Just joking, I don’t have the money for that.  So I turn to food instead.

I brought some little packets of “cooking cream” home with me from Spain, in order to make one dish in particular: solomillo a la pimienta – pork loin with pepper sauce.  This recipe is super simple, with only six ingredients, but it packs a powerful, straightforward punch of flavor and a huge hit of memories for me.

There’s a tiny  little tapas place in Seville, in Triana, on the corner of San Jacinto and Pages del Corro.  It’s called the Blanca Paloma, and it’s one of my favorite places in the world.

The place with the red awnings.

I used to live two blocks away, and even though it was always packed and incredibly noisy in the way that only a tapas place covered in tile and full of people can be, it was a place of calm.  I had class Thursday and Friday  nights, then Saturday mornings for my Master’s program – six hours in a row.  Getting home at ten pm and getting my butt out of bed to leave at eight am and do it all over again on Saturday morning was harsh.  We’d have a group breakfast at the cafeteria at eleven, but I wouldn’t roll on home until four.  So after a half hour subway ride, and a fifteen minute speedwalk, my tumbly was rumbly.  Almost every week, I would get seduced by the aroma of the Blanca Paloma.

By then the worst of the lunch rush would be petering out, so I’d sidle up to the bar and have one tapa and one drink – caffeinated or alcoholic depending on my roommate drama or level of classroom stress.  Sometimes it would be the best croquetas in the world, and sometimes it would be the best pork dish in the city.

I’ve talked about Spanish pork dishes before, and it won’t be the last time, but I love how simple this one is.

The real deal, snapped with my phone in October.

I got this recipe from the bartender in June.  My parents were visiting and I was weeks away from moving back to the US, and I hauled them and their friends into my favorite bars, so the Blanca Paloma was on that list.  When I first asked what the heck was in the sauce, I met a brick wall.  But then I rolled out the full breadth of my (actually true) sadness about moving away from the land of tapas because of economic crisis.  I explained how all the tapas places in the Pacific Northwest are all expensive high class places.  They looked at me, looked at each other at the word “crisis” (creesees) and nodded.

“No salt.  Chicken bouillon. And a dash of cognac.”  I was in.

Solomillo a la pimienta – Blanca Paloma

1 lb pork loin, cut thinly

1 c cream

1 Tbsp cornstarch

chicken bouillon, at least 2 Tbsp

freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbsp cognac

In Spain, the cooking cream is thicker than our cream.  You’ll need to use cornstarch or your other favorite thickener to get the right texture.

In a small sauce pan, heat the cream (not to boiling!), then stir in the cognac.  Add bouillon little by little, until it is to the salt level that you want it.  It should be around 2 Tbsp, but this is entirely a matter of taste.  Crack in a generous amount of pepper, around a Tbsp (you seeing a theme, here?), but again this ultimately a matter of taste.  Stir in the cornstarch and heat until thickens.

In a frying pan, with a little bit of olive oil to lubricate things up, quick fry the slices of pork loin on medium high heat.  Pour the sauce over the top of your pork loin and revel in how good it is.  Best with roasted potatoes!

The combination of training the new guy in a job I’ve only been doing for a month and a half, with having to move cubicles, with three separate IT disasters that prevent any work being done, with the preparation of tax returns, with losing a work baking contest to a boxed mix cheesecake bar, with the agreement to adapt your Master’s thesis for publication…these things can wear a girl out.  It’s easy to cave and want to crawl into a hole and wait for it to all blow over.  It would be nice to take a personal day, but temps can’t.  So what do you do?  You can make this.

This is a dish that’s popular in jamón country in Spain.  Huevos estrellados (Shattered Eggs) is a simple, rustic dish made up of fried potatoes, fried green peppers, slices of jamón, and a lightly fried egg.  That’s a lot of fried.  This is a hearty, comforting dish that can help smooth out the jagged edges of long, bad day.  There is an unctuousness from the jamón and the liquid egg yolk that patches up the cracks life has put in you, but the simple comfy texture of the potatoes cuts it before it gets overwhelming.

I’ve lightened it up by swapping out all the frying for roasting – it simplifies it so you can walk away and open up that beer.

Huevos Estrellados

2 medium yellow potatoes or 1 large one

1 green bell pepper (if you can find Italian peppers, use those instead!)

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 or 3 slices of Serrano ham (prosciutto if you can’t find it)

1 or 2 eggs, depending on your hunger

Salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut the potatoes into half inch discs and halve them.  I leave the skin on because I like it that way. Do what you will.  Cut the bell pepper into half inch strips.  Toss the potatoes and peppers into olive oil into a greased casserole dish.  Salt and pepper to taste.

When your potatoes are soft and golden brown (about 20 minutes to half an hour), and your peppers are soft and slightly charred, pile ‘em all on a plate.

Layer your ham on top of the potatoes.  It helps if you tear or cut it into smaller strips so you don’t have to fight with it later, when you are attempting to get a little bit of all the delicious flavors into your mouth at once.

In a small frying pan, fry your egg or eggs until the whites are just fully set.  Pile them on top of everything else, break the yolk and sit down.  Take a deep breath.  And eat your cares away.  That’s what comfort food is for.

I had heard about this soup more than a month before I arrived, and it was totally worth the hype.  Caroline served it to her boyfriend’s parents for Thanksgiving, and  I just made it again yesterday for my sick brother and sister-in-law.  This soup is comforting and good for even picky eaters.  It has a base of squash, but it’s not at all boring.  With your favorite fatty pig product, tomatoes, and chicken broth, this soup develops surprising layers of flavor.  When someone says squash soup, I think ho hum.  But even my sister-in-law was surprised.  Her first reaction was yeah, it’s good…then the next flavor notes chimed in and she started paying more attention to her bowl.

A lot of these adaptations come from Caroline and her super smart palate.  Originally this recipe calls for pancetta.  In Atlanta (pictured), we used ham steaks because…well, why not?  I used bacon the other day because it was on sale.  All versions?  Amazing.  Play around with it.

Ham steaks. A lot got snuck into mouths along the way.

This was originally meant to be boiled butternut.  Caroline uses acorn squash and roasts it with butter and maple syrup.  It adds another layer of flavor that isn’t really independent – it just deepens the squash flavor and rounds off the edges of the other, more acidic ingredients.  I used brown sugar because again… it was on sale.

So let’s have some soup.

Squash, Tomato, and Bacon Soup

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Makes 6 hearty servings

2 pounds squash of your choice – I prefer acorn

2 Tbsp butter

1 or 2 Tbsp brown sugar

Dash of cinnamon

5 oz bacon, coarsely chopped

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped fine

7 1/2 c chicken stock

2 c canned diced tomatoes, with all their juice

3/4 c cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Cut your squash open, scoop out the seeds, butter the insides and sprinkle the brown sugar inside (or maple syrup, depending on what you have on time).  Add a light sprinkle of cinnamon.  Roast for about 30 minutes, until it is just cooked through – think par-roasted.

You can go ahead and roast your seeds while you’re at it… They are a wonderful topper for the finished soup.

I made these for Christmas out of the cookbook I bought while visiting my friend Caroline down in Atlanta in October: Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking.   I was a little worried about getting it home in my suitcase as it’s a doozy of a book, but it has been entirely worth it.  Justifying an impulse buy is quite priceless.

Tiny little turnovers of cheddar and pepper jelly, these are crunchy and flaky and delicious and you should totally make them.  They take a little time to put together, which I don’t usually approve of, but these are worth the effort.  I was reminded of my college roommate and her love of pepper jelly from Pike Place – we’d go get some and sit in our dorm looking out the balcony while smearing cream cheese on Ritz and dollops of sweet and spicy red pepper jelly on top.  These are a little more complex and elegant, but you have to start loving pepper jelly somewhere.

I have no more reminiscing or fun things to say about the ingredients – I’m kind of discombobulated right now because I finally landed a job in Seattle, but only on a temp to permanent basis.  So just a few hours ago I loaded up my clothes and toothbrush and moved in temporarily with my brother up north.  My life isn’t looking anything like I had planned, but I’m excited to start work and leery of aggravating my brother and sister-in-law.  Cross your fingers and eat some turnovers, because they help everyone feel more settled and cheery.

Side note – all the ingredients for this batch were leftovers from Christmas items. Double win? Ham hock to make soup with soon!

Hot Pepper Jelly Turnovers

Makes 2-3 dozen turnovers.

5 oz sharp Cheddar cheese, cut into 1/2 in cubes

1 c flour

1/2 c butter (1 stick), chilled, cut into 1/2 in cubes

3-4 Tbsp cold water

1/2 c red pepper jelly

2 Tbsp of finely chopped ham or turkey (optional)

In a food processor with the metal cutting blade attached, pulse the cheese and flour together just until the cheese is the size of split peas.

Add the butter and pulse again until it the mixture is the size of whole peas.  Add the ice water and process briefly until the dough just starts to come together. Be careful not to over-water.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Turn the dough out onto a board and shape it into a flat round.  Don’t over knead – just enough to make it cohesive. Roll it out to 1/8 in thick and cut it into rounds with a 2 inch biscuit cutter.

Place approximately 1/3 tsp pepper jelly and 1/4 tsp ham in the center of each round and fold over. Don’t be tempted to add more than this amount of filling or it will all run out and you will very quickly get angry at the turnovers.

Crimp the edges well with a fork to seal or the jelly will run out. I sealed them with my fingers and then crimped them with a fork to be sure.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes.  The turnovers can be frozen before or after baking.  Defrost and bake or reheat before serving. For reheating, bake for 5 minutes at 375 to get them all crisped up again.

This time around, I impulse bought the Gourmet Magazine Holiday Special.  I was in love with Gourmet Magazine, then they shut down.  So when I saw that familiar calligraphy on the stand while I bought my anti-ear-squeeze gum for the plane, I snatched it up without an ounce of remorse.  Totally worth it.  It’s a compendium of holiday favorites from years past, and since I came to the game late, a lot of the recipes are new to me, though not all.

One of the recipes was for a delicious eggnog and cranberry cheesecake, which I attempted as my first every cheesecake.  Visually, it was a disaster.  But the flavor came out so beautifully, it’s already queued up as my next attempt – I’ll post it then.  But what did come out beautifully was the cranberry jam component, which ended up doing double duty as our cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.  It was so good, I snatched up the cranberries when they went on sale to stick in the freezer for future batches.  I did jazz it up ever so slightly, but this is a soul-warmingly good balance of tart and sweet and perfect for any winter table, holiday feast or otherwise.

Cranberry Jam

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine

1 (12-oz) bag fresh or frozen cranberries (If frozen, don’t thaw)

1 c sugar

1/2 c orange juice

1 c water

zest of 1/2 an orange

1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger

Pour all your ingredients into a large, 2-quart heavy pot over medium heat, stirring from time to time.

After it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally.

After about twenty minutes, the jam will start to thicken up as the cranberries release their pectin.  I like to pop the cranberries with my wooden spoon because it feels cool and sounds funky.  The jam will continue to thicken as it cools down.

Using a wooden spoon, smoosh the jam through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Throw away the skins and the seeds and let the jam cool, stirring every once and a while.  It will survive happily in the fridge for four days, perfect for making ahead and the all important holiday leftovers.

Why talk about cranberry sauce so long after Thanksgiving?   Because this is delicious on many other things.  Set cranberries free from a once a year holiday!  Think vanilla ice cream, or as pictured below, sweetened Greek yogurt! Think outside the box.  As soon as Christmas is over, cranberries will go on sale again, so be prepared.

These photos are from my trip down to Atlanta, but this simple gussying up of coffee didn’t stay there.  My friend Caroline had told me about this tip (you can’t really call it a recipe) after reading through a cookbook she has by Lidia Bastianich. She told me months ahead of time that as soon as I got my butt down there, she’d serve it up.  And we had it every day. And I’ve made it since.
What I’m saying in a rather repetitive fashion is that it’s good.
As you can see from the photo above, all you need is your coffee making device and an orange.  Caroline has a battered Italian espresso machine, but I’ve made it successfully in a smaller, Spanish style percolator and am planning on using it in my new-to-me french press.  I think it could easily work in any coffee maker, with a little ingenuity.

Orange Flavored Coffee

2-3 strips of orange peel, no pith, about 2-3 inches long

Coffee making materials for your desired strength

Peel the orange strips, preferably over the coffee pot to capture all the oil that sprays out.  Place them in the part of your coffee maker where the coffee will eventually end up, not packed with the grounds.  In this style of pot the coffee burbles up the spout and ends up on top.  In a Mr. Coffee or other traditional pot style, it would be the glass pitcher.  In a french press, it would go with the grounds just to keep it out of the way.

Make coffee.

Pour the coffee in a cup.

Enjoy.

Caroline and Ben say that it tastes like a chocolate orange – the ones you slam against the counter and they fall into segments.  I dislike chocolate oranges.  I love this coffee.  So yes.

Then, at 6 in the morning, on the way out to my flight home, Caroline upped the stakes and used my present to her as a present to me: Nocilla (Spanish Nutella) smeared all around the inside of our coffee cups.  Absolute heaven.

My suggestion?  Do both at the same time and take yourself to home-made coffee nirvana.

Caroline was a wonderful hostess. She shared her friends and took me around town to eat in many, many lovely places.  We also got the chance to cook together for the first time in over a year, after buying way too much food at the Dekalb Farmers Market.  Where they don’t let you take pictures, so oh well.  I took a few pictures of my favorite things she prepared for us, and those will be popping up in the next few weeks.  Especially since her breakfast burritos were worth the price of the tickets alone. Also, I bought a gigantic cookbook on southern cooking.  So there’s that.  In the mean time, for anyone thinking of going to Atlanta, please consider…

HD1

I have no pictures of this place, but they have excellent hot dogs and super crispy waffle fries.  And!  it was opened by Top Chef Richard Blaise, so I can erase a Top Chef place from my bucket list.  If you go, be sure to get the boiled peanuts!  Salty, and smooshy, and delicious.

Cakes and Ale

Not to be confused with Pies and Pints in Seattle, this joint is amazingly good.  We stopped off to have some coffee while we worked and studied.  Caroline convinced me to have the caliente coffee, which was a mocha with cayenne pepper.   One of the best cups of coffee I’ve had in a while.

We didn’t go to the restaurant side, but there were some tempting things on offer:

It’s just a really comforting place to go.  The bakery side was an expansion, so they have the old brick wall with its advertising still stuck up there.  Well lit and calm, I can see why it’s amongst Caroline’s list of need-to-go cafes.

Oh, and Ben convinced me to get a cookie.  They didn’t have their favorite tarts up for offer, so we settled on a peanut butter cookie with peanut butter mixed with marscapone smushed in between.  I warned Ben that if he led me astray, we could never be friends.  Needless to say, we’re chill.

Gladys Knight’s Signature Chicken and Waffles

We had a great time here.  Honestly, the sides were just so so (collards and squash casserole), but we had a southern feast and there were some tasty things worth eating.  The pictures are lousy because I was just using my phone to not stick out too badly in a busy restaurant.  Anthony Bourdain I ain’t.

Sweet tea!  It was…sweet.  Not up my alley.  But apropos.

Caroline insists that you must douse your collards in pepper-infused vinegar.   I eventually agreed.

Fried green tomatoes!  Man, these were excellent.  Combined with the remoulade, it inspired me to hunt down green tomatoes up in my neck of the woods.  If need be, I’ll just use those woody winter tomatoes and call them fried sad tomatoes.

Caroline and I teamed up to order two big plates and share.  These barbecue smoked turkey legs were amazing.

And of course, chicken and waffles!  I am definitely a fan, and would repeat in an instant.

So, that was my trip.  What did I miss?  What’s your favorite southern food?  Because I bet it’s in my new cookbook, and I want to try it!

One of my favorite things about summer is the fresh, ripe tomato.

Even with globalization allowing us to have year-round tomato-like objects, there is no replacement for in-season acidic, sweet tomatoes.  Spain had delicious, delicious tomatoes, and I went from tolerating them from eating one a day, at least.  No joke.  Just sliced up with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar.

So when I saw this recipe from one of my favorite food writers, David Lebovitz, I felt that he was speaking to my need for delicious tomatoes outside of summer.  He offers up the suggestion of oven roasting them to intensify their flavor, and then freeze the suckers.   He was right.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes by David Lebovitz

Original recipe here.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp rosemary
Salt and pepper
1 lb tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 325º.

In a baking dish, mix the olive oil with the garlic and spices.

Cut the tomatoes in half, and remove the stems.  Toss them in the seasoned oil and lay them cut side down in the dish.

Roast the tomatoes for two hours or until they are soft and wilted, starting to wrinkle.

Now eat them. They keep for a few days in the fridge, and up to six months frozen. 

How to eat them?

David Lebovitz, original author, suggests tossing them with feta.  This is brilliant.

Late night photography = terrible lighting, sorry.

I have also mixed them in with green beans and stuck them in grilled cheese sandwiches.

Basically what I’m saying is that you really can’t go wrong with these.  I keep them frozen in single serving packets so I have something that tastes gourmet always at hand.

A sick bitter orange tree was blooming out of season, allowing me to get one more whiff of azahar in October. My friend said it was Sevilla saying goodbye to me.

Spain has had a huge impact on my life, and therefore on my cooking, and therefore on this here blog.  Though I’m leaving Spain, and I don’t know when I’ll have the money or time to travel back, the imprint it has made on my palate and recipe choice isn’t going away anywhere soon.  I just wanted to give you all a heads up that the direction of this blog will shift in response to my geographical shift, and I don’t know how.  Perhaps I’ll finally unpack all of those cookbooks I’ve had in boxes and try to justify my addiction to pretty food pictures by actually using them.

But I also bought a ton of cookbooks in Spain.  And I’ve been frenetically eating everything I know I’ll miss back in the States.  So that means that Spanish food will most definitely still be an important element around here.  Not to worry.  In that vein, here are some crappy phone pictures of food I ate in the last week and a half that I’m determined to make at home.

Oh, and I also bought the Gourmet Holiday Special Edition at the airport, so that’s awesome sauce.  Now.  Phone pictures.

These are montaditos of delicious Iberian pork fillet (secreto) with Iberian ham and a quail egg.  I won’t be able to get that high quality of a fillet, but I will be able to get the rest of it.  We’ll see what happens.  This is at the Cervecería 61 in the Alameda de Hércules in Sevilla.

This is solomillo a la pimienta, or pork loin in pepper sauce.  I’ve mastered this.  It will be appearing soon.

Little shrimp “hamburgers” with alioli.  Both this and the solomillo are from the Blanca Paloma in Triana.

A white asparagus flamenquín (deep fried ham roll) with almond sauce.  I have no clue where this was.  Somewhere behind the Plaza del Duque.  It was raining so hard we just ran for cover.

And of course, chicharrones, or cracklings.  These are absolutely wonderful.  Pictured at El Chispa in Sanlúcar la Mayor.

Well.  I have to get on a plane.  If there is some Spanish recipe that you’d like to see pop up here, let me know!  Or recipes that you’d like to share, those are always welcome.  Catch you on the flipside.

Irish car bombs are a pint of Guinness with a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream dropped in them and chugged before the cream curdles.  I’ve had one, at a college Model United Nations party (oh yes, I was quite the cool one), and they can go to your head.  Like immediately.  They are tasty, but I’m not great at drinking quickly, so I prefer these cupcakes.  Last warning: these are incredibly rich. The cake is moist and intense, and the frosting is very sweet – don’t slather it on too thick.  Add a rich chocolate ganache filling to the party and it becomes a one cupcake is enough dessert.

Oh, and I had said that I wasn’t going to do gluten-free any more, but for those celiacs out there, yes, I had already mentally adapted this in a mental win-hearts-and-minds-of-friends ploy.  Follow the recipe with your favorite flour substitute, add a teaspoon of xanthan gum, and use a gluten-free beer.  I haven’t seen a stout yet, but Green’s has a tasty amber that could work.

So let’s make cupcakes.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I cut the recipe in half to make a dozen cupcakes.  Adapted from this site.

Cupcake ingredients:
1/2 c Guinness or other stout
1 stick of butter
1/4 + 1/8 c unsweetened cocoa powder (strange measurement comes from halving the recipe, sorry)
1 c  flour
1 c sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
Scant 1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1/3 c sour cream

Ganache filling ingredients:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 c heavy cream
1 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. Bailey’s Irish cream (or Irish whiskey, depending on your taste and liquor cabinet holdings)

Frosting ingredients:
4 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tbsp. Bailey’s

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.  In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the stout and the butter.  Drink the rest of the beer.

After the butter has melted, add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt) and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sour cream and egg together.

Add the stout and melted better combo and mix until just combined.  On low speed, mix in the dry ingredients bit by bit until just incorporated.  Pour the batter into the cupcake cups, to about 2/3 to ¾ full.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or about 15-18 minutes.  Let them cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now let’s make the ganache.  Chop the chocolate finely and add to a heatproof bowl.

Heat the cream to a bare simmer, then pour it over the chocolate.  Let the mix sit for one minute and then whisk until smooth.  If the chocolate is not completely melted, place the bowl over a double boiler to finish it off.  You could also try the microwave, for 15 seconds or so, but be very careful not to burn it.  Add the butter and Bailey’s and stir until combined.

(Photo note: I finished this up in the house we rented for the weekend, so I toted my ganache and filling to a strange kitchen and finished it off then. See below.)

Let the ganache cool until it is thick enough to be pipe.  If you want to use your fridge (modern tools, oh mine), just be sure to stir from time to time to ensure even cooling.  Just don’t let it go to far, or you’ll destroy the cupcakes with solid chocolate.

When you are ready to fill the cupcakes, cut out a small cone out of the top of the cupcake with a paring knife.   Go ahead and eat the cake castoffs.

Pipe the ganache into these divots and smooth over with a knife to restore the cupcake dome.

Ok, last step. Frosting. Beat the butter until fluffy, for a couple of clock minutes.  Don’t skimp on this stage,  it will make your frosting lighter and less like spackle.

Add the powdered sugar little by little until it’s all incorporated.  Mix in the Bailey’s until smooth – it takes the place of the milk usually used in a buttercream.  If more is needed, add more.  Mine needed more liquid, but I had already shipped it to another house without a mixer, so it wouldn’t pipe well.  Frost as desired, but go easy!  It’s potent!

Eat up!  But not too many or you’ll feel sick.  So happy, but so sick…