[Sca-cooks] Spanish recipe question.

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jun 15, 2006, at 7:43 AM, Bronwynmgn at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/14/2006 11:12:50 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> rcmann4 at earthlink.net writes:
>
> <<As for vegetarian, nothing leaps immediately to mind, but I'll   
> be glad
> to look around in my sources.>>
>
> Thank you, this may be just the sort of thing I'm looking for.     
> The help on
> the vegetarian is also appreciated, or I may take Master Adamantius'
> suggestion about making a separate version with the same vegetables  
> as a veggie  dish.

One way you could do that (if you wanted to) would be to start one  
large, and one small, pot of water going (I assume you'd need less of  
the vegetable version), add the same vegetables in the same  
proportion (to each other, that is), but to the large pot you'd be  
adding meat, too.

As a vegetable soup/stew, it's nearly identical to any of several  
cocidos, potees, etc., from Spain, Portugal,Italy, and France.

I remember being struck by the flavor of the simple vegetable soup I  
had to make at a Provencale restaurant I did my internship in: it was  
just vegetables simmered in water with a bit of salt, but their  
sweetness and complexity came through, and then when you stirred in a  
spoonful of pistou (this is the Southern French equivalent of pesto),  
it really took off like a rocket.

Later, when I started experimenting with olla podrida, I found that  
some of the recipes called for a near-puree of fresh, chopped, green  
herbs stirred in at the end, just before serving, to give the broth a  
greenish tinge, greater richness, and of course, an amazing flavor  
and aroma.

I guess what I'm saying is that, having had a frame of reference, I  
was able to do that chopped-herb step properly and effectively,  
because all too often people just add a little parsley and think it's  
just there to give the dish a different look, and nothing could be  
further from the truth.

Adamantius