"risotto nero" with saffron alioli

Summertime in the right season to eat squid. The sea gets packed with hundreds of small boaters that get out at sea every dawn and dusk. they are looking for squid. Either very small ones (2 inches long) or good size ones ( up to 3 pounds in weight).the tiny little ones are the ones most appreciated; Restaurant owners pay up to 1€ for each of those. But the big ones are also well paid for... up to 15€ for a kilo.Squid is one of the most formidable predators at sea. They pray on any living creature down there, fish crayfish...they vary in sizes, from tiny little ones a few millimeters long to massive monsters like the Architeuthis up to 14 metres long.

I love squid.... grilled, fried, deep fried and battered in what Italians and Greeks call "calamari". I have also eaten them finely chopped, raw and seasoned "tartare" style.Slowly stewed with peppers tomatoes and potatoes in a large pan or as we called it around here: "marmitako". You can make fish balls, lasagna or soup with them... what a great cooking protein!!!

Today I've cooked them italian style with rice and a sauce made of their own ink. They use this ink to scape of other predators when they are at sea. The ink is contained in a small sachet inside their body. It is important to reserve this when the squid is gutted and cleaned. If the amount of ink is not enough to make a dark black sauce we could always add some bought in the supermarket but the quality of this is not as good as the one contained inside the fish.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE RISOTTO:
500 gr of carnaroli rice
300 gr of fresh squid
1 glass of white wine
1 litre of fish stock
1 onion
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
50 gr of butter
parmesan or idiazabal grated cheese

On a wide saucepan, heat the oil and add a finely chopped onion a garlic clove. When the onion turns soft, add the squid and stir for one more minute. Now add the rice and stir again until the rice becomes transparent. Add the little sachets of ink and keep moving until the ink is evenly spread  along the rice. At this point, if you realize that the rice is not getting dark enough, you may add some more ink bought at the supermarket.
Pour the glass of white wine and keep stirring  The process from now on is common to every risotto: keep stirring the rice while adding some stock little by little when the rice gets dry. In about 17 minutes the rice will be ready, please, don't let it overcook.
Then add the butter and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Then serve and add the grated cheese.

FOR THE SAFFRON AIOLI:
10 saffron strands
3 garlic cloves
1 egg
2 cups of sunflower oil

on a dry frying pan: dry out the saffron strands until they become crispy. Be careful!! they are very easy to burn. Take them out of the heat as soon as you realize the`ve turned crispy.
Boil the garlic gloves for 15 minutes until they're gone soft.
Add all the ingredients in a food processor and blend them all to a texture similar to that of the mayonnaise and serve with the rice.

"Iberico" ham flavored white sauce rolls

"Iberico" ham flavored white sauce rolls

When I was a kid no birthday celebration was complete without eating little white sauce croquettes. I have never met a kid refusing to eat them. Many generations of Spaniards have actually been fed on croquettes; They are cheap but delicious.
White sauce or bechamel sauce as we call it combines to perfection with a wide range of products. You can mix it with meat like ham or chicken, with fish like hake or cod or with vegetables like spinach. Anything you think of will probably work fine with this sauce; just experiment...
I ignore the origin of this sauce. Even though the word "bechamel" sounds french, the Italians use it on their lasagna and the Spaniards on the "croquetas". Lets just say that it´s one of the most important sauces in the world and that I love it.
This time, I have flavored the bechamel sauce with "iberico" ham and I have wrapped it in Thai rice flour pancakes to make it a little bit different from the traditional Spanish croquettes.

INGREDIENTS:

50gr of flour

100gr of butter

1 pint of milk

pinch of salt

pinch of grounded black pepper

pinch of nutmeg

one piece from the bone of an "iberico" ham

100gr of shredded ham

melt the butter on a  frying pan and add the flour. Stir until they are mixed and let the flour cook until it starts to get brown.

On a different saucepan I heated the milk with the piece of "iberico ham" until the milk got flavored. Then I added the milk to the flour very slowly while using a whisker to mix the ingredients. I Added  then the shredded ham and seasoned with the spices as to my liking. "Iberico" ham is already quite salty so I was careful with the salt . I kept stirring the sauce until it got thick enough and then I took it of the heat and let it cool.

Now, I just have to put the sauce on to some rice pastry and wrap it to make those nice rolls. 

I like to steam the rolls, but this time I put them in a pan with very little oil and fried them at a high heat.

Sweet and sour 30 minute pork ribs

Sweet and sour 30 minute pork ribs 

I love pork! 

I love the fillet, the belly, t-bone chops, I also love the ham, feet and even the little curly tail. I like it stewed, fried, roasted and cured.I like free range pork and also like them wild.

Pork ribs are fantastic. all that meat, fat and bones mix together... It´s so tasty. They are even good fun; you eat them with the hands, it´s messy, tasty and rustic at the same time.

I love to cook pork very slowly until the meat becomes soft but juicy. But cooking pork for 7 to 12 hours is not always possible, I do not have the time for such long cooking sessions.  

Pork ribs give me the chance to try a different cooking approach. I put the pork ribs under a violent heat for 20 minutes so that the meat is caramelized on the outside but it still remains juicy on the inside, the fat and the bones protect the rest of the meat from drying out.

INGREDIENTS:

Half a rack of pork ribs

1 glass of white wine (or cider)

1 glass of soy sauce

1 glass of white wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)

4 gloves of garlic (finely chopped)

one piece of ginger (finely chopped)

6 tablespoons of sugar

chili powder

Put the ribs on an oven tray. Mix all the ingredients and pour it over the pork ( do not need to macerate the meat in advance). Preheat the oven to the max and put the oven tray on the top rack of the oven. It is very important to preheat the oven well enough before entering the meat.

After 12 minutes turn the meat over and wait for another 8 minutes, by this time the pork meat will be well caramelized . It is very important to keep an eye on the pork ribs so that the liquids don´t evaporate. if you see that the oven tray is running out of liquids, poor some more wine or water. Otherwise the soy sauce will burn. Bring the oven tray out of the oven and cover the ribs with tin foil for 10 more minutes.

¡it´s cooked!

I like to serve the ribs with roasted pumpkin or mashed potatoes. you can roast the pumpkin with the pork ribs. It´s so easy... 

salted cod

Pil-pil salted cod

Salt cod is cod preserved by drying after salted. For many centuries it´s been one of the most important ingredients in many Mediterranean cousines. As it is preserved in salt, it did not need refrigeration (it was not invented yet) to store it and it became an important source of protein in the diet of the people of countries like Italy, Portugal or Spain.

Today, we still prefer salt cod to fresh one. It is tastier and can be cooked in many different ways than the fresh one.

In the Basque Country there are two recipes that have become religion; Cod pil-pil ( pil-pil is an olive oil emulsion) an cod with "salsa vizcaina" (made of tomatoes and sun dried peppers).

"Pil-pil cod" (my favorite)  is an easy dish anyone can make at home as the ingredients are very simple: olive oil garlic and one dried chilly.

INGREDIENTS:

4 good size salt cod steaks

250cc of extra virgin olive oil

2 gloves of garlic (sliced)

1 dried chili

fry the garlic gloves and the chili until golden brown and reserve on one side. On a medium heat and using the same oil used to fry the garlic, cook the cod steaks from both sides. 

take the pan off the heat and wait until the oil cools down. No starts the most important part of the cooking process: place the cod fillets on a different pan and add a little bit of the used oil. You will notice that the fish will have released some of it´s juices to the oil. We will use them to emulsify it. Start shaking the pan; it is very important to give a circular motion to it. Slowly you will notice how the oil starts taking a lighter colour and eventually will take the consistency of a mayonnaise. then ad some more of the oil and keep moving it in circles... repeat the process until you have enough pil-pil sauce. I you have trouble emulsifying the oil, try adding a little bit of water. That will accelerate the process. bon appetit!!

you can find videos on pilpil sauce at you tube . That will clear any doubts you have.