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| Garbanzos a la Zamora |
A few weeks ago my partner Juhee and I took off for a weekend trip to Bangalore, one of our favourite citys in India. We ate at a couple of fabulous restaurants, went for walks around the town and had a wonderfully relaxing time together.
Bangalore is well know for its cosmopolitan atmosphere and vibrant restaurant culture, but another of the attractions for me is its second hand bookshops ... especially along St Marks Road behind the commercial hub of MG Road. This trip I revisited Blossoms Bookshop which has four floors groaning with second hand books on every subject imaginable. I, of course, headed for the cooking section on the third floor where I knew from previous trips they stock several hundred pre-loved cookbooks.
And sure enough I picked up two wonderful titles in hardback: Silvena Rowe’s “ Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume” , on the cuisines of the Eastern Mediterranean (more on this book in a later post) and Penelope Casas’s “La Cocina De Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain”.
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| My pre-loved but much appreciated copy from Bangalore |
Casas’s book is veritable pot of Spanish gold with some really unusual and tasty rustic-style recipes. First published in 2005, the book focuses on home cooking rather than the Spanish restaurant scene ... though some of the ‘home cooks’ include now internationally recognised chefs like Ferran Adria and his mother, Josefa Acosta and Juan Mari Arzak and his mother, Francisca Arritabel along with many other familiar names in Spanish cookery writing.
The first recipe I tried was Carne en Salsa Meson Poqueira or Pork in Almond Sauce - a recipe from the Alpujarra Mountains in Andalucia, a south west region of Spain. The meat is cooked in a sauce made by sautéing bread, whole almonds, chillies and garlic and then crushing the mixture roughly in a mortar. The broth is then enriched with coarsely ground black peppercorns which gives the final dish an added piquancy.
And the other evening we cooked Garbanzos a la Zamora or Chickpea Stew, Zamora style along with a wonderful Spanish potato dish laced with saffron and a green bean salad. The main recipe comes from the province of Zamora in northern Spain and is heavily marinated in paprika and chillies.
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| The chickpea stew after 2 hours of cooking |
I’m looking forward to cooking many more dishes from this book which profiles the various regions of Spain from a different perspective ... with family recipes handed down from generation to generation . This books conveys the joy and lust for life of the Spanish people and its sad to see how this country is going through such a terrible time at present with economic stagnation and an unemployment rate of a staggering 25%! I only hope Spain is able to recover from this deep recession as quickly as possible along with the rest of the European countries that are struggling at present.
Here are the recipes for the Spanish feast we cooked the other night ....
Garbanzos a la Zamora or Chickpea Stew, Zamora style
Ingredients: 500gm dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in water to cover 500gm pork fillet, cut into 10cm/¾” cubes coarse salt 150gm ham or prosciutto, roughly sliced 4t paprika I red onion, quartered 2 tomatoes, diced plus marinade for the meat
(Note: You can substitute lamb for the pork and drop the ham/prosciutto if you don't favour pork products.)
Marinade: 1 ¼ t smoked paprika ¼ t hot paprika or chilli powder 4 garlic cloves, minced a red onion, chopped 3 T parsley, finely chopped 3 T extra virgin olive oil 1 t ground cumin ½ t dried oregano 2 bay leaves salt & pepper
Combine the marinade ingredients and mix meat into bowl. Leave for 1 hour at room temperature, or overnight in fridge.
Method: Cook the chickpeas in pressure cooker for one whistle (I do this to shorten the cooking time in the stew pot) or cook in a pot of water to cover for ½ hour. Marinade the meat as above.
Drain chickpeas and put in large stew pot with 7 cups water plus all other ingredients including the meat and its marinade. Bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat and cook for up to 2 hours until chickpeas are done and meat has a soft texture.
10 minutes before finishing dish remove lid and boil rapidly to reduce liquid in pot; there should be some liquid but the stew should not be soupy. Let rest another 10 minutes and then serve.
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| The potatoes cooked in pan before adding onion mixture |
Ingredients: 5 T olive oil 1 red onion, sliced 3 T chicken stock ¼ t saffron 6 potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice coarse salt 2 T fresh parsley, minced
Method: Heat 2 T oil in pan and sauté onions until soft – about 10 minutes. Stir in stock and saffron and cook gently a few minutes to reduce stock. Remove and keep aside.
Add further 2 T oil to pan and heat again. Add potatoes, sprinkle with salt, and cook gently for 20 minutes until potatoes have browned and are soft. (You need to keep turning the potatoes over in pan every few minutes to prevent then sticking and crumbling.)
Remove to serving dish, sprinkle with onion mixture and parsley, and serve alongside chickpea dish.
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| Green beans marinated in a yogurt,garlic & cinammon sauce |
This recipe is from Sam & Samantha Clark’s wonderful “Moro: the cookbook”, based on recipes from their very successful eponymous restaurant in London, which specialises in Arabic and Hispanic dishes.
Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic, crushed with salt 1 t ground cinnamon 250gm home-made yogurt 500gm green beans, trimmed salt & pepper
Method: Mix together garlic, cinnamon and yogurt in a bowl. Cook beans to taste, drain for a few minutes then place in serving bowl and stir in yogurt mixture. Serve hot as a side dish or cold as a salad.
Hope you enjoy this combination ...
Tony saab/Hyderabad, August 2012
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