CONILL AL ROMESCO (ROMESCO RABBIT)

This recipe from Food Barcelona sounds delicious, so I decided to share it with you all. Food Barcelona is an excellent site for recipes and for Barcelona restaurant reviews.

Rabbit’s not what it used to be. The miserable, mass-produced specimens that line the chiller cabinets of Catalan supermarkets don’t have much to recommend them in terms of either flavour or farming ethics. I’ve talked about this before. You can shoot your own, of course, but there aren’t many bunnies to blast in the middle of Barcelona. Fortunately, you can now get local, organic rabbit sent to your door from companies like Ecoviand de Brugarolas.

I did and I was very happy with the service. I was contacted immediately to inform me of availability and the expected delivery date, and the rabbits (and duck) that arrived were of the highest quality. 9/10 – it would have been 10 but the rabbit’s liver was missing; a gastronomic supply crime in my book.

I encourage you to seek out a good rabbit, either wild or organic (or at least free-frange) and give the following recipe a try. It’s a Catalan-style braised rabbit (not with a separate romesco sauce but featuring the main ingredients and flavours) that will leave you licking your fingers and persuade even those who are squeamish about eating rabbit (Brits and Americans, mainly, in my experience) that it’s a superb meat.

Ingredients:

• 1 rabbit

• Pancetta, cubed

• Chicken stock or dry white wine

• Plain flour

• 2-3 onions

• 6-7 ripe tomatoes

• 6 tablespoons olive oil (not pictured)

• Sherry vinegar

• Salt & pepper

• Rosemary, thyme, bay leaf (plus parsley if you want)

• Saffron

• Dried nyora peppers

• Smoked paprika

• Hazelnuts (50g-80g)

• 3 cloves garlic

A food snob note on ingredients:

Buy the best you can find. Ibérico pig pancetta can be found in Spanish and Catalan supermarkets and is perfect here. Good bacon’s fine too but don’t tip in a plastic pouch of chemically cured bacon cubes and expect the dish to taste OK. Tomatoes should be ripe and taste of tomatoes; no imported, flavourless rubbish please. Tinned tomatoes are better than those. Nyora peppers are widely available in Catalonia; if you can’t find them near where you live, Google Is Your Friend.

Method:

First, make the base for the braise. Catalan cooking purists will say that the following doesn’t have enough onions to be a propersofregit, or too many tomatoes. That’s as may be. Feel free to add more of one and less of the other. Both ways work here.

Regardless, heat the oil in a pan and add the finely-diced onion. On a low, low heat, allow to slowwwwly soften and caramelize. This will take a while. Split your tomatoes in two around their equators and rub them against a box grater above a bowl to get the flesh off the skins, Catalan-style.

Add a clove of minced garlic to the almost-soft onion then the tomatoes. Season and allow to reduce until there’s very little liquid left. Pour off any obvious excess oil.

Put the nyora peppers into some warm water to soak. They’ll keep floating up to the top and drive you insane so scuttle them with a knife and weigh them down with one too if necessary.

If your rabbit didn’t come ready-jointed, it’s time for you to practice your butchery skills. Remove the liver and heart and set aside. Chop off the head and divide the rest into 6 pieces with a cleaver, chef’s knife or kitchen scissors depending on your level of dexterity. You can discard the head; I’m not that hardcore. Put 100-200g of flour in 2 large ziploc freezer bags and season with salt and pepper. Put the rabbit pieces in the bags, seal them and give them a shake. Fun eh?

Brown half the diced pancetta in a heavy-based pan (ideally one you can put a lid on and put in the oven but a saute pan is fine; you’ll deglaze it later anyway). Add half the now-seasoned rabbit pieces a couple at a time, making sure you don’t crowd the pan. Remove to a plate and repeat the procedure with the rest of the pancetta and rabbit.

Deglaze the pan with a couple of glasses of dry white wine or 400ml-ish of chicken stock.

Add the rabbit, the herbs (tied in muslin and/or with kitchen string into a bouquet garni) the onion and tomato reduction, a fistful of chopped parsley, a mere pinch of paprika and a teaspoon of sherry vinegar.

Pop a lid on and simmer on a low heat for about 30-40 mins. If it dish looks dry, filter some of the pepper-soaking liquid through a sieve and add that. While it’s xup-xup-ing gently, make your picada. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan then pound them in a pestle and mortar. Mince and pound a clove of garlic, a couple of strands of saffron and the liver and heart from before. Or, if you’re lazy like me, put them all through a hand blender mini chopper first, then pound them. You’ll have time for an extra glass of wine that way. You’ll need it to be patient enough to gently scrape the flesh from the inside of the skin of the soaked nyora peppers. Throw the seeds away. It’s a fiddly job but nyoras are a key ingredient. Sorry.

Now pound it all together with the pestle and add it to the rabbit when the 30-40 minutes are up.

If you own one, stick a food thermometer in the rabbit’s leg and set the alarm for about 66ºC. It’ll take about 10-20 more minutes of cooking.

Let it rest for ten minutes then serve on warm plates. Garnish with the parsley if you like. Catalans would probably have chips (fried potatoes) with the rabbit because, hey, any excuse, right? But just some good bread and a side salad would do. Skip the bread and spuds and it’s a slow-carb/low-carb treat.

Prepare to get your fingers dirty as you pick up the rabbit portions and nibble at the exquisite, tender meat.

Sherry Cocktails

While in New York City recently I made it a point to try some of the sherry cocktail offerings found on many of the bar and restaurant cocktail lists. My favorite was the Bamboo, which has amontillado sherry, dry vermouth, orange bitters, Angostura bitters and a twist of lemon. A perfect aperitif.

Wine Enthusiast offers a brief description of the different kinds of sherry as well as select sherry cocktail recipes. What I'm trying next: the Adonis which is a riff on the Bamboo, with fino sherry in place of amontillado and sweet instead of dry vermouth.

Recipes

Bamboo (from Saveur)

1½ oz. dry amontillado sherry
1½ oz. Noilly Prat dry vermouth
2 dashes orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
Twist of lemon

In a mixing glass, combine sherry, vermouth, bitters, and cracked ice. Stir ingredients for 20–30 seconds until well chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add a twist of lemon to serve.

Adonis (from Wine Enthusiast Magazine)

1½ ounces La Ina Fino Sherry
1½ ounces Perruchi sweet vermouth
2 dashes orange bitters
Lemon twist, for garnish

Stir all ingredients (except garnish) with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

See our Jerez Sherry Tour in Spain.

Jamón y Música

I love this photo taken at an event in Madrid in November where Arturo Sánchez® presented their 2010 hams. Vintage 2010. 2010 is reputed to be among the best years in recent memory for their hams. And the ham was presented and cut with musical accompaniment. How often do you see that?

Chefs Paco Pérez and Mario Sandoval were there as well, preparing tapas featuring jamón ibérico. Given my intense love of Spanish ham, I wish I had been there.

Michelin Stars in Spain & Portugal

Here is the full list of the 2014 Michelin stars in Spain and Portugal. In Spain the total stars are now as follows: 8 restaurants with 3 stars, 19 restaurants with 2 stars, and 144 restaurants with 1 star.

The newest 3 star restaurant is DiverXO, which is David Muñoz's restaurant in Madrid. 20 restaurants got their first star this year, and 2 received a second star. The new 2 star restaurants are El Portal de Ecahurren in Ezcaray, La Rioja and M.B. in Tenerife.

Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet was formally accepted in November by Unesco and is now on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The definition of the Mediterranean diet from Unesco emphasizes not only the food that is prepared but also the raising, harvesting, processing and conserving of the food products. And importantly, the definition includes the crucial aspect in Mediterranean cultures: that of "eating together".

Eating together is the foundation of the cultural identity and continuity of communities throughout the Mediterranean basin. It is a moment of social exchange and communication, an affirmation and renewal of family, group or community identity. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes values of hospitality, neighbourliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity, and a way of life guided by respect for diversity.

That a key feature of the Mediterranean diet is the social component of food and food-related traditions affirms the importance of people in this intangible cultural heritage. This does not mean that the diet cannot be adopted by people from Hong Kong to New York, as a set of eating principles. With the availability of Mediterranean products across the globe and the awareness of the Mediterranean diet, eaters and chefs can prepare dishes fairly true to the food's origins. What cannot be easily replicated is the lifestyle aspect of the Mediterranean diet. The communal eating, the market or small producer shopping, the proximity to the products, the traditional knowledge of when, how and why you use certain products or prepare certain recipes, the home preparation and conservation of products from anchovies to olive oil to liqueurs, and the food-centered festivals. That doesn't make the diet any less valuable as an appealing and healthy way of eating, but I would hope that the lifestyle aspects–the stories of the makers and of the places of origin, of the traditions surrounding the food–could be transmitted hand in hand with the products and the recipes.

From Unesco:

The Mediterranean diet constitutes a set of skills, knowledge, practices and traditions ranging from the landscape to the table, including the crops, harvesting, fishing, conservation, processing, preparation and, particularly, consumption of food. The Mediterranean diet is characterized by a nutritional model that has remained constant over time and space, consisting mainly of olive oil, cereals, fresh or dried fruit and vegetables, a moderate amount of fish, dairy and meat, and many condiments and spices, all accompanied by wine or infusions, always respecting beliefs of each community. However, the Mediterranean diet (from the Greek diaita, or way of life) encompasses more than just food. It promotes social interaction, since communal meals are the cornerstone of social customs and festive events. It has given rise to a considerable body of knowledge, songs, maxims, tales and legends. The system is rooted in respect for the territory and biodiversity, and ensures the conservation and development of traditional activities and crafts linked to fishing and farming in the Mediterranean communities which Soria in Spain, Koroni in Greece, Cilento in Italy and Chefchaouen in Morocco are examples. Women play a particularly vital role in the transmission of expertise, as well as knowledge of rituals, traditional gestures and celebrations, and the safeguarding of techniques.

The Sobremesa

Restaurante Coque in Humanes, Madrid, today was awarded the Mejor Sobremesa (Best Sobremesa) prize by Salsa de Chiles. An intriguing award, and a fascinating concept.

How to translate sobremesa… It is a concept that barely exists in the English-speaking world. The Manuel Seco Diccionario del español actual defines it as the "tiempo inmediatamente siguiente a una comida, durante el cual los comensales permanecen reunidos y conversando." The time immediately following a meal during which the guests remain at the table and talk. It is the post-meal time marked by shared conversation. It is the time when coffee and perhaps brandy or a liquor are savored. It is institutionalized in Spain especially when meals are shared in restaurants or with invited guests at home. It means that eating and running is fine for quick lunches during the work week, but not an option when friends or family gather to eat. So revered is it in Spain that they have a prize for it!

Having recently eaten at Restaurante Coque, I heartily agree with their receiving the Best Sobremesa award. The experience at Coque is marked by the guests starting in the bodega and then moving to the kitchen, then to the dining room and finally to the Lounge for the Sobremesa. In the Lounge you are presented with dessert and the Box of Minerals. Literally a box containing 13 different small truffles and sweets with flavors ranging from Passion Fruit to Cinnamon to Candied Orange. Most notable in the Lounge is that all of the diners who earlier inhabited separate spaces in the dining room all seem to be friends in the Lounge, talking openly across tables and across the room. Barriers have come down, and no one seems in a hurry to get somewhere else, despite the fact that the meal is into its third hour. But isn't a leisurely Michelin-starred lunch in Madrid, masterfully prepared and served by Mario Sandoval and team, a pleasure to seek out, and reason enough to travel to Spain?

Ribera del Duero, Toro and Cigales Wine Trips

Well known and loved by wine enthusiasts, the wines from Spain's Ribera del Duero region in Castilla-León include such legendary names as Vega Sicilia, Pingus, and Mauro. Beyond and in addition to the prestigious bodegas, Ribera del Duero boasts numerous enchanting wineries to visit. We have collected our favorite wineries, restaurants and wine experts into unique custom trips available for 2 to 30 people.

We recently spent a week in the region on a trip of discovery, finding wonderful wines and wineries in the regions of Toro and Cigales as well as in Ribera del Duero. The three wine regions are all within a short distance of one another, making our favorite hotel in the region an ideal hub for a three or five day wine trip.

Beyond wine, the area is home to amazingly well preserved castles–the best I have seen in Spain–; sublime charcuterie from nearby Guijelo; rich lechazo (roast baby lamb) and cochinillo (roast suckling pig); some of the best sheep's milk cheese in Spain; luxurious five-star hotels; a new Michelin-star restaurant. We are partnering with food and wine experts, as we always do, to bring you our signature perfectly orchestrated and expert led trips.

The 10 Most Expensive Wines in Spain

I love this list of the 10 most expensive wines in Spain, mainly because the included wines are all amazing, and because we visit most of the wineries on the list. That said, we don't normally taste the wines on this list at the visits–given the price tags you will understand why. It is enchanting to visit a winery where you know they have bottles of wine worth hundreds, even if you don't get to taste it.

The World's Most Beautiful Buildings

According to Lonely Planet. Their list of the world's most beautiful buildings includes two in Spain. The Guggenheim Museum, in Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, and the Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudi. 

We love both buildings, and regularly take our guests to see them. And the best news is that with our guided Sagrada Familia visit you get to skip those snaking lines and walk right in. 

Check out Lonely Planet's list. 

Planning A Trip With Epicurean Ways

Changes are underway here at Epicurean Ways. Every day as we plan private trips to Spain, Portugal and France for individuals and groups we realize that where to go and what to do isn't always clear to our travelers. Often there's a notion of a place without concrete ideas, or an interest in specific activites without a sense of the best places to go. We're setting out to change that.

In the coming days and weeks we will add descriptions of our experiences within each region of Spain, as well as those in Portugal and France. You, the traveler, can then choose those experiences that most appeal to you. Our job will be to arrange the ones you choose, and others not on the website, with modes of transportation, curated restaurants, and hotels matched to your preferences.
 

We have a portfolio of activities not included on the website. In fact, we have far more experiences at our disposal than we can include. Some are in less frequently visited parts of Spain, while others are reserved for food and wine professionals, or are not listed simply because they appeal to specialists, food geeks, or journalists. Feel free to ask us about these unlisted possibilities.

We hope that the experience descriptions will spark your imagination and give you a sense of what's possible. As always, call or email with any questions, to talk over your ideas, or to ask for some guidance in beginning trip planning. 

Susan Spicer's Spain

Join Chef Susan Spicer of Bayona and Mondo Restaurants in New Orleans for the trip of a lifetime in Spain. Visit the Basque Country, the Rioja and the French Basque Country. Exclusive winery visits, cooking classes, artisan producer visits, and amazing dining at Michelin-starred Etxebarri, Michelin-starred Akelarre, and a winery dinner with Michelin´starred Venta de Moncalvillo. ​

Join us at Bayona Restaurant in New Orleans for a wine and tapas event to learn more about the trip. March 21, 5:00 PM.

Contact us for more information about the trip.

La Tasquita de Enfrente

La Tasquita de Enfrente was long on my radar since a couple who traveled with us in 2011 reported that they had a fantastic dinner there, highlighted in part by meeting the chef-owner Junajo. Last Wednesday as I was riding the AVE high-speed train from Barcelona to Madrid I realized that I would arrive in central Madrid in time for lunch. As soon as I arrived I had the hotel concierge call La Tasquita to book a table, and as luck would have it, there was one small table available. Bingo!

La Tasquita is located in a slightly unsavory part of Madrid just off the Gran Vía, back where the old streets intersect at odd angles. Its location means that we typically send travelers there with a guide or in a taxi because it can be tricky to find and slightly disconcerting if you can't find it right away. An unassuming place from the outside, La Tasquita is both intimate and luxurious inside. I was met and seated by Juanjo himself, who asked if I wanted him to bring me his choice of dishes. Perfect. A waiter was at the table immediately asking me what I wanted to drink. We were off to a good start.

The wine came followed in short order by a succession of courses: Anchovies from Cantabria cleaned by Juanjo himself, beautiful artichokes, Tuna Tartare, Pulpo (octopus) Ceviche, Sting Ray à la meunière with capers, and for dessert the most delicious Panna Cotta.

The quality and freshness of the products and the masterful just-right treatment of the ingredients make La Tasquita a must-go restaurant in Madrid. Chef Juanjo is considering opening a restaurant in NYC in the near future. Should we be so fortunate!

La Tasquita de Enfrente, Calle Ballesta, 6, Madrid, +34-915-325-449

No online reservations. You have to call Juanjo.

Getaria

The NYTimes has put Getaria on the 2013 Travel List

They say:

From San Sebastián, it’s just a 25-minute drive, mostly along a gorgeously winding waterfront highway, to Getaria. For centuries, this fishing village was all about a quiet maritime life, with boats bobbing in the small port, and seaside restaurants grilling excellent fish (and becoming renowned among gastronomically picky Basques). For centuries, Getaria’s most famous local son was the navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who sailed with Magellan and was the first to circumnavigate the globe in the early 16th century. But more recently, a local boy went out and became a fashion icon. After decades of squabbling over funding, the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum finally opened in summer 2011, drawing a sophisticated design set to Getaria’s twisting medieval central streets, and filling its restaurants and hotels with travelers from Paris, Madrid and beyond. — Sarah Wildman

Near Getaria

Plaza de Abastos Market, Logroño, La Rioja

Plaza de Abastos market in Logroño, Rioja

Salt cod

Winter greens

Riojan beans

Pedro of Frutas Pedro

Fresh garlic

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

We recently attended an olive harvest and oil-pressing day Moreda de Álava, in the Rioja Alavesa region. The oil was produced from Arrónig olives, a little known olive variety common in the Rioja and Navarra regions before olives trees were ripped out or abandoned 30 to 40 years ago to make way for grape vines. Now some local farmers are reclaiming olive groves and putting them into production for extra-virgin olive oil. And many of the groves are Arrónig groves.

At the olive oil mill the bags and baskets of Arrónig olives were unloaded and the olives were quickly pressed into a green-golden liquid. Once the oil was bottled we tasted freshly pressed oil. We tasted it in the blue glasses used in olive oil tastings and we tasted it drizzled on freshly baked Spanish bread. The oil is spicy and burns slightly, similar to the oil made from Andalusian Picual olives. Given the limited production of olive oil made with Arrónig olives, we may not hear much about the oil outside of Rioja and Navarra, but it is worth seeking out. I'm thinking it would be a spicy addition to those alubias de Tolosa (Tolosa beans).

I found a recent article on olive oil written by Mediterranean food expert and cookbook author Nancy Harmon Jenkins, in which she discusses the role of the olive variety in the taste of olive oils. Olive Oil: Tasting the Differences, from The Art of Eating.