Spanish

In the Summer before my Junior year of high school, I went to Spain for four weeks on a teen-tour. Over the course of the program, I visited Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, Malaga, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona, and more. As I hopped around Spain’s arid core to the salty coasts, I had incredible opportunities to taste (and sometimes even cook) traditional Spanish food. I have vivid memories of walking into a street market in Madrid and tasting my first seafood paella, bright orange from saffron and outrageously delectable. Another one of my fondest experiences with Spanish cuisine is when I learned how to make lip-smacking gazpacho at a cooking school in the heart of Barcelona. I even reminisce about all the free olives I ate at Spanish restaurants. Even with all these experiences, I have never attempted to re-create these dishes at home in America. So when my followers chose the next Cuisine Adventure to be Spanish, I couldn’t have been more excited.

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Out of the six dishes I cooked, five of them I had eaten in Spain. This presented an interesting opportunity for this Cuisine Adventure because I could compare my re-created dishes to my more traditional food memories. Some recipes were by-the-book, others less-so, but most were incredibly delicious. I decided to start the week with paella, as cooking a big party dish on Sunday is so much more convenient. One thing I love about paella is that the protein is adaptable to your own taste. Traditionally, you add mussels and clams to paella, but that seemed like a big hassle in addition to the medley of other proteins I was already preparing. I simply adjusted by increasing the amount of shrimp. The paella was really fun to make, and I got to break out the never-once-used paella pan that my grandmother gifted my mom. Everyone loved the paella; some were less partial to the al dente rice I bought, but I thought it was delicious. Monday’s dish was the epitome of a simple, yet amazing use of Summer tomatoes. A wonderful array of yellows and reds, this pan con tomate was the easiest dish of the week and the one I’m most likely to make again. Aside from Sunday’s paella, Tuesday’s patatas bravas was the most iconic dish of the week. This was the only authentic tapas recipe I decided to cook. For such a basic concept (roasted potatoes with sauce), this recipe was labor- and dishware-intensive. Well worth it though, there were no potatoes left by the end of dinner. I learned how to make an aioli that night, the main source of my drudgery, a skill that all chefs would say is necessary to master. Maybe I’m not made to be a professional cook, but I don’t see myself making an aioli from scratch again. Regardless, the aioli and the red sauce worked perfectly together with the patatas.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday and Friday were my least enjoyable Spanish creations. The former, fideo, which are a kind of broken pasta dish cooked in broth, similar to paella actually, didn’t have a great texture due to broiling. This was the only completely new recipe—I hadn’t even heard of it before—so I can’t compare it to traditional Spanish versions. I’m willing to try fideo again, just sans broiling. Friday was also disappointing. I decided to make churros, an iconic Spanish and Mexican dessert, served with either chocolate sauce or dulce de leche. These churros fell flat, or crunchy, rather. The issue was that these churros were too skinny, so by the time they were golden on the outside, they were completely crunchy on the inside, like a pretzel stick. I would also try this dish again, however, just with a larger pipping tip. This was my first time using a pipping bag, so I feel like next time will definitely go better. The ultimate dish was Thursday’s Andalusian-style gazpacho. This was a complete winner, just like the authentic gazpacho I made in Barcelona years ago. Creamy, refreshing, slightly spicy, tomato-y, perfect. Gazpacho is also the perfect make-ahead soup, so I served it to our family friends we were having over for dinner that night. All of the bowls were clean within 10 minutes.

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

As if meant to be, my six recipes perfectly matched the gold and red of the Spanish flag. I think this whole week was meant to be, honestly. The perfect opportunity for me to reminisce about old memories of Spanish cuisine while learning new techniques and Spanish recipes. This week I learned how to make an aioli, use a pipping bag, pass soup through a fine-mesh strainer efficiently, and finely dice vegetables for garnish. The most important lesson I learned is to always PAM a baking tray before roasting potatoes, or you’re asking for major stickage. I’m so happy that I was able to try out these dishes for myself, hopefully inspiring all of you to take a mental trip to Spain and try out one of these recipes for yourself!