What's for Lunch in Barcelona?
What's for Lunch in Barcelona?
A recent trip revealed the riches
During a week in Spain with family and friends, my wife, my sons, and I were on an eating schedule that I can only describe as tantric.
In the mornings, we’d have a delicious croissant with coffee and then fast for eight hours until a late lunch. That was tough for me. As I’ve written before, I‘m the most hungry first thing in the morning and I’m accustomed to eating a huge breakfast. Also, in Spain, we weren’t eating much in the evenings, just a few slices of the best ham in the world and some bread and cheese. We were walking five to seven miles a day around Barcelona, so that little bit of fuel got burned up quickly.
On one of the first days, around 2 p.m., we were walking down a Barcelona street a few paces behind my father who was ambling along with his hands clasped behind his back, his Catalan wife by his side, complicit in (or wholly responsible for) his eating schedule, and my wife whisper-yelled to me, “When are we gonna eat? How do these people not eat?” And then my son, who almost never wants to eat, shouted: “Yeah Dada, I’m hungry.” I looked over and he was attached to my wife like a scene in a Dorothea Lange photo. “Don’t worry,” I told them with my stomach grumbling and my hands gripping the baby stroller handles. “We’re in one of the best food cities in the world.”
We continued walking by shop windows with hanging hams and embutidos, pastelerias with glazed cakes and puff pastry shaped and frosted to look like roses for the Sant Jordi Festival, and stall tables piled with white asparagus and artichokes. Just when I thought my family might really starve, my father casually turned and said, “comemos?” and we went home for lunch.
This was the approximate routine every day. Whether we ate at home or at a restaurant, our morning famine was sated by a two-hour feast. It might begin with little fried pescadito sprinkled with lemon and dropped whole into the gullet followed by a sip of cava from nearby Penedès and charred steaming calçots wrapped around the finger, dipped in Romesco and quickly devoured from overhead like how Dionysius would eat grapes. Pa amb tomàquet was always provided: Sometimes the whole head of garlic, toast, and tomatoes were served at the table so we could make it ourselves. After an hour of picking and drinking, the mains would arrive: seafood paella or fideua and stewed rabo de toro (oxtails) or lomo de cordero (lamb loin) with a vino tinto or two from Priorat or Monsant.
After that, a simple dessert: crema Catalana or fresh cheese with walnuts and honey drizzled over it tableside from the honey pot. Only after dessert is finished do you order coffee. We’d sip ours and sit around until early evening. Not a single waiter ever tried to rush us out their door; they didn’t even bring the check without being asked.
The after-dinner table, bathing in early evening light always looked scandalous: piles of shrimp heads sucked clean for every bit of garlic, a stray mussel studded with a few grains of rice left in a paella pan, and tousled napkins stained orange with Romesco sauce. If you came across a table like that having not been invited to it you might flip it over in a jealous rage. When we left that table each day, we knew we wouldn’t sit at one like it again for 24 hours — and that when we did our appetite would be piqued.
Fortunately, you don’t have to starve yourself to appreciate meals like these. I often make the following dishes on weeknights, though I don’t generally have time for the whole banquet. These Spanish recipes from Mark’s books taste great anytime, but a lazy late afternoon in the Spring would be a great time to eat them all at once.
Paella with Mushroom Caps
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
3½ cups stock or water
1 pound of fresh mushrooms, stems removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads (optional)
2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika), or other paprika
2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice
Minced parsley for garnish
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Warm stock or water in a saucepan.
2. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet. Heat over medium-high heat and add onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, saffron if you are using it, and paprika, and cook for a minute more. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined.
3. Put mushroom caps on top of rice and drizzle with remaining olive oil. Put the pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return the pan to oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water (or wine). When rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes.
4. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put the pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.
Paella with Mushroom Caps and Ramps
Use one bunch of ramps and omit onion. Char ramps in step 2, remove. Lay on top of the rice along with mushrooms in step 3.
— Adapted using Mark’s suggestions following the recipe for Paella With Tomatoes in How to Cook Everything: Completely Revised Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Quick Pickled Charred Vegetables
Makes: 8 or more servings
Time: 45 to 50 minutes plus several hours pickling
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar or cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 pounds vegetables of your choice
Instructions
1. Make the brine: Put the vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, and bay leaves in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the garlic. When it cools, pour it into a large, nonreactive metal or glass bowl.
2. Start the coals or heat a gas grill for medium-high direct cooking. Make sure the grates are clean.
3. Prep the vegetables as described above. Put the vegetables on the grill directly over the fire. (For smaller pieces, use a perforated grill pan, or skewer them to make them easier to handle.) Close the lid and cook the vegetables, turning them as necessary, until they brown deeply on all sides without softening; how long this takes will depend on the vegetable and how hot the fire is, but figure between 5 and 15 minutes total for most vegetables. Stay close to the grill, check them early and often, and move them to cooler parts of the grill to control the coloring.
4. As they finish, transfer them to the bowl with the brine. When all are done, toss the vegetables with the brine to coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate, tossing the vegetables every 30 minutes so, until the flavor and texture fully develop, at least 3 hours. Serve right away, or keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
— Recipe from How to Grill Everything
Romesco Sauce
Makes: 6 servings
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 cup cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons almonds, shelled
3 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped, optional
1 to 2 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar, or to taste
⅓ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon pimentón or other chili powder, optional
Instructions
1. Put a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. When it is very hot, add tomatoes, almonds, and garlic cloves and stir once or twice.
2. Carefully transfer the now-charred tomato mixture to a food processor, and put pan in the oven. (If tomatoes are not a bit blackened, leave them in pan and check again after a minute or two in oven.)
3. Add vinegar and olive oil to tomato mixture in food processor, and season with salt, pepper, and pimentón or chili powder if using. Process, adding more olive oil or vinegar as you like, until mixture reaches desired consistency. Sauce should still be a little crunchy from almonds.
— Featured in the New York Times’ The Minimalist: Tri-Tip Steak with Tomato Romesco
Fresh Favas with Eggs and Croutons
Makes: 4 servings
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 /4 cup extra virgin olive oil 8 ounces bread, preferably day-old, cubed
3 cups fresh fava beans (about 3 pounds in pods), blanched and peeled, or thawed frozen
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Hard-cooked eggs, peeled and chopped
Chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
1. Put half the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the bread cubes and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the remaining oil and the favas and sprinkle with salt and pepper; cook for about 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and eggs, stir, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
— From How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Completely Revised Tenth Anniversary Edition
Spanish Pasta with Seafood
Makes: 4 servings
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound fideo or other very thin pasta, in 2-inch lengths or shorter
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon saffron threads
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound cockles or small clams, well washed
1 pound mussels, well washed
½ cup stock (optional)
8 to 12 large shrimp, shells on
4 to 8 sea scallops, cut in half through their equators
½ cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
Lemon wedges
Instructions
1. Put oil in a skillet at least 12 inches across, and turn heat to medium-high. A minute later add noodles; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring almost constantly, until they darken. Try to avoid letting more than a few pieces blacken.
2. Add saffron, paprika, and garlic, and stir for a minute more. Add clams and mussels and about 1/2 cup water (or stock) and continue to cook, stirring. Depending on how much liquid the clams and mussels release, you may have to add a little more liquid. Continue to cook and stir until the pasta is nearly tender about 10 minutes.
3. Add shrimp and scallops and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooked through. Stir in parsley, taste and adjust seasoning, and serve with lemon wedges.
—Featured in The New York Times’ The Minimalist: Paella That Sings In Pasta
The paella recipe is missing the part about what to dofirst with the mushrooms. If it is just a replacement for the tomatoes in the "How to Cook Everything..." then I will be fine, but as you can see it skips to "put the rest of the oil..." without telling where the first oil went, which would be on the mushrooms in a medium bowl with salt and pepper. Confusing!!
What delicious anticipation. Always interesting adapting to your hosts dining schedule. The food sounds hauntingly memorable. What a great trip. Thank you for sharing.