Puglian Pasta from Awaiting Table: minchiareddi formed on knitting needles

We've been wanting to go to The Awaiting Table cooking school in Lecce Italy for many years, and finally went for a week in September. It was fantastic: we rode bikes to the coast each morning, then returned to make dinner from scratch every afternoon, and learned a lot about Puglian wine and olive oil.

We made different shapes of pasta each day from the same dough, a 2/3 - 1/3 mix of hard durum wheat flour ("semola" is fine or “rimacinata” or “twice milled”), and barley flour; the barley is unusual, but I enjoy the flavor it adds. While orecchietti is the most famous shape from the region, I think it's cool that we can make the hollow tubular shape, "minchiareddi" ("little willies"!) with just a slender non-sticky rod. In class, we used cut umbrella ribs, but you can buy proper brass "ferretos" for 31€, and some folks use cut off twisted bar spoons, but I find that inexpensive knitting needles work fine: I bought five 3mm double-ended ones for a few euros on Amazon.es, and got two 5mm needles from Irene's mum (I just pried off the plastic end caps): the larger ones are a little faster and easier.

The cuisine of Puglia is frequently called "cucina povera": rustic cooking which ekes out big flavors from local, seasonal ingredients, sometimes foraged. Meat is treated as a garnish, and pasta is made without eggs. Below, the Onion and Garlic are my own additions. (Awaiting Table's maestro, Silvestro Silvestori, pointed out that Puglian food uses either pepper or garlic, but not both, since they both contribute a burn).

First batch, made with 3mm knitting needle, no parsley

The sauce for this punches above its humble weight, with the Cabbage cooking down to an almost jam-like consistency. 

The ratios of Flours isn't critical, and you should add Water as needed so it's not too sticky nor too crumbly: it's much easier to dry out a wet dough by adding Flour than it is to dampen a dry dough. In class, we just eyeballed all the quantities, and usually had way too much finished pasta, so I'm providing proportions here as a guide. I find the technique for rolling out the tubes to relatively easy: I used the part of my palm closest to my wrist, not my fingers. There's a Pasta Grannies episode which may help. 

Serves two generously.

150 g      Pancetta, cut into small bite-sized pieces

150 g      Onion, sliced thinly (optional)

  4 clove  Garlic, sliced (optional)

300 g      Cabbage, chopped into bite-sized pieces

  1 pinch  Chili pepper

135 g      Semola di Grana Dura (hard, high gluten flour)

 65 g      Barley Flour

100 ml     Water (approximate)

           Parsley, minced

           Parmesan, grated

           Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for finishing

In a large skillet, cook the Pancetta over medium heat until it starts to get a bit crisp; reserve, but leave the rendered fat in the skillet. 

Add the Onion and cook to soften a bit, then add the Garlic and cook a bit more.

Add the Cabbage -- it's quite a lot -- and cook covered over low heat for a long time, stirring occasionally, until quite tender and almost jam-like.

Adjust Salt.

While the sauce is cooking, make the pasta. In class we used traditional large wooden pasta boards to mix and shape the pasta: they have a slightly rough texture to grip the dough. At home, I used a slightly textured polypropylene plastic cutting board and it worked fine.

Mix the Flours and make a well; pour the Water in the center, then mix with your fingers, incorporating the flour into the water. Continue until it's loosely combined, then knead firmly until smooth -- about 10 minutes. 

Roll out some of the dough to a finger-thick snake, and cut off 1 cm sections: I do 10 at a time.

Place a pillow of dough on the board and gently press in a knitting needle, then gently press and slide with the base of your palm, sliding back and forth, to wrap the pasta around the needle and stretch it along its length. It might take a few tries, but it'll work fine. Give it a gentle twist back and forth on the needle to free it, then slide off the end to a plate. You should have a rustic tube of pasta.

Continue until all the dough it used; this will take a while, about the same as you need to soften the Cabbage sauce.

Boil the Minchiareddi in salted water until al dente, about 4 minutes. Drain.

Add the Sauce to the now empty pasta pot, then add the pasta, and stir gently to combine.

Plate, garnishing with Parsley and grated Parmesan, if desired.

Anoint with a generous glug of high quality finishing Olive Oil.

 

Second batch, made with 5mm needle, with parsley

Next Time:

Use more Cabbage since it cooks down so much, doubling the quantity should be fine.

Add Salt to the pasta flours before making the dough.

Patatas Panaderas: rustic and simple potatoes

We were looking for a simple, rustic starch to go with our meal and this looked good -- a bit familiar, replacing the expected butter with the more typical olive oil of Spain. Potatoes, onions, olive oil, garlic, some wine -- that's about it. This isn't an awesome, impress-your-friends dish,  but straight forward comfort food that will go with many dishes; we served it with sous vide and seared pork loin and sauerkraut.

Not going to win any beauty prize, but it's easy comfort food

Most recipes I've seen bake for a long time (hot, expensive), some cook in the microwave (won't get crisp), others on stovetop in copious oil, and most finish with a splash of wine then baked hot and uncovered. Teresa Barrenechea's is very simple, one step, but covered at very high heat to cook and crisp -- 500F for 30 minutes, covered the whole time, no wine. They all start by slicing the potatoes and onions, then adding seasonings and oil. This chef's video shows the technique and this page has ingredients and instructions. This recipe cooks everything covered in a microwave for 10-11 minutes, but there's no way it can get crusty and crunchy. Spain on a Fork has a recipe and video, and I've found his others to come out well. La Tienda has a simple one, like Barrenechea's, but with a final uncovered browning stage.

I don't want to crank the oven for over an hour, so I first cook in the microwave, then brown in a hot oven.

This serves two as a side dish.

  2 medium  Potatoes, peeled, sliced thin

1/2 medium  Onion, peeled, slice thin

    bunch   Parsley, chopped

 to taste   Salt

 to taste   Pepper

 60 ml      Olive Oil (more as needed)

 60 ml      White Wine (amount not critical)

In a microwave-safe bowl, toss the sliced Potatoes and Onions with the Parsley, Salt, Pepper, and Olive Oil to coat well.

Cover tightly with film and poke a small hole for steam.

Microwave on high for 10 minutes until the potatoes are just tender.

Preheat oven to 200C convection (if possible).

Transfer everything to a small baking sheet.

Bake on the top shelf until the wine's boiled off and the potatoes are browned and a bit crunchy.

Serve.

Casual Fideuà: easy, quick, slightly nontraditional

Fideuà is Valencian dish made similarly to Paella but uses short thin noodles instead of rice, and this makes it much quicker to prepare. We've made a number of variations in the US (with Spaghettini) and Barcelona (Ravalistan, Assassina). This version was driven by hunger and a "what's for dinner" moment: it comes together quickly, for an easy weeknight meal. My biggest cheat here is using a non-stick skillet instead of one of my paella pans and it worked fine! It took only 35 minutes to make.

Meatballs aren't traditional but this dish is tasty

The first time I made this, I rushed and skipped the Sofrito and it lacked flavor. The second time, with Sofrito, was much fuller in flavor, and I used monk fish for the protein; happily, the noodles stood up in the pan when done, a curious effect that seems to mark a well made fideuà. Here, Fideuà is usually made with fish/shellfish, but I'm using what's on hand, even if a bit nontraditional: Irene's mixed stock and her mini meatballs.

Most recipes seem to use 2-to-1 to 4-to-1 ratios of liquid-to-stock (by weight). This one from a chef seems way off, with a 10-to-1 ratio (!), and starts and finishes in the oven -- too fussy. The one from BBC looks pretty good but seems to use an excess of tomatoes in the sofrito. This recipe is quite detailed and looks authentic.

The noodles (Catalan fideus, Spanish fideos) come in a variety of thicknesses, and I prefer a rather thin one, so I'm using our local Bonpreu store brand cabell d'angel (angel hair) which the package says cooks in only 2-4 minutes, so the final step is fast; thicker noodles take longer, of course. 

The only tricky bit with this is that you want the pasta barely cooked  and all the liquid absorbed: if the pasta is threatening to get too soft, crank the heat all the way up; if the noodles aren't cooked enough, lower the heat and maybe add more stock or water.  You want to dry it out to finish to develop a little crusty base similar to socarrat in paella.

It's typically served garnished with lemon wedges and a garlic-y allioli (try my eggless toum or rapidisimo).

Serves 2 for dinner with a side salad

375 ml      Stock (fish, chicken, etc, as appropriate)

            Olive Oil

200 g       Mini Meatballs (or other protein)

125 g       Fideus/Fideos noodles, thin

1/2 medium  Onion, diced

  1         Ñora pepper (hydrated) or half a Red Bell Pepper, diced

  2 cloves  Garlic, sliced thinly

  1 medium  Tomato, grated

            Salt

  2         Lemon Wedges

In a pot, Warm the Stock and hold.

I'm using a 25 cm (10 inch) non-stick skillet for the Fideuà because neither our old induction cooktop nor portable gas burner heat very evenly; I'd like to try this on our BBQ with our proper paella pan.

 

If you use a firm protein (e.g., monk fish, squid, meatballs), sauté it first in a bit of Olive Oil until barely done; reserve.

Add a bit more Oil if needed and sauté the Fideus Noodles until lightly browned, reserve.

 

 

Add the Onion and sauté a bit, then add the Ñora or Red Pepper, and cook until softened.

Add the Garlic and cook to remove the raw edge.

Add the Tomato and cook the entire Sofrito until a bit dry and thickened to intensify the flavor.

Taste and add Salt as needed.

Add the Noodles back to the Sofrito pan and stir it to combine thoroughly.

Add the Stock and give it one gentle stir to combine well;after that, don't stir the noodles, it makes them sticky: instead, give the pan a shake if you need to.

 

 

Cook over medium-high to high heat: the thinner the Noodle, the less time you'll need to cook and absorb and evaporate the Stock (I needed high heat for these very thin noodles).

Top with the cooked Meatballs (or other protein) to heat through.

Check the texture of the noodles and adjust heat as needed: when al dente, crank the heat up to drive off the rest of the liquid; listen carefully for a little sizzling -- you may also begin to smell a bit of crust forming, check the bottom with a fork and remove from heat when mostly dry.

Garnish with Lemon Wedges, garlic sauce, and serve.

 

Note dark skin on left

Fork holding crusty skin

 

Kombu Cured Salmon, Cooked Sous Vide

Kombu (kelp) is full of glutamic acid which provides Umami -- the rich savory "6th taste". Chefs are curing fish with it and serving it raw, but we're not convinced of the quality of our store-bought Norwegian salmon so we're going to cook ours gently. We don't want to overpower the flavor from the Kombu, so we'll cook it sous vide with minimal seasoning rather than sauteing or broiling.

If the Salmon has skin, remove it so the Kombu can penetrate.
Soak the Kombu until pliant, and wipe down with a slice of Lemon.
Lightly salt the Salmon and let rest while the Kombu hydrates.
Wrap the Salmon in the Kombu and put in a vacuum bag and seal.
Let cure 1-24 hours.
Cook in a water bath at 50C/122F to 52C/125F for 30 minutes.

I don't have a record of how this turned out, but am posting it anyway in hopes that -- now that I can search for it -- I'll make it again and report back.

Lamb leg stuffed with Mediterranean flavors, sous vide then grilled

We wanted to repeat something we improvised a while ago that turned out really well: lamb leg stuffed with mediterranean herbs from our window boxes. It was a thick cut so we cooked it low with sous vide to ensure it was fully cooked, then flashed on the grill to brown a little. 

Rose-pink meat with green lines from the rosemary paste

Our local markets (Sant Antoni, Ninot) have proper butchers, about half of which sell lamb (Spanish "cordero", Catalan "xai"). The cut from the front leg is "espalda", the back is "pierna" (Spanish) or "cuixa" (Catalan); the cuixa on display looked like a better shape for stuffing, and was under 12€/Kg. I asked the butcher to remove the bone, and he cut it up so we could use it for soup. Our leg of lamb was 1175g without bones. I opened it up, cut off a piece outside a rough rectangle leaving about 935 g (2 pounds).

We've got a healthy crop of Rosemary and Parsley, and a meager amount of Mint; we figured the salt and umami from Anchovies would go well. All the quantities below are flexible. Basically, flatten the meat, smear with a flavorful paste, roll up, cook long and slow, then sear.

This should serve 4-6.

935 g       Lamb leg, boned out, trimmed
  3 sticks  Rosemary, leaves stripped off stem
  1 bunch   Mint, leaves only
  4 cloves  Garlic
  8         Anchovies (from a jar)
 to taste   Salt
 60 ml      Extra Virgin Olive Oil, approx
 ??         Preserved Lemon, chopped coarse

Cut between the muscles of the Lamb to flatten a bit, being careful not to cut through it.
Slash the meat to provide more surface area for the paste, but don't cut through.

In a mini food processor, whiz Rosemary, Mint, Garlic, Anchovies, Salt, and EVOO; process to a smooth paste, adding more EVOO if needed.

I intended to coarsely chop some Preserved Lemons that Irene made based on the Modernist Cuisine tomes, but forgot until after I'd tied everything up -- next time!
Spread the paste over the meat, pressing into the slashes.
Roll up as a spiral.
Tie snugly with butcher's string.

I wrapped this in plastic film to prevent Oil being sucked out by the vaccuum sealer but this may not have been necessary.
Put in a sous vide bag and seal on the "liquid" setting to avoid pulling out the oil from the paste.

Cook 3.5 hours at 57C/135F which I took from Serious Eats, hoping for some pink but not floppy rare; he says that 2 hours should be enough, but I wanted to be safe: the rolled meat is thick, so it will take a while for the heat to penetrate.
When done, remove from bag and catch any juices.
Brown over a hot BBQ fire, like these folks do, about 5 minutes a side.

Seared on the barbecue

Slice with strings still attached for neater cuts, and serve.

Next Time...

The color was a beautiful rose-pink, with almost no loss of juice from the meat, maybe 60 ml (2 ounces), so I think 57C is  a good temperature. The lamb we get here in Barcelona is obviously different than the rather tender cuts we got in the States -- a bit more toothsome, but I didn't need a steak knive; I might increase the sous vide time to perhaps 5 hours to tenderize a bit more.

The rosemary paste was good, flavorful, and I'd use that again -- hopefully I'll remember the preserved lemons!

There were some tough gristly bits: trim the outside sinew better. 

Lamb fat melts at 56-60C, so our sous vide should have released some, but we saw almost no liquid in the bag and after cutting. When we put it on the grill fat did melt and cause flare-ups. Grill carefully, and lower the heat to tame any raging flames.

One Serious Eats post stuffs the leg with a black olives, and I think the briny tart flavor of a tapenade sounds like a good idea.

Allioli Rapidísimo: quick and pungent -- using milk!

While I was researching recipes for sepia croquetas I came across a TV video which included a "allioli rapidísimo". Interestingly, it used milk as a base, which is something I've never heard of, and I've been working on various Spanish alliolis like toum for a while. As the name implies, it takes just a few minutes to make using a stick blender. It has a fiery burn from the raw garlic which mellows after a night in the fridge.

The chef said you can use whatever oil you like as the base, including a neutral one like sunflower oil, but we found this was too mild and created a sauce that was blindingly white, so we'll use a plain olive oil, then finish with extra virgin for flavor. The chef also added a bit of parsley at the end, but I think that distracts from the appearance.

A search shows that this is a Portuguese (perhaps Brazilian) called "maionese de leite", and that author shows that it's amenable to a variety of flavors including tomato or anchovy which sounds interesting.

  1 clove  Garlic, whole, peeled

 60 ml     Milk

120 ml     Olive Oil (perhaps not Extra Virgin)

as needed  Extra Virgin Olive Oil

           Parsley (optional)

to taste   Sherry Vinegar

to taste   Salt

Put the clove of Garlic in the cup of a stick blender, add the Milk and the first Olive Oil.

Whiz with the stick blender -- without moving the blender -- until the Milk and Oil merge almost completely.

Slowly drizzle in the Extra Virgin Olive Oil while blending, raising and dropping the stick blender to incorporate; it should start to thicken and fluff up. 

Add as much EVOO as you like to get the texture you want, I probably added 60 ml or so, not as much as I expected.

Add a bit of Parsley if you like and whiz briefly.

Add Sherry Vinegar and Salt, whiz a little, taste, and adjust. 

Croquetas de Sepia y su Tinta: crunchy and rich

Croquetas are little fried balls of bechamel containing something like jamón, chicken, bacalao, cheese and nuts, or in this case, squid with its ink. Almost every little café serves them as a tapa, but usually not the squid ink variety. This is my favorite flavor: the ink gives it a rich "earthiness" (which seems like the wrong word for a sea creature). The proteins are usually diced very small, to provide some texture without poking through the crunchy crust.

Croquetas topped with "allioli rapidísimo"

Sepia and Choco refer to the same species (cuttlefish), while Calamar (squid) is a different beast; both work fine. Many recipes add onions, cooked eggs, wine, nutmeg, etc, but I think those additions would be distracting. This video recipe is quite detailed, but he's using squid already cooked in its ink. Another video makes the bechamel with oil (no butter), and that seems very Spanish to me, I'll do that too. We get squid and separate frozen  packets of ink (4 for 0,69€), and we'll cook the squid then its ink in the bechamel's oil. The bechamel is equal parts by weight of fat (oil, butter, or a mix) and flour. The ratio of milk to fat+oil is about 2.5-2.8. I used Squid, an amount I had on hand.

These are easy enough to make, although the shaping/coating can be a little fussy so having a friend speeds the process.

One of my source recipes made an "allioli rapidísimo" which I made, and it turned out well, so I've written that up separately. 

Makes about 24, and a tapa-sized serving is probably 3 per person. After cooking and cooling, extras  freeze and reheat surprisingly well, baked.

100 g        Olive Oil (doesn't have to be Extra Virgin)

150 g        Sepia/Calamar, cleaned, body and tentacles, fine dice
  1 clove    Garlic, minced
  2 packets  Squid Ink ("tinta")
100 g        Flour

500 ml       Milk, whole
 to taste    Salt

Flour

Egg, beaten
Panko Bread Crumbs

Heat the Oil in a medium sized pan.

Add the Squid and Garlic and cook a few minutes until the garlic is barely golden.

Add the Ink and stir to distribute well.

Add the Flour, and mix thoroughly; cook 5 minutes to ensure there's no raw flour taste.

Add half the Milk to the Squid/Flour mixture, stir until it comes together;

add the rest of the Milk and repeat.

Cook to thicken and intensify, stirring continuously until you have a sauce thicker than cream, perhaps yoghurt-like: you want a stiff mixture when it's cool so you can form them.

Put in a tub, cover tightly with film, cool, then refrigerate; it should be quite stiff.

You can use this time to make an allioli if you like.

For shaping and coating, it helps to have a friend: one scoops, shapes, and coats in Flour, the other then coats in Egg and Panko.

Set out separate bowls of Flour, beaten Egg, and Panko.

Scoop out a bit and make a bite size ball or cork-like shape; a #30 disher/scoop can help here. 

Drop in the Flour, transfer to Egg and coat, then to Panko to cover; this can get messy.

Repeat until all the Squid Bechamel is used.

I like to chill these before frying but it's probably not necessary.

Fry in batches in hot oil, about 190C/375F, until golden all around;

if they soften and leak the filling, remove immediately.

Drain on a paper towel lined plate.

Serve with an allioli or other sauce. 

Eat promptly, while hot.

How it turned out, next time...

The texture was good, creamy rather than liquid or stiff. The filling didn't have enough fishy/squiddy flavor, and wasn't as dramatically black as I wanted. The squid shrank a lot when cooking and was not very apparent in the bite.

Next time, bump up the squid to 200-300 g. Cut it into larger pieces, pea sized, since it shrinks so much. Double the ink to 4 packets.

Consider boosting flavor by adding a seafood stock to the bechamel and cooking it down to intensify.

Ajoarriero Aragonés: bacalao, potato, and egg -- cool and smooth

We had this at Tasca Angel in Valencia and it felt like comfort food for the dog days of summer: a cool mashed potato or brandade-like texture that was fine on its own or smeared on bread. This version from Aragon is different from the one with the same name from Navarra which is a stew that adds tomatoes and peppers. The recipe originated with mule drivers (arrieros) who could carry potatoes and dried salt cod on their overland journeys, and is very similar to "atascaburras" ("something that blocks a donkey's way") from Castilla-La Mancha.

Garnished with parsley, served with toast

Unsurprisingly, there are wide variations. Many recipes make this with chopped eggs, some with chunky potatoes; others add onion or bread crumbs.  In this video for "atascaburras o ajoarriero", Chef Teresa Carrascosa whips a LOT of olive oil into the cooked potatoes then mixes the shredded bacalao by hand. It's frequently garnished with quartered boiled eggs, walnuts, and/or parsley. 

Recipes range from 4:1 potatoes to bacalao to about 1:1 by weight; we'll start with 2:1. Here, I'm looking for a smooth texture and minimal ingredients.   I've got a potato ricer which makes a really smooth mash, but we can't pass bacalao through it; if you've got a potato masher, you can mash them both together.

Makes 600 ml, 555 g, and serves 4 as a hearty first course but you'll probably want some later.

A few simple ingredients

If needed, desalt the Bacalao in multiple changes of water for two days, or use ready-to-cook "al punt de sal" without hydrating.

200 g      Bacalao (desalted)

400 g      Potato (for baking, mashing, not waxy)

 75 ml     Olive Oil, Extra Virgin, good quality

  2 clove  Garlic, minced

  1        Egg, beaten

In a small pan, lightly sauté the Garlic in a small amount of the Oil to tame it for Irene, remove from heat after 5 minutes (normally it's added raw, mashed with a mortar).

In a medium pot, gently simmer the Bacalao in water 4-5 minutes until almost tender, remove, discard any skin and bones, then crumble or chop finely.

Bring the water back to a boil, slice the Potatoes 1/2 cm thick, and cook until barely done (maybe 15 minutes?)

Drain Potatoes, reserving some of the water.

Add the Garlic Oil to the now empty pot.

Pass Potato slices through a potato ricer into the pot with Garlic Oil. 

Add beaten Egg to the Potatoes and combine, ensuring they doesn't coagulate in one place.
Add the Bacalao and combine.
Drizzle in the rest of the Oil and mix to a smooth consistency like loose mashed potatoes; if it seems too thick, add a bit of the reserved water and more Oil.
Adjust Salt if needed but the Bacalao will probably bring enough of its own.
Allow to cool to room temperature then cover and cool.
Serve cold, cool, or room temperature, garnished with parsley; spread on bread or toast.

In cold weather, this could be served hot and warming like an intense potato purée.

How was it? Next time...

This turned out well, but not as smooth as at Tasca Angel -- I suspect they passed theirs through a tamis. 

I used the medium holes of the potato ricer and that let some skins through so use the smallest holes next time.

Irene said it needed more bacalao flavor so next time reduce the Potato to 300 g.

Almendrados: Spanish almond cookies, 3 variations

I saw a recipe that needed roasted skin-on almonds, got them, then forgot what I wanted them for: definitely something Spanish, probably dessert-like. So I hit upon Almendrados, almond cookies. I found some variations and decided to make three. Below, the first two are similar techniques and I used the skin-on whole almonds (ground up), while the final one was more fussy and I used store-bought finely ground almonds; you can see the difference in the color. It's not quite a fair comparison, and I probably wouldn't buy the whole skin-on nuts again: they give the cookies an unappealing "health food" look. 

Variations: #1 bottom, #2 top right, #3 top left

TL;DR: the first recipe below is the easiest and was quite good; the second was quite dry and requires a glass of sherry; the last is visually the most appealing (pale finely ground almonds) and was like a shortbread, similar to Spanish polvorónes we see in wintertime.

#1: Spain On A Fork: 3 ingredients -- an easy treat

Some of the other recipes I've made from his site turned out well, and his videos are quite helpful. 

These had a good chew and definite sweetness that made them a treat.

260 g Almonds, ground fine

120 g Powdered Sugar

  1   Egg, separated

Grind the Almonds as fine as you can in a food processor or blender, but watch out it doesn't go so far as to turn into nut butter. Mine are not as fine as I'd liked, and I wouldn't use the skin-on nuts again.

Add to a large bowl, and add the Powdered Sugar.

Separate the Egg into White and Yolk.

Whisk the Egg White about 15 seconds to fluff and add to the Almonds and Sugar.

Mix together and when it starts combining, use your hands to squeeze it together; if it's too sticky, add a bit of ground Almonds or Flour; if too tight, add a little water.

He shapes them into "chicken nugget design" but I kinda rolled the mass between cling film to a bit under a centimeter then cut into rectangles with a knife -- it was easier.

Set on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and press grooves into the tops of each.

Whip the reserved Egg Yolk and paint each one.

Bake convection at 190C for about 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, then dust with a bit more Powdered Sugar, and let cool.

These didn't look too impressive but they were a treat to eat: sweet, a bit of a chew, and much more fun than the ease of this recipe would suggest.

I expect using finely ground, pale, store-bought ground almonds would make this more appealing.

#2: Spruce Eats: similar technique, more fussy -- dry, no joy

Spruce Eats recipes seem well-researched and others I've made have turned out well.

This one, however, made me think of "health food": dry, almost no sweetness -- it didn't bring joy.

I halved their recipe here to accommodate the amount of ingredients I had.

Perhaps it would have been better with store bought almond powder but the extra work compared to the first recipe doesn't seem justified.

Not appealing, in looks or taste; this shouldn't be "health food"

1/2   Lemon, zest

  1   Egg

227 g Almonds, ground

125 g Sugar, granulated

Zest 1/2 Lemon.

Separate Egg into White and Yolk; use an electric whisk to whip the Whites in a glass until stiff peaks formed. 

Mix the Yolks then gently combine with the whipped Whites, don't worry about getting it uniform.

Add the Sugar, Lemon Zest, Ground Almonds, and combined Egg to a bowl.

Mix with a spatula then your hands until it's well combined. 

I used a disher (miniature ice cream scoop) to load the dough, compress, then emplace onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 190C convection about 15 minutes until golden; this was hard to tell with our skin-on almond color, but no problem.

Remove and cool.

These were too dry, with almost no sweetness; any hints of lemon were lost. They cried out for Sherry.

I'm surprised how "sad" these seemed compared to the previous recipe since the ingredients are basically the same; I would have figured the inclusion of yolks would have made these richer but, the the whipped whites would have made them puffy, but it wasn't the case.

I probably wouldn't bother with these again.

#3: Visit Southern Spain: totally different technique -- impressive looking, shortbread-y

This was a totally different technique and yielded cookies that looked ... like cookies. It involved chilling, rolling, and cutting the dough but wasn't really that difficult. 

They had a shortbread crumbly texture, almost like the "polvorónes" that appear everywhere here in Barcelona around Christmastime.

Appealing and rather good "short" cookies

200 g Flour

125 g Ground Almonds (store-bought, finely ground, pale)

4.5 g Baking Powder (1 tsp)

125 g Sugar, white, granulated

125 g Butter, room temperature

  2   Eggs (one reserved for garnish)

   Sliced Almonds, for garnish

Sift Flour into a large bowl.

Happily, the bag of store-bought ground Almonds was 125 g so I didn't have to do anything.

Add Almonds and Baking Powder.

Make a well in the center and add Sugar, Butter, 1 Egg.

Combine as well as you can with a spatula, then use your hands to bring it all together.

Form into a ball and wrap in a large piece of cling film; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove and spread out film, top with another layer of film, and roll out to about 3/4 cm thickness.

Chill in fridge again for about 10 minutes.

Use a glass to cut circular cookies; I dipped mine into ground almonds to keep it from sticking, but the amount of butter in these would probably prevent any stickage.

Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, whip up the reserved Egg, and paint with the egg wash; garnish with Sliced Almonds.

Bake about 12 minutes at 190C convection until browned.

Shape and roll the remaining dough, cut, and place on another parchment-lined sheet, wash, and garnish; bake.

Remove and let cool.

These are fairly impressive looking, like something you'd get at a bakery.

They're rather good, maybe a bit crumbly -- "short" -- for my taste, but worth the trouble of chilling, rolling, cutting.

Arroz Negro Valenciano

We just got back from a trip to Valencia, home of Paella, and rode bikes to Albufera -- the lagoon and nature reserve where the special rice is grown. On the ride back, we had Arroz Negro at a sea-side restaurant in Valencia, La Dehesa Joaquín Castelló. We pestered our waiter about technique: only home made seafood stock, Albufera rice, squid ink, and a bit of squid. It was coal-black, strongly flavored, rich, but pure in flavor; no sofrito, no vegetables, not even salt, and only a small amount of squid. Take a look at the photo below of their dish: the surface is jet-black, with a lava-like texture of something boiled hot and fast leaving a surface of of proteins and starch congealed in time. The rice is only 2-3 grains deep, and the protein was minimal (like the Paella Valenciana we had the previous day). Our waiter told us the usual Bomba is used by slacker restaurants who depend on its ability to absorb liquid without exploding; his was the real deal from Albufera, and we brought back a kilo bag of it. Naturally, now that we'd tasted the Arroz Negro verdadero, I had to try to recreate it. 

2024-07-01 Attempt #1: too crunchy, not intense enough

My version is not so rich, needs work

Here's what I was aiming for, from our lunch at Restaurante La Dehesa Joaquin Castelló:

 Joaquín Castelló: look at that jet black craggy surface, ¡que rico, que fuerte! 

My first attempt here was OK but has lots of room for improvement, I wouldn't serve it to guests yet.  Ideas for improvement follow this recipe. 

This can't be made ahead: it takes about 30 minutes to cook. In Joaquín Castelló we had snacks (olives, peanuts) while we waited, in a paella restaurant we had an array of lovely starters while it cooked.

This serves two as a light meal. Consider following with a bright tomato-based salad.

       Olive Oil

166 g  Valencian Round Rice (1/3 of a 500g bag)

500 g  Seafood Stock

  8 g  Tinta de Sepia (2 packets)

150 g  Squid, cleaned, tubes cut in half

Film a 30/25 cm paella pan with Oil and sauté the Rice gently until it turns a little translucent.

Combine the Stock and Tinta de Sepia in a small pot, bring to simmer, stir to combine, and keep it warm.

Add the Stock to the Rice a bit at a time, and let it cook over medium-high heat to absorb.

Repeat, turning the paella pan to ensure even heating.

In restaurants, they use live fire: our old induction burner does not heat our pan over the full width, so I have to keep shifting the center to get the outer rice to cook at all; it still wasn't even enough.

Continue cooking until the stock is used and the rice is barely cooked with just a trace of "bite"; do not overcook to the point where it explodes (Bomba is more forgiving here).

I had to add some more water to the finish cooking, continuously rotating the pan to expose the edges to the heat.

This will probably take about 30 minutes.

Serve, topping with a couple lemon wedges.

Diners can spoon out the rice themselves to plates, or eat directly from the pan.

How it turned out...

The depth was good, 2-3 grains deep.

In my rendition, the rice wasn't quite cooked enough, especially around the perimeter where our induction cooktop failed to heat evenly.

The center started developing the crunchy crusty bottom -- the "soccarat" -- but there was none at the edge.

It could use a touch of salt: our stock didn't have any.

It needed more squid ink to match the intensity of the restaurant.

Next time...

Use 16 g (4 packets) Squid Ink.

Add a touch of Salt to the Stock.

Add the Squid at the beginning to take on the ink color.

Use more Stock, try 4 * 166g = 664g.

The texture comes mostly from the rice, but the taste comes from the Stock; perhaps we should add a lot more Stock, and cook over high heat to intensify the flavor and create a bubbly surface; when we peered into one kitchen, the paellas were cooked over quite hot wood fires.

Consider adding all the Stock at once rather portioning it in over time so it has room to bubble vigorously.

Keep rotating the pan and shifting to expose the edges to the heat, or try cooking over open flame on the BBQ. 

Squid Ink Pasta with Huevo de Bacalao and Saffron Cream Sauce

I frequently make pasta with squid ink. This time I combined it with a cream sauce containing "huevo de bacalao" -- firm cured cod egg sacks, botarga. It was easy to make, rich and intense, and worth doing again. The Bacalao retains some of its texture which makes it more appealing than a smooth sauce. Adding Garlic and Saffron seemed compatible flavors, but you can omit if you like.

The first time I made this with 160 g (?) Huevo de Bacalao, the second with a 125 g Mullet. Both seemed a bit dense, thickening the sauce. I'd suggest dropping this to 100 g, with half in the sauce and half as a garnish. I first used 36% fat cream, but dropped to 18% fat cream the next time but it was still quite dense.

Dramatic squid ink pasta and intense cream sauce

pinch    Saffron
         Bourbon or other alcohol
         Oil
1 clove  Garlic, minced
100 ml   Cream, 18% fat
100 g    Botarga: Huevo de Bacalao, Mullet, etc, coarsely grated
180 g    Squid Ink Pasta, fresh, cut into spaghetti

Pulverize the Saffron in a folded sheet of paper rubbed with the back of a spoon and add to a little Bourbon or other alcohol to extract the flavor.

In a pot, heat a little Oil and add minced Garlic; cook until softened and the raw smell is gone.

Grate the Botarga on a coarse box grater.

Add the Cream and half the Botarga to the pot and heat; it may seem too thin for a sauce at first but will thicken as the Bacalao dissolves into the Cream. Add the Saffron in alcohol. Stir occasionally.

Boil the Pasta in salted water; the fresh pasta  will only take a few minutes. Drain, but save some of the water to thin the sauce if needed.

Plate the pasta and top with the sauce, garnish with remaining Botarga; serve.

Chocolate Coulant: time and temperature are a challenge

I've had this recently at three fancy restaurants (has it come back into fashion?) and decided to try and make it myself. It's an intensely chocolate dessert cake with a molten interior. My favorite was served unmolded on a plate, the other two were in the ramekins they were baked in. The challenge is getting the batter set just enough but not to much -- see my disastrous result below, and improvement after that.

Second Try: slightly over-baked, no liquid center

I've halved the recipe from My Parisian Kitchen and am trying it first with the mediocre store brand chocolate (40% cocoa) I have on hand; she didn't specify the type of flour, so I used cake flour with 10% protein. If I can get the texture right -- delicate cake barely containing the liquid center -- I'll try again with good quality chocolate.

Serves 2 richly.

  2    Eggs

 70 g  Sugar

 67 g  Dark Chocolate (55-70% cocoa)

 60 g  Butter, unsalted, cut into chunks

 22 g  Cake/Pastry Flour (Farina per a rebosteria)

pinch  Salt

       Butter, soft

       Cocoa, for dusting, optional

Just five basic ingredients

Melt the Chocolate with the Butter in a microwave (about one minute) or double boiler; let cool a bit to avoid cooking the Eggs.

Whisk the Sugar and Eggs together until smooth.

Slowly whisk the Chocolate mixture into the Egg mixture, whisking continuously.

Sift the Flour into the mixture and add a tiny pinch of Salt; gently whisk to combine.

Butter the insides of two 200-250 ml ramekins; optionally dust with Cocoa to coat bottom and sides.

Fill the ramekins with the batter.

My batter was about 325 ml and my ramekins are only 175 ml so the batter came up higher than I would have liked; fortunately it didn't overflow!

Chill in the fridge for at least an hour. You want them to be cold when they hit the oven so the outside bakes to become cake-y while the inside remains unset.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Remove the ramekins from the fridge and bake about 10 minutes until the outside sets and the liquid sheen on the top disappears.

Serve immediately in their ramekins with a spoon.

(You might be able to invert these and gently release the cakes from the ramekins, but I've read that this is almost impossible. It might be facilitated by lining the ramekins with parchment, but bakers better than me use bottom-less baking circles lined with buttered parchment set atop parchment-lined baking sheets.)

Now the results... I cooked these directly from the fridge on the chilled baking sheet for 11 minutes. Then I inverted the less-risen one on the left to release it -- disaster!

An examination of the ramekin showed that there was only a hint of cake forming around the outside, and nothing on the bottom to encase the liquid center: it needed a lot more time in the oven. I put the taller one back in for another few minutes and you can see it rose a little more.

Improved rise but still not set below

But this one too lacked any cake structure at the bottom and barely any around the sides -- just a little around the top edges. I need to adjust the time and heat to cook the cake on the bottom and sides.

Happily, it looks like my 175 ml ramekins will barely hold the batter and the soufflé-like top is quite appealing. Silicon baking molds might allow the heat to penetrate better and possibly release cleanly, but the shock of inverting the mold onto a plate still risks breaking the cake shell.

Next time... Don't use a chilled or even room temperature pan below the ramekins: it prevents heat from circulating around the bottom.  Increase the cooking time, to at least 15 minutes.  Perhaps remove the ramekins from the fridge while the oven is preheating to allow the ceramic to warm up a bit and give the lower part a chance to heat through; experiment by taking one ramekin out early, and/or by baking one 5 minutes longer than the other. Perhaps try spooning cooled batter into room temperature ramekins, or baking room temperature batter. Lots of things to try. 

Second Try: 20 minutes -- cake-y all the way through

This time, I used better chocolate: 84% Cobertura Negra de Guayaquil Extra Bitter from Parami.

More importantly, I did not place anything below the ramekins (to let air circulate), and baked for 20 minutes at 200C.  It was cake-like all the way through -- including the bottom -- with just a hint of not-quite-liquid chocolate in the center.  At 15 minutes I saw liquid chocolate flowing out of the top like lava (onto the oven floor, oops), so I left it in another 5 minutes -- maybe I should have taken it out at 15.

Interestingly, they were set enough that they (barely) released, because they were almost as firm as a muffin or cupcake.

Next time, try 18 minutes, or maybe one at 15 and the other at 18 minutes.