Travels and Tastes of Spain ( Part 1)

Madrid

Where to start? Well, 2 babies crying for 7 hrs straight on the plane, maybe a good start.  This made sure that we got to Madrid with only about 2 hrs of sleep between the 4 of us and a lot of ground to cover.  True to our families’ nature we decided that walking the whole old city of Madrid in one day would be a good idea.  We just didn’t count on one thing -  Damn, it is hot in Spain.  And not the “oh, it summer, the sun is shining “ kind of hot, it is like the afternoon sun is scorching through your brain leaving the rest of your body dehydrated and bloated and unable to take a single step.  The shady side of the street provides marginal relief but it does not really make much difference.

After checking out the main Cathedral and the Royal Palace we walked all the way back to Plaza del Sol taking the old city and narrow cobble stone streets around Plaza Mayor.  We sort of stumbled (via the carefully planned route) onto a wonderful Merkato de San Maguel, which provided the first glances into the world of Spanish cuisine. 

Tiny bytes of anchovies and olives, perfect bytes of fresh cheese and tomatoes, glances upon hanging Iberico hams and the sight of the most beautiful fresh sea food, offered just the right amount of mouthwatering anticipation. 

the selection of olives was stuggering

Ceviche so fresh it is almost swimming away

 

Fresh cheese, similar to mozarella but creamier and with a bit of a tang

But it will be a while before we get to eat anything. First we walk, and we walk and we walk… we bake under the 4 p.m. sun, and then we walk some more…  After hours of wondering and trying to ignore the heat, the hunger and exhaustion, we ended up shopping for a new back yard look at the Royal Palace gardens, and here I made the worst of mistakes, I give up the guide book and the map.  For the first time in my life I was too tired to read the map or care where and how we are going.  After numerous amounts coffee, water and wine , all I wanted was a nice nap on any of the green lawns we are passing.  This new city, the sights, no longer interesting, I can only think of my unbending swollen fingers and closing eyes.  I relinquished the map, to my son, who I was hoping, inherited the navigation gene from my side of the family, and who, I was hoping will lead us to food and shelter or at least out of non-ending god damn, royal gardens…. Let’s just say that the only navigator in this family remains to be me…  We did make it out eventually and stopped off for a snack at the most touristy destination imaginable at a café in Plaza Mayor.   Normally I would try and stay away from such places, on the very beaten path, catering to tourists, usually serving crap at most premium price, but we were exhausted, and one thing I learned from traveling with my kids, it is better to just give up and eat anywhere.  There will be plenty of opportunities to look for a perfect meal later.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised; we ended up tasting one of the best prepared octopus dishes we would taste through the whole trip.  Simply sautéed in butter and olive oil, with just salt and pepper, and a bit of smoked sweet paprika, the octopus was prepared perfectly, soft, not chewy; it almost melted in your mouth.  Washed down with a nice bottle of Spanish white, for a price less than a glass in Manhattan, and things were looking up. 

Sauted octopus with Papprika

 

There is a great vibe to Madrid, with locals and tourists alike partying in the streets, drinking, eating, and small winding streets littered with outdoor cafes and restaurants.  We saw none of this the first night, by nine in the evening Madrid has won over our bodies and we were fast asleep.

Madrid has won!

 

The next morning disaster struck, in my tired haze of previous day, as I gave up the guide book to the men in my family, and they managed to lose all of the research I have done for the entire trip.  There were a whole bunch of papers tucked into the pages of the book, outlining what to see and when, in each city, complete with siesta times for all the sites, train schedules and much more.  I spent months on that research and it was now gone, dropped somewhere between Plaza Mayor and god knows where.  On top of that we were practically cut off from civilization as the internet on our phone was not working and hotel wi-fi was going in and out.  I was furious, upset and feeling very cutoff from all my points of reference.  Traveling with just a book like we did for ages, seemed obsolete.  After a few hours I reluctantly agreed to continue with the trip and deal with my I-Phone dependency in private, so we boarded a train to Toledo.  I guess I will just have to travel the old-fashioned way.

Toledo

Toledo becomes breathtaking as you are hiking up the hill toward the city walls and see the old world magnificent gates to the city.  It continues to mesmerize you as you get lost around the narrow winding streets and passages.  Once you get over the bad quality of the map they give you at the train station, you surrender yourself to the flow of the alleys and eventually end up at one of the biggest and most beautiful cathedrals in Europe.  Stroll around the Jewish quarter, visit numerous sword shops and begin looking for a snack and a break from the heat. 

Tiny winding streets of Toledo

As we were taking in the sites in the morning I spotted a charming looking place with a great tapas menu in one of the plazas, but when it came time to find it, we just could not.  We circled around the same area, stumbling on a sleeping basset hound at least five times, but kept ending up at the wrong plaza.  It was like the place was cursed and the woman steering tourists toward a plaza Mayor Eatery was a witch.  Again, we gave into the food fate and just sat down.  After some interesting interactions in Spanish and trying to decipher a menu from which I only understood some general terms we ordered.  Boy, do these Spaniards know their food!  We were served an Iberico pork chop, cooked medium rare, which tasted like haven and melted in my mouth.  It was pure, succulent porkiness at its best and I again marveled at how simply it was prepared.  Spanish white wine from the north regions was beautiful and crisp, and I was sad that in the US we hardly have any Spanish whites.

This cutie was just sleeping in the street.  He bacame less cute with each exausted circle we made ending up at the same place

An unforgettable pork chop

All in all, Toledo was a so far a highlight, as Madrid was not as inspiring as we hoped, the city has a few neighborhoods which can be enjoyed, especially around the museum part of town, but overall it is dirty, laden with beggars and lacking a unique charm.   Since we had one more night in Madrid, we were hoping to find a more charming part of town than what we saw so far, so we headed back anxious to finally eat a celebrated tapas dinner.  We ended up in a small place on a busy restaurant street frequented by locals and finally, finally, got to experience true tapas…. Huge grilled prawns, which squirt juice everywhere as you peel them, grilled Padrone peppers,  toasts laden with tomatoes and ham, grilled tomatoes oozing with caramelized goat cheese , boudin noir ( blood sausage),and a nice bottle of red all for the price of a couple of drinks back home….  Churros dipped into hot chocolate with coffee toped with frozen custard to finish the day and we were ready to move on to Seville.

Grilled King Prawns as sweet as butter and probably the messiest food on the planet

 

 

I was looking forward to seeing the Spanish country side, being that Spain is a fruit basket of Europe, I expected to see lush fields, orange groves and lots of charming little farms.  All we saw were olive trees, millions of them, occupying every foot of land stretching to the horizon.  Rocky, burned out soil and olive trees.  Nothing else, just dusty, grayish olive trees.   For all these olives you would think that olive oil would be sold on each corner, but to my surprise we only saw one tiny shop in Seville and just a few places in Granada selling it. 

Seville greeted us with smoldering heat and a town of ghosts….
To be continued....

Once Upon a Summer....

Once upon a time, there was a big yellow dog, called Nikita....

It may be odd to write about food and loss at the same time.  It may be odd, but it feels right to me, after all, food can make one feel better, calm the grief, even if just for a few minutes.  We lost the sweetest, cuddliest and the smartest dog.  We loved Nikita to the point of obsession and she paid us back with pure devotion.  Something about our relationships with our pets makes the tears run freer and heavier, something about the simplicity of these relationships makes them so hard to give up. They give us a purest for of love attachment, unconditional, uncomplicated, unselfish...and we pay them back by this crazy attachment we them.

Nikita was a good dog, but she was more than that to our family.  She was a master of forgiveness, granting us clemency for springing “the monster of all dogs” upon her senior head.  She was a teacher, first teaching my than toddler daughter to keep her food close and her hair ribbons even closer (Nikita had quite a thing for those)… and then teaching the young “Monster dog” how to properly behave in polite society.  She was a stealth thief with countless achievements, she once stole a sandwich while I was STILL MAKING IT without me noticing it… she once ate a whole basket of corn bread I made for Thanksgiving while I turned my head for one minute… she also stole countless sticks of butter when she was young and would swallow them whole, all keeping an innocent expression: “What? Me? No… Look, I am not even chewing" Nikita was a charmer, everyone loved her until she barked endlessly, begging to play catch.  She was an accomplished swimmer, chasing tennis balls and ducks in the lake, performing for the crowd of on-lookers in the park.  She was my warm pillow in the winter, my comfort on bad days, and someone to always count on to lick the tears off my face.  She was a friend, a constant companion, and I miss her terribly.

Nikita loved the summer and was miserable in the winter.  She would sunbathe on the deck for hours, until her silky fur would become scolding hot, and then she would turn over and bathe some more.  Summer meant ball chasing, hikes and swimming in the lake.  Nikita was our calendar, April through October; she would lounge around on the stairs, moving from step to step with the morning sun.  She never did it in the winter. Somehow she knew when the sun was warm even though the temperature in the house was unchanged.  A big yellow dog basking in the warm rays was the first sign of spring even when it was still cold outside, and when she moved from the stairs to our bedroom in the mornings, it was the first sign of winter.  It never sized to amaze me, how will I be able to tell now?

My heart is heavy now, but I know that all dogs go to heaven, where there is no pain, where there is endless summer with plenty of lakes to swim in and plenty of tennis balls to play with, and hopefully someone to throw them.

She loved summer, and in her memory I can make it last a little bit longer.  This preserved summer peaches recipe is pure sunshine; it is summer in a jar. As I was making these peaches, she was wilting away and has not eaten anything for days, but as I was peeling the peaches she came over and looked interested.   One last beg...I didnt know it would be the last thing she ate...a sweet sunshine peach.

I didn’t want to make peach jam, I wanted to preserve fresh peaches and let them keep their texture and fresh taste so I let the syrup remain liquid.  These sweet, sweet, summer peaches are a perfect complement to ice-cream, morning oatmeal or a bowl of cottage cheese.

Summer in a Jar Preserved Peaches.

10 lbs of peaches pitted and cut to bite size pieces (you can leave the skin on or peel it)

Additional 5 lbs of peaches, pitted, skinned and cut into wedges

5 cups of sugar

Juice of 2 lemons

2 cups of water

1 ½ cups of macadamia nuts (optional)

I use a simple formula, ½ cups of sugar per 1 lb of peaches

First make the preserving liquid by combining the 10 lbs of peaches, water, and sugar and lemon juice in a large stock pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hrs.  Strain out the cooked peaches and continuing to simmer the liquid until it is reduced by at least 2/3.  The process is similar to making jam, but you don’t have to wait until the liquid “Jells” as long as it coats the back of a spoon it is fine.

Once the preserving liquid seems thick enough add the additional peaches and the macadamia nuts.  Turn off the heat and stir once.  Immediately pour into the preserving jars.  I don’t bother with the actual preservation process as I keep my jams and preserves in the fridge, so I just run the glass jars in the dishwasher for a few minutes and pour the preserves while the jars are still very hot.  Tightly lidded they should keep in the fridge for at least a month.

Once upon a time, there was a big yellow dog, called Nikita...sleep in piece, my friend.

Lazy summer day with a memorable menu

The summer is drawing to a close and with only a few lazy weekends left, I feel sad.   I love summer, I am sad to see it go away.  Somehow I still feel entitled to a vacation for the entire length of warm months, must be school kid in me.  The fact that I occasionally need to go to work in the summer irritates me as if I am being interrupted doing something really important ( like lounging around by the pool and drinking wine).  I still have a very great trip to look forward to, but then it will be over.  Hopefully a trip to Spain will fuel me with culinary and writing inspiration to last the winter months. 

Every spring I have the most ambitious cooking projects planned for the summer months, I even though I pretty much get to cook what I wanted, I had virtually no desire to write about them until now.

With August, comes the most beautiful produce of the season, and it is a shame not to capture those flavors.  Corn is sweet and young, figs are abundant and there are 30 pounds of peaches on my kitchen counter waiting to be jammed.  There is also a case of new gadget of mine, a brand new birthday gift of a smoker, which I need to master.  My friends must have had ulterior motives in picking it out, it is almost industrial size, not that I am complaining. 

To capture the season’s flavor and to play with my new toy, I decided on sweet summer corn chowder and a variety of smoked goodies.   The two recipes below turned out to be one of the best things I ever made.  The soup made such an impact that my children who do not like any soups had three helpings each and the ribs were everything a good BBQ should be… succulent, sweet, spicy and just a bit charred.

Any chowder by definition is laden with butter and cream but I had the most silky and beautiful corn chowder which was vegan when I dined in Finger Lakes earlier this summer.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the recipe to re-create this soup, but could not come up with any thickeners other than butter and cream, until I came upon a recipe for corn butter.  It is brilliant and simple and makes this soup (and other dishes) light and healthy.  I did not stick to a fully vegan version as I used chicken stock and crisp pork shoulder as a garnish, but it certainly can be made fully vegan by using vegetable stock and omitting the pork.

 Summer corn chowder.

12 stalks of corn peeled and cornels cut off.  I like the tri-color corn for this as it makes for a prettier color and I find it sweeter.

1 small white onion chopped very fine

2 garlic cloves chopped very fine

1 carrot chopped very fine or pulsed in a food processor to almost a paste

2 small celery ribs chopped very fine or pulsed in a food processor

2 tbs of olive oil

1 cup white wine ( optional)

4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

3 small or medium white or yellow potatoes

5 sprigs of fresh thyme

¼ tsp of cayenne pepper

Salt and white pepper to taste

Cubed smoked pork shoulder or bacon for garnish (optional)

Make corn butter.  Cut of the cornels of the corn stalks by running you knife a full length of the stock.  Reserve about 1/3 of the cornels to use in the soup.  Using the blender on Liquefy setting for good 3 -4 minutes, process the rest of the corn until it a very smooth paste.  You may want to do it batches.  Using a mesh sieve, strain the corn mixture into a heavy bottomed pot.  It is best to use the rubber spatula to push as much of the corn mixture through the mesh.  Cook the strained corn paste on low heat stirring constantly until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes.  At this point you can store it in a fridge for up to a week and use it to flavor anything from sauces, pastas and risottos instead of butter.  The corn butter has an amazing flavor, it is sweet and savory and buttery and luscious. 

To make the soup, heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot, add the onions and the garlic and sauté until translucent.  Add the carrot and celery and cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add the white wine (if using) and cook for a few minutes, until reduced by about half.  Add the corn butter ( you should have about a 1 ½ cups) and the stock.  Add salt, white pepper and cayenne pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.  Peel and cut the potatoes into a small dice (the size of the potatoes cubes should be just a bit bigger than a corn cornel).  Add the potatoes and the reserved corn cornels to the soup and simmer until the potatoes are al dente.  If you wish, you can add a few tablespoons of cream to the soup, but I find it unnecessary, the sweet corn butter really creates a wonderful texture.

To serve, crisp up some cubed bacon or smoked pork shoulder and add to each bowl.  This soup is wonderful served chilled or hot, but I liked it best at room temperature.

Smoked Ribs with Fig BBQ Sauce.

2 full racks of baby baked ribs, trimmed

For the brine

20 cups of water

2 cusp of kosher salt

1 cup of brown sugar

2 tbs of hot sauce

Fresh ginger cut up ( about 1 inch knob)

1 lemon halved

2 tbs of worstershire sauce

2 tbs of soy sauce

2 tbs of smoked paprika

2 tbs of Mexican chili powder

1 tbs of dry mustard

1 tbs of whole fennel seeds

For the Fig BBQ sauce

1 small yellow onion diced

1 inch of fresh ginger cut up

8-10 fresh figs preferably very ripe cut up

1 fire roasted pepper diced

2 tbs of honey

2 tbs of brown sugar

2 tbs of chili powder

1 tbs of hot smoked paprika

1 tsp of cayenne pepper ( more or less to taste)

2 tbs of salt ( less or more to taste)

1 can of pure fire roasted tomatoes

½ cup of ketchup

2 tbs of soy sauce

2 tbs of balsamic vinegar

Prepare the brine by combining all the ingredients in a stock pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Let the brine cool fully.  Place the ribs in the brine, making sure they are fully covered and refrigerate for at least 24 hrs.

Discard the brine before cooking.  Cook the ribs using a smoker or a grill on BBQ setting ( very low hear 200F to 250F) for 3 hrs ( or when the meat is tender and begins to fall off the bone), using whatever smoking wood you like ( I used apple wood, because that was all I had).  You can even cook them in the oven if you wish but you will not get the smoked wood flavor.

While the ribs are cooking, prepare the BBQ sauce.  Heat a few tbs of olive oil in a pot and add the onion and the ginger.  Cook stirring for a few minutes. 

Then add all the spices and all remaining ingredients at once.  Bring to a boil and let simmer on very low heat for 30 minutes.  Transfer to a food processor and pulse until smooth.  Check the seasoning and add salt if needed.

In the final 20 minutes of cooking, brush the ribs on both sides with the BBQ sauce.  Transfer to a grill ( or if cooking on the grill already, increase the heat to medium).  Cook for 2 minutes, flipping often and brushing with more BBQ sauce after each flip, until the ribs are nicely charred.  Serve right away with more BBQ sauce on the side.

These are pure finger licking goodness!

Travels and Tastes of Finger Lakes NY

I rarely want to go back to the places I have been, at least not in exactly the same way.  The lack of time and resources makes me think of any type of travel as a precious commodity, so I always look for something new, something yet inexperienced, something newly exiting.  Besides, in my view, rarely a place lives up to the memories distorted by excitement.  Depending on the accompaniment of the trip, our minds can elevate even the most ordinary places into forever cherished ones.  I was a little worried about this trip; after all it would be a full re-creation of the one I took with my husband two years ago.   It was magical than, perfect romantic trip soaked with wine…I wanted to go back.  I am happy I did, and I hope to go back again a few years. 

Finger Lakes region of New York State is a picture perfect countryside.  Lush green hills laden with farms and grape vines, thick woods sprinkled with waterfalls, fields of wild flowers, all with a backdrop of deepest blue water of the lakes.  Views so beautiful, you are thinking of buying a farm just so that you wouldn’t have to leave.  For the average vacationer there is tons to do, you can choose to take in the beautiful trails and hike, boat or swim on the lakes, take in a sail cruise at sundown… or you can do what we did… drink lots of wine and eat great food.

With over 70 wineries in the area, it is the only place in United States to rival California’s wine country.  One winery more beautiful than the next, producing, in my opinion some serious wines, that regrettably are not known on the open market.  Yet, the wineries do not seem like the fancy venues of Long Island or Virginia, they are farms and do not pretend to be anything else.  There are no tents, bands and “dog and pony shows” to justify the hefty wine prices.  They are just good wines, done in small, manageable batches to perfect the quality.  And the food… it is simply delicious.  Any wine country region will attract a fair number of good restaurants, but what amazes me about Finger Lakes is that the restaurants stay simple and casual while serving the most gourmet food.  There are no outrageous prices, no huge waits and for the most part, no reservations needed. There is nothing snobby or pretentious about the food either.  The menus are small, listing the all local farms where the ingredients are sourced, the herbs and some veggies come from the restaurant’s own garden, which you can visit on your way to the parking lot, and the food is simple and delicious.  The cooking cannot be boxed into a certain cuisine or style, it is not all French or Mediterranean or American, it is not haute cuisine; it is just great ingredients prepared in a most harmonious way to the chef’s fancy.  It is the kind of food I always want to eat and cook.. Simple, delicious, beautiful to look at, and served on a patio lined with plastic tables.

I am not a Yelper or a Facebooker, no offence to anyone who is, I don’t like to “review” the places where I eat or stay.  I like the motto of  – “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, and when I do have something nice to say, I am rarely at owe, so I keep quiet.  This time around, I am at owe… so I will gladly post about the place we stayed at…

Juniper Hill Bed and Breakfast is a restored 1800’s colonial mansion.  It is restored with the most attention to detail and authenticity by the owners, Bruce and Dave.  They have managed to create a cozy, yet luxurious country retreat and if means were not an issue, I would set to build my own house in the image of this one.  The place is also an art gallery, with all or most paintings in the house being for sale.  The entire experience from the perfectly manicured garden, to the luxurious bed linens and three course breakfasts served on fine china spells romance and indulgence.  The house wraps you up, like a warm blanket and in 2 night’s time, I felt like I have been on vacation for a week.

                                  Romantic and cozy.  I keep searching the stores for the same linens.

This is the dining room where the breakfast is surved.  I felt mildly arithtocratic while contemplating what fork to use.

The place setting for breakfast. 

The second day, the breakfast was served in the sun room. 

Cold minted peach soup as the first course for breakfast. 

Second course.... I may never come home

Wine taster’s tools… Pen and paper to follow alone and take notes, a taster’s glass and bland crackers to cleanse the palate.

After the grand breakfasts that put you somewhere on the border line of wanting to take a nap and sleeping for a week, we finally got to the matters at hand… namely, wine tastings.  With numerous wineries to choose from, we mostly concentrated on the ones around Seneca lake as they tend to be more mature.  The geography of the region makes it a surprisingly ample for wine growing.  In the cold fall the vines are kept warm with the fog from the lakes.  The lake water relatively shallow is heated enough during summer to provide the warm comfort to the vineyards, thus extending the growing season.  Majority of the worthy wines in the region are white, sweeter wines, but we did make a trip to Keuka lake to Dr Frank Konstantine winery for some serious reds.

Wine taster’s tools… Pen and paper to follow alone and take notes, a taster’s glass and bland crackers to cleanse the palate.

Sunshine in a glass... perfect

All the tasing is had work, so little naps along the way are a must.

And some hearty lunch

A simple salad of freshest greens with candied walnuts and squash blossoms

Eggs Benedict served over duck confit...

A little indulgence at the end... the tart Cabarnet razberr sorbet a perfect compliment to rich choclate cake

As it was my birthday, we went out to one of the finest restaurants in the area, Suzanne’s on Seneca serves fines and most refined food, with ease and comfort.  As we sat on the deck observing the sunset and smelling freshly cut grass the most refined of dishes were being served.  This is the type of restaurant that makes me fall in love with food all over again.

A perfect sunset with dinner

Amuse bouche of home made pasta filled with home-made ricotta and salad

I have to re-create this corn chowder if it is he last thing I do. 

Perfectly refined and beautiful.  Coffee crusted scalops.

This desert menu makes me want to storm into Suzanne's kitchen and demand recipes. 

All in all, it was a grand experienced and topped off with complimentary late harvest desert wine…. I couldn’t ask for a better birthday

After finely refined food at Suzzane’s it was time for something a bit more rustic.  The Hazelnut Kitchen restaurant does just that.  Tiny, seasonal menu done to perfection.  No frills, just great tasting food.

Homemade bread with home-made chived butter, served in a tin bucket ( why didn’t I think of that?)

Rabbit Terine

One of the best things I ever ate was that lightly braised cabbage with cranberries and goosberries.  Sausage was not even needed.  This one keeps me up at night, I keep trying to figure out how it was made.  I saw some goosberries at the market today, I think I will give it a try.

Lardone toasts with pickled onions and pesto. 

Ultimately it is never about the food or the wine or the views.  It is always about the mood you are in, the people who you are with and how those things shape any place you are.  At the end of any trip you are left with a feeling, and it is this feeling that I will recall during long gray winters.  The feeling of a perfect summer weekend! 

I was sad to leave, my sadness somewhat elivitated with a huge amount of wine that is now in my cellar.  Every time I open a bottle of Finger Lakes wine I will remeber that it is only 5 hours away and I can go back any time I want to!