How Basque Cuisine Took Over the World

Final Meal!

2012-01-27T11:21:00.001-08:00

THE MENU:

Tapas:

Piperrada on bread rounds

Ham croquets

Soup:

Squash stew

Entrée:

Bacalao al pil pil

Desert:

Pears roasted in butter and sugar over vanilla ice cream

I had hoped that this dinner party would bring together the whole connection between food preparation and sharing and becoming closer to Basque culture. The act of preparing a real dinner and not just an experiment made me feel like we were authentically experiencing a little bit of Basque culture. However, the casual but organized and jolly dinner part I had envisioned never materialized. One of my friends had his math colloquium from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm and we all decided to have an early dinner at 4:30 and then head over to the women’s Amherst basketball game after. I was excited that my meal was an integral part of this activity filled day of supporting friends at their different events.

I began cooking around 1:00 pm and decided to start with the squash stew or casserole since I know the butternut squash I used would take a long time to cook. The recipe had me begin with olive oil, garlic, and onions in a casserole dish. Then I added the cubed squash along with vinegar, which I thought was interesting. I was generous when adding the vinegar and in the end it created a tangy flavor that I enjoyed most out of everything I made that day. Once I had that slow cooking I let it stew and moved on to the croquets. I just did the same preparation as earlier for these. The second tapa was also something I had made earlier. I made piperrada but this time with less egg and tried to really cook it down so I cut serve it on top of toasted bread rounds.

I knew that the main entrée would be the most difficult part of the dinner and I had actually been putting off this recipe out of fear for quite a while. I had read that it was impossible to get it right the first time. I had bought the salted cod (bacalao) a few weeks back, but after hearing this had postponed cooking it until now.

Bacalao is one of the most interesting dishes historically for the Basque. The salted cod is used in croquetas or on top of bread rounds for tapas. It can even be served with piperrada. There were a few pages worth of recipes involving bacalao in Cocina Vasca. The salted cod become an integral part of Basque cuisine and continued to play an important role in new basque cusine. However the preserved fish become so prevalent because of necessity. As I mentioned when talking about chocalte and exploration of the New World, the Basques represented a large number of those sailors. The Spanish looked to the Basque for sailors because they had a tradition of sea travel experience. Their ships and innovation in drying out and preserving cod with salt allowed them to travel further because they could keep the fish they caught and continue to eat while on board. They were able to follow fish father than any other sailors of their time. Salted cod has now become a huge part of Basque cooking and cooking it in a pil pil sauce is one of the more traditional preparations (Kurlansky 58-61). Un-salting the fish is what makes preparing bacalao such a difficult task.

I used Cosina Vasca as my first reference but also double-checked with several online sources. You can see in the picture below that the sauce did not come out quite right. It should have turned more into a gravy, but mine stayed more like an oily sauce. It did not taste horrible, but it definitely did not seem like the gourmet dish that it has turned into as Basque food's become more fashionable and sophisticated. I'm visiting New York for dead week and plan on hitting up a modern Basque restaurant to try some professionally cooked bacalao and compare. I'll try to post on how that goes!

The last part of the meal was the baked pears which were super easy to prepare. I just cut them up and sprinkled them with sugar and bits of butter and threw them in the oven as I finished up the other dishes. Although all of the food came together at last, my timing was a little off and my friends ended up having to wait for me to finish food or eat the croquets last instead of as tapas. Also, some of my unadventurous buddies refused to even try the squash or bacalao! I was a little offended but by the end everyone enjoyed something.

Throughout this food experiment project I tried to figure not just how these recipes fit into the history and culture of the Basque people, but why this food has become so globally popular and respected as gourmet cuisine. Cooking this meal especially showed me how sophisticated and difficult this food is to make well. The bacalao especially highlighted this. I think I still have a lot to learn to become more familiar cooking Basque food and I'm looking forward to trying traditional and modern Basque food n restaurants in the future. Knowing the history of the food and the effort that went into preparing it will make eating it all the better!

The finished bacalao in pil pil sauce

Squash stew/casserole

piperrada on toast

The croquets frying!

The piperrada, squash, bacalao, and croquets all on the stove at the same time.

The stew and bacalao!

My friend, Alex, trying out the baked pears.

Finally, desert!

Fried Peppers

2012-01-19T22:25:00.001-08:00

The fried peppers were my attempt at making a vegetarian basque food for a friend. I thought this would result in some sort of chile relleno type meal. Of course the ingredients were only peppers, oil, garlic, and salt, so I probably should have known it would not create anything spectacular.

Again, peppers show that they are a staple of Basque cooking as they were in the piperrada and will be in the bacalao. THe chiles grown in the Basque Country are traditionally mild because of the climate (Kurlansky). This recipe called for red chiles, so I used mild bell peppers. First I broiled them, which I now had experience in. After messily peeling them (as seen below), I salted and sliced them into thin strips. In a skillet I browned garlic in olive oil (again!) and then added the pepper strips. After generously frying each side I pulled them out. The flavorful oil became a sauce for the peppers and I ate them with the breaded chicken I made earlier.

Ingredients:

4 fat fresh red peppers

fine oil

2 cloves of garlic

fine salt

Recipe:

Grill the peppers over the grill until they are blanched or well cooked them well in the oven.

When we see them grilled we take off their skins and seeds and we cut them into equally elongated pieces.

We fry these pieces that have been generously salted in oil, together with the chopped garlic. Cook them slowly on either side for ten minutes.

We should avoid roasting them, instead your goal is for them to be tender. Serve them in the same sauce they were cooked in.

(from Cocina Vasca and translated by Paula Moren)

Croquetas de jamón

2012-01-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

This last recipe can be seen all over Spain but I thought a fried tapa would be fun and if it worked out I could serve it at my final meal. Like many of the other Basque recipes I did, this one started with frying some ham! The bacon like result was delicious to snack on while I worked on the next step. The “pasta” or batter was really easy to make but I worried that it would never get to the right consistency. I had to do a little bit of experimenting putting it on and off the heat. Finally I added the fried ham and got the whole mixture cool enough to start rolling the croquets. After dipping them in egg and breadcrumbs like the chicken recipe earlier in the week, I then dropped them into the bubbling hot fat. Yum.

I destroyed the first few as I tried to turn them and then fish them out of the fat. I got the hang of it by the end though and learned to reduce the size of the croquet. A picture of the finished products is below. The salty fried treat proved a hot with my friends as we ate them over drinks as a late night snack. I felt we were embracing the Basque pub tradition eating small bites and enjoying the company of a group. I wish I had tried these with salted cod, but I was still nervous about attempting cooking the strange bacalao. So I saved the weird fish preparation for the next day and my final meal.

Ingredients:
4 spoon fulls of flour
150 grams of ham
2 eggs
50 grams of lard
½ lter or more of milk
2 spoon fulls of butter
salt
50 grams of breadcrumbs

Recipe:

We cut the ham up well and lightly fry it in a little lard; once we drip off the excess fat put it aside.

In a skillet throw in the butter and after the flour and the milk, to make the pasta of the croquets. The milk is better if hot. We work the pasta well so that it becomes smooth, throw in the salt, but little, since the ham is already salty, we add the jam and return to working the pasta.

Once off the flame we but it in a bowl and let it cool off.

We prepare the croquets molding them into the traditional form and pass them through egg, after through the breadcrumbs and finally frying them, in the hot lard, until solid.

Pechugas de pollo albardadas

2012-01-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

Breaded chicken seems to exist in every culture and I thought it would be fun to try out what seemed like the most ordinary Basque recipe I could find. The white sauce and the ham is what sets this recipe a part when going through the ingredient list and it turned out they did add a little something different, but not too much to make a really unique dish.

The recipe called for me to dip the chicken in the sauce, then bread crumbs, then egg, and then back in the bread crumbs. This ended up building up what I thought was a thicker than normal crust for breaded fried chicken. I then threw the chicken in hot crisco because I could not find pork lard. I decided to get a little creative and add the ham I was supposed to fry separately into the hot grease. I was hoping the ham, which was more of a prosciutto (close to what I assumed was Bayonne ham), would replace the flavor the pork lard was supposed to add. I then used the ham to garnish as directed.

Pechugas de pollo albardadas (rebozadas)/Bread Crumb Coated Chicken

Ingredients for 4 people:

6 chicken breasts
100 grams of pork lard
1/4 liter oil
Salt
100 grams of ham
2 coffee cups of white sauce (instructions earlier in book)
3 eggs (uncooked)
150 grams of bread crumbs
2 lemons

We debone the chicken breasts and get rid of the skin, cutting them along the long tiras that we smash, season, and sauté in the pork lard (we reserve a little of this) in a skillet over heat. We cut the ham into squares and sauté them in the rest of the pork lard.

We make a well spiced white sauce and dip both sides of the chicken into it. Next, roll the chicken in bread crumbs, dip in beaten eggs, pass again through the bread crumbs, and fry in hot oil. We put the ham on top for decoration.

We serve it with slices of lemon.

(recipe from Cocina Vasca by Ana Maria Calera, page 202, translation by Paula Moren)

Hare in Walnut and Chocolate

2012-01-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

This is the first recipe I tried from Mark Kurlansky's book The Basque History of the World. I used the book for most of my research on Basque culture and it proved very helpful. Kurlansky used food as a starting point to talk about historical developments and manifestations of changes in Basque culture. The following recipe for Hare in Walnut and Chocolate was included in a chapter about exploration in the new world (Kurlansky 112-113).

Chocolate, like olive oil, was a foreign ingredient that eventually became part of now traditional recipes. Kurlansky explains how chocolate was used in different forms and a mole was one of the ways that the Spaniards learned to prepare chocolate from the Aztecs. Many of the sailors on the Spanish boats exploring the Americas and the world were actually Basque and this the exploration of the New World as a large part of Basque history and experience. This recipe is a kind of reflection of the changes that this had on the culture back in the Basque land. Like a Mexican mole, this recipe uses chocolate melted down into a sauce and focuses on really stewing the meat until its extremely tender and flavored.

I was excited to try this recipe out with all its historical significance and the different combinations of flavors. Mole is one of my favorite food and this would have some similarities to the Mexican dish. However, after stepping up to the butcher counter at Guidos Marketplace and looking down at a row of skinned little bunnies, I started having second thoughts. The butcher offered to, well, butcher it and I began to push away my doubts.

Below, you can see my little paper wrapped package of rabbit. I imagined it to be filled with regualrly-sized cubes of meat. Sadly when I opened the paper each part of the rabbit's body was all too recognizable. This was probably a great lesson for a meat eater and I eventually reasoned that I had happily ate rabbit in a restaurant and that I should be able to chop one up and cook it too. With the help of a friend I hacked away at its leg to free it from the spinal cord. I then tried to search the chest for meat thinking along the lines of chicken breast. After unhappily scooping out organs, I realized that of course a rabbit would carry most of its meat on its legs and that the rabbit's breasts were as sparingly muscular as chicken wings.

Then the real cooking began and I got excited as the wine, apples, and onions created a great smelling sauce. The rabbit just cooked away and I began to feel more confident about the recipe. Adding a whole bar of chocolate was probably a mistake but by the end the rabbit actually looked inviting. Below are pictures of the sauce stewing and the finished product. The last picture is me trying and actually enjoying the chocolate bunny... I mean hare.

Recipe:

Cut the hare in pieces and fry them. In the same oil, fry an onion cut in slices and a few garlic cloves, When the onion is tender, add a sliced apple, a little flour, a little chocolate, a glass of red wine, a glass of white wine, another of water.

Shell a dozen walnuts and crush them in a mortar, then throw the paste into the casserole with the hare. Simmer together very slowly, and when the hare is tender, remove it to an earthenware dish. Run the rest through a food mill and pour it around the hare. Let the whole thing simmer a little, then toss in a little chopped parsley and serve.

Piperrada Vasca

2012-01-08T13:21:00.001-08:00

When I first found this recipe I thought it would be a nice break after my pathetic encounter with my chocolate bunny. According to the ingredient list, it appeared to be a sort of vegetable scramble. I was happy to make something easy and that my friends would not mind trying. In the end I was disappointed with the lackluster scramble, but after more research after I realized this was one of my more interesting cooking experiences.

First, my actual cooking experience. All experience I've had cooking eggs for a quick but filling breakfast, made me think I'd just throw this recipe together. As I read through the recipe after setting out all the ingredients out on the kitchen table, I furrowed my brow at all the separate cooking of ingredients. Each part of the recipe seemed to have its own cooking preparation. As I pulled out several pans, plates, and trays I thought of the dishes I would eventually have to do.

I first arranged the peppers a baking tray and put them in the oven with the broiler on. I then decided i would try to get this done as fast as possible since I had hungry friends waiting around. I got some olive oil and garlic sizzling in a skillet while the peppers broiled. I moved on to chopped up onion and tomatoes. I threw the onions in with the garlic, but had to cook the tomatoes separately to get the juices out. This seemed excessive and I became curious as to what would make this distinctly basque. I was reminded of the peppers when I smelled their burning skins, and quickly pulled them out of the oven. As I have the two skillets going, I frantically peeled the peppers.

I thought that I had better starting adding everything together since the garlic and onions had been on the stove longer than they should have had. As soon as I had the peppers skinned and sliced, I began to mix the peppers and tomatoes in with the onions, garlic, and oil. After seasoning the mixture, I impatiently thought it was time for the eggs. One of my friends commented on the strange proportion of vegetable to egg. I had told them it would be a type of scramble and only now did I notice that only six eggs would be added to t jamón he colossal bubbling skillet of vegetables. I thought I had created another failed dish and added the eggs anyway, thinking there was no way of fixing my obvious mistake in measurements. In yet another skillet I fried de Bayonne until it looked and tasted like extra thin strips of bacon. I placed this at the bottom of the plate and scooped some of the piperrada vasca on top. One of my friends in the mixology winter study made us all drinks and bellow is a picture of our little plates and drinks. It turned out to be tasty, but nothing too special and a little more watery than a regular scramble from all the vegetables.

Although I should have researched the recipe more before I decided to make it, it was interesting to find out why my version of piperrada vasca had turned out the way it did. Piperrada comes from the word for pepper in the Basque language, Euskera. So the recipe is uniquely Basque and is can vary in ingredients except for the main ingredient, peppers. It is actually supposed to be more of a sauce used to serve with meats or on toast as a tapa (Lang). I had equated this to an egg dish I was used to instead of realizing that the proportions and preparation of these familiar ingredients were actually supposed to result in a very different dish (Lang). It is really more of a pepper sauce or garnish rather than a breakfast scramble. Since realizing this oversight I plan on using piperada with the Bacalao I make for my final meal or with toasted bread for a tapa before the main course. I plan on cooking the vegetable mixture down more patiently so that it gets to the desired consistency and I might even add in fewer eggs just to further highlight the peppers!

6 eggs, beaten

2 lbs. tomatoes (peeled, seeded, sliced)

2 lbs. green peppers (anaheim or bell)

6 slices Bayonne ham (like boiled ham) or similar

2 onions

12 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves

salt to flavor

thyme (optional)

Bake peppers in hot oven until they can be peeled easily, seeded and sliced. Set aside.

Place chopped onions and garlic in heated frying pan with olive oil. When the onions are tanslucent, add green peppers, which have been salted already, and thyme and cook until water given out by the peppers is evaporated.

While the onions and garlic are frying, in a separate fry pan sauté the ham slices in small amount of olive oil. Remove the ham for later use and slowly cook the tomatoes. Add tomatoes to the peppers. The mixture should be left to cook until it has thickened.

Lastly, add the well beaten eggs to the mixture, stirring gently and slowly heating them. Serve the piperrada on a hot platter over ham slices. Serves 5.

From: Juan D. Echevarria, Gastronomia vasconum (Bilbao, 1979).

Basque Garlic Soup

2012-01-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

Basque cusine started to take on some of its characteristic qulities with the introduction of olive oil from the Romans. Although olive oil dominates much of spanish and mediteranean food now, the basques who had lived in thier Pyrannes sanctuary surviving invaders and passer throughers for centuries, and originally depended on animal fat and butter instead of olive oil. Olive oil is now a central part of almost every basque dish (Kurlansky 34).

I found this recipe in a book by Darcy Williams called Basque Cooking and Lore. This dish is more of a peasants' dish that could recycle stale bread. This garlic soup , although bread based, starts with and depends on olive oil and garlic. This ingredient combination is repeated all through Basque cooking and works to create that first layer of flavor. Traditional Basque cooking does not call for too many ingredients or spices, but that olive oil and garlic work to create flavor for the dish.

As a garlic lover I was excited to make this dish and even thought I would use it as a course in my final meal. However, I soon realized the bread would quickly take over as the dominating ingredient in the soup. As I browned the garlic in the olive oil, great aromas filled the kitchen. I felt like I was getting closer to connecting to Basque culture and my own family heritage. Then, I added the bread, paprika, salt, and water. Here's where the change happened.

Below, you can see the soup with the bread just recently added but then the following photo shows what became of it. I'm not sure if I just do not enjoy bread soups in general since this was my first one, but I know that I definitely did not enjoy this recipe. It could have been my own fault in stirring the bread to pieces, but I think that the porridge consistency is standard. I picked this recipe out to highlight the importance of garlic and olive oil in Basque cooking, and I think if I tried this recipe again I would try to modify it to better bring out those flavors.

1 loaf French bread,

sliced and allowed to dry out

¼ cup Spanish olive oil

6 garlic cloves, peeled

4 eggs, eaten

1 ½ tsp. sweet Spanish paprika

Water

¼ tsp. salt

Heat olive oil in Dutch oven. Lightly brown garlic cloves. Add sliced bread paprika, salt, and enough water to cove bread. Simmer for 30 minutes. Whisk beaten eggs into simmering soup. Serve at once.

Susanna demonstrates the soup's change in consistency. How appetizing!

When it still had potential.

Yum?

Gateau Basque

2012-01-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

I started out with a basque desert, which I learned was actually a strange recipe to start out with. According to the University of Nevada Center on Basque Culture, the basque traditionally do not have too much of a taste for deserts and favor cheese and fruit for an after dinner snack. [1] Basque gateu which I found the recipe on the Univerity of Nevada’s Basque Cneter website, obviously pulls from more of the French side of the Basque Country. However, the gateu or cake is more of a custard pie than what we would define as a cake.

The ingreidients are simple and reflect avalible but rich products in the region. The recipe depends on a total of 5 eggs, sugar, and flour. The more interesting flavors come from the lemon rind and almond extract. As my first recipe, I felt a little overwhelmed with the two different mixtures I had to make and the required pan that I failed to find. I started out with the dough for the surrounding crust, which called for plenty of butter and sugar. I eventually worked in some chopped lemon peel and almond extract into the greasy dough. Looking at this mound of soft slightly shiny dough, I was unsure if I had mixed the custard part or the crust.

The actual filling made me even more nervous. Eggs, milk, sugar, and a little flour were the basis for the yellow pudding-like filling that I apprehensively watched pick up black specks of previously burned remnants from the bottom of the pan. My friends served as taste testers and reassured me it tasted normal.

I then packed the "dough" into the bread pan I used instead of the called-for round tin. Next came the speckled filling, and then the top layer of rolled out crust. I skipped cutting decorative crosshatching into the top of the gateau since the dough sitting on top of the custard filling already seemed questionably unstable. I felt that I had veered embarrassingly far away from the traditonal dish as I disheartenedly pushed it into the oven.

The finished product, as seen below, looked like a sad over-sized lemon bar that I had no interest in trying. After letting it cool I worked up the courage to give it a try and hope I would not get Teflon poisoning from the pepper-like particles in the filling. My friend I'd recruited and I were pleasantly surprised at the crumbly richness of the crust and smooth sweet filling. The almond extract and the lemon definitely enhanced the basque gateau, but at its heart it was simply buttery and sweet. Although, this ugly rectangular pie-liek thing looked nothing like the circular, decorated, and glossy basque gateau's I saw online, I had nothing to complain about... not even the specks.

[1] Brick, Joan. "Basque Cooking." University of Nevada center for Basque Culture. http://www.basque.unr.edu/books/newsletter/9.3.48t/9.3.48.05.cooking.htm

Dough:

300 grams flour

2 egg yolks

1 whole egg

200 grams sugar

200 grams butter

a pinch of salt

grated peel of 1 lemon

rum or almond extract to taste

Filling:

1/4 liter milk

2 egg yolks

60 grams sugar

25 grams flour

rum or almond extract to taste

For dough:

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Add lemon peel and flavoring. Stir in flour and salt. (Although it's possible to use the dough right away, it's more manageable if chilled.)

For filling:

Combine flour and sugar. In a saucepan, combine egg yolks with flour-sugar mixture. Add flavoring and mix well with eggs, flour, and sugar. Add milk and stir well until lumps are gone. Stir constantly over medium heat until thick.

Roll 1/2 the dough out and place it into bottom of mold. Spoon filling in. Roll out other half and place on top. Seal edges. Brush with egg white.

Bake at 350° until golden brown on top.

From Artizarra in Donibane Garazi; instructions and translation by Lisa Corcostegui.

Proposal

2012-01-07T11:21:00.001-08:00

The Basque represent the oldest culture and ethnic group in Europe. The environmental changes they have had to adapt to and overcome throughout their extraordinarily long history are captured in their food traditions and recipes. I want to cook these distinct dishes, connecting each one with the historical context that shaped it. I plan to read about Basque history and culture as I sample recipes from Cocina Vasca and other cooking sources. I will record each recipe I attempt, along with its cultural history, in a final cookbook and choose my favorite dishes to serve to a group of friends.

The Basque people’s passion for good food and fresh ingredients has revolutionized international cuisine. The New York Times boasts over 2,000 articles mentioning Basque restaurants and cooking. I want to know why this culture has developed this devotion to sophisticated flavors and is committed to using the best ingredients and spending time making great meals. I want to understand their modern perception of food and cooking through their history. How has machismo and gender roles in the Basque country affected who cooks? How could a small isolated region in Spain showcase some of the best cuisine in the world?

Also, I would like to better understand not only Basque food through their culture and history, but to understand their culture and history through food. For example, the Basque preparation of dried and salted cod allowed them to sail farther than any other European sailors of their time because they could survive for such long periods at seas. Preparing and tasting a meal with the same salted cod that Basque sailors used to pioneer sailing across the Atlantic would provided an exciting connection to their past. I would also have to investigate the effects of their isolated yet costal geography on what food they depended on for survival.

Bibliography

Calera, Ana Maria. Cocina Vasca. Espana: Everest, 1982. Print.

Kurlansky, Mark. The Basque History of the World. London: Vintage, 2000. Print.

Schoenfeld, Bruce. "Basque Country Cooking." Food & Wine Magazine. July 1996. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. <http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/basque-country-cooking>.

Lang, Jenifer Harvey, ed. Larousse gastronomique : the new American edition of the world's greatest culinary encyclopedia. (New York : Crown, 1988).

Williamson, Darcy. Basque Cooking and Folklore (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 1991).

Brick, Joan. "Basque Cooking." Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno. http://www.basque.unr.edu/books/newsletter/9.3.48t/9.3.48.05.cooking.htm