Squid with Tomatoes and Peas, Tuscan Style

Ingredients

For 4 to 6 servings

• 2½ pounds small to medium whole squid OR 2 pounds cleaned squid, sliced into rings
• 1½ tablespoons onion chopped very fine
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1½ teaspoons garlic chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• ¾ cup fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped, OR canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with their juice
• Salt Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
• 2 pounds unshelled fresh peas or ten-ounce package frozen peas, thawed

Method

If cleaning the squid yourself, follow these directions. Slice the sac into rings a little less than ½ inch wide, and separate the cluster of tentacles into two parts. Whether cleaning it yourself or using it already cleaned, wash all parts in cold water and pat thoroughly dry with cloth or paper towels.

Put the onion and olive oil in a large saucepan, and turn on the heat to medium.

Cook and stir the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold, then add the garlic. When the garlic becomes lightly colored, add the parsley, stir once or twice, then add the tomatoes. Stir thoroughly to coat well and cook at a steady simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the squid to the pot, cover, and adjust heat to cook at a slow simmer for 35 to 40 minutes. Add a few pinches of salt, some grindings of pepper, and stir thoroughly.

If using fresh peas: Shell them, add them to the pot, stir thoroughly, cover, and continue to cook at a slow simmer until the squid feels tender when prodded with a fork. It may take another 20 minutes depending on the squid’s size. Taste a ring to be sure it is fully cooked. If using frozen peas: Add the thawed peas when the squid is tender, stir thoroughly, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes.

Taste and correct for salt and pepper, transfer to a warm, deep serving platter, and serve promptly. Ahead-of-time note You can stop the cooking at the end of Step 3 and resume it several hours or even a day later. Bring to a simmer before adding the peas. You may even complete the dish a day or two in advance, reheating it very gently before serving. It tastes sweetest, however, when prepared and eaten the same dJuice

Comments

Very simple and tasted excellent! Certainly do again. Good value for money as well.

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Rosemary, Garlic, and White Wine

Ingredients

For 4 servings

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• A 3½-pound chicken, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 or 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary broken in two OR ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
• Salt
• Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
• ½ cup dry white wine

Method

Put the butter and oil in a saute pan, turn on the heat to medium high, and when the butter foam begins to subside, put in the chicken quarters, skin side down.

Brown the chicken well on both sides, then add the garlic and rosemary. Cook the garlic until it becomes colored a pale gold, and add salt, pepper, and the wine. Let the wine simmer briskly for about 30 seconds, then adjust heat to cook at a slow simmer, and put a lid on the pan, setting it slightly ajar. Cook until the bird’s thigh feels very tender when prodded with a fork, and the meat comes easily off the bone, calculating between 20 and 25 minutes per pound. If while the chicken is cooking, you find the liquid in the pan has become insufficient, replenish it with 1 or 2 tablespoons water as needed.

When done, transfer the chicken to a warm serving platter, using a slotted spoon or spatula. Remove the garlic from the pan. Tip the pan, spooning off all but a little of the fat. Turn the heat up to high, and boil the water away while loosening cooking residues from the bottom and sides with a wooden spoon. Pour the pan juices over the chicken and serve at once.

Comment

Simple and classic recipe but ended up making a mess of it by putting on too much salt! Try again.

Red pepper soup

Yellow bell peppers also work very well in this soup, but green peppers are not sweet enough. You can even make two batches of soup, one red, one yellow, and ladle them into bowls for a yin-and-yang effect.

Ingredients

• Heat, in a heavy-bottomed soup pot: 1 tablespoon olive oil Add and cook, stirring often, over medium heat: 1 large onion, sliced fine 2 red bell peppers, cut in half, seeds and veins removed, and sliced fine Salt
• When very soft but not browned, add: 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped 6 thyme sprigs, leaves only Cook for 4 minutes more, then add:
• ¼ cup short-grain rice 4 cups chicken broth 2 cups water 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar Raise the heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, and then purée in a blender until very smooth and velvety. Thin the soup with broth or water if it is too thick
• Taste for seasoning, adjust as needed, and serve hot.

VARIATIONS Add some fresh or dried hot chiles to the soup. Garnish bowls of the pepper soup with crème fraîche and chopped herbs such as chives, basil, or parsley. Cut the peppers into medium dice, omit the rice, and use all chicken broth. Serve without puréeing.

Comments

Rather surprisingly this was quite disappointing. Difficult to say what went wrong as well but it might have been using very old and not so great chicken broth. Worth another try with better broth given there seems to be no reason why it shouldn't work.

Source

Art of simple Food

Celery and Potatoes Braised in Olive Oil and Lemon Juice

Ingredients

For 4 to 6 servings

• 5 medium potatoes
• 1 large bunch celery
• ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method

Peel the potatoes, wash them in cold water, and cut them in half or, if large, in quarters.

Trim the celery stalks.

Choose a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot that can subsequently contain all the ingredients, put in the celery, olive oil, salt, and enough water to cover, turn the heat on to medium, and put a lid on the pot.

Simmer the celery for 10 minutes, then add the potatoes, a pinch of salt, and the lemon juice, and cover the pot again. Cook until both the celery and potatoes are tender, testing them with a fork from time to time. It may take about 25 minutes. (Sometimes the celery lags behind while the potatoes are already done. Should this happen, transfer the potatoes with a slotted spoon to a warm covered dish, and continue cooking the celery until it is tender.)

When the celery and potatoes are both cooked, the only liquid in the pot should be oil. If there is water, uncover the pot, raise the heat, and boil it away. (If the potatoes have been taken out of the pot earlier, put them back in after the water—if there was any—has been boiled away. Cover the pot again, turn the heat down to medium, and warm up the potatoes for about 2 minutes.) Taste and correct for salt, and serve promptly.

Comments

Simple and unusually good considering the basic ingredients. Healthy and an useful variation on the normal sides.

Solomillo de cerdo encebollado Fillet of pork in an onion sauce thickened with almonds.

Ingredients

• 790g/ 1 ¾ lb pork fillet, preferably ibérico, in a piece
• salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons lard
• 2 onions, quite finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme or a sprig or two of fresh
• nutmeg to taste
• 2 tablespoons wine vinegar
• oil
• 2 dozen almonds, blanched and peeled
• 1 good pinch saffron

Method

Trim the pork fillet carefully of all fat or it will buckle while it cooks. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the lard in a large cazuela or similar, and brown the fillet all over.

Reduce the heat and add the chopped onions and 4 crushed cloves of garlic. Let them soften around the meat.

Sprinkle in the thyme and a good grating of fresh nutmeg. Stir in the vinegar and enough water (or white wine) to half-cover the meat. Cover and leave to simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Check the seasoning. While the meat is cooking, heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the almonds and two whole cloves of garlic until brown. Drain them and pound them to a paste in a mortar with the saffron. Add the paste to thicken.

Comments

Great list of ingredients but the end result was a little below expectations. Worth another try.

Quarter of an hour soup Sopa al cuarto de hora

A popular quick fish soup originating from Cádiz, though not quite as quick as the name, ‘quarter-of- an-hour soup’, would suggest. As with all such soups there seem to be as many recipes as there are cooks, the chief differences being in the combination of fish and shellfish used. All contain rice, however, are unmistakably flavoured with serrano ham and are finished with chopped hard-boiled egg. Here is one comparatively cheap version.

Ingredients

• 8 mussels 450g
• 1lb small clams
• 1.5 litres/ ½ pints fish broth, unsalted
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 120g/ 4oz serrano ham, diced
• 120g/ 4oz rice
• 400g/ 14oz filleted hake or similar white fish, in medium-sized chunks
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

Method

Wash the mussels and clams, removing any dead or broken specimens. It is not necessary to scrub the mussels. Place them in a wide pan, cover and place over a medium heat. Very soon the shellfish will open, releasing their juices. Set them aside as they do so. When they are all open remove the flesh from the shells and reserve it. Strain the juices through a fine sieve into the fish broth.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the ham quickly for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and stir it around with the oil and ham until it starts to go transparent. Pour in the broth and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes before adding the fish. Taste for salt at this stage, though enough should be provided by the ham and shellfish.

Simmer for 10 minutes more. Add the egg, mussels and clams and heat through briefly. The rice should be more or less tender, and certainly will be by the time everyone is seated and served.

Comment

Simple and great taste. Quite a rich flavour as well so not really an every day dish. The Serrano ham probably adds a lot. Well worth making again and experimenting with it.

Roasted eggplant caviar

Ingredients

Serves 4 • Roasted and mashed with olive oil and lemon juice is a common and delicious way of eating eggplants, often described as “poor man's caviar.” Use firm eggplants with a shiny black skin.

• 2 eggplants, weighing about 1½ pounds total
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of ½ lemon, or more to taste
• Salt

Method

Broil or roast the eggplants (see page 63). Peel, letting the pieces fall into a colander with tiny holes, then chop with a pointed knife and mash to a puree with a fork or a wooden spoon, so that the juices escape through the holes of the colander.

Transfer the eggplant to a bowl and beat in Dor the oil and lemon juice and some salt.

Variations • For a Syrian flavor, mix in 2 tablespoons pomegranate concentrate or molasses (see page 45) instead of lemon juice, 2 crushed garlic cloves, and 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley.

For a spicy Moroccan version, add 1 crushed garlic clove, ½ teaspoon harissa (see page 464) or a pinch of cayenne and h teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon ground cumin, and 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro. • For an eggplant salad, add 3 tablespoons chopped parsley, 2 chopped tomatoes, 4 chopped scallions,

Comment

A little boring in the basic version but not bad. Worth doing some of the variations.

Bacalao de cuaresma Lenten salt-cod.

The name summons up dour, forbidding images but in fact this is a bright, colourful dish with a sauce of raisins and pine-nuts, and decorated with quartered hard-boiled eggs.

Salt-cod was formerly cooked in many guises during Lent – with rice, for example (page 176). This particular version comes from Cataluña.

Ingredients

• 550g/ 1 ¼ lb salt-cod, cut into 8 pieces and soaked
• flour for coating
• 6 tablespoons oil
• 4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 100g/ 3 ½ oz seedless raisins 60g/ 2oz pine-nuts
• 4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Method

Drain the cod well and dip the pieces in flour. Heat the oil and fry the cod quickly until browned. Remove and set aside. In the remaining oil cook the tomatoes, garlic and parsley until set. Add the raisins, pinenuts and cod, cover and cook gently for 20 minutes. Decorate with the hard-boiled eggs and serve.

Comments

Didn't soak the salt cod long enough and tasted very tough and not good at all. However basic recipe was great and very interesting. Certainly try again using Japanese salted cod instead of the mediteranean version.

Made this a second time with non salt cod and the result was fine as well. Pretty easy so worth making regularly!

Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Salad 4 SERVINGS

Cherry tomatoes and beans come in many sizes and colors. Mix them all together. You can include shell beans, too. The beans can be cooked and cooled in advance. Snap off the stem ends (and pull off the tails, if dry or tough) of

• ½ pound green beans (haricot vert, young Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder, or a similar variety) Cook until tender in salted boiling water. Drain and immediately spread them out on a sheet pan or plate to cool. Stem and cut in half:
• ½ pound cherry tomatoes
• Stir together in a large bowl: 1 small shallot, diced fine 1 tablespoon red à vinegar Salt and fresh-ground black pepper Taste and adjust if necessary. Let sit for 15 minutes or more.
• Then whisk in: ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil Adjust the acid and salt as needed. Toss the cherry tomatoes with the vinaigrette. Taste.
• Add the green basil

Comments

Very simple but very good!  Certainly make part of the regular repertoir.

Judías verdes con champiñones Green beans sautéed with mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 450g/ 1 lb French beans, topped and tailed
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 225g/ 8oz mushrooms, wiped and thickly sliced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons home-made tomato sauce (see page 131), or tomato puree

Method

Cook the beans for about 5 minutes in boiling salted water, drain and quickly refresh them under the cold tap.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the garlic until it browns.

Add the mushrooms, parsley, lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Let them cook gently for about 5 minutes, then add the beans it all simmer for another 5 minutes or so, and serve.

Comments

Seemed to take more effort than expected and while the result was not bad it was not so special either. Worth trying again as a regular though.