I had really worked up an appetite.

For lunch we didn’t have a traditional sit-down meal, but instead tried a number of tapas.  Tapas are similar to little appetizers or snacks that the Spanish eat during the day.  They can be almost anything.  We began with a tortilla espanola:

This is just a potato and egg omelet cooked in a pan with olive oil.  Many times other ingredients are added, though this particular one was plain.  Notice the olives in the photo, too.  No meal is complete without olives.

Next tapa, some jamon serrano:

This is ham that has been cured and very thinly sliced.  It is amazingly delicious; it just melts in your mouth.  (It is much better than prosciutto, if you were wondering)

Next, some calamares:

This is just simply fried squid served with a lemon wedge.  It is probably the freshest squid I have had.  I say that because it was very tender; perhaps it is just the best cooked squid I have ever had.

Next, some mushrooms and garlic:

Delicious, of course, as was the asparagus that came next:

After that, some chicken wings and fried potatoes:

At this point, I was beginning to feel slightly full, but I managed to push on to the next course, beef and more fried potatoes:

Finally dessert.  More flan!

This one was a little different with nutmeg sprinkled over the top.  It was good, of course.  It seems like we eat a lot of flan (like flan every day) but each one it slightly different from the last so it’s not always the same thing.  Stay tuned for more!

In need of coffee, I headed to breakfast.  The breakfast at the hotels is always similar, but always good.  Once again we have cheese and meat for breakfast:

There is some toast, some sliced chorizo, some of the smaller cooking chorizo links, fresh pineapple, brie, and finally some Spanish Tetilla, a really good mild cheese.  My mother also picked up a small container of pate that was the size of BBQ sauce at McDonald’s.  It was so cute I took a picture but apparently it didn’t taste that great:

After breakfast we were off to Sevilla for a couple of days.  For lunch that day we stopped at the 3 de Oro after a morning of sight-seeing.

I knew I was in for a fresh meal when I saw a pheasant and perhaps a rabbit (?) waiting in the window to be eaten.

Lunch always makes me tired; you are expected to sit for two hours, eat a huge meal, drink wine, then get up and go sight-seeing after?  I’m usually ready for a nap, though it is probably a good thing that we did get up and walk after these meals.  On this particular day, I was excited to see sangria instead of wine on the tables:

A word of warning: sangria is stronger than it appears.  I have now learned this again the hard way.  Some of our group (no names mentioned) were so tired that they were literally falling asleep at the table towards the end of the meal.  You have been warned.

To continue with the meal, we finally got to eat a paella to start the meal:

It was great, except I didn’t get any of the crusty bottom of the paella on my plate.  That is my favorite part. I also gave my mussel to my mom who was upset that her plate didn’t have one.  To continue the meal, I once again chose meat over fish not knowing what was coming.  To my surprise, it was something wrapped in bacon!

Yummy! Bacon-wrapped veal in a mushroom sauce is always a good way to spend the middle of your day.  This was so good that some folks who had asked for fish but do eat meat were a bit disappointed.  Sorry, no leftovers here.  Oh, and don’t worry, there are potatoes there, too.  Meat and potatoes…

For desert we had another flan that had some type of cake or lady fingers along the bottom:

The restaurant had a machine I want for my kitchen.  In goes cream, and out it comes whipped.

For dinner that night, we had a special meal planned at our hotel.  I think that Prof. Rojas was trying to recreate a Thanksgiving meal for us since it was in fact Thanksgiving on this particular day.  We began with a salad:

I’m sure that immediately you notice the giant glob of mayonnaise again.  Don’t be alarmed; there is actually a hard-boiled egg underneath. Along with tomatoes, lettuce, jamon, and ensalada rusa.  The rusa is similar to potato salad, though I’m not sure what is Russian about it.

For our main course, we had pork that looked and tasted very much like turkey:

With potatoes-french fries, of course.  This meal did actually remind me of Thanksgiving with the meat and gravy.  It actually tasted like turkey; could it have been?  Every time you ask a waiter what the meat is in Spain, they answer ‘pork’.  So for the first time on Thanksgiving I can say that I ate a mystery meat Turkey meal.  Check back soon for my eating adventures on day 6!

I especially liked all the hams and garlic hanging in the restaurant:

I’ve actually looked in to buying an entire jamon for myself; unfortunately they are rather pricey.  If you are interested you can get them in the states from latienda.com.  Today for lunch we had the best wine of the trip:

It was a lovely Rioja.  As you can see, we started with some delicious jamon serrano, chorizo and lomo.  These are all types of embutidos.  I love this stuff.  I could sit and eat a whole plate of it.  (Oh wait-I just did that!).  For the next course we had a revuelto with shrimp.  A revuelto is like an omelet or scrambled eggs with different ingredients mixed in:

For the main course, it was meat and potatoes again:

Not just meat, but pork again.  Spain is pork heaven.  I think that I’ve eaten pork in some form at almost every meal.  I’m sure that it is extremely healthy.  That is why Spaniards are so small and thin, right?  At this restaurant I had my choice of two types of pork; either leg or cheek.  I went with the leg, which is pictured here, although the cheek looked really good as well.  I know that we had dessert, but I must have forgotten to photograph it.  (Too much wine…)

Later for dinner that night we started with a pate of mariscos or shellfish:

Here we also see the Spanish love affair with mayonnaise.  They love to put a big gob of it on everything, especially salads.  The use corn often in salads too, as seen here, and it is better than the mayonnaise.  For the next course it was fish:

This was a fried hake, or merluza.  It came with an almost ratatouille like side dish.  It was delicious.  But it didn’t end there.  For the main dish, more meat and potatoes:

These were sort of like little pieces of steak that must have been pan-fried or cooked on the grill.  They came with french fries as you can see.  Dessert was really good-a mix of different things:

There were two types of pears-one poached in wine on the upper right and on the bottom left was a pear cooked in some other way; I’m not sure how.  Also-right in the middle was like a chocolate ganache with what I think were goji berries on top.  At the top of the plate is a piece of flan, and at the bottom a piece of tocinillo de cielo, a kind of rich flan.  I can’t believe I ate all of this food in one day.  And tomorrow more…

To begin the meal, we started with some fried fresh white fish and also salmorejo, which is similar to a gazpacho:

The garnish here is crumbled egg and diced jamon serrano.  This salmorejo was delicious.  If you like gazpacho, which is a cold soup made from tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic, you will love this.  The flavor is a bit more pungent and it is so creamy and thick that you can eat it with a fork.  I have never had it before, but I definitely want to find a recipe.

For the main dish, I chose the churraso, the specialty of the house:

The churrasco is basically a whole pork tenderloin which was cooked very well.  It may not look very appetizing, but it was really good.  They brought around a couple of sauces to try with it, a red and a green, both made from peppers.  I preferred the red sauce as it was slightly more spicy.  And of course, potatoes with the meal.  It may seem that there is a great deal of meat and potatoes, which there is; however we do have the choice usually of 3 or 4 dishes.  One or two of them usually is fish.  I should have tried more seafood, but I hear the words carne de cerdo and I have to go with the pork.

On this particular day, one of our meal choices was the classic Spanish dish rabo del toro, or bull’s tail.  My mother chose this for herself:

I tried it and it was actually very good.  I thought that it would be tough, but it was very tender and fell right off the bone.  It reminded me of brisket or pot roast.  However, it is strange and slightly unsettling to have vertebrae sitting on your plate when done eating:

Here is the size of the coffee next to my giant man-sized hand.  I needed something for scale, so those of you who know me know that this is a very small cup.  Next notice the size of the sugar packet:

The sugar packets in Spain have to be at least twice the size of American sugar packets.  Notice again my hand in the picture for scale.  Even though I drink it black in the states, here I like to indulge in the strong sugary coffee they are accustomed to.  Even my mom drinks it, and she does not drink coffee.  I told her that she’s going to be going through withdrawal when we leave.

For lunch, we all sat in a nice restaurant:

To begin with, we all had these little fritters whose name escapes me.  They were made with cornmeal and some type of fish, then deep fried.  They were very similar to a hush puppy.  On top was freshly grated orange zest which really lightened them up.

It goes without saying that they were amazing.  Next, albondigas which are meatballs.  These were in a tangy tomato sauce:

The meatballs were better than I expected.  I really love having two starters before the main dish.  I could eat like this every day.   I actually think that we had a salad too which I forgot to photograph.  For our main course, you guessed it, meat and potatoes!  This pork was delicious for sure, and topped with some roasted peppers:

We washed the whole meal down with this Spanish Shiraz:

The wine was okay; not good not bad.  For dessert, we had a cream-puff like pastry filled with something resembling cheesecake and served cold.  It was topped with chocolate:

I think that all meals should be served with dessert.  I also enjoy how small the desserts are; this particular one was served on a small plate to give you a sense of scale.  Just a little taste of something sweet after the meal to have with your cafe.

Later on that night we were at the same hotel as the previous night hence the dinner buffet was very similar.  Once again I ate sparingly as this meal I’ve shown you wasn’t finished until 4:30.  But don’t worry; check back soon and I’ll have more to come

You’ve got your typical thin-sliced chorizo and then your thicker cut cooked chorizo in the bottom right hand side.  There is a piece of jamon hiding under my roll, too.    Also your pan, or bread which you eat with every meal.  Add some fresh fruit and a cafe con leche and you’ve got breakfast.

For lunch later that day, we had a big meal.  Lunch is typically the biggest meal of the day.  I forgot what it was like to sit down to a 3 or 4 course meal with wine that lasts a couple of hours.  I wish I could do that during the week at home. The restaurant was called the Venta del Quixote and apparently they serve food found in the book Don Quixote.  Here is a picture of the restaurant:

First course lunch meal:

It wasn’t quite a soup but thinner than salsa, too.  It was basically a dish of roasted tomatoes and garlic with some peppers cooked in a cazuela.  That is that terra-cotta dish it is served in.  On top is a fried egg.  The Spanish put eggs on everything-veggies, rice, burgers and even pizza.  You will surely see a few more eggs later in the trip.  Not that I’m complaining, of course.  This starter was absolutely amazing.  I wish I knew what it was called.  To follow this was the main plate:

Here comes the meat!  This is the first of many meat dishes I will be eating.  They were thin sliced pork chops simply seasoned and fried.  The came with fries.  For desert:

This was a lightly fried crispy pastry that was coated in sugar and cinnamon.  It came with homemade  ice cream that was somewhere in between the consistency of whipped cream and regular ice cream.  It was rich and delicious.  Of course, along with lunch came a bottle of wine and bread also.  After this 1/1/2 hour meal I got back on the bus and slept until we reached Granada.

Luckily that night dinner at the hotel was a buffet, so I could tread lightly.  I just had some salad and that was it.  lunch is so big that 4 hours later I’m just not hungry.  Here was dinner the first night:

And of course no dinner is complete without:

That’s it for day one; I’ll continue soon…

Tortilla de Patata

1 cup plus 3 T olive oil

3 large potatoes or about 2 lbs. peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices

2 t salt

1/2 chopped onion

4 eggs

In a heavy 10 to 12 inch skillet, heat 1 cup of olive oil over high heat until hot but not smoking.  Add the potatoes, sprinkle them with 1 t of salt and turn them about in the pan until they are well coated with the oil.  Reduce the heat to moderate and cook the potatoes for 8 to 10 minutes turning them occasionally.  Stir in the onions.  Continue cooking over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then until the potatoes are tender and golden brown.  Transfer the entire contents of the skillet to a large sieve or colander and drain the potatoes and onions of excess oil.

With a whisk beat the eggs and the remaining 1 t salt until frothy.  Gently stir in the potatoes and onions.  Heat the remaining 3 T of oil in a heavy 8 inch skillet until a light haze forms above it.  Pour in  the omelet mixture, spread it out with a spatula and cook over moderate heat for 2 minutes.  Shake the pan periodically to keep the eggs from sticking.  When the omelette is firm but not dry cover the skillet with a flat plate and, grasping the plate and skillet firmly together, invert them and turn the omelet out in the plate.  Then carefully slide the omelet back into the pan.  Cook for 3 minutes longer to brown the underside, then serve.

In addition to the recipe, I also add in some chopped chorizo and frozen peas when the onions go in.  You could add anything you like, really.

Sopa de Ajo

1/4 c olive oil

1/2 lb stale bread, crusts removed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 3 c)

8 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 t hot pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)

salt

8 c chicken stock

6 poached eggs

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the bread and cook, stirring until golden brown.  Add the garlic, pimenton, and a good pinch of salt.  Cook for about 3 minutes, or until very fragrant.  Add the stock and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the bread is very soft.  Taste and add salt if necessary.  Ladle the soup into six bowls, put a poached egg into each and serve.

Just carrying this thing to the car was a burden, but I survived.  I can’t imagine anyone carrying the 16 qt. goose pot.  I hope that this cookware doesn’t turn into an addiction; the pots all look like little pieces of brightly colored candy that I want to line up on my counter.  For my first meal out of the French oven I made Pollo Casero, as follows, taken from Spain: A Culinary Road Trip. I was eager to test the cookware’s reputation, renowned for it’s even, slow heating of food.

Pollo Casero

One 3 1/2 lb. chicken cut into 8 pieces

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tb kosher salt

2 Tb olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 8 oz. jar pimiento peppers

1 cup dry white wine

Rub the chicken all over with garlic and salt.  Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a pot that will hold the chicken in a single layer.  Working in 2 batches, add the chicken skin side down and brown very well on all sides, about 15 minutes per batch.  Transfer the chicken to a platter.

Add the onion to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes, or until soft.  Add the pimientos and wine, return the chicken to the pot, and bring to a simmer.  Reduce the heat slightly, partially cover, and simmer for 1 hour, or until the chicken is very tender.

My new cookware came through for me, and the chicken turned out great.   It was amazingly easy to clean, as well.  I can’t wait to make all sorts of braises, stews, and other things this winter in my shiny new orange oven.

I had the Carnitas, pictured here:

They were delicious-the meat fell right off the bone.  Tyson had the Carne Asada y Camarones, even though he ordered the Camaraon Poblano Asada: (yes, if you are wondering, that is bacon-wrapped shrimp)

I think that the restaurant is still working out its kinks.  One cool feature is that they make the guacamole tableside while you watch.  I felt bad for our server, he was a little nervous I think, or perhaps too new to the job.   It was good guacamole, though.

This was my mom’s Mexico City Chile Relleno:

This looked deep fried, so I’m sure it was delicious.  For dessert, I really wanted the Mexican Brownie but was told they were out of them, having sold over 100 that day.  I was upset and had  been looking forward to that brownie all day, so instead we ordered the Mexican Apple Pie:

The apple pie, like the brownie, is served on a sizzling skillet with Mexican brandy butter and cinnamon ice cream.  I’m not sure what Mexican brandy butter is, but it was amazing, tasted like buttery goodness, and I can’t wait to try it on a Mexican Brownie the next time I go.

If you’d like to see the menu, check out Cantina Laredo’s menu.

Feeling inspired, but not as inspired as Julie Powell, I decided that I would try some of the simpler recipes when I have a chance.  I began with the ripe tomatoes I had in my kitchen and Julia’s recipe for Tomates a la Provencale.

Tomates a la Provencale

6 firm ripe red tomatoes

salt and pepper

1 to 2 cloves mashed garlic

3 Tb minced shallots or green onions

4 Tb minced fresh basil and parsley, or parsley only

1/8 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp salt

Big pinch of pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup fine, white dry bread crumbs

A shallow, oiled roasting pan just large enough to hold the tomatoes easily in one layer

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the stems, and cut the tomatoes in half crosswise.  Gently press out the juice and seeds.  Sprinkle the halves lightly with salt and pepper.

Blend all the other ingredients together in a mixing bowl.  Correct seasoning.  Fill each tomato half with a spoonful or two of the mixture.  Sprinkle with a few drops of olive oil.  Arrange the tomatoes in the roasting pan; do not crowd them.

Shortly before you are ready to serve, place them in the upper third of the preheated oven and bake for 1o to 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender but hold their shape, and the bread crumb filling has browned lightly.

The tomatoes were very good; I ate them as a meal but I think that they are meant to be a side dish.  If you haven’t seen Julie and Julia yet, I recommend it. I preferred the Julia Child part to the Julie Powell part, though they were both entertaining.  Being too young to have grown up with Julia Child, Meryl Streep’s excellent performance gave me a good idea of the woman who introduced French cooking to America.  And now she has introduced it to my kitchen.  I will keep you updated on the next recipe of Julia Child’s I attempt to make.