up some small potatoes. Irene par-boiled them, then finished them in the last of the schmaltz (rendered chicken fat); sadly, I can't find a translation in Spanish -- they meaning the dictionaries provide is for "sentimental", not yummy fat.

We bought some asparagus from the market, too. I need to learn to be a more attentive shopper: these were not local at all but from Peru, and their quality had suffered on the long trip here. I should have known better: it's a spring vegetable, not a deep summer crop.  Irene par-cooked these too.

The mise-en-place at the ready:

I gave the tuna steaks a good slick of nice olive oil, then pressed the ñora powder into it evenly. Then I heated a skillet with some more oil until barely smoking, and slapped those steaks onto the hot surface where they quickly developed a bit of a crust.  We used to do this all the time -- blackened pork chops -- but haven't used the technique in a while.

While the potatoes browned, I gave the asparagus some skillet time with just a touch of oil and some lashings of good sherry vinegar that we'll have to abandon here.

On the plate the steaks had a char-looking blackness from the chilis and a a sheen from the oil.

We sat out under the nearly-full moon and finished off the last of the wine with dinner.

Unfortunately, I had overcooked the tuna steaks. I'd hoped to get an exterior crust and leave the interior pink-to-red. Nope, this was gray throughout. I apologized to the tuna for disrespecting it; I'm not used to this electric cooktop's lag-time.

The tuna, however, and an intensely fish-y flavor. It was meaty, almost bordering in a liver-y taste. Holy crap, that's some seriously tasty tuna. I'd love to do this again, but with more care on the cooking.

Daily Dinner #6 with Paella

We're extending our month of daily dinner postings, but petering out a bit as I've been working stupid long hours on a deadline here.  We did a couple Spanish things this week including another fideuà and a fishy paella.

2015-08-17 Chicken and Endive

We had left-over chicken breast from the bird we roasted. We were thinking of doing a cold salad, but I decided I preferred it warm.  Irene made chicken stock from the carcass and cooked bones, some onion and garlic. We had the rendered fat -- schmaltz (I wonder what they call it in Spain) -- so I sautéed some endive until softened, then warmed through the chicken, and moistened with some of the stock.  Irene crisped up the skin until is was shatter-y and we crumbled it on as a garnish, and used a large piece as a decorative "sail".  Really easy, and quite good. 

2015-08-20 Fideuà with Mussels

Bummer, no photos of this one. While I toiled away, Irene made a fideuà of mussels she got at the grocery store on her way home from Spanish class; they were some ridiculous price, like only €2 for a half kilo or so. Unlike the farmed American ones, these were sandy and fully bearded, so it took a while to clean and prep them. Quite  a few of them were broken; I do recall that's how mussels used to be, before farmed mussels became the norm in the U.S. 

She also got our first decent stick of bread at the grocery store.  We need to find a source of two essentials we're missing here -- good bread, and good coffee.

2015-08-21 Paella with Shellfish and Squid

We got proper "Bomba" rice from the store (very affordable here) and Irene hit up her favorite fish monger in the Mercat de Sant Antoni for some fish on her way home from Spanish class. After inquiring what Irene was making and for how many, she recommended four giant prawns, for giant crawfish-like beasts, and a squid. She cleaned and cut the squid for Irene; the entire batch of fresh fish cost under €8. 

After a grueling day working, I needed to relax with some cooking. Paella's just the thing; I'll step through the process here. Off camera I cut up some "xoriz fuet" (an intense sausage, sold naked and hanging loose in the store, unrefrigerated), and sweated some bulbing onion with a big red bell pepper and some garlic. We used more of Irene's chicken stock, enriched with some Ñora chilis and some saffron.

I then sauteed the rice in a bit of olive oil: 

Added the stock:

 Some flat beans, which we've found need a fair amount of cooking, so I started them early rather than waiting until the end as I usually do when cooking at home:

And here are our "bugs" and squid.  We don't have beasts like this in our stores in the States. We've got your basic shrimp (almost universally from far east farms run by slave labor -- look it up). Here we've got a range that we simply don't have names for.

 First the big ones, since they'll need a bit more time to cook:

Then the smaller ones:

And finally the squid, which is very thick in body, more like what I'd call cuttlefish at home:

 A dusting of charcoal salt flakes for flavor and contrast and we're done.

The rice came out beautifully, fully cooked with individual grains, not a gummy mess, the squid was tender, and the big shrimpy-things were cooked through. The crawfish-like things were, perhaps, a bit overcooked. Next time, we'd cut through the shell of the crawfish to make it easier to get in -- those shells are tough!

2015-08-22 Spanish Carbonara

Casting around in the cupboards, not much came to view. Frozen chicken breast, a couple eggs, one endive, a bit of red pepper, and some cheese.  Irene started out making a version of Mac'n'cheese but the lack of a suitable pan for browning the top (teflon's a no-no at high temperature) changed the end result. 

Boil some pasta, sauté some veggies, grate some cheese, beat up a couple eggs, and there you go -- carbonara, after a fashion.

Daily Dinner #5

We embarked on Shannon's challenge four weeks ago: post a month of daily dinners, not just the fancy stuff we do. We're still in Barcelona living in a flat that in its entirety is smaller than our kitchen at home; needless to say, cooking can be difficult. But we're up for it, and really like shopping at the markets frequently. We may not bother posting dinners we have out so there could be some gaps.

2015-08-09

After a weekend in London, we didn't have anything in the house so we headed out for something local, simple. We ended up on Paral·lel which has a ton of cafes, but many were too noisy to sit outside on a great night -- it's a main street. Just off, we found Cachitos which had an appealing menu.

First, I noticed the price of one of my favorite Spanish wines, a Muga Reserva at €24, which would be thrice that at a DC restaurant.

There was a starter that sounded odd, intriguing, so we got the Broken Potatoes Anna with foie gras. It didn't look like much, but imagine a pommes anna as grated potatoes fried together, topped with a soft-cooked eggs, then a sauce of foie gras.  Rich? You betcha.

Irene ordered goat (Espaldita de cabrito al horno hecho a fuego lento):

and I had a Spanish pork tenderloin that was delightfully flavorful.

2015-08-10 Fideuà

Everyone knows about Paella, the rice dish from Valencia, but we first had fideuà with local friends in Barcelona. It's similar, in that a starchy base is cooked in a tasty broth, with various vegetables and proteins added. But where paella uses short-grain rice, fideuà uses pasta, shaped like regular old straight spaghetti. The ones I've had used a fairly fine noodle, and they're always short, like an inch long. In paella, the the individual rice grains should be separate when cooked, not a creamy mush like risotto; fideuà is the same here.

At the grocery store, we found bags of three different thicknesses of the noodles, and we chose a fairly coarse one so we wouldn't accidentally over cook it.

We also had some dried cod roe from the Mercat that we'd been trying to use; it's intensely fishy, fairly salty, but had a somewhat wax-like texture. It seemed perfect to provide a big hit of flavor. We froze this to firm it up then grated it on a box grater. Ick, the color here's awful: picture a lime-green cutting board with dark rose colored shaved bits.

We cooked the fideuà in the last of the flagon of white wine we had, and a bit of liquid exuded from some tomatoes we cooked down. Then we added the grated roe once the noodles were al dente; below, it's turned a pale white color.  Fideuà is cooked in a low, wide paella pan, and broiled to finish to crunch up the top.  We only have a Teflon skillet and these can outgas toxic PTFE fumes when heated to very high temperatures, so no crust for us. :-(

 We served this sautéed Spanish peppers that act like Padróns but are long and slender.

2015-08-11 Butifarra and Mushrooms

Irene picked up some Butifarra (what a great name for a sausage!) that included mushrooms, and also some wild mushrooms. Sorry, no finished photos of the dish, but it was simple and very satisfying. 

2015-08-12 Monkfish and Leeks

Irene picked up some monkfish (here the name is "rape", pronounced RAH-pay) at the market on her way back from Spanish class.  This fish is exceptionally popular here, all the fish mongers and grocery stores carry it; it's usually displayed on ice without the head, because it's a bit ugly and fearsome.  It's got a good meaty texture and fine taste. Not the best photos here, the lights in our flat are pretty dim.

Irene sautéed onion then added the fish, then tossed in some leeks and their greens.

It was garnished with parsley the fishmonger gave Irene.

2015-08-13 Spinach, Raisins, Nuts

There's a simple classic Spanish dish made with spinach, raisins and pine nuts.  For some reason, only one of the vendors in market had it and it was pre-bagged; there were plenty of other fresh greens but we wanted something more tender than chard-like greens. We also bought some seriously huge raisins in hues from golden, through orange to russet. 

Instead of pine nuts, we picked up some Marcona almonds, a specialty of Spain to which we sometimes treat ourself at home. "Natural?" asked our fruit and nut vendor? "Si."  Oops, a mistake: "natural" meant undried and unsalted -- a yielding texture rather than a pleasing snap, and these really needed salt to make them interesting. I heated some water with salt to dissolve, then soaked the nuts in this for a few hours, then drove off the water in a skillet. Ah, much better: a crunch and a slight zing from salt.

We cooked the spinach simply, assembled the rest, and -- very untraditionally -- served it on some elbow pasta to give us a meal's-worth. The package seems confused: is it rooster (gallo) or shark (tiburón)??

A glug of good local olive oil and we're done. Not bad at all.

2015-08-14 Merluza, Green Beans, Potatoes

We hit the market on a Friday before a holiday here, and the place was packed with folks buying fish. We returned to the fishmonger from whom Irene had bough the monkfish earlier and asked her about a fish it seemed everyone was buying; she said it was merluza (hake), and gestured that it was line-caught. We asked her to filet and skin it which she did expertly with a scalpel-like knife the size of her head; it's a beautiful thing to watch.  We also got some deeply flavored black olives and chopped up some parsley.

We got a half kilo of attractive thin beans. Turns out a half kilo's a hell of a lot.  Our flat's tiny cooktop doesn't have enough room to cook the fish, the beans, and the potatoes we wanted, so we put them in a big glass dish and figured we could steam them in the microwave, covered with cling film with a couple vents.  Oops, the microwave's only big enough for a small pot pie.  We scrounged around the cabinets and found a smaller dish we could improvise.  Oddly, after steaming for about 15 minutes, the beans were still too crunchy; perhaps next time I'll finish them in a skillet.

 And the potatoes... simply sautéed in olive oil with salt and pepper.

I heated our good olive oil in the skillet, added capers and black olives for a briny flavor, then the merluza. I was able to get a slight crust on the fish despite the Teflon. Straight-forward prep, the fish was excellent.

2015-08-15 Chicken

We'd been seeing these beautiful, golden-skinned chickens in the market so we picked one up to roast on Saturday. It was supposed to rain all day so I figured we'd be trapped inside -- me working and Irene doing her Spanish homework. Surprise -- it turned out to be a beautiful day and we ended up walking a 10-mile circuit around the city, along the beaches, and by the waterfront. 

While I tried to focus on some nerd-work, Irene prepped and cooked the chicken.  We stole some rosemary from the plantings of a waterfront restaurant, and had a bunch of garlic that Irene stuffed the chicken with.

We found a skillet that we could remove the handle from and baked it in the oven. It turned out really well, a good flavor, a fine texture (not dried out and stringy), and a burnished skin. Sadly, the skin didn't stay crispy long and we missed the crunch it had when it first came out of the oven; professionals must have a technique to keep the crisp skin, probably involving unhealthy amounts of butter.

Daily Dinner #4 -- in Barcelona and London!

2015-08-02 

It's Sunday night, late, 10pm in fact, and we haven't had dinner. We'd just arrived in Barcelona the day before and checked into our flat on the Rambla del Raval, right above Botero's big cat sculpture. And we were hungry.  It was a beautiful night, cool and clear. It would have been immoral to sit inside. We walked up and down the cafe tables on the Rambla and -- shockingly -- all were full. We finally found a 2-top and asked the cafe if we could sit down; of course. The name was Suculent; we didn't even look at the menu.  OMG, what a stunning meal from beginning to end.

I started with an anguilla -- sea eel -- that had been dried then rehydrated and grilled, bacalao-style.  It was presented in a bowl with a raw egg yolk, then the waitress poured over it a hot rich broth. Great texture from the eel, intense flavor, then turned up to 11 by breaking the yolk into the hot broth.  OK, someone in the kitchen knows what they're doing!

Irene decided to go for something more mainstream: cock's comb. You know, that red wattle-thing that sits on a rooster's head? I know, you see 'em every day. It has a profile like Lisa Simpson's head. This was beautifully cooked -- tender, a bit gelatinous, rich rich rich. Served on a slice of chicken skin that had been fried to the crispness of a potato chip, further amplifying the chicken-ness of the dish.

Next up, Irene again decided to play it safe. Pigeon with beets and foie gras. It was half the bird, a breast a leg and a wing. As is classically done with duck, the breast was cooked rare, while the leg was cooked to a higher temperature, to provide a variety of textures on the plate. The beet root were shaved thin creating a boat into which they'd layered the foie. Enclosing it on the plate was a drizzle of intensely colored beet root juice.

Chris chose rabe (monkfish) but they were out so I had to settle for a second choice: squid with foie gras. They were tender baby squid, and between each was a generous lump or rich foie.  The intensely golden sauce put it over the top; I could have eaten that for hours... with enough crisp white wine.

We had a bottle of local white wine, I think bottled for the restaurant.  It cost as much as the Aussie-animal themed things in the States, but was far far better.

We could only choke down one dessert between us, and picked a fun one.  Fresh strawberries with white chocolate mousse, and the occasional rose petals, and a few wild strawberries to accompany. At the base of the dish was a rose-water gelée, which was super light and clear tasting.

We've mentioned this elsewhere, but it brought out Irene's Tourette's, in full throated voice sitting outside: "Fuck, I can't believe we just walked downstairs and got a world-class meal!". It's true, we didn't seek this out. We finally wrapped up a bit after midnight, just steps from our flat's door, after spending a surprisingly small amount.

Our second day in Barcelona, with two excellent meals, and both almost unreasonably affordable.

2015-08-03

We can't eat like kings/queens every night. At least not out. We hit the Mercat de Sant Antoni, under 10 minutes from the house to pick up some fresh local produce and some beans that looked appealing. Irene put together a refreshing salad: small white beans, red bell pepper, endive, spring onions, avocado, and a generous glug of local olive oil and Jerez sherry vinegar. Refreshing, cooling, and simple.

This she accompanied with some bread, Pyrenees sheep's cheese, and local figs. Looks like we also had some our table wine from Rioja. We ate this on our rooftop deck, overlooking the Ravel where we had dinner the night before.

2015-08-04

While we were at Mercat Sant Antoni yesterday, I wanted to get some bacalao. Here, there are specialized vendors who handle this, as well as other preserved fish like anchovies -- different than the fresh fishmongers.  Before we were allowed to purchase a hunk of this beautiful loin, reposing in its bath to rehydrate, we were asked: when do you plan to eat this? Tonight, I answered, why? [ok, this conversation was a bit complicated by my inability to talk about such things in Catalan or Castillian. She said it would not be ready today, no way: I was to take it home, change the water at 6pm then again at midnight, then the next morning, then it would be perfect for dinner the next day.  OK, so we had the salad last night, and now we're ready for the bacalao.

I did my interpretation of a classic cod salad, an esquiexada de bacalao. I cut this hydrated and preserved but raw fish thinly, mixed with bright ripe oranges, deeply flavored cured olives, some sweet local tomatoes, and some mild bulbing onions for crunch. Doused it with good olive oil and a bit of sherry vinegar, and we're good to go. Simple, cool, refreshing.

We found a local place selling wine from giant wooden casks. We picked up a white from Penedes and a red from Rioja. Under €7 for 4 liters of wine. Not stunning, but fine table wine. The red did need a chill, as it was a bit sweet at cellar temperature. It's good to have everyday wine around. Especially when it's cheaper than soda.

2015-08-05

The gorgeous old Hotel España's restaurant Fonda had a fabulous-sounding menu degustacacion for a very reasonable price; it's a 5 minute walk from our flat, so we scored a reservation. The kitchen was under the direction of Martín Berasategui, an alumnus of El Bulli, who runs the hottest ticket in the city, the restaurant Tickets. The dining room was designed in Barcelona's "modernista" style, similar to Art Nouveau and Vienna Secession style of the same period: stunning, with detailed craftsmanship wherever you turned, from the woodwork to the copious stained glass, to light fittings.

First up, Vermut and olives; I'm really diggin' this vermouth thing, it's refreshing, not too alcoholic, and affordable. This one was very local, but I neglected to get a name from the label. 

The first starter was a raw but cured salmon on a bed of guacamole, topped with salmon roe and some micro-greens. The texture of the salmon was terrific -- somewhere between raw and cooked.

Next up was a steamed bread dumpling stuffed with a blood sausage mixture, topped with pesto and some candied pine nuts.  The dumplings were like miniature Chinese "bao" dumplings.

It's too bad we didn't get a video of this presentation, as the bowls came out with the ingredients and a gazpacho was poured over it. The base was a quenelle of tomato ice cream, an anchovy filet,  a plump ripe cherry. The gazpacho itself seemed to be boosted with something besides tomato, perhaps more cherry, or perhaps they used a local super-sweet cherry tomato.

Next up was a flatbread cracker topped with eggplant, horse mackerel tartar, and a green basil ice cream. This was Irene's favorite.

Following was a super-rich dish with morel mushrooms, foie gras cream sauce,  candied peanuts, something red and sweet and little bread cubes that we thought were croutons but turned out to not be toasted.

Next up was a bacalao (cod) dish with an Idiazábal cheese sauce and white asparagus. This was the killer dish for Chris.  In Spain, "bacalao" is usually salt cod -- dried and salted, hard like wood; it's then hydrated for days before eating. When prepared, it presents a slight funk that gives it depth of flavor not present in fresh cod. This fish didn't evidence the funk of the rehydrated dried fish, so I asked our waiter -- in Spanish no less -- if it was "bacala fresca", fresh (not dried), fish. She confirmed it was fresh fish, cooked at a very low temperature. It was unctuous, delicious.  The Idiazábal cheese did have a funk to the aroma, and Irene surmised this was the chef riffing on the funk of dried bacalao -- combining fresh fish with funky cheese to present an experience like dried bacalao: it worked beautifully.

The asparagus too was very unusual. Instead of being chewy with fibers, it had a crunch, a snap. It must have been cooked in highly sugared water as it had a sweet taste, and it had a distinct vanilla flavor. We have no idea how they got the snap texture.

The next course was the first served with a red wine. The waitress said that the "fricandó" preparation is traditional but only done with meats; this sauce was accompanying a gorgeous hunk of raw tuna. The tuna itself was the best I've had in at least a decade: I simply can not get any flavorful tuna in the States, all the good stuff is sold off to other countries. The sauce reminded me (don't snicker) of a good American barbecue sauce: rich with meaty goodness, complicated with complementary spices, and sweet with something like a raison-y fruitiness. It was topped by raw trumpet mushrooms. It was almost too rich.

Dammit, I missed a dish. Suckling lamb with green apples.  We both thought this was the least successful of the dishes. Perhaps a hunk of meat because people expected meat.  Nothing wrong with it, just not stunning like the others.

The dessert -- er, the first dessert: in the back is a cream-colored mandarin "air". This is echoed on the left with a mandarin "supreme", a segment of the citrus cut away from its membrane -- a real pain in the ass to do but classic technique. On top, there are two fresh basil leaves; a number of the dishes celebrated this seasonal herb.

Dessert #2 had a pearly white citrus cream that was silky smooth. In the center was an egg-yolk shaped thing that -- surprise, had the texture of cooked egg yolk: but it was in fact a citrus gel, contrasting texture with the citrus quenelle to the right, and fresh citrus to the front right. On the left was a granita of contrasting fennel flavors. The textures in this were really playful.

The third dessert was an exceptionally rich chocolate soufflé. Under the crust it was molten liquid, intensely chocolate-y. This was a bit too rich for me, but somehow, I couldn't bear to waste a drop. Note the chef's name inscribed in the ceramic.

The final dessert was playful. They brought to the table a polystyrene box with a lid, and when we removed the cover, there were petit fours on a bed of indoor-outdoor carpet.  It almost felt like these were misfit golf balls. Home made marshmallows in pink on the left, biscuits, and white chocolate with coconut. Well executed, and fun.

The service was impeccable, professional but not stuffy. The staff did a great job of explaining these complex dishes in a combination of English and Spanish. Each course came with a glass of wine paired to the dish. The cost was ridiculously low, given the many dishes, the complexity and skill of the kitchen, the professionalism of the waiters, the sumptuousness of the place. At the very end, the chef came out to talk with us... or to listen to us say how much we liked the meal, but we had quite a bit of difficulty as he launched into a long reply.  

If you visit Barcelona, do go. 

2015-08-06

I guess I'm crazy for navajas, razor clams, or so annoyed I can't find 'em in the States that I eat them out wherever I can find them. We hit the famous (and crowded with selfie-stick-brandishing  tourists) Boqueria early in the morning, starting at the back to avoid the crowds and picked up some fresh live specimens. 

We also got some local peppers that -- when I asked "Como se concinar, como padrones?" was told that's the way, just like the more famous padrones, sautéed with good olive oil and served with coarse salt.  I also got a big vermouth, and had this with a wedge of orange on ice while cooking.

 Hot and fast, and super simple. We're making the most of our compact kitchen.

Too bad our table outside has a food-hostile-colored table cloth.

I probably should not have combined these dishes: they were prepared the same way -- very simply with olive oil and salt. The navajas had just a bit of unpleasant grit: we had seen one vendor offering "navajas sin arena", free of sand; maybe we should have tried theirs.

2015-08-07

On Friday we went to London for our friends' wedding. We were invited to the family dinner at a delightful place, Marmelo in Leyton. Super friendly, cozy, and only open on weekends for now. They did a great job of feeding us a huge variety of dishes, with lots of veggie-frienldly mains, as well as some stunning lamb with couscous, kale with fig and goat cheese, and a sea bass that was to die for. No photos, wouldn't have been polite. 

2015-08-08

Ann and Paul's wedding and a delightful fine reception were at the the Vestry House Museum in the same town that William Morris did his work. There was a seemingly unending spread with some fantastic smoked fish, shrimp and prawns (as big your hand!), ham, turkey, various savory pies, on and on. It would have been churlish to take food photos at such a solemn event (snicker!) but I did like the pluck of this young foodie.

The wedding party adjourned to the Village Kitchen pub where we could sit outside in the delightful weather and chill, then headed next door to line our stomachs at the Nuovo Mondragone restaurant, which seems strangely comfortable serving a hoard of jubilant and more-than-tipsy friends. 

I did get a couple of pics here. I had a hankering for some rich beef and the Manzo didn't disappoint, rich in flavor, with arugula and shaved parm:

Irene got fancy with liver with "proper bacon" and mashed potatoes. Great presentation.

We've been eating out way too much this week, with all the traveling. Next week we hope to do some more cooking as we return to our flat in Barcelona and explore the other markets throughout the city.