Six Weeks in Sevilla – D22

Day 22: Food!

Food is often seen as the identity of a country or culture, a way to remember its past and enjoy the present, leading to a slightly edited quote that says: “Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are.” 🙂

Earlier this morning, our little group enjoyed a presentation on the variety of foods that make up the culinary landscape of Spain, and on the many influences that helped shape it — from Phoenicians to Carthaginians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Visigoths, French, Jews and Muslims, and even the Catholic church. I know I’ve been enjoying its varied dishes for the past three weeks, but to be aware of their subtleties was a nice exercise.

To truly understand food, you have to prepare it and cook it. So following the lecture, we set out to attend a cooking class and prepare three typical Spanish dishes: salmorejo (a cold tomato-based emulsion soup); espinacas con garbanzos — a specialty of Sevilla; and, finally, the purist’s paella: Valencia version — the only dish that can truly be referred to by that name (all other versions with seafood or other ‘decorations’ are simply called: arroz con…).

We were hosted by Taller Andaluz de Cocina, with Chef Dominico and assistant Victoria. See more information at the end of the post on how to secure a cooking class. It’s a wonderful operation and I would highly recommend the experience!

Here are some of the basic ingredients that we found on arrival:

Cut up the tomatoes in big chunks

First up on preparation was the wonderful salmorejo (the cold tomato- and bread-based soup). Its ingredients are similar to gazpacho, but while you drink that one, salmorejo is eaten with a spoon.

Cut up the tomatoes in big chunks

Put in a blender together with day-old bread that was briefly soaked in water

Blend for a while until the mixture emulsifies. You might have a glass of sangria while you wait 😉

Slowly drizzle about 3″ of extra virgin olive oil into the mixture until the color changes from bright red to orange

Pour into a dish and let rest in the fridge

Next up was the prep for the espinacas con garbanzos. The spinach is fresh and boiled down; the garbanzo beans can be canned or can have been cooked as part of another typical Spanish dish — the cocido montañes, an old fashioned bone stew. That latter technique requires many more hours than we had for the task, so canned it was.

Chop an onion

Slowly roast garlic in olive oil

Take garlic out into a grinder

Handgrind the garlic and onion until it turns into a paste

Put tomato paste into the oil used to cook the garlic

Add the garlic/onion mix to the pan

Add the boiled spinach and mix while cooking (our colleague looks like she’s in her element, doesn’t she?) 🙂

Add the garbanzos, just long enough to warm them

While this was going on, the green onions were boiling in a pot, as a base for the broth that will be needed for the paella. So let’s move right on to what’s involved in that! First, the traditional Valencian paella only calls for chicken and/or rabbit as the meat ingredients along with whatever vegetables are in season (today’s were broad green beans and artichokes). According to our chef, any other ingredients would disqualify the dish from being called a “paella” and only serve as “decoration.” 😉

The base of the broth

The chicken is cut (without severing any bones); large bones and the carcass are tossed into the broth. The fatty skin at the butt of the chicken is discarded.

The meat has to be cut so that no bone is severed. It is then cut into small chunks

The chunks are placed in the paella pan, evenly distributed around the pan

Next, the artichokes are prepared

And the broad beans. Everything is cut into bite-sized chunks

Now comes the fun part (and deliciously smelling part too!): cooking the ingredients. It’s a work a precision, so that no one element overwhelms any other.

Arrange the meat along the outside of the pan, in one even layer

Add the veggies

Fill the middle of the pan with the veggies, just enough of them to make for one even layer

Another happy colleague!

Add Pimentón spice (smoked paprika: a smell from heaven!)

Add a pincer of safran (you’ll have first wrapped it in foil and ‘roasted’ it near the fire so that it becomes crunchy)

Make a space in the middle of the pan to add the pimentón

Add tomato paste

Add the broth from the green onion/bones broth until it reaches just the top of the rivets on the pan

Mix

Add the safran (from a bowl with a little water)

Add Bomba rice (not just any rice will do). I love the way to measure the exact quantity: build a ‘bridge’ between the two handles of the pan by progressively adding the rice back and forth. When it’s settled no higher than the rest of the ingredients, stop 🙂

The final ‘bridge’ of rice

Now you can mix the rice with the other ingredients and cook it (2mns on high; 6mns on medium; 10mns on low)

Add a fresh sprig of rosemary and cover with a towel so that the spice infuses the paella

The finished product. It has to cook just to the point where a thin crust forms at the bottom

When cooked right, you can hold the pan that way and the paella “sticks” to the pan (not sure I’ll be confident enough to do that on my first try solo!)

Time to serve!

And finally, it was time to enjoy all that heavenly goodness. Maybe it was because we cooked it ourselves, but that was one of the best meals I’ve had since arriving in Sevilla!

The salmorejo along with various toppings: ham bits, eggs yolks (salt if needed)

Fixing the individual servings

et voilà!

Espinacas con garbanzos

yum!

Finished paella

And to top it off, a refreshing lemon sorbet with fresh mint and a bit of Proseco!

Information on Taller Andaluz de Cocina:

Location: Mercado de Abastos de Triana, Stalls 75-77
Plaza del altozano, 41010, Sevilla, Spain
website: http://www.tallerandaluzdecocina.com
email: info@tallerandaluzdecocina.com

They offer 2-4 classes per day and you’ll need reservations: one or two days before on weekdays and up to two weeks before for weekends.