Spanish Cooking

THE SPANIARD IS A GREAT EATER, though no one except his Arab and Berber cousins can also be so abstemious. Indeed there are country areas in Spain, for example in Andalusia, where people live on bread and vegetables. They are perhaps the most poverty stricken people in Western Europe. There are townspeople who live on tapas, that is a slice of bread, a handful of olives, a few anchovies or roast nuts. They sit in cafes for hours on end, drinking a glass of manzanilla (an excellent white wine), and eating their tapas with their wine and that is all. But the Spaniard who can afford it is a great eater.

Spanish cooking is not very delicate. Its flavors are strong and anyone tasting it for the first time will be impressed by their solid, almost aggressive force.

Few can cook fish and shellfish as well as the Spanish. They have a rich and very varied supply of fish and shellfish. However, their methods of cooking meat are still rather primitive. Their mountain ham (jamon serrano), which is small and lean, is one of the most strongly flavored in the world. Some of their other cooked meats, such as chorizo (a kind of sausage), are also very pungent.

In Spanish cooking, flavors are not only extremely sharp, they are also all mixed in together meat with fish, seafood with vegetables. Valencian paella, for instance, consists of chicken, snails, shrimps, mussels and vegetables of various kinds all mixed together in the same rice dish. A common and very good salad is made with anchovies and slices of salami around the plate.

COCID0

Cocido, also called olla podrida or puchero, is the typical meal of the average Spaniard, perhaps becausehe is nearer poverty than he is to riches; it is a one dish meal containing vegetables, beef, lamb, ham, fowl and chorizo. The cocido meat is also used in the preparation of ropa vieia (literally "old clothes"). When this is done the boiled meat is recooked with onion, tomatoes and spice, rather like clothes that have been mended.

The cocido requires great care during cooking. Above all it requires good quality chick peas. Castilians always say that these must be from Castile, which is renowned for them. In any case, they are soaked in cold water the previous evening.

All the meat is placed in a deep pot and covered with cold water, seasoned, and brought to a rapid boil. The liquid is then skimmed and the fowl, garlic and herbs (bouquetgarni) are added. The previously soaked cbick peas are poured in, and the soup is cooked for two hours. Then the sliced vegetables (except the potatoes which are added 35 minutes before serving) are added and cooked on a low flame for two more hours. As the cooking progresses the meats and fowl are removed as they become tender. The meats, fowl and vegetables are served on a platter and the thick soup is served in a tureen.

GARLIC SOUP

Garlic soup is typically Spanish. The Spaniards say that it prolongs life, and it keeps the skin young and fresh. In Madrid they put two spoonfuls of oil and two cloves of garlic into a casserole, and fry slowly so as to give the garlic a color. They then add slices . of bread, a little pepper, salt and water, and cook for a few minutes. The garlic soups of Malaga and Seville are prepared in almost the same way except that in Malaga they add a little minced ham and tomato, and in Seville a tiny quantity of certain ground seeds as well.

FISH AND RICE DISHES

Anyone not Spanish or not used to Spain may eat cocido or garlic soup to find out what it is like and to say he has eaten it. But no one would make a special journey to Spain to eat either dish. They might do so, however, to eat fish cooked in the Spanish way, especially fish soups and in particular, one they make on the coast of Cantabria from the heads of fresh caught cod.

In Madrid and Seville one can eat an excellent fish soup called sopa al cuarto de hora fifteen minute soup. Six mussels are cooked until they open (not any longer or they will taste like rubber), shelled, and their small quantity of broth poured off into a casserole, with meat broth added. Pieces of white fish are then placed in the casserole, as well as the meat of two prawns, rice, peas, pieces of ham, half a hard boiled egg cut up, a pinch of saffron, a little white pepper and salt. The whole is cooked for fifteen minutes and the soup is served from the same dish in which it was prepared.

The most original and appetizing of Spanish dishes however is paella. Take a large casserole, pour in a good quantity of oil, and lightly fry some garlic. Cut a chicken into small pieces, putting them in the casserole, then add rice and cook for one minute before adding boiling water, green beans, peas, pieces of artichoke, mussels, shrimps, pieces of cuttlefish or small squid, salt, pepper, half a bay leaf, and a pinch of saffron.

Before the rice is cooked the contents of the casserole are poured out into a paella or deep pan, and put into the oven where they continue cooking. It is not necessary to transfer the ingredients into the deep pan; they can be left in the casserole on the flame. Whichever Way, however, the rice must be dry when cooked, with its grains quite separate from each other.

In Spain they eat a lot of merluza or cod. The Spanish variety of cod is very hard indeed, the kind that is salted and dried. The Spanish cookcod quite superbly, in the manner of Biscay, San Sebastian or Galicia with a green sauce and in other ways too. Anyone going to Spain will find cod cooked in some way or another in any restaurant; he should make a point of eating it as it is sure to be very good.

SQUIDS 'EN SU TINTA'

In the Biscay area, squids are cooked quite excellently, a la vizcaina. But squids en su tinta, in their ink, are even better. Squids to be cooked en su tinta must not be cut up, and should therefore be small. They should not have been caught in nets, because when a squid is touched by a net or any other object, it discharges its ink. The best squids are those caught by line in the Bay of Biscay; they are still alive on reaching market.

The ink bladder is removed carefully so as not to rupture it, and the squids are placed in an earthenware casserole containing boiling oil. The casserole is covered and placed on a high flame. A thick sauce of tomatoes and a good quantity of lightly fried onion is prepared, the tomatoes being added later. The sauce is sieved and poured onto the already cooked squids; the ink is then added in a little white wine, and the whole is cooked for a further fifteen minutes.

MEAT DISHES

The finest cooking in Spain is devoted entirely to fish, and Spanish methods of cooking meat are generally not of a particularly high standard.

A street in Barcelona is paved with a mosaic of fresh flowers for the festival of Corpus Domini. Religious fiestas in Spain are numerous and feature parades, concerts, firework displays, and bullfights in addition to the usual religious ceremonies.Costumed riders parade down gaily decorated streets during Seville's week1,Dng spring fair (feria) held each year in the week following Easter Sunday. Families from many parts of Spain set up tents in vacant areas of town, and all Seville sings and dances far into the night.

Beef stew a la Catalana is a good meat dish that can be eaten in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain. A little lard and bacon are placed in a casserole, and then the meat, which must be lean, is cut into small pieces, salted, sprinkled with ground white pepper, and added. A sliced onion, a whole head of garlic and a dressing of various aromatic herbs such as thyme, bay leaves, cinnamon and parsley are also added, and a glassful of dry white wine and a small glass of brandy are then sprinkled slowly on to the meat and other ingredients. The whole is sprinkled with flour and a little tomato sauce is added.

When the casserole is boiling strongly it is put to the side of the flame and cooked slowly. Then, when the meat is half cooked, it is transferred piece by piece into another casserole and the sauce prepared in the first casserole is strained through a very close mesh on to the meat.

New potatoes, or other potatoes cut up and lightly browned in pork fat are then added, as well as chives that have been half cooked in water and then sauted in butter. The casserole is placed on the flame, and some slow fried bacon fat is added. The whole is brought to the boil and then put to the side of the flame so as to cook slowly. The meal is served in an earthenware dish.

La Mancha is the homeland of Don Quixote, strong wines, and an equally strong sheep's cheese. In La Mancha they have their own way of cooking lamb a la manchega, naturally enough. A joint of milkfed lamb is placed in an earthenware dish, and salted; a bay leaf, a little pepper and pats of butter are added to the meat, which is put into a very hot oven.

When the lamb has browned it is sprinkled with white wine and the gravy from the dish. Before serving, the fat rendered during roasting is used for lightly frying chopped garlic and parsley. The bay leaf is removed from the gravy and this is also added to the garlic and parsley. The whole is cooked for a little while and poured over the lamb, which is finally cut up in the same dish in which it has been cooked and then served.

WINES

There are many wines in Spain and they are still pure and unadulterated. The best are Rioja, Priorato, Vivero, Roda, Peralta, Monterrey, Castell del Ramey, Veritas, Tintillo from Rota, Sherry, Malaga, Manzanilla,Alicante, and Muscatel. But there are also wines that have no name, common wines like the green wine of Galicia that are as palatable and agreeable as the better known names. The white Castell del Ramey is excellent with fish, while Rioja Heredia, the red Castel) del Ramey and others go well with meat dishes.