On the road, in Spain

This spring break, with no detailed planing (we bought the tickets a week from departure), the Mrs and I took a road trip through Andalusia. We started in Madrid, went to Granada, circled to Cordoba and then back to Madrid, stopping when curiosity struck. Being Semana Santa only added to the fun.

Molecular gastronomy

After the Prado in Madrid, we felt like a snack and walked into a café. The Mrs asked for a torta española, a traditional omelet made with sliced potatoes and onions. The waitress discreetly shook her head at the Mrs, suggesting it was not good. Upon reading the full name of the dish, Spanish Omelet from the XXI Century, I ordered it despite the admonitions. The omelet was a warm foam: the lighter colored one tasted like french fries and the deeper yellow one of eggs. The foam had a few drops of olive oil and in the bottom of the serving glass a surprise bit of caramelized onions. Different and wonderful.

Click and press n for next photo

Through the trip we also tried foams as desserts and a wonderful ox breast cooked sous-vide.

Oranges

Oranges are everywhere. And the juice is always fresh-squeezed, sometimes from oranges grown nearby.

 

Design

At Santa Cruz de Mudela we came across this form follows content container for an individual serving of olive oil.

I also developed a completely unfounded and known to be wrong theory (but still fun) that the rind of the Manchego cheese is not from the esparto grass baskets, but in imitation of cobblestone patterns found in the Alhambra and throughout Andalusia. Dark cobbles, laid on their side, are used in walkways, typically in a V-pattern, and contrasting with rounder white cobbles.

  

TGRWT 17

Roses and apples seem perfect in a dessert. So the contrarian in me wants to match them in a savory dish. When trying out new flavor combinations I have tried to stick to small variations of well established dishes. I have noticed that people enjoy a bit of a surprise in a dish, but will shy away from too much innovation. I was getting nowhere with the rose and apples in a savory dish.

Then the weather in DC went from winter cold to summer hot in a week. Feeling lazy, my wife and I decided to have lunch from what was in the fridge. She had Indian dosas and I decided to cook the fennel bulb I had bought for a pear and fennel soup I like. Without trying I ended up with an entry for the TGRWT blog event. Round #17 pairs roses and apples and is being hosted by Lisa and Malin from Matmolekyler. I did not use the suggested apple, I have not seen Cox Orange or Elstar apples for sale in my neighborhood, so I hope the recipe counts as an entry.

Sweet and spicy fennel

The heat of the dish comes from a chili sauce and the chorizo sausages. The apple and onions give it some sweetness and the white wine provides the tartness.

This was an on-the-stovetop dish, so the measurements are only approximate. I took one large onion and a fennel bulb of the same size and chopped them into small cubes (3 to 5 mm). I took two small chorizo sausages (3oz each, Wellshire Farms brand) and cut them into pieces of approximately the same size. I sautéed the sausages in oil, removed them from the pan and then sautéed the fennel and onions together. When the onion turned translucent, I added one cup of a sweet Riesling wine in which one tablespoon of a ready made sweet chili sauce had been diluted, added one chopped Golden Delicious apple, and covered the sauté pan, letting it all cook until almost dry. I then added one tablespoon of rose water and some salt, let it cook for a minute and served with the sausages.

Did it work?

After lunch my wife and I shared the last Golden Delicious apple in the fridge. It was surprisingly bland, unlike the apple we had just tasted in the dish. Maybe the rose water, while just a subtle flavor, blended with the apple giving it notes that we have tasted in other apples.

At the table, I added a bit more rose water to my helping, but once the flavor became noticeable it also felt overwhelming. Neither my wife nor I liked it in the stronger version.

TGRWT 16

Chicken with rose water is the pair for TGRWT 16 being hosted by Markus from Supernova Condensate. TGRWT is a recipe blogging event created by Martin from Khymos where ingredients that are not typically seen together must be paired in a recipe.

My idea was to to adapt the Moroccan Djaj bel Loz, a chicken with almonds and honey. Almonds, honey, and rose water are typically combined in Persian cooking, so I thought the whole thing should work together. No suspense here, a few simple experiments will confirm how well the flavors match, but I managed to mess up centuries of cooking experience. In my first attempt the lemon was overpowering and the sauce was not strained, giving it a funny look. The Wife intervened and helped create this better version.

Djaj deconstructed

Djaj, the Arabic for chicken, is a popular ingredient of Moroccan cuisine. A whole chicken, quartered, is typically prepared with onions, lemons, olives, and nuts and cooked for about an hour as a stew. In this dish I try to keep the original flavors but they are made milder and the cooking time reduced to maintain more of the texture of the chicken breast.

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 350g)
• 2 onions
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of raisins (80g)
• 2 tablespoons of almond butter (35g or about 30 almonds made into paste)
• 1 tablespoon of rose water
• 1 oz of rum (30 ml)
• honey
• flour to dust the chicken breasts
• almonds for decoration

The almond butter is just almonds made into a paste. The local supermarket has a machine that grinds the almonds while you wait. You may substitute blanched almonds crushed into small pieces. The rose water was bought at the local ethnic grocer.

1. Pre heat the oven to its lowest setting. Place a sauté pan to warm on the stove top on a medium setting.

2. Sauté the chicken breasts. To sauté the chicken breasts dry them with a paper towel, place some flour in a plate, and roll each breast in the flour. Lift and then shake the breast to remove as much flour as possible. Place a tablespoon of oil in the pan and once warm, the breast, smooth part down. After two to three minutes, flip. Finish cooking. Each breast should take about four to five minutes. Sauté all breasts. Place in an oven proof dish and keep warm in the oven.

3. Fry the chopped onions. Chop the onions into small pieces. Add the other tablespoon of oil to the pan and sauté until golden brown. After you have coated the onions in oil, pour in the rum and scrape the brown bits left from sautéing the chicken. The order may seem wrong, but the rum helps capture some of the flavors of the onions.

4. Add the other ingredients to the pan. Add the ginger, the cinnamon, the almond paste, the raisins, and 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Stir and let boil for about ten minutes.

5. Purée the sauce. Transfer the contents to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth. Be very careful with the steam released when puréeing a hot mixture. Blender cover’s can pop and leaking steam will scald. Once smooth, strain through a sieve. You may need to strain it twice.

6. Return strained sauce to pan and simmer until thick. Add the rose water.

7. Bring the breasts out of the oven and rub them with a thin layer of honey and add some salt. Plate with sauce and almond pieces.

Did it work?

I managed to mess up this recipe the first time, but this second attempt brought it to the serve-to-others level. The credit goes to traditional Moroccan cuisine. One will only notice the rose water if one knows it is there, otherwise it just add brightness to the dish.