Fresh Fig Tart

28 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by fincafood in Starters, Sweet Things, Techniques

My fig trees are behaving themselves this year. We planted four varieties – actually that is not strictly speaking true – we planted three varieties and another planted itself. It could not have worked out better though. The trees we planted were an early black variety called La Breva, which has a very early small crop in May, followed by its main crop of very sweet large fruit throughout the month of July going into August. As these come to an end the green figs start to ripen. One tree has large fruit for eating and the other smaller fruit for drying. The do-it-yourself tree crops from June to October with small black very sweet fruit that are good to eat or dry. I wish that I knew which variety it was then I could reccomend it.

The above description is how the trees are supposed to behave, but some years, depending on the weather, all the trees crop at the same time which makes quite a lot of work to deal with them.

The surplus Breva are made into Caramelised Fig Jam which is sold throught the farm shop and is very popular. The small figs are dried for the winter. As for the sun dried tomatoes, I use a fold out clothes drier with a sheet of mesh or fabric pegged to it to make a flat surface, and place it in a spot with all day sun and a breeze. Leave the figs whole and just place on the mesh. Bring them in at night so that they are not re-moistened by the dew. Turn them each day. I have problems with bugs getting in the green figs, but not the black ones. I think that this is because the end where the flower was on the green ones, it leaves a little hole that the bugs can use as an entrance. I am experimenting at the moment with stopping up this hole with a paste made from bread and water. I will report back on success or lack of it.

The fresh figs are complemented by anything salty, so are very good with Serrano Ham or salty cheese as in the above salad of Oak Leaved Lettuce, La Breva Figs, Goats Cheese, and Fresh Mint dressed with Basamic Syrup.

For eating as a sweet, try putting them into a tart.

For a shallow 28 cm diameter tart tin

500 gms fresh figs

100 ml thick cream

3 large eggs

Fresh or bought puff pastry to line the tart tin

250 gms crema de almendras / 200 gms ground almonds and 50 gms sugar

This is a very quick and easy tart to prepare particularly if you are using bought puff pastry.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Roll out the pastry and lay out in the tart tin. You will see from my photos that I like to line the tart tin with baking parchment, it just makes it that little bit easier to slide the tart out of the tin.

Wash and dry the figs. Cut them into quarters. Arrange them on top of the pastry close together and in a pattern that pleases you.

Mix together the eggs, cream and almond cream or ground almonds and sugar.

When well amalgamated, spoon evenly over the figs.

Bake for 1 hour at 180 C until golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving.

Boquerones en Vinagre

25 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by fincafood in Fish, Food for One, Snacks and Tapas, Starters

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……..or Smelts in Vinegar. The word Smelt does not excite the imaginary palate in quite the same way as the word Boqueron. I assume its origin is from the word boca which translates as mouth and that Boqueron means a mouthful. And a delightful mouthful it is, whether dusted with flour and fried whole or marinated in vinegar as in this recipe which I was describing to my friend Andy while in France last week, and so it brought it to mind to share with you too.

This is regularly served as a tapa in Spanish bars. A couple of the fish will be presented atop a slice of fresh stick bread and sometimes with a good dollop of Allioli between the bread and the fish.

Cut the heads off your fresh smelts and open them out flat by opening along the belly and moving the flesh away from the bones on one side. There is no need at this point to remove the bones or the guts.

In a shallow dish that will take all the fish in one layer, pour enough white wine vinegar to cover the bottom of the dish. Lay the fish with the flesh side down into the vinegar.

Continue with all the fish putting them neatly side by side in the vinegar and then add more vinegar to just cover the layer of fish.

Put in the fridge for an hour so that the vinegar can ‘cook’ the fish.

Remove the fish one by one from the vinegar and remove the bones and guts. Lay in a clean dish.

When you have done them all, pour over a generous amount of extra virgen olive oil and season the dish with finely chopped garlic and parsley. I added some chopped fresh green chillis as well, which are not traditional, but I like a bit of spice with my fish. Having a lime farm, and consequently having a lime or two lurking about, I have used lime juice in place of the vinegar in this recipe which works very well and makes it more of a Ceviche, especially if you substitute fresh coriander for the parsley. Lemon juice should work too, although I haven’t tried it.

Put back in the fridge for half an hour or so for the flavours to develop and then serve with fresh bread.

Veal and Mortadella Rolls with Orecchiette

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by fincafood in Main Courses, Shopping

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I am in the Alps this week, in theory escaping from the Spanish heat to the glacial coolness of the mountains, but France is in the midst of a heatwave. Even so, the nights are lovely and cool.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel is only ten minutes away, so I love to go through for an Italian fix while I am here. The Aosta Valley is so beautiful with its grey stone houses topped with huge round slates that over time develop wonderful hues, castles and fortresses that in ancient, and probably not so ancient times, were bases from which to defend the valley and rushing rivers that even at this time of the year are frothing with melt water from high up the mountains. The steep sides of the valley are terraced and planted with neat rows of vines each with a pretty rose bush at the end to act as an early warning system for mildew. Lower down are orchards of fruit trees enclosed by dry stone walls that have been there for centuries. In the high alpine meadows graze herds of cattle which provide the milk for the best butter that I have ever tasted, and a range of distinctive cheeses. Bleu d’Aoste, Fontina and Fromadzo as well as fresh cheeses that have to be eaten within a couple of days of being made.

For me, one of the joys of travelling is to be able to sample fresh food in its place of origin. I love Mozerella di Bufala, which in theory is available outside Italy, but until you have tasted it in Italy, you haven’t really tried it. The lightness is just not equal in the Mozerella for export. A new find for me is Burratina, a variation of Mozerella that is even lighter and creamier in the centre. So I have to buy some to take back to France to share with my friends.

I am having a group of chums round so that I can catch up with them in my brief stay here. This is the dinner that I prepared for them.

To start a salad of Batavia, fresh and sundried tomatoes dressed with pesto, toasted local walnuts, all topped with a generous portion of Burratina.

Veal and Mortadella Rolls with Orecchiette Pasta – For 8

Belly of veal in slices, 1 slice per person

Mortadella in a piece

Olive oil for frying

1 onion, finely chopped

5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

white wine

fresh or dried thyme

salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 carrots

butter for frying

Orecchiette

Cut each slice of veal belly in two. Cut the mortadella into batons that will fit with the width of the veal slices. Wrap the veal round the mortadella and secure with a cocktail stick. Season them with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a shallow pan that has a lid and will take all the rolls in one layer. Fry the rolls turning them to lightly brown them on all sides.

Add the chopped onions and garlic, and continue frying for five minutes.

Add the white wine to come to just over half way up the rolls. Add a pinch or two of thyme.

Cover and cook at a simmer for an hour, turning the rolls after half an hour. Turn the heat down to the minimum and continue cooking for another hour and a half. By this time the sauce should have reduced slightly and be a thicker consistency. If the sauce reduces too much and the dish becomes dry, add a little chicken stock or water.

Peel and slice the carrots. fry in butter in a covered pan turning from time to time until golden on both sides. Add to the veal rolls.

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water to which a splash of olive oil has been added until al dente.

Remove the veal rolls to a warm dish and remove the cocktail sticks.

Add the pasta to the white wine sauce and stir to amalgamate.

Serve a mound of pasta topped with two veal rolls per person.

For dessert freshly made Peach Ice Cream served with fresh peaches and a Ginger Biscuit.

Chicken with Garlic and White Wine

16 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by fincafood in Food for One, Main Courses

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This is an everyday dish that is full of flavour and has a sophistication that belies its simplicity. And its just as easy to make for one or eight. Although the sauce looks creamy, it doesn’t contain cream and is not brimming over with calories.

A simple dish like this only needs simple accompaniment – plain boiled potatoes or pasta. If you like you can take the flesh off the bones of the chicken and reheat it with the sauce to go with pasta. A fresh crisp green salad on the side would complete the meal.

Per person

1 leg of chicken

2 cloves of garlic

white wine

olive oil or butter

salt and pepper

In a shallow pan that has a lid, heat a small amount of either oil or butter.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and fry until lightly browned on all sides.

Peel and slice the garlic and add to the pan with the chicken. Continue frying for a few more minutes to lightly brown the garlic.

Add enough white wine to come half way up the chicken. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 40 minutes turning the chicken every 10 minutes or so.

After this time the sauce should have reduced, thickened and become creamy looking. If it still looks too liquid, continue cooking with the lid off until it thickens.

Check the seasoning and serve. As simple as that!

You can of course vary the flavourings. Any type of mushroom can be added at the same time as the garlic. Fresh chopped tarragon added half way through the cooking turns it into Tarragon Chicken. For a more robust dish, fry some lardons of smoked bacon with the initial frying of the chicken and then continue with the rest of the recipe.

Ensalada Murciana

09 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by fincafood in Food for One, Snacks and Tapas, Vegetable Dishes

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This is one of those wonderfully successful recipes that have been created by a problem. In the hot summers of southern Spain, the skins of vegetable fruits become very tough and unpalatable, so skinning them for salads is essential. So a salad was created that consisted of skinned tomatoes and red peppers, garlic, olive oil, fresh oregano and salt. The the sum of the parts becoming greater than the individual items.

The ideal is to char the skin of your vegetables over an open fire or barbeque so that you get a subtle smokey flavour to the salad. It is just the thing to do on that barbeque fire that is now at its peak, now that you have finished cooking the meal. But to do that requires planning ahead and having the tomatoes and peppers already in the house.

Life is not always ideal so in the event that you don’t have a fire available, then the tomatoes and peppers can be held over a gas flame turning them slowly until the skins blacken all over. The skin on the tomatoes will split when cooked enough to peel. The red peppers need to be really quite black before they will peel easily. It is almost impossible to have them too black. Put the peppers to cool in a covered plastic container to help retain the moisture in the fruit.

Peel the vegetables as soon as they are cool enough to handle retaining any juice that comes out of the peppers.

Cut into bite sized pieces and put in a dish with the pepper juice.

Very finely chop a clove of garlic and add to the salad.

Season with salt, a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil and plenty of chopped fresh oregano.

Leave – not in the fridge – for about an hour for the flavours to meld before serving.

A Summer Lunch

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by fincafood in Snacks and Tapas, Starters

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The sultry summer heat dampens the appetites both for eating and for spending a lot of time preparing food. The mediterranean style of serving several little dishes of fresh and stimulating food is the way to go.

Fresh Figs with Serrano Ham

Pimientos Padrones Fried

Ensalada Murciana

Baby Squid Stuffed with Hazelnuts and Raisins

Prawn Fritters

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto with Italian Crispbread

Here is the recipe for the Prawn Fritters or Tortillitas de Gambas.

The fame of these delicious fritters has spread from Cadiz where they originate, to the whole of Spain – and now beyond. Once you have tasted one you can see why.

I first had them in Granada. It was the end of a warm June afternoon spent exploring the Albaicin, the old arab quarter of the city, the narrow streets dividing the beautiful houses full with the scent of orange blosssom and honeysuckle. We came across a rose draped square high up the hill with views out over the city and so installed ourselves outside a cafe with expectations of crisp cool white wine accompanied by a tasty local morsel.

The waiter brought us a list of the tapas available. When faced with such a list I always choose something that I have not tried before. So the toritillitas were ordered.

The ice cold wine arrived and shortly after the Tortillitas. Tiny shrimp still in their shells which add to the crispness of the fritters of light batter flavoured with garlic, onions and parsley. They arrive sizzling hot to your table.

Made with Camerones, a tiny brown shrimp found in the marshy coastline around Cadiz and Sanlucar de Barrameda, these are poor mans food turned culinary delight. These shrimp do not find their way to the area of spain where I live very often and when they do I have to make the Tortillitas. In the meantime I use small peeled prawns, which are a good enough substitute.

The key ingredient in the batter is chickpea flour. Gram flour to Indians. It is the same flour as used in Onion Bahjis. Chickpea flour has a slightly sour taste to it which goes very well with fish, but its main attribute is that it crisps wonderfully when fried. Use it to coat fish or vegetables before frying. As a bonus it adds extra protein, but that is not why it is there.

As with all recipes, there is no one that is the definitive, and asking my Spanish friends for the best recipe for these fritters, each one gave me a different one. Some use all chickpea flour, some mix half and half chickpea and wheat flour, some swear by using only a coarse ground wheat flour called Recia. So after much experimentation, this is my favoured mix. The chickpea flour for crispness and sourness, the wheat flour for smoothness. The addition of chilli is not traditional, but I love a bit of spice with my fish.

For enough for 6 people

Chickpea flour – 60 gms

Wheat flour – 40 gms

Shrimp or peel prawns – 100 gms

Garlic very finely chopped – 2 cloves

Parsley finely chopped – 1 tablespoon

Chilli finely chopped – to taste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

water
150 – 180 ml

Oil for frying – either sunflower or olive

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add water to make a thin batter.

If you are not sure about the amount of water try frying a sample fritter.

Heat oil in a shallow frying pan to a depth of about 1 cm. When it is hot put in a tablespoonful of the batter. It should spread out into a thin fritter. If the batter is too thick to spread, then add more water to the mix.

Fry a few at a time on a brisk heat until crisp and light brown.

Serve immediately.

fincafood

~ culinary and horticultural life on a Spanish farm

Monthly Archives: August 2012

Fresh Fig Tart

Boquerones en Vinagre

Veal and Mortadella Rolls with Orecchiette

Chicken with Garlic and White Wine

Ensalada Murciana

A Summer Lunch