José Pizarro’s oxtail stew
Oxtail is gorgeous: the flavour is so intense thanks to all that fly-swishing exercise and the high ratio of bone to meat. This dish is popular all over Spain and it is traditionally served in restaurants located near bullrings.
Get your butcher to joint the oxtail between every vertebra. While the casserole is delicious under any circ*mstances, it undoubtedly tastes best if you cook it the day before eating it... but remember you need to marinate the oxtail for 24 hours too!
Serves 4
oxtail joints 2kg
For the marinade
red wine 1 litre
carrots 5 medium, diced
garlic cloves 4, quartered
onion 1 large, diced
leek 1 large, sliced
bay leaves 2
cloves 4
cinnamon stick ½
For the stew
extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp
beef stock 500ml
flat-leaf parsley 5 sprigs, chopped
flaked almonds 100g, toasted
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pat the oxtail joints dry and put them into a plastic bowl along with the marinade ingredients. Cover and put into the fridge for 24 hours.
Next day, drain and keep the wine, then separate the vegetables and meat. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large casserole and brown the oxtail on all sides. At the end of this process there’ll be burnt meaty bits on the bottom of the pan; these do not matter – just remove any excess oil, add the marinated vegetables, and fry them over a medium heat. You’ll find the vegetables lift the sticky bits from the pan. Sauté, stirring regularly, for around 20 minutes.
Now add the wine from the marinade and let the alcohol evaporate (this will take about 5 minutes) before returning the oxtail joints to the pan. Add the stock, cover and simmer slowly for a minimum of 2, preferably 3, hours. Remove any scum that comes to the surface.
Spoon the casserole onto plates, scattering some parsley and almonds over each serving. Mop up the delicious juices with fresh, crusty bread.
From Pizarro: Seasonal Spanish Food by José Pizarro (Kyle Cathie, RRP £15.99). Click here to buy a copy for £12.79
Omar Allibhoy’s chilled tomato and pepper soup
Serves 6
tomatoes 8, quartered
Spanish onion ½, roughly chopped
red pepper 1, seeded and chopped
green pepper 1, seeded and chopped
garlic clove 1
cucumber ½, chopped
ground cumin 1 tsp
sherry vinegar 5 tbsp
bread 1 slice
water 1 glass
Spanish olive oil 10 tbsp
salt
ice cubes, croutons and olive oil to garnish
Place all the prepared vegetables in a food processor or blender, reserving a little of the red and green pepper, cucumber and onion for the garnish. Add the cumin, sherry vinegar, bread, olive oil and about 200ml of water. Add a pinch of salt and blend until smooth.
Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary. If you don’t like bits in your gazpacho you can pass it through a sieve at this stage. Serve with a few ice cubes and garnish with the reserved pepper and cucumber, croutons and a few drops of olive oil.
Gazpacho tastes so much better when prepared in advance – the night before if possible. If you do want to sieve it, I recommend you wait until just before serving as the flavour will be much more intense if it has been left overnight with all the bits in.
From Tapas Revolution by Omar Allibhoy (Ebury, RRP £20). Click here to order a copy from Guardian Bookshop for £16. tapasrevolution.com
Nieves Barragán Mohacho’s chickpeas, spinach and pancetta
Serves 4 as a light main
dried chickpeas 240g, soaked in water overnight and drained
bay leaves 4, fresh if possible
onion 1 large, peeled and cut in half
extra virgin olive oil 12 tbsp, plus extra for drizzling
smoked pancetta 240g, cut into 1cm lardons
shallot 1 large, peeled and finely chopped
garlic cloves 6, peeled and finely chopped
chicken stock 500ml
baby spinach leaves 300g
Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the drained chickpeas into a large pan with the bay leaves, onion and plenty of water. Bring to the boil, then cook for 45 minutes or until the chickpeas are tender. Drain the chickpeas, discarding the bay leaves and onion, and set aside to cool.
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan or heavy-bottomed frying pan over a high heat until almost smoking. Add the pancetta and cook until it starts to caramelise. Add the shallot and garlic and cook gently for 2 minutes.
Add the chicken stock to the pan and simmer until it has reduced by half. Add the chickpeas, reduce the heat and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook for a further 30 seconds, folding the leaves in gently.
Drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with crusty sourdough bread.
From Barrafina by Nieves Barragán Mohacho (Fig Tree, RRP £25). Click here to buy a copy for £20
Claudia Roden’s burnt cream
This creamy custard with a crisp caramel topping is found everywhere in Spain as crema catalana but in Catalonia it is known as crema cremada, which means “burnt cream”.
Serves 6-8
cornflour 4 tbsp
whole milk 1 litre
lemon 1, the peel cut into 1 or 2 long strips
cinnamon stick 1
egg yolks 8 large
caster sugar 150g, plus about 4-8 tbsp for the caramel
In a cup dissolve the cornflour in 4 tbsp of the cold milk (the cornflour will prevent the egg yolks from curdling). Heat the rest of the milk in a large saucepan with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick until it just begins to boil.
Beat the egg yolks and 150g sugar to a pale cream in a bowl, then beat in the cornflour mixture. Now beat in a ladleful of the hot milk.
Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon stick from the hot milk and add the egg and sugar mixture to the pan, stirring vigorously as you pour. Bring to the boil slowly over a low heat and continue to cook over a low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens, then pour into 6 or 8 small clay cassoles or large ramekins. Let cool, then chill.
Just before serving, sprinkle the top of each custard with 2 to 3 teaspoons of sugar and gently shake the ramekin to spread it evenly. Caramelise the sugar with a mini blowtorch, or use a red-hot salamander as they do in Spain, until the sugar turns a dark amber colour.
From The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden (Mivhael Joseph, RRP £30). Click here to order a copy for £24
Sam & Sam Clark’s Malaga raisin ice cream
Serves 8 (Just over 1 litre)
double cream 600ml
milk 300ml
cinnamon stick 1 small
vanilla 1 pod
egg yolks 7
caster sugar 85g
raisins 100g covered with Pedro Ximénez sherry or Pedro Ximénez Malaga wine 100ml
Place the cream, milk and cinnamon stick in a large saucepan. Split the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape the tiny seeds into the pan, discarding the pod. Heat until just below boiling point, then remove the pan from the stove.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is pale and thick. Loosen the egg mixture by stirring in a little of the cream and milk mixture, then pour the egg mixture into the saucepan, scraping the bowl out with a spatula. Whisk well to mix everything properly and return to a low heat, stirring constantly. Heat gently but be careful not to curdle the mixture.
When it thickens and just before it bubbles, remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and place over ice water to cool. Churn in an ice-cream machine, in batches if necessary, adding the raisins and sherry towards the end of the churning. (For those without an ice-cream machine, you can freeze the ice cream by hand, but remember to stir every half an hour to prevent ice crystals forming. Stirring will also help to distribute the raisins evenly as they tend to sink to the bottom before the ice cream is hard enough to suspend them.)
The churning process will take about 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your freezer or the specification of your ice-cream maker.
Serve the ice cream with a chilled glass of Pedro Ximénez on the side or poured over the top.
Note: although this is a very simple recipe (using a basic custard for the ice cream) complexity and flavour is provided by the sherry. The raisins are soaked in Pedro Ximénez sherry, a treacly, sweet, raisiny sherry made from Pedro Ximénez grapes, that have been first dried in the sun to concentrate their sugar and taste.
From Moro: the Cookbook by Sam and Sam Clark (Random House, RRP £20). Click here to order a copy for £16
