[Sca-cooks] Need Spanish suggestions

[Barbara Benson]

Greetings,

I am certain that you will get many replies to this, but here are my
few thoughts on Spanish food. I have done a few dishes and agree that
Brighid's work is fantastic. The one dish that people literally fight
each other over that I have had success with at a couple of feasts is
the Cazuela of Salmon but you said no fish.

A side dish that I particularly like and that has gone over well is a
Chick Pea dish as follows:

Ciurons Tendres
Libre de Sent Sovi, 1323 Catalan.
Si vols apperellar ciurons tendres ab let de amelles, se ffa axi: Prin
los ciurons, e leva'ls be. E ages let de amelles, e mit-los a coura ab
la let e ab holi e ab sal; e met-hi seba escaldade ab aygua bulent. E
quant deuran esser cuyt, met-hi jurvert e alfabegua e moradux e
d'altres bones epicies [should be 'erbes'] e un poc de gingebre e de
gras. E quant hi metras los ciurons, sien levats ab aygua calda, que
tentost son cuyts.
If you want to prepare tender chickpeas with almond milk, do it thus:
take the chickpeas and wash them well. And take almond milk and set
them to cook with the milk and with oil and with salt; and put in it
onion scalded with boiling water. And when they should be cooked, put
in them parsley and basil and marjoram and other good spices [should
be 'herbs'] and a little ginger and verjus. And when you add the chick
peas, wash them with hot water that they should cook more quickly.
	
2 lbs Chick Peas Drained
1 3/4 C Almond Milk
1 T Vegetable Oil
1 t Salt
1/2 C Onion
1 T Marjoram
1 T Basil
1 C Loose Chopped Parsley
2 T Verjuice
1 t Ground Ginger
Chop onions and blanch in boiling water. Blanch, peel and grind
almonds (in blender). Once almonds are ground, add 2 C of hot water in
the blender and blend for around a minute. Line a strainer with a
layer of muslin twice as big as the strainer. Place strainer in bowl.
Pour almond mixture into the muslin and gather edges up to form a
sack. Press the mixture until all of the almond milk has been
extracted - should be around 1 3/4C of milk. Put cooked Chickpeas,
Almond Milk, vegetable oil, onions and salt into a saucepan. Bring to
a simmer and cook for a bit. Add Marjoram, Basil and parsley and
simmer some more. In a separate container mix verjuice and ginger.
When the chickpeas have simmered for around a total of 30 minutes
remove from heat. Allow to cool a bit, then stir in verjuice and
ginger.

If you make the Almond milk ahead of time and bring pre-cooked onions
then it should work perfectly in a crock pot.

A beef dish out of de Nola that has gone over well in a feast I did is
as follows:
 	
Meat Casserole
>From Libre del Coch by Rupert de Nola. Translated by Lady Brighid ni Chiarain.
124. CAZUELA DE CARNE You must take meat and cut it into pieces the
size of a walnut, and gently fry it with the fat of good bacon; and
when it is well gently fried, cast in good broth, and cook it in a
casserole; and cast in all fine spices, and saffron, and a little
orange juice or verjuice, and cook it very well until the meat begins
to fall apart and only a little broth remains; and then take three or
four eggs beaten with orange juice or verjuice, and cast it into the
casserole; and when you wish to eat, give it four or five stirs with a
large spoon, and then it will thicken; and when it is thick, remove it
from the fire; and prepare dishes, and cast cinnamon upon each one.
However, there are those who do not wish to cast in eggs or spice, but
only cinnamon and cloves, and cook them with the meat, as said above,
and cast vinegar on it so that it may have flavor; and there are
others who put all the meat whole and in one piece, full of cinnamon,
and whole cloves, and ground spices in the broth, and this must be
turned little by little, so that it does not cook more at one end than
the other. And so nothing is necessary but cloves and cinnamon, and
those moderately.
		
1 t Ground Ginger
1/2 t Ground Nutmeg
1 t Grains of Paradise
15 - 18 Threads Saffron
1 C Bitter Orange Juice
2 T Olive Oil
1/2 t Ground Cinnamon
2 Cloves Ground
2 Eggs
4 C Beef Broth
3 lbs Beef (chuck)
		
Put 1/2 C of orange juice into a cup and add ginger, nutmeg, and
crushed Grains of Paradise - mix well. Cut beef into walnut sized
chunks. Use a large oven proof covered pot (like a dutch oven).
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place pot on the top of the stove and
add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Bring olive oil up to heat
but do not allow to smoke. Add beef chunks and stir to sear on all
sides. Add the orange juice/spice mixture and beef broth. Stir in well
and then allow to come to boil. Once boiling, cover and move to oven.
Cook for approximately 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. Drain off all but 1/2 inch of
juices (reserve for a sauce if desired). Add the cinnamon and cloves
to the eggs and beat well. Temper egg mixture with the beef juices and
then add egg mixture to the pot, whisking well. Bring the pottage back
up to heat but just to a simmer. Just before you will serve add the
remaining 1/2 C of orange juice, bring to heat and stir well.
				
This one should be fine if you make it ahead of time (off site) and
then heat it up on site. As with other braised beef dishes, it gets
better with time. I would make it up to the adding the egg part and
then do the egg and additional OJ on site. It would also work just
fine in Roasters.

I hope that this might be useful to you, and look forward to seeing
what others have to offer.

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva

> Gwen Cat> than Spanish, so Im looking for suggestions of
> FAVORITE or tried and true recipes for a lunch in a
> few weeks.  The site has electricity, but NO
> kitchen/running water, so everything will have to
> happen in roasters/crock pots, room temp or chilled.
> At this point I am told to expect ~100.  The budget is
> generous (for me ;-) but wont support much
> fish/seafood as this is Colorado we are talking about.