We are talking turkey today. I know, not a very typical Spanish dish. But like many others I have been cooking for years, this one had to be on the blog, because even though we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Spain, we do celebrate Christmas. And I have been eating turkey for Christmas since middle school. Seriously!
A few months ago, I posted a recipe for oxtail, a traditional Spanish dish (you can click here to check it out). However, back then I couldn’t find oxtail, but I was set on to making the dish, so I settled with short ribs, and the result was really delicious, a good substitution for sure. But last week, at my regular supermarket, I found them!
Are you looking for a weeknight dinner recipe that pleases everybody, and it’s complete and nutritious? Or are you looking for a party recipe that everyone will talk about, and will look beautiful on presentation? Then look no further, roast chicken with chickpeas, leeks and lemon is that dish.
The trick for a super tasty and moist chicken is the spice rub, letting the chicken absorb all the spice flavors for a few hours before placing it in the oven. Then, while roasting, (more…)
This recipe, for a bocadillo called brascada in Valencia, where I grew up and went to university, brings back memories. Bocadillo is what we call in Spain any sandwich made with baguette style bread. Baguette style bread, by the way, is the most common type of bread in Spain, and we call it simply pan, bread. Bocadillos are a common fare at all tapas bars and cafés in Spain, and they’re a popular midmorning snack for many. For us, students, bocadillos were an easy and nutritious lunch, or dinner. One of my favorites, brascada, was a typical and frequent meal in the evening (a few times a week) when I studied at the library of the Old University, a majestic building that, in the XVI century, housed Valencia’s University. After a few hours of studying, my friend and I would take a break at a tapas bar on the adjacent square, Plaza del Patriarca, that made the best brascadas in the city. I now make them at home, and my family loves them.
Meatballs in wine sauce, albóndigas en salsa, are a classic Spanish dish. Growing up, they were a favorite, and I think it’s safe to say children and adults alike love them. At home, and at most homes in Spain, they are accompanied by potatoes, that marry so well with the sauce they’re cooked in. My mom made them with cubed (more…)
I like ribs, but never loved them (I can hear you gasping). Of all the different pork cuts, I never found ribs to be tender enough, instead, I always found them kind of chewy, a cut of meat that was too much bone and not enough meat. In Valencia I had them mostly in rice dishes, like in hearty baked rice, arroz al horno. I love hearty baked rice, it’s one of my favorite rice dishes, but I would eat the chorizo, blood sausage, vegetables and rice before I ate the ribs (sometimes I even pushed them aside). So much so that I don’t even add pork ribs to my hearty baked rice recipe (find it here), even though they’re part of it.
What a beautiful time of the year this is —and this week in particular, a week of anticipation, of preparations, for the big day on Christmas, if you celebrate it. The music in the stores, and in many radio stations, puts me in a happy mood, in an expectant mood. Maybe you’re traveling to see family. Maybe relatives are coming to spend some time with you. Or your (more…)
I remember vividly my brother-in-law Jorge’s comments on his first visit to our house in Indiana a number of years ago. It was with the occasion of a very American ritual: the barbecue. Jorge, a veterinarian turned the purchasing director at the meat department of a large Spanish supermarket chain, and who, since the last couple of years (more…)
When I moved to North America years ago, I had to get used to things that were done differently than in Spain or any other place I had lived in. One of them was schedules, or rather, the times when regular daily activities like meals were done. Lunch in Spain rarely happens before 2 PM, and dinner not before 9 PM, at the earliest. I’m not saying (more…)
Going away for spring break is something relatively new for us. In Spain, we had Holy Week holidays, which coincided, of course, with Holy Week and Easter. Even living in the United States, when the children were younger they didn’t notice if we went away on a trip during spring break or not. In fact, it was nice staying in Fort Wayne: the (more…)
