Spanish Food, pt 1

Our first week here Lee bought me an early Christmas present of two Spanish Cookbooks.  So, I have been concocting some delicious and beautiful dishes.  I can report on some of the good things I have eaten, including how I made them. Likewise everything is in metric, so since anyone who will read this uses an American system, I will change it the best I can.  The recipes take lots of space and quite a bit of work to translate and convert, so I’ll save a couple of my favorites for another day.

Huevos Rellenos Dulces (Sweet Stuffed Eggs)

6 Hard boiled eggs

2 raw eggs, beaten

1 c ground almonds

1 c bread crumbs (or crushed corn flakes or similar)

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c flour

oil

1. Cut the hard boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks.  Mash them well with the sugar and almonds.

2. Stuff the filling back into the egg halves to make them look like a complete egg.

3. Pass the egg halves through each of the following: flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs and fry them in hot oil until they are golden brown.

4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve!

Huevos Rellenos (Savory Stuffed Eggs)

8 hard boiled eggs

1/2 lb hake, or other white fish

1/2 c tomato sauce

3 T flour

3 T butter

1 c milk

nutmeg, salt, pepper

• Boil the fish just a couple minutes with salt. Drain, remove skin and bones and shred. 
• Mix fish with tomato sauce to make a mixture for stuffing.  Stuff the egg whites.
• In a sauce pan melt the butter and add the flour.  Cook several minutes as a roux, add the warm milk.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Cover the eggs with the sauce and decorate with the whole egg yolks.

 

Calabacines y Patatas Rellenos de Valdelagorfa (Stuffed Zucchini and Potatoes from Valdelagorfa)

2 medium zucchini

1 1/3 lbs ground pork

2 garlic cloves

3 Tb flour

1/2 med onion

2 ripe tomatoes

2 potatoes

2 eggs

parsley

water

salt, pepper

1.  Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare the filling by mixing the meat, diced garlic, 2 T flour, diced parsley, eggs.  Season well with salt and pepper.  Cook in a frying pan till nearly done.

2. Wash the zucchini and potatoes, cut them lengthwise in half and core out a section of each.  Salt and pepper each.  Put 1/2 t. of butter in the center of each potato half.

3. Fill the empty center of the vegetables with the filling.

4. Place the zucchinis and potatoes in a baking dish and fill with 1/4” of water.  Cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes until tender.

5. Put the extra vegetable pieces, with the diced tomatoes, and diced onion in a pan and sauté them to make a sauce, adding 1 T flour and water if necessary.  Put sauce over the vegetable before serving.

*Note: Surprisingly, the zucchinis are MUCH better than that potatoes, so the second time we made it I didn’t both with any potatoes and we enjoyed it with just zucchini.

Conejo Despatarrado (Rabbit)

I think I would have been shocked to find a complete hare in a Boston grocery store, but here it seems to be pretty standard.  No skin or ears, don’t worry, it looked mostly like meat and bones.

1 rabbit, ~3 lbs

1/2 c onion

1/2 c. chopped carrots

10 toasted almonds

1/2 c oil

1/2 c water

parsley, salt

1. Prepare the rabbit by removing any entrails etc and lay him chest down in a baking dish.   Cover with the oil and water and surround by the chopped onion.  Season with salt and pepper.

2. Chop the carrot into tiny pieces, and the almond and parsley.  Mix well.

3. Heat the oven to 350 and when it is hot, put in the rabbit and cook it 20-30 minutes.

4.  Cover the meat with the carrot mixture and cook an additional 20-30 minutes until the meat is done.

*Note: When I made this the water boiled and sprayed oil all over my oven.  I would put a tinfoil tent over to keep the mess contained.  The meat was so, SO tender.  It had a taste like chicken, but moister.

Many, many recipes call for azafran, or Saffron.  Saffron is cultivated here and you can find it in any supermarket, but it is also the world’s most expensive spice.  This packet held about 1/4 tsp and cost the same as a jar of any other spice.  I’ve only used it once.