Berenejena con Miel

I first tasted this dish in Cordoba, supposedly where it originated. The eggplant was cut into french fry-like strips and the miel was drizzled over them. It's become a comfort food for me!
I've since heard from a reliable food historian that this is a fairly recent dish, not as ancient as I had hoped. But the salt-sweet is an ancient fusion treat.

3 large aubergines/eggplant
sea salt
sunflower oil (for frying)
4T miel de cana

Batter:
150g chickpea flour
1/2t bicarbinate of soda
200ml seltzer


Slice the eggplant into rounds about 1/4-inch thick. Salt lightly and leave in a strainer at least 20 minutes to drain.
Make the batter. Place the flour, soda and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Make a hole in the middle. Slowly drizzle the water onto the dry ingredients and whisk vigorously. Make sure the batter is completely smooth. Cover the put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
(You could also substitute your favorite tempura batter for this batter. But the more authentic is with chickpea flour.)
Rinse off the eggplant and pat dry.
Using a deep fry pan, place enough safflower oil to cover the pan by 1/4 inch. Put the pan on high flame.
One by one, dip the eggplant slices into the batter. Gently place them in the hot oil gently. Don't crowd the eggplant, give them room to move around. Flip so they are golden brown on each side. When done frying, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on paper towel. Continue until all the eggplant are done or you've run out of batter.
To serve, set the eggplant rounds decoratively on a plate and drizzle with miel. Serve warm.

Rape Andaluz con Miel y Azafran

Scarlett and I referred again to Robert Carrier's Great Dishes of Spain for this AMAZING dish. The directions were a little wonky, so we modified this one, too.
Monkfish is UGLY and hard to clean, so if you can get someone else to do that for you, you're lucky. But the taste is spectacular. It flakes fat and the bones are pretty easy to remove.

175g/6 oz seedless raisins, plumped in hot water
175g/6 oz (appx 4) small monkfish tails or (appx 2) sea bass
olive oil
1/4t crushed dried chilies
1/4t cracked black pepper
1/2t powdered cinnamon
1/4-1/2t saffron threads
350g/12 ox Spanish onion, diced
2T cilantro, chopped
4T miel (or 3T molasses and 1T brown sugar)
4T unflavored rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
sea salt

Boil about 1 cup of water. Place the raisins in the hot water and set aside.
Prepare marinade of 4T olive oil, 4T water, chilies, black pepper, cinnamon and saffron threads. Mix well.
Marinade the prepped fish for at least 30 minutes in. Turn the fish at least once. RESERVE the marinade.

When ready to cook, add 4T olive oil to 12-inch frying pan. When the oil is hot, place the fish in the pan and saute on each side until seared. Remove the fish from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add onions and saute until transparent. Add more olive oil if necessary and brown the onions. Add the reserved marinade juices. Add cilantro. Stir in the honey, vinegar and drained raisins. Turn the heat to low and simmer sauce for 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt.
Return the fish to the sauce pan, making sure the liquid covers the fish. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 5-8 minutes or until the fish is warmed through.
Serve with rice, millet or couscous to absorb the juices!

Arroz Negro

One of my favorite seafood dishes is rice with squid ink and calamari. It's earthy and very satisfying. This is a riff on Robert Carrier's Great Dishes of Spain. It's his ingredients list and quantities but I've modified how you put it all together.


1.2 liters/2 pts fish stock
6T olive oil
350g/12 oz baby squid, cut into thin rings
1.2 Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
125g/5 oz ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, finely chopped
1 Tblsp pimenton dulce
1 tsp sea salt
350g/12 oz paella rice
3 small packets squid ink

Put the fish stock in a 3 qt pot with a lid. Covered, bring the stock to a low, rolling boil.
In a 4 qt pot with a lid, heat the olive oil until sizzling. Saute squid for 3-4 minutes. Add onion and garlic; Saute until onions are transparent. Add tomatoes, pimenton and salt; mix well. Add rice and stir.
Pour half the fish stock over the rice and simmer for 10 minutes.
Mix the squid ink in the remaining fish stock. Then pour the inky fish stock into the rice and mix well. Cook about 10 minutes more or until the rice is cooked through. Add more hot water if necessary.
The rice should be fluffy and tender but with a little bite.
Cover the pan, remove from heat and let the pan rest at least 5 minutes before serving.

If you want a little more color to the dish, add steamed and shelled langoustines and finely diced red pepper as garnish.

Habas con Jamon

This is a really simply dish and can be ready in a flash. If you don't have habas, you can substitute lima beans. I think this would be great with pinto beans or black beans, too.

Habas are freshest in May. If you can get ones picked in May then frozen, that's second-best. You can get them dried and rehydrate before cooking. Your last bet is canned or preserved; they tend to be both mushy and tough. Blech.

Oil
Jamon
Habas

Roughly chop the jamon and quickly fry on high heat in oil in a skillet; just enough to get the jamon wet with oil. Add the fresh or frozen habas. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the beans are cooked through. Salt to taste.

Las Tomasas and A View

Angeles wanted to watch the sunset from the Albazin for a view of the Alhambra in the pink and purple glow of early evening.

I was in search of a restaurant where we could watch and dine. We lucked out at Las Tomasas on Carril de San Agustín, 4 in Granada. And I promised her this was the most romantic dinner she had to endure with me :)

We arrived a bit early, 8:45 p.m. We rang the buzzer to be let in. After descending a few staircases, we were greeted by a waitress with a list. She asked our name. We explained that we didn't have a reservation but would like to have an early seating. We then learned that this place has only ONE seating(!) and they were fully booked. Egads. Now that we has seen the view, we became tenacious and pleaded gently but persistently.

We got our wish. A 2-top was brought down from the bar and set for dinner. This part of the terrace straddled large patios on either side. We were exposed to every guest who came in but once they were seated, we enjoyed quiet and some privacy (and no screaming kids).
One thing I've learned from ordering wine in the south of Spain is that people tell you the wine is dry but.it never is -- ever. It's always sweet. Tired of trying, we ordered a Calvente muscot (I love this label).

Our entrees were spectacular. Angeles had 2 types of mushrooms in manchego and cream. Divine. I had the monkfish/rape with a mushroom sauce, asparagus a wee spinach samosa with curry! Gluttonous, we ordered two desserts: the turron ice cream and lasagna de piononos “Casa Isla”, a 7-layer cake.

Gachas and Haira Connection

When tasting Paco's tomato base for gachas, it tasted familiar. I just recalled what it reminded me of -- harira!

Similarly, sofrito is a tomato base used extensively in dishes throughout Andalucia. Although there are MANY variations (especially when you factor in all the Caribbean and Latin American localized versions), they all have tomato, onion and olive oil in common.

Even though tomato is a New World food and thus not a part of my research for this cookbook, it's introduction to the Old World was profound.

Arroz a Banda

I had heard about this classic, two-course dish but wasn't able to taste it until I made it myself. Scarlett Farrow, my Alpujarran cooking amiga, found two recipes. One used tomatoes which was too New World for me, so we modified the Old World recipe. I've made it twice now and it's fantastic!
Since this is a two-course dish, you will need to be comfortable having two pots going at the same time. If you're tentative about this, enlist a cooking buddy.

Banda
0.5 pkt of saffron threads
60ml olive oil
100gms calamari rings
2 onions, diced
500gms potatoes, peeled and cubed
Ground cinnamon, sweet (dulce) pimientón and crushed dried chillies
2 tbsp flat leafed parsley, chopped
300ml fish stock, preferably made from the heads and bones of the fish you are using
500gms of a variety of meaty fish - filleted and cut into large chunks
150gms raw, shell-on prawns
12 clams, in their shells, cleaned and soaked in cold water
12 mussels, in their shells, cleaned and soaked in cold water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small dish, soak the saffron threads in a little bit of hot water. Let sit.
In a 10 quart pot, warm olive oil on medium heat. When the oil is heated through, saute the calamari rings for about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In the same pot, saute the onions until translucent but do not brown them.
Add the potatoes and brown them.
Add cinnamon, sweet pimienton and chillies. Mix well.
Add the fresh parsley. Mix well.
Add half (150ml) of the fish stock and the saffron (including the soaking water). Mix well.
Cover and simmer until the potatoes are almost fork-tender.
Place the meaty fish on top of the vegetables to steam. Cover and cook until the fish begins to flake. Do not stir.
Add the remainder of the fish stock and bring to a simmer.
Add the calamari rings and shellfish to steam. Do not stir.
When the shells have opened, this dish is done. Remove from heat but keep covered until you are ready to serve it.

Arroz
0.5 packet saffron
90ml olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
350gm Calasparra or Paella rice
900ml fish stock, preferably made from the heads and bones of the fish you are using

In a small dish, soak the saffron threads in a little bit of hot water. Let sit. (This is not a typo. It's separate from the saffron you used in the fish.)
In a 3-quart pot, warm the olive oil on medium heat. Saute the garlic.
Add the rice. Stir. Cook until the rice changes color.
Add the fish stock and saffron (and soaking water). Stir well. Cover and let cook 25-40 minutes (use the rice package instructions as a guide). When tiny holes appear in the rice, uncover and let the fish stock evaporate.

Serve the rice as your first course.

Serve the fish and potatoes next.

Scarlett likes to serve it with alioli and salmoretto but I like it as-is. Yum.