Feast on the Best Seafood in Spain

When a native English speaker hears terms like seafood and fish, he or she usually conjures up images of a fish and chips stand on the corner. We have become so used to beer-battered, deep-fried, and tartar sauce soaked seafood that it is the norm for most of us to think about heart disease being a part of any pescatarian dish.
If you want to get a glimpse and see how seafood is meant to be prepared and enjoyed, taking a trip to Spain is the most effective method. You won't find any Red Lobster, Long John Silvers, or Captain D's locations in this Mediterranean country because fast food is generally frowned upon. You will however find a traditional atmosphere of people actually enjoying freshly prepared seafood dishes in fine and casual dining establishments.
Because of their unique proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, Spain has been gifted with some of the best seafood variety in the entire world. Whether you are staying across the way at Club Méditerranée or discovering the country Don Quixote style, here are some of the best seafood dishes Spain has to offer:
Paella
What started as the city of Valencia's signature dish, this blend of delicate ingredients has become a staple in Latin America and is starting to gain positive reception around the world. Paella starts off with a broth made from shrimp heads, garlic, and bay leaves. Rice is added as a base and then comes an array of shrimp, cuttlefish, lobster, and mussels. After that, the dish is topped off with one of the rarest and most fragrant herbs on earth, saffron.
Canned Seafood
When thinking about canned seafood, it is easy to limit your purchasing decisions to tuna. The Spanish have been known to take great pride in preparing, preserving, and canning their seafood for many years now. As seen on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, Spanish know what they are doing when it comes to canning their fish.
Instead of being limited to traditionally salty and fatty fare, Spanish canned seafood is a little more expensive but consists of delicacies like mussels, scallops, baby eels, and octopus. Those who would never eat a sardine or anchovy should try them the Spanish way to get the authentic texture and flavor from the commonly derided food.
Calamares Fritos
Perhaps best known to English speaking people as Calamari, this entry is the closet to fish and chips you will be able to order in Spain. This is a simple, yet delicious piece of culinary ingenuity which takes thinly slivered pieces of squid in a light batter, flash fries them, and serves it up with red sauce and a squirt of lemon. While not enough to serve as an entree, it can certainly warm up an appetite for what is up ahead.
Suquet
Suquet is a seafood stew which gained traction through the Catalan regions of the country. Most common recipes call for clams and other shellfish to be prepared in a combination of garlic and olive oil while a seafood stock is prepared along with almonds, tomatoes, parsley, and other non shellfish. The kicker to this dish is the addition of a Spanish sparkling white wine called Cava, which gives the dish a light fizz.
English misconceptions about the different ways seafood can be prepared are easily shattered by the Spanish culinary creations. Living a healthier and more active life is possible because of such things like fresh produce and healthy fish fats that the Spanish rely on for most of their diet. Even if you enjoy the usual preparation of seafood, make sure to get a different perspective when in Spain.
(Guest post)

Pigging out on prawns

Lidl supermarket had a special on today, 800 grams of prawns for 2.59 euros
couldnt resist them so have stocked up the fridge and freezer, so it will be prawns with salad, prawn cocktails and paella with loads of prawns, and you can save the shells and boil them up to make a nice fish stock.
I got to Lidl as they opened and the offer was soon taken with most people having 2 or 3 boxes each.

Fiesta paella

Last Saturday as part of the Fiesta celebrations paella was order of the day, two large paellas, one fish and one meat were brought into the Los Palacios Square and served up by Pedro and his team, Extra tables and chairs filled the square and a large crowd of local people turned up to enjoy a drink and delicious meal, There was not a scrap of food left. A large stage had been set up in the square and in the evening the entertainment was live music from female vocalists, electric organ and guitar, with a short interlude for the Firework display, although we did not stay up, apparently the live music and dancing finished around 2:00 and continued with a disco untill the break of dawn. Noticably the pool and bar were closed for the Sunday for the majority to recover.
Sunday At 14:00 was the official end of this Fiesta, Marked by a barrage of exploding rockets.
The swimming pool in the Square closes permanently for this year next Sunday the 13th September.

Food Glorious Food

It was Becs birthday on Saturday and Jochin made us all a meal. I am telling you his Paella is just second to none. He was taught to cook this famous Spanish dish by an elderly lady many years ago. Jochin prefers to cook the traditional dish over a wood fire, but however he does it its a real treat. Sitting in one of the house's cave rooms in front of an open fire made the occasion a birthday not to be forgotten.
We all seem to get even more interested in food when the weather cools down, guess you don't really feel like eating so much when the temperatures 40 degrees. Well its not 40 degrees now so as I said in an earlier post we do love our soup. I also like the fact that you can get lentils, chickpeas and all sorts of beans precooked in jars, very convenient and not expensive. We always get ours from Inter Marche now as their prices are best. Of course fresh vegetables come from the street market. At our house we have whats called our Wednesday soup. That's when I try to use up any remaining vegetables before the market the next day. So here's the basic recipe you can adapt to use any veg as necessary. The only vegetable I would say is essential are onions, you can manage with leeks at a pinch, if you only have them and not the afore mentioned.
Dice all your vegetables. Typically I would use the following
Onions,courgettes,aubergine,leeks,carrots,turnip,parsnip,tomatoes.You not not need masses of any particular type.
Saute the onions, do not brown, add the rest of your ingredients in order of hardness. For example, from this list carrots and other root veg next ending with courgettes, then tomatoes. You do not let the veg brown at all just "sweat" untill they are quite soft. Now you add fresh or dried chili to taste, (when my sisters here its big chili time!) You now add cartons or tins of tomato frito. You can get away with other tomato products but we like the intensity of the fried tomato puree. If I have a good large pan full I would use two 350-400 gram containers of frito. You need enough room in the pan to add stock or water of roughly half the volume of the mixture. Bring to boil, then turn down and simmer, by the time the soup has reduced to a nice thickness it will be ready. You can liquidise for a smooth soup if you prefer. Season to taste, eat or cool and freeze. By the way if you have an apple or two languishing in the fruit bowl, core and chop and add at the sauteing stage. Remember chili gets hotter if you are reheating. This is a good basic recipe that can be changed by omitting the chilli and adding Basil or lots of garlic. You can add lentils or chickpeas or any kind of bean for a really hearty meal. It can also be further reduced, poured over pasta or used in a Lasagna.

Six Thousand Euros a Kilo

It would take the stamens of 15000
purple crocus flowers to make a kilo, and the product is called saffron, it can be bought in little satchets for about a euro and is used in paella, chicken dishes, fish, stews and for making cakes. It was probably introduced to Spain by the Arabs.
It would take a proffesional all day to pick the flower heads to produce couple of ounces of the stamens, which are toasted over charcoal to bring out the flavour, the harvest period is normally mid October.
Spain produces 70% of the worlds saffron. In the campo people grow enough to keep themselves supplied throughout the year.
Only a small amount is used in the cooking, 0.3 of a gram would be enough in a paella for 4 people.