Xato

Back in 2011, I attended a class at the Central Market Cooking School taught by Daniel Olivella. It was a seafood-focused class, and I fondly remember the octopus dish with potatoes and smoked paprika. I also remember the paella and learning about Bomba rice, and I remember the Xato salad. Chef Olivella told us about the popularity of this salad in Catalonia. There’s a competition every winter among towns to see who makes the best version. It’s a salt cod salad with a dressing made with Romesco sauce, but I’ll get to more of the specifics of it shortly. At the time of that class, Chef Olivella was operating a Spanish tapas restaurant in Oakland. He mentioned that he’d like to open a restaurant in Austin and was considering it. Soon thereafter, Barlata changed its address from California to Texas, and Austin had a new tapas restaurant. And now, recipes from the Austin restaurant and from Olivella’s upbringing in Spain can be found in the new book Catalan Food: Culture and Flavors from the Mediterranean of which I received a review copy. The chapters cover everything from starters to desserts with vegetables, rice and noodle dishes, seafood, and meat. It’s some of the simplest dishes that really got my attention. The Wrinkly Potatoes are cooked in an abundance of salt before being halved and served with allioli, and they look completely irresistible. The Biquini Mallorque is a grilled cheese sandwich made with Manchego cheese, but the twist is the addition of Romesco sauce and sausage—and cooking the sandwiches in olive oil. I made some with just the cheese and Romesco, and it’s my new favorite grilled cheese. The Warm Octopus with Potatoes dish from the class is in the book, and I can’t wait to revisit it. There’s also a Chicken with Shrimp dish made with an almond and hazelnut picada with sherry that’s on my to-try list. And, despite the churros, doughnuts, and Crema Catalana in the desserts chapter, my first stop there was for the Chocolate-Covered Marcona Almonds. That’s such a good combination with the roasted, salted nuts. Then, I flipped back to the page with the salt cod salad. The main elements are the big flakes of salt cod and the dressing made with a mix of Romesco sauce, olive oil, and sherry vinegar. I still have my recipe list and notes from the cooking class, and I see that the version made that night included a black olive puree and no salad greens. So, there are options for how to proceed, but I mostly followed the instructions in the book. 

Something I learned about Xato from the book is that frisee is the salad green of choice for it. This makes sense since frisee is a sturdy salad green, and the dressing is on the thicker side. The day I planned to make it, frisee wasn’t available at the farm stand I visit every week or even at the grocery store. I used a mix of local salad greens and radicchio instead. I started by making the Romesco sauce. I can never locate nora chiles and used anchos instead. They were stemmed and seeded and rehydrated in boiling water. Tomatoes were broiled until charred, and almonds were toasted. Bread was fried in olive oil, allowed to cool and cut into small pieces. Then, the garlic was cooked in the olive oil. I pureed everything in a food processor with some sherry vinegar. Some of the finished Romesco was whisked with olive oil and more vinegar to create the dressing. The salt cod had been soaking for a day in the refrigerator. I drained it and broke it into chunks. The mixed greens were tossed with the dressing and placed on plates before being topped with salt cod chunks, black olives, anchovies, and chopped herbs. Canned tuna is also listed among the ingredients in the book, but I skipped it and added extra salt cod. 

I made a meal out of this salad with lots of salt cod on each serving. There are a lot of big flavors going on in this mix of ingredients, but they all go together well. I also served the Manchego and Romesco grilled cheese sandwiches on the side, and those are so good after browning in olive oil. It’s easy to make meals from the snacks and salads in this book, and eating Catalan food is never disappointing.

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Passport Spain: The Diversity of Spanish Seafood

Central Market stores are once again offering a Passport event with the focus this time on Spain. For two weeks, from May 11 until May 24, special Spanish products including olive oils, wines, canned seafood, rice, and chocolate are available. During this event, the Cooking School classes fit the Spanish theme as well. Last Thursday, I was invited to attend The Diversity of Spanish Seafood class with a media pass. Our instructors for the evening were Chef Daniel Olivella of B44 in San Francisco and Barlata in Oakland and Chef Quim Marques of Suquet de l'Almirall in Barcelona. Chef Olivella let us know that he's hoping to open another tapas restaurant much like Barlata in Austin as soon as next year. The two chefs informed and entertained as they showed the class how to prepare five different seafood dishes.

Up first, we were to have been shown a grilled salt cod dish. When the two chefs arrived and saw what was available locally in the way of salt cod, they changed their plan. They explained that in Spain, shops selling salt cod offer a vast range of options from heads and tails to small cuts to larger, thicker pieces. Since what they found upon arrival was smaller pieces of salt cod, they changed their plan and chose not to grill it. Instead, they prepared a xato or Catalonian salad. The salt cod had been soaked, rinsed, and dried and was cut into small segments. A dressing was prepared from a classic romesco sauce and was tossed with frissee leaves. The salad was built from the dressed frissee, chopped black olives, cherry tomatoes, and salt cod pieces. I've used romesco sauce as a salad dressing before, and it works perfectly. The briny fish and olives matched well with the flavors of pureed tomato and chiles in the sauce/dressing.

Next, a simple snack, something to serve with cocktails before a dinner party, or a tapa was presented. Coca is an easy to prepare, cracker-like flatbread. Chef Olivella explained that coca is made with flour, water, and leftover food. It's a casual thing to make that's topped with whatever is on hand. Ordinarily, it would be made in a large circle like a pizza, but for this dish, it was cut into small rectangles to make it finger food. The coca base was topped with sliced tomato that had been skinned and seeded and dressed with olive oil, some roasted onion and red bell pepper, a piece of sardine, a sliver of Iberico ham, and some grated Idiazabal cheese. This all made a very flavorful bite.

Our next seafood dish was made with octopus. Because cooking octopus can take up to two hours, it had been prepared in advance, and the technique was just explained without an actual demonstration. The suggested technique was to bring a large pot of water with peppercorns and a bay leaf to a boil. Once boiling, you should hold the octopus at the top and slowly dip its legs into the boiling water, then lift it out, dunk again, and repeat three times before placing the entire octopus into the water. Chef Olivella told us he didn't know why it worked, but it does, so that's how he boils octopus. For this dish, potatoes were also boiled, and that involved an interesting technique as well. The potatoes were placed in a pot and just covered with water. Then, as much as two cups of salt was added to the water, and the water was boiled until it evaporated. When the water evaporated, the potatoes were cooked and well-seasoned. The octopus legs were chopped into small pieces which were tossed with the potatoes and olive oil, and all was sprinkled with pimenton.

The next dish was very simple to prepare, but its fresh flavors jumped off the plate. It was a simply seared piece of tuna that had been crusted with a mix of crushed black, red, Jamaican, and Sichuan peppercorns. Both cherry tomatoes and roma tomatoes that had been skinned, seeded, and diced were sauteed in olive oil with basil leaves, and that mixture garnished the sliced tuna. The basil was intensified by the brief cooking and combined with the tomatoes for a bright, herbal note on top of the pepper seared tuna.

Our last dish of the evening, which was also the crowd favorite, was seafood paella. There were ooh's and aah's as the rice began to cook in the paella pan and the seafood was added. Chef Olivella spoke about the various rice dishes from Spain and how paella is traditional to Valencia but all regions of Spain have come to adopt the dish. There are many versions of paella and many other rice dishes that are similar but might not be called paella. The most important thing about the dish is the rice. Chef Olivella said, "Paella is all about the rice. Don't make paella with bad rice. You can't make paella with Uncle Sam rice." We all got a good laugh and realized he meant to say "Uncle Ben's rice." The point was clear. Arborio is a good alternative, but if you can find a Spanish rice, you should use it. I remember the last time I was planning to make paella, I searched all over town for Spanish bomba rice with no luck. For this special event, Central Market has a couple of special Spanish rices for sale in the stores, and right after class I ran downstairs to grab a bag of bomba. Hopefully, this will become a very popular product, and they'll continue to carry it. To make the paella, first a sofrito of onion, bell pepper, garlic, and some chopped fish was cooked slowly for several minutes to develop a flavor base. More olive oil was added, and then the rice was stirred into the mixture and cooked. Fish stock was added and allowed to cook down and be absorbed by the rice a bit. Shrimp, mussels, scallops, and chopped fish were added on top. Last, the paella pan was placed in the oven for a few minutes to dry the rice. It was a delightful, seafood-filled dish, and the flavors had permeated each grain of rice.

I left the class having learned some new things about Spanish cuisine, having enjoyed a few Spanish wines, and having a new sense of jealousy for the fabulous seafood both fresh and preserved that's available in Spain. Now, I'm hoping I'll one day have more options here when I go shopping for salt cod.


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Romesco Caesar with Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers

The concept of the romesco caesar salad was stolen from Fino. I had such a salad there a couple of years ago, but it appears they no longer serve it. Romaine lettuce with a romesco-like dressing was topped with lovely, whole anchovy fillets.

This salad came back to mind when I found some great looking marinated anchovies at the deli counter at Central Market. Add to that the fact that I had been reading about romesco sauces, and tinkering with a salad recreation came next. I started by assembling a simple romesco as follows:

1 large tomato
1/2 red onion
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
2 T slivered almonds
Salt and pepper to taste

-pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
-place tomato, onion, and garlic on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roast in oven for 15 minutes; remove garlic and return sheet to oven for an additional 15-20 minutes or until onion and tomato are very tender
-meanwhile, place anchos in a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over to cover; allow to steep for 15 minutes or until anchos are rehydrated and soft
-cut tomato in half and remove core; peel garlic; place tomato, onion, garlic cloves, anchos, almonds, and salt and pepper in bowl of a food processor and puree until somewhat smooth; a little texture is good here

This makes more romesco than necessary to dress a salad made with one head of romaine. So, you could either make it all into salad dressing and save half for another day, or reserve half of the romesco for another use which is what I did. So, to continue:

1/2 quantity simple romesco from food processor
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1 head romaine lettuce, washed, chopped, and spun dry
parmigiana reggiano
whole, boned, marinated anchovy fillets

-whisk together romesco, lemon juice, and olive oil in a medium bowl, taste and adjust seasoning if needed
-in a large bowl, toss romaine with dressing starting with 3/4 of the dressing and adding more as needed to achieve desired dressedness
-serve dressed romaine on large plates; using a vegetable peeler, cut long strips of parmigiana to top salad; place the anchovy fillets like shimmering jewels on top of this colorful salad; serve with crostini or crouton

I served the salad with a few goat cheese stuffed peppers on the side. I used fresh caribe and hatch peppers. Hatch chile season started last weekend, and I plan to use a lot more of those in the next few weeks. For this meal, I just grabbed a few of the smallest ones in the bin. I also stuffed a few marinated peppadew peppers to add a little flavor and color variety. I used four ounces of goat cheese and one minced clove of garlic and stirred those together with salt and pepper.

The cheese was stuffed into eight hulled peppers. The peppers were splashed with a small bit of red wine vinegar and olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and pepper, and they baked in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Romesco caesar, rustic wheat crostini, and goat cheese stuffed peppers were fantastic together. I’ve mentioned before that Kurt rarely comments on a meal without being questioned or prompted in some way. Well, this was one of those rare occasions on which he expressed his delight all of his own volition. He proclaimed the salad good eatin’, was very pleased with the shiny anchovy fillets, and quite liked the stuffed peppers. I too was very happy with the meal. The peppers were a burst of great flavor, and each type had its own unique appeal. The yellow caribes were especially good. The salad was as delicious as I remember it from Fino. Maybe next time I’ll use manchego; there’s always an excuse for more tinkering.

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