Picudo Olives are grown to make oil, green olives and black olives from. The olives are medium to large-sized with a pointed tip. They will ripen to full black. The oil is aromatic, almost a bit sweet, with no bitterness. The oil yield is about 20%. The oil has a medium-length shelf life. The olives…
Spanish Food
Piel de Sapo Melons
Piel de Sapo Melon © Denzil Green A Piel de Sapo Melon has rough, waxy skin with no netting, but with slight furrows and green and black stripes (actually more like striations) running from top to bottom. The skin is mottled green when unripe, changing to yellow with green mottling when ripe. The vine will…
Pimentón de la Vera
Pimentón de La Vera is a mild, brick-red coloured Spanish paprika made from several different varieties of peppers. It has a dusky, smoky taste because the peppers are roasted over oak fires, then ground. It comes in sweet, bittersweet and hot (dulce, agridulce and picante.) Use sparingly because it has a strong taste. The peppers…
Pimolas
Pimolas is a generic Spanish term used to refer to a stuffed olive, particularly one stuffed with either pimiento or sweet red pepper.
Piquillo Peppers
Piquillo Peppers are jarred red peppers from Spain. They are very mild and sweet, and have charred remnants of skin on them. They are grown around Lodosa in the Ebro River (“Ribera del Ebro”) Valley in Navarre, northern Spain. The eight villages in the production area are Andosilla, Ázagra, Cárcar, Lerín, Lodosa, Mendavia, San Adrián…
Salsas
Salsa means sauce, in Spanish. Though the Spanish do make sauces, generally when you see the word Salsa there will be a Mexican sauce involved. There are raw sauces and cooked sauces. If you see the word “cruda” in the name of a Salsa recipe, “cruda” means “raw” in Spanish. You can buy commercially prepared…
Serrano Ham from Spain
Serrano Ham is an air-dried Spanish ham that does not need cooking. Serrano looks like Italian Prosciutto, and is always sold thinly sliced like Prosciutto, but it is less fatty than Prosciutto and ends up with less moisture than Prosciutto, giving it a more concentrated taste. Consequently, Serrano Ham is more expensive than Prosciutto. It…
Seville Oranges
Seville Oranges are too bitter to be eaten out of hand or raw. Bitter oranges such as Seville are valued for their intense orange flavour which comes through when you balance the bitterness with added sweetness, or extract or distill the taste. Despite the name, Sevilles now are grown in many places other than Seville,…
Sherry
Sherries are wines that are fortified with brandy. Sherries range from dry to sweet in taste; the pale-coloured ones are dry, the dark ones will be sweet. Brits have preferred sweet styles, the Spanish have preferred dry. Brits are now, though, acquiring a taste for dry. Sweet ones are better after dinner. Dry ones can…
Sherry Vinegar
Sherry Vinegar is a vinegar made from a blend of wines from Palomino Fino grapes. It is aged for a minimum of six years in wooden barrels that previously held sherry. The barrels are arranged in tiers, with the oldest vinegar being in the bottom row and the youngest vinegar being in the barrels on…
Soffritto
Soffritto © Denzil Green In Italian cooking, a “soffritto” is a finely chopped, lightly sautéed mixture of food used as a flavourful base to a dish. It will usually be sautéed in olive oil. It’s close to, but not the same, as what is called a “sofrito” (with one “f” and one “t”) in Spanish….
Spanish Food
The Romans set the Spanish cooking base of wheat, olives and grapes. The Muslims added almonds, oranges, rice and saffron. The New World tossed in chocolate, corn, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. Food in general is not spicy, though the use of garlic throughout Spain is common. The peppers used are generally sweet rather than hot,…
Spanish Ham
Spanish Hams are classified based on where the pigs are raised, what they are fed, and how the hams are made. Spaniards recognize two different ham “cuts” of ham: from the back legs of the pig, what we call ham in English, is “jamón”; that from the front legs of the pig is called “paleta.”…
Spanish Olives
Forty-five per cent of the olives in the world are grown in Spain, as of 2004. Domestically, Spain uses 50% more olive oil than Italy does. Italy imports a great deal of Spanish olive oil in bulk, packages it, labels it as Italian, and re-exports it to the rest of the world as Italian. The…
Tapenade
Tapenade is an olive paste or spread most associated with Provence, an area in the south of French, though it is popular in other Mediterranean countries such as Spain. You can use it as a dip for vegetables, mix some into pasta, salad dressings, spread on breads, etc. It is usually made by puréeing black…
Teruel Ham
Teruel is very fragrant, slightly salty tasting ham made in the province of Teruel, Spain. It can be made from Durco, Landrade or Large White hogs, or crosses between these breeds. The pigs are fed commercial feed (other other parts of Spain which let their hogs eat acorns, but there are no oak trees in…
Tigernuts
Tigernuts are actually tubers, as peanuts are. Underground, the Tigernut plant grows rhizomes, off of which grow small roots and off of which, in turn, the “nuts” are formed. They are planted in the spring and ready to harvest 4 to 5 months later. The nuts can be round or long with brown, rough skin….
Tortilla (Egg)
There are two senses of the word tortilla. The Mexican sense is a flatbread; see entry on tortillas. The Spanish sense of the word is an egg dish very similar to a frittata. In Spain, a tortilla is often called by one or the other of two full names: Tortilla de patatas or Tortilla española….
Trevélez Ham
Trevélez is a Spanish ham made in Granada, Spain, in the villages of Trevélez, Juviles, Busquistar, Pórtugos, La Tahá, Capileira and Bérchules. Trevélez, which has only 800 souls (as of 2006) is a village at the foot of mount Mulhacén, but even so still has the highest altitude of any village in Spain. The pigs…
Turrón
Turrón is a nougat made in Spain from honey, egg whites, and toasted almonds. It is similar to Torrone in Italy. It can be sold as a rectangular slab, or come as a round cake between two thin waffle cookies. You can get Turrón year round, but it is mainly sought out at Christmas. The…
Verdial Olives
Verdial Olives is a grouping of olive varieties such as: Verdial de Badajoz Verdial de Huévar Verdial de Vélez-Málaga Verdial de Catalayud Verdial de Alcaudete Verdial de Jaén They are thick-skinned, medium to large-sized olives grown for their oil. Different varieties give different quantities of oil. Some such as Verdial de Badajoz are also used…