Chocolate meat balls? Albondigas de choco - cuttlefish balls

Though I've spent years researching (yes, thats one way of putting it...) the selection in Andalusian tapas bars, occasionally even I'm in for a surprise. In Cadiz I kept bumping into albondigas de choco, which I was immediately intrigued by. Albondigas we all know - the blog has recipes for traditional Spanish tapas meat balls and for a version pimped with chorizo. But choco? Chocolate? Chocolate meat balls? Seriously?

No. 

Turned out choco means cuttlefish, which is something that's being fished and consumed in Cadiz a lot. Just look at the selection at the fish market... And if there's something I love even me than chocolate, it is any member of the octopus family. Dios mios - these dreamily light and flully balls are probably the best thing I brought back from my trip. Just try them - they'll melt in your mouth!

Makes 30 balls

Albondigas de choco - cuttlefish balls:

500 g cuttlefish 

1 smallish onion

2 garlic cloves

handful of chopped parsley

1,5 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 eggs

9 tbsp bread crumbs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

(Plus flour for dredging, optional)

For frying: 1 dl oil

The sauce:

1 onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2,5 dl whte wine

5 dl good fish stock

1 bay leaf
pinch of saffron

Clean the cuttlefish if needed. Rinse and drain thoroughl. Cut into smaller pieces and measure into  a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients. Blizz until you have a smooth mixture (it's ok to leave some rougher bits). Avoid the temptation to add more bread crumbs to get a more solid texture as that easily results in dry and hard balls. And that's something we don't want...

Let the mixture rest in cold for half an hour. 

Roll into 30 balls (the mixture is a little loose, but don't worry - that's just what we want!) and dredge them in flour, shaking off the excess. This part is optional, but it does help thicken the sauce, too. Fry them in oil until golden brown and transfer aside. 

Add remaining onion and garlic into the oil left from frying the balls. Sauté util their soft and translucent but don't let them brown. Pour in white wine and bring to boil. Let boil for 5 minutes and then add fish stock, saffron and bay leaf. Check the taste and season as needed. 

Let boiluntil it thickens. Then add the balls, lower the heat and let simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Serve. With some chilled Verdejo and dreams of Andalusian sun...

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SHARING IS CARING!

Chorizo and squid salad with crunchy chickpeas

One of the things I love most about Spain is chorizo. There aren't many things that it wouldn't work with. Its spiciness brings extra kick to creamy, rich ingredients (like in this roasted pumpkin and chorizo pizza) and works well with the gentle flavour of seafood (as this crayfish and chorizo tart or these chorizo and prawn cocktail treats prove).  Mar y montaña; combining meat with fish/ seafood is typical feature of Spanish cooking - especially around Catalonia. Chorizo is one of the staples of our fridge. Another thing we always have in one shape or another is squid. Good job we do, too: as Tzatziki Champion arrived for lunch a while back she made her wishes clear. "Squid! You've got to make me some squid!!!" And that's what I did.

This salad is easy and uses only a handful of ingredients. Crunchy chickpeas make for a nice finishing touch. Yummylicious!

Always thaw squid in plenty of cold water - if you let them thaw in their package the're easily left with an unpleasantly stale taste.

I tossed the chickpeas in a bit of oil and seasoned them with just salt and pepper, but if the chorizo you're using is not very spicy, add to oil pimentòn, garlic powder, ground cumin and ground coriander (about 1/4 tsp each).

Serves 2-3, as tapas 4-5

Squid, chorizo and chickpea salad:

225 g chorizo
1 kg squid (once thawed and cleaned, about 600 g)
1 smallish red onion, finely sliced
1 large bunch of parsley
salt, black pepper

Crunchy chickpeas:

1 can chickpeas, drained and picked
2 tsp oil
salt, black pepper

For serving: lemon wedges

Start the salad by roasting the chickpeas. Pat the chickpeas dry and toss in oil. Spread onto a tray lined with parchment and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 180° for 30-40 minutes until crisp, shaking halfway through.

Fry red onion for a couple of minutes until softened a bit. 

Cut chorizo into 1/2 cm thick slices and fry on a pan until crisp and golden. 

Clean squid, rinse and pat dry. Cut the body to 1 cm thick rings. Season with salt and pepper and fry in a hot pan quickly in batches.

Alternatively you could just throw the ingredients onto a barbecue!

Combine the ingredients, drizzle with lemon juice and serve.

The wine choice was not the result of a thorough investigation and analysis - I had bought it solely based on the label. The origin, to be precise: it comes from Luberon in the South of France, famous from both Peter Mayle's Provence books and the film A Good Year (based on one of his books, BTW!). I've recently been enjoying both in a bid to find cure for the chronic travel fever.

The wine is a blend of four varieties: Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Ugni Blanc and Roussanne. The wine is dry with ripe fruitiness and acidity which make this an easy wine to combine with variety of dishes, especially ones with richness and spiciness.

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Squid and macaroni

Our January was not spent abstaining from alcohol, meat or... well, anything really. See, the simple creatures that we are, we've yet to realize that gluten is the worst poison out there and how eating pasta is pretty much reason to anything that's going on in the world. 

One day I actually saw a headline screaming how "just one portion of alcohol a day might decrease one's life expectancy". Crikey. Gotta love the health and safety lobby for their tireless stupidity efforts. Hey, here's a scientifically proven fact! Every bloody day decreases one's life expectancy!!!

So, what did I do? Decided to combine all my vices (well, not all of them: even the ethnic stores won't stock George Clooney's eyes or Sasha Baron Cohen's smile...) and came up with this dish to feed friends that turned up for dinner a few weeks ago.

Anyone who'e ever read my blog knows I absolutely love all the members of the octopus family. Though I've also come to the confusing realization that my passion is not shared by many. Definitely not by my friends. "Tasteless", "rubbery" and "icky" are just about the nicest descriptions I've heard being used. 

I dare you: try any of these recipes and I think you'll find that doesn't have to be the case. This pasta swiftly became one of my own favourites too. And my friends? Couldn't get enough.

The ideal pasta shape for this would be something small and circular. In the style of the squid rings themselves. Simply because that makes eating easier. And trust me - you'll want to eat this. A lot of this. 

PS. Though an entire kilo of squid might seem like a lot, it isn't. Once it's been thawed and cleaned, you're only going to be left with about 550-600 g. For instructions as to how to clean a squid, click away here!

Serves 4-6

350 gr pasta

1 kg frozen squid, thawed, cleaned and cut into 3 cm rings

a couple of tbsp olive oil

2 large onions

3 large garlic cloves

3 anchovies

3 tbsp tomato paste

2 1/4  dl red wine

4 dl fish stock

2 bay leaves

3 tbsp dried oregano

500 g passata (or finely crushed tomatos)

to serve: 1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped, the finely grated zest of 1 lemon

kourallinen tuoretta persiljaa hienonnettuna, 1 sitruunan kuori raastettuna

Pat the squid dry and fry quickly in batches on the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Set the heads/ tentacles aside for serving. Cook pasta in boiling, salted water for 3 minutes. Drain and keep warm until they go into the sauce to finish cooking.

While waiting for the pasta water to boil, prep the sauce. Peel onion and garlic and slice finely. Sauté in oil until translucent. Add anchovies, tomato paste, oregano and red wine. Stir and cook for a minute or too and then add fish stock and passata. Season, bring to boil and let boil without the lid for about 10 minutes. Then add pasta and squid and continue cooking until they're done - about 10 minutes. Every now and then stir to make sure nothing sticks to the pan. If at this point the bake looks too liquid, continue boiling for a couple of minutes uncovered. 

Check the taste, season as needed and fold in tentacles, chopped parsley and lemon zest. Serve. 

A good wine pairing for this is Planeta Etna Rosso, made of Nerello Mascalese  grape variety grown in the vulcanic land at the foot of Mt. Etna. It's bright mineralic acidity has proved to be a good match with tomato-based pastas and even seafood - just try this baby octopus recipe cooked in sherry!

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Potato and octopus salad

Sure, the best thing about blogging is all the glamorous red carpet events we get invited all the time. And all the millions of dollars/ pounds/ euros we get paid through all sorts of lucrative marketing deals, all the time. Oh, and can't forget about all the pricey gifts and free Champagne they keep throwing our way, again, all the time. 

Fat chance. Yeah, right. As if.

The best thing about is you guys: the readers. Your comments, feedback and just generally tagging along is the thing that keeps the bloggers going. Another super great thing are the fellow bloggers and meeting them. They are a great bunch of dedicated people and passionate about the same things. Every now and then they become real friends in the real world; not just nicknames whose lives you follow in the social media. One of mine lives in Israel so I only get to see her when she comes over for her summer holiday. Last summer we checked out the Tall Ships Race, but this time I felt brave enough to invite her over for a meal.

What was I thinking? Have I not met myself? Was I not capable of estimating the turmoil and anxiety that would push me in? See, it's one thing to admire photos of someone's cooking, quite another to actually get to taste it... For afters we had orange posset and before that we feasted new potatos (can't get enough of them!) with marinated octopus in this summery salad inspired by restaurant Salt in Tallinn. 

I served the salad with persillade which totally rocks my world right now: try it on salads or serve with grilled fish. seafood or meat. To keep the olive oil from overpowering the flavours, use a very light oil. Or a 50/50 blend of olive oil and something neutral like canola or rape seed. Or use only that.

Persillade:

3/4 of a big bunch of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped that yields 5 generous tbsp)
the zest of 3/4 lemon
1 tsp white vinegar (or lemon juice)
1 garlic clove
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (start with 1/2 and add more if needed)
1 dl oil (see above)

Crush the garlic clove using pestle and mortar and, along with salt and lemon zest, rub into paste. Add oil and finely chopped parsley leaves. Season with vinegar, check the taste and add more salt/ vinegar if needed.

Serves 3

Potato and octopus salad:

1 kg marinated octopus (recipe here)
750 kg new potatos
1/2 red onion
200 g fava beans (cooked and peeled)
15 sun dried tomatos (or oven-dried, for which you'll find recipe here)
15 olives
half a box of rucola leaves (3 handfuls)

Cut the smaller potatos in half and the bigger ones in 4. Cook in generously salted water and then, when almost done, steam dry. Peel and finely slice red onion. If you prefer a softer onion taste, fold them in with the hot potatos. Drizzle some good olive oil and fleur de sel on top and let come to room temperature.

Slice the tomatos and halve the olives. Fold them and rest of the ingredients into the potatos and serve with persillade and chilled rosé - German and Austrian ones are worth trying. 

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Marinated octopus

The heatwave that is currently sweeping across Finland has totally messed my geographical clock up. As I'm so used to being somewhere else this time of the year, soaking the Mediterranean sunshine, I actually have to remind myself every now and then where it is that I actually am.

My culinary clock has picked up on it too and I'm plagued with ridiculous craving for anything octopussy. A craving the satisfying of is a bit of a challenge at these latitudes (and with these prices...). For a while now I've been on the lookout for one of those big octopi, but so far to no avail. Again I only managed to find smaller tentacles. Then I did my head in fretting over how they refused to curl up just right for the photo. Perhaps that 3-step-shocking-method would have worked with these too?

With any member of the octopus family you have two options. Either you do it really quickly or really slowly. Anything in between and you're left with something with the charm and texture of a used tyre. Eventually I decided to cook these as I would have cooked one of those big ones, too: slowly, that is. I simmered these for an hour after which I poured the marinade over them and let that do its job until the next day.

In Mediterranean countries these are often quickly grilled over hot charcoal grill for before serving!

As a tapas this feeds 3-4

1 kg small octopus tentacles (or a 1 kg- big octopus if you can find)

The cooking liquid:

2 l water
2 bay leaves
10 allspice peppercorns (or black ones)
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1,5 tbsp salt

Roughly chop the onion, celery and carrot into chunks. Place all the ingredients into a pot and bring to boil. Then add octopi, wait until the water comes back to boil again and then lower the heat to simmer. Let cook, covered for an hour (you can test the doneness sooner, say, after 30 minutes with the tip of a knife. They should be tender but still al dente). Remove from heat, let cool and drain. Cut the bigger ones in half. Combine the ingredients for the marinade , pour over the octopus and let marinate at least for a couple of hours, preferably overnight in the fridge.

Marinade:

1 dl vinegar (red or white)
2 dl (rosemary) olive oil (recipe? Here!)
1/2 red onion

Peel and slice the red onion finely. Combine with rest of the ingredients and pour over the octopi. Before serving lift the octopi from the marinade (which by  now, if it's been in the fridge, will be a bit gelatinous), drizzle some good olive oil, salt and pepper on top of it and serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Serve as is, or in a salad the way we did - more on that tomorrow!

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Pulpo a la Gallega - Galician octopus

Though I have eaten this many times (last time was in that chiringuito in Torremolinos) I had never actually cooked it myself. And not least because of what it looks like...

Oh well... perhaps it's got a really nice personality?

Owing to it's massive size I expected the preparation to be an operation of equally massice proportions; one that would call for the tactical assistance of EU peace keeping forces. Luckily that wasn't the case. Though it did take its time.

I opted for the smallest specimen at the fish counter but even that was the size of a football. Cooking any member of the squid-family comes with the risk of rubberiness, especially this big fella. A couple of tips come in handy in order to make sure the end result will be tender. Too bad those are the tips I never learnt at school...

First of all it's recommended that you freeze it for at least 24 hours. This too helps tenderize the meat. Then you let it thaw overnight. Then you rinse it. Then we'll get to the exciting part and even I don't always know which is genuinely helpful and what is just... old wive's tales.

I have heard that you should add a cork into the water you cook it in. In some instructions I've heard of pounding it with a mallet before cooking to ensure tenderness.

In Tunisia I was told the creature should be put in cold water which you then bring to boil. In Spain I was told to scare it 3 times in boiling water. Yep - scare something that looks like that...

And this is how it's done: Bring water to boil in a big pot. Then immerse the octopus in the water for a second and lift it out and giggle at the way it starts to shrink and curl up (makes me sound like a bit of a sociopath, doesn't it?). This is then repeated 2 times so that before each immersion you let the water start bubbling again. After you've scared the shit out of the octopus for 3 times you lower the temperature so it merely simmers, place the octopus in the pot and let it gently cook until it's tender. Depending on the size this takes 45 minutes to an hour. Mine, tipping the scales at half a kilo (and then some) I cooked for 35 minutes. At this point the appearance was actually starting to evoke some affection in me.



I mean... it is kind of pretty.
And the fact that it's pink doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.

After this you let it cool. In Tunisia this was instructed to do with immersing it in ice water. In Spain I was told to just cool. On it's own. In it's own time. Before serving though the Spanish instructions tell to keep it in the fridge for at least an hour. Then you cut it diagonally to bite-size chunks and serve it on a bed of boiled potatos, olive oil, salt and pimiento powder.

I chose to fry the pimiento and some garlic powder in oil to avoid the sort of dry, powdery sensation and poured it over the dish.

As the name would indicate, this dish is originally from Galicia in Northern Spain but has become a tapas favourite all over the country. As tapa this half a kilo monster would feed 4. As a racion it's enough for 2.

And for those, who'd rather explore the wonders of the oceans somewhere other than on their plates, there's Sea Life aquarium at the Marina in Arroyo de la Miel!