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.

Stovetop Skillet Pizza: a slice of disappointment

We miss hosting pizza parties with the wood-fired pizza oven we built in Arlington. In our small Barcelona flat we avoid cranking up an oven -- it gets hot here, and energy is more expensive than in the States. Could we make pizza on the stovetop?

TL;DR: No -- the corona was floppy and the crust gummy instead of crispy.

Classic Margherita: tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, basil

Most recipes for "cast iron pan pizza" build it in the pan but then cook it in a hot oven. The Kitchn has a good post that cooks one side at a fairly low temperature, then flips, tops, and finishes covered to melt the cheese; seems like a good place to start, but we'll make our own dough.

I'm using the same 66% hydration I used for our pizza parties, similar to when we tested steel, stone, and brick for the oven during COVID. The pizza flour we can find here contains sodium carbonate as a leavener which I don't want, so we'll use strong flour (Farina de blat de força) that has 13% protein -- close to the 12.5% that our Italian 00 flour had.

350 g  Flour, strong (13% protein)

  2 g  Yeast (1/2 tsp)

 10 g  Salt (volume depends on coarseness)

230 g  Water

Weigh the dry ingredients into a bowl, stir to combine, make a well, and weigh in the water. 

Stir, combine, and push around to get it to form a shaggy ball.

On the counter, knead enough to get the lumps out; it'll be sticky.

This should be good enough for an extended rise with the high hydration we're using -- the "no knead" technique.

Put back into a covered bowl or lidded tub and let rise slowly in the fridge for 1-3 days; the long slow fermentation develops a lot more flavor than fast rises; it should at least double in size. 

I let it rise 3 days, pulled it out 2 hours before starting to prep and saw it was bubbly -- hopefully not too over-risen. I turned out the 570 g blob onto a floured counter and cut it into three 190 g balls, shaped into balls, and dropped them into lightly oiled containers to rise a bit. I used this time to make a garlic-chili oil and gather toppings.

As the Kitchn says, I cooked the first side in a oiled cast iron skillet for a couple minutes to set it, then flipped and topped.

After topping, I covered with a lid until the cheese melted, and checked the bottom for scorching, and pulled it out when it was browned enough.

Our third came out with the best texture, using level #6 (of 0-9) on our induction cooktop for both sides. But the corona was gummy and the center didn't really seem cooked all the way through. It may be that our elderly induction cooktop doesn't have coils that extend to the edge of our cast-iron pan, but I really don't see how we could ever get a crust like from our pizza oven -- it's just a slice of disappointment. With a certified Napoli-style pizza place a half block from our house, this just isn't worth the time and trouble.

Our best: Mallorcan sobrasada and quail eggs

We'd like to try using the same dough recipe (the texture and quantity were good) but cook it on a barbeque. We've done this before, but we'll need something under it -- aluminum foil? -- or else it'll sag through rack like the clock in Dali's "Persistence of Memory".

Bacalhau com Natas: Portuguese salt cod with cream sauce

Friends of ours mentioned enjoying this while traveling in Portugal and it sounded like fun since I enjoy Bacalao. It turned out well: very rich, creamy, with soft potatoes -- a fine dish for cooler weather. 

Crusty gratin with creamy bacalao and potatoes

This recipe is based on several I found: Crumb-Snatched, We Travel Portugal, Authentic Food Quest, and Portuguese Soul Kitchen. Most boil the fish in water but AFQ's cooks it in milk which makes more sense: it flavors the milk rather than diluting the fish. All the recipes call for Mozzarella for the gratin, but that seems too pizza-like so I used Parmesan and another cheese which I had on hand; you could use only Parmesan.

I'm using frozen Bacalao/Bacallà al punt de sal for convenience, and because it's less expensive than the dry salt cod I reserve for dishes like Pil Pil. If you use dry Bacalao, you'll need to hydrate for 2-3 days in several changes of water. Some recipes suggest using store bought shoestring fries instead of frying potatoes yourself, which I think is clever, but I'm not stooping to that yet. 

This serves 2 generously.

300 g      Bacalao al punt de sal, thawed

200 g      Milk

  1        Bay Leaf

 45 ml     Olive Oil

  1 large  Onion, yellow or white, peeled, sliced

  2 clove  Garlic, sliced

300 g      Potato, peeled, cut into 1 cm cubes

 20 g      Butter

 20 g      Flour

100 ml     Cream

           Nutmeg, grated

           Salt

           Pepper

 25 g      Cheese, Pecorino Romano, grated

 25 g      Cheese, Parmesan, grate

  5 sprigs Parsley, chopped 

If using dried Bacalao, hydrate it 2-3 days in multiple changes of water.

To save time, cook the Bacalao at the same time as you sauté the Onions, then make the bechamel while frying the Potatoes.

In a pot, simmer the Bacalao in the Milk with the Bay, covered on low for 10 minutes.

Drain, reserving the Milk.

Discard any skin, bones, and the Bay.

Flake the fish with fork or fingers.

Onions and garlic on left, bacalao and milk on right

In a skillet, sauté Onion and Garlic in 15 ml Oil until tender.

Add cooked Bacalao and fry 5 minutes; reserve to a cazuela or baking dish.

Coat the bottom of the same skillet with 30 ml Oil and fry the Potatoes until golden and barely cooked through; cover the skillet after developing the crust to speed the cooking.

In the same pot as you cooked the Bacalao, melt Butter and add Flour, whisk to create a paste and cook the Flour for a few minutes.

Slowly add the fishy Milk and cook, whisking continuously until you get a sauce a little thicker than heavy cream

Add the Cream and Nutmeg, then adjust with Salt and Pepper. 

Remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Layer the Potatoes on the Onions/Bacalao in the cazuela and shake to distribute evenly.

Top with the bechamel, and even out again.

Top with grated Cheese.

Bake at 200C for 20 minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Garnish with Parsley.

Serve with a dry white wine.

2026-01-11 Where's the fish?

I made this with Bacalao al punt de sal but the fish seemed to get lost. I think I simmered it too high in the milk, so it fell apart. Next time use a bare simmer, perhaps a little 5 minutes instead of 10, since it's sautéed later. I cooked the Onion, then the Bacalao and Potatoes, in a carbon steel pan and the fish stuck a bit, shredding it further; consider using a pan that's fully non-stick. 

Irene said it was too rich, that the Cream muted the flavor. Reduce it, or omit it, from the Bechamel. We could probably back out the Cheese for the gratin just a bit.