Xatinos and Russian Steaks

Asturian veal. Pride and glory of our prairies. The most extensively consumed kind of meat around these lands. Just look at’em cutie pies.

They’re not grass fed. They’re grass-eating freaking machines.

Graze graze graze all day long. Unless, of course, they’re still getting their nutrients from their mommy:

Which, just like mommies all over the world, will always see them as babies, and take care of them accordingly (even when they’re probably nearing 1000kg):

This one was kind enough to stop grazing and pose for the camera:

 

And how’s this for an overdose of uber cuteness? Just look at those itsy-bitsy tiny perfect feet!

Xatín. That’s what we call a little calf in Asturian.

So yeah. Enough with that. I’m actually giving you a recipe, not only a bunch of relatively random pictures.

Today’s concoction is what we call, for whatever reason, “Filetes rusos” (which means Russian steaks). They’re easy as pie, except actually waay easier that pie (unless you use a premade pie crust and pie filling); you can whip them up in about 10 minutes and they’ll make a great weeknight dinner. They’re one of those meals that have “kid-friendly” written all over their faces, but I don’t know of any grown-up who doesn’t enjoy them just as much. Oh, and although I’ve listed veal as the meat of choice, they turn out great also with a mix of ground veal and pork. I’ve never tried them with beef but I guess they’d be fine too.

Filetes rusos:

• About 450 g (1 lb) of ground veal or other meat
• 10 Tb finely chopped onion
• 1 Tb minced garlic
• 1 sprig of parsley, chopped very finely
• 1 egg
• Breadcrumbs
• Olive oil
• Salt

Put the meat into a big bowl. Chop the onion, garlic and parsley very finely (I use the food processor) and add them to the meat, along with about 1/2 ts salt, about 2 Tb breadcrumbs and the whole egg. Stir everything together with your hands (à la Jaimie Oliver) or using a fork if you don’t want to dirty your hands. At this point, you could put this mixture in a sealed container and store in the fridge for later use (and it will last for a few days, since it’s already seasoned).

Form patties with the mixture (make a ball and flatten it using the palm of your hand). I think I got about 8 patties with this amount, but the size is totally up to you. Sometimes I even make a big one that takes up the whole frying pan.

Sprinkle some more breadcrumbs on a dish or paper towel and coat each side of the patties in them. Tap off any excess, as you don’t want a thick layer of breadcrumbs. At this point yo could also wrap your patties in film and keep them in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for quite a long time.

When you’re ready to eat them, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. You’ll want enough oil so that when it gets hot there’ll be a thin film all over the bottom of the pan.

When the oil is hot, put some patties into the pan. Just fry as many as you’re eating, and keep the rest in the fridge. When the bottom looks golden brown and done, flip and cook on the other side till it looks the same.

Take out to a dish and serve. If you need to fry them in several batches, and a little more oil as needed if the pan gets dry.

And don’t let them get cold as I did! (Although they’re still super tasty and juicy, I’d know after taking like a hundred pictures before finally sitting down to lunch…).

El Desarme

So. This is not at all how I’d envisioned things happening when I wrote my last post. My way back last post. My I-can’t-believe-almost-two-months-are-gone-by-already-since-I-posted-it last post. But you all know and understand that sometimes life just gets in the way. Stuff happens. My original intention was to come back from my lovely week-long trip around Tuscany and fill you in about its magical cities, romantic countryside, delectable food and enticing wine. Which I evidently didn’t do, and have decided that it’d be kind of out of place now that we’re all back to our non-vacational routines and hence I’m not as inspired anymore to recount it. Plus I don’t like wine so I wouldn’t know about its enticing-ness anyway (I know, I know… I’m such a terrible Spaniard).

There’s also the fact that I have something special to share here today which, as the title of the post suggests, it’s called “el Desarme”. El Desarme is a food-related celebration (what celebration isn’t?) which takes place every October 19 in Asturias ever since a little over a century and a half ago. There was this civil war in Spain, the Carlist war, going on at the time. The country was divided between those who wanted Isabel, daughter of the deceased king Fernando VII, to take over the throne after his death, as he had stipulated and arranged for, which would lead the country towards a more liberal political direction (those were the liberals), and then a more conservative faction advocating for the king’s brother, Carlos (hence the name Carlist war) and his more totalitarian approach to governing as the rightful successor (being a man scored you big king points way back when) (and those were the Carlists).

Some of you may have guessed that “el Desarme” translates as “The Disarmament”. Now I’m sure we all agree that laying down your arms and taking conflict to an end is a wonderful concept, but putting the idea into practice, that’s a whole ‘nother story. Armed people are not usually very keen to putting down their guns and making peace when told to do so. You can’t disarm people by just yelling “Hey! Let’s put our guns down now and stop fighting, shall we?”, you gotta work your way around it. You need to lure them and beguile them, make use of your most subtle and refined persuasion techniques. And that’s just what the liberal crowds in Asturias did to the Carlist army that was trying to bully them; they disarmed them by stuffing them silly. The fact that they were at war against each other didn’t mean the Asturians shouldn’t be good hosts and feed up the Carlists, right? No one wants to battle on an empty stomach. But this wasn’t just a few sandwiches to get them going. Word has it that the Carlist troops were served a menu consisting of chickpeas with cod and spinach as the entrée, then callos (a very rich stew made with cows tripes) as the main dish, and some rice pudding for a sweet finishing note. Which is pretty hardcore, even for an army of hungry soldiers. So while they were stuffing their faces with obscene amounts or food (or maybe it was during the siesta that most likely ensued), guns resting behind their backs so they wouldn’t get in the way while eating, the Asturian soldiers took them away without the Carlist troops even taking notice. But hey, can’t really blame them. I’m sure the Carlists were competent soldiers that would’ve stood up to anything in the battlefield, but this meal? You could have taken Charlton Heston’s NRF membership card after this meal and he wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.

So you’ll have to agree with me that yeah, peace and cease-fire are great, but peace by being too full to even realize you’re being ripped off? C’mon, that’s the stuff world peace dreams are made of. So go ahead and celebrate with us, by preparing this delicious dish for your friends and family (or for your enemies, it just might turn things around!) and making a toast to happy bellies and non-fighting armies.

Chickpeas with cod and spinach

• 500 g (17,6 oz or 1 lb plus 1,6 oz, but it really doesn’t have to be exact so you can go ahead and use just 1 lb) dried chickpeas
• 400 g (14,1 oz but again, it won’t make a difference if it’s a little bit less or more) salt cod fillet
• 200-300 g (about 7-10 oz) spinach
• 2 medium yellow onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 sprigs of parsley
• 1 egg
• some flour (around 6-8 Tb)
• smoked paprika
  
• a few saffron threads (optional)
• olive oil
• salt
  

The first step is to desalt the cod, so cut the fillet into a few stripes (about an inch wide), place them in a big bowl and fill it with cold water. Soak for 18 to 24 hours, changing the water 3 or 4 times.

Place the chickpeas in nother big bowl, add cold water that comes at least an inch above the chickpeas (no need to rinse them first since we’ll be throwing that water away later) and soak overnight (about 10 to 12 hours).

Discard chickpea water and place chickpeas in a big pot.

Chop onion, garlic and parsley finely (I do this in the food processor) and add to the pot. Sprinkle with about 1 Tb of smoked paprika.

Add the saffron if you wish.

Generously drizzle with olive oil (2-3 Tb) and sprinkle with flour (about 3 Tb).

Fill the pot with cold water that goes up to 1/2-1 inch above the chickpeas.

Add a big pinch of salt (about ½ ts. You’ll probably need to add more later but I prefer to be on the safe side just in case the cod is still a bit salty in spite of the soaking).

Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the chickpeas are tender, which can take up a varying amount of time depending on the chickpeas, heat, pot, etc, but probably a little short of 2 hours.

While the chickpeas are cooking, prepare the cod: cut each stripe into 2 or 3 pieces, beat the egg in a little bowl and have some flour ready in another bowl or on the counter. Dredge the cod pieces in the flour.

Add some olive oil (1-2 Tb) to a frying pan and turn the heat to high. When the oil is hot, take a piece of floured cod, dip it in the beaten egg and place in the pan. Repeat with the rest (you can do this in batches if you need to, adding more oil as needed). Flip the pieces several times so every side gets cooked. When all of the pieces are done, set them aside.

Wash your spinach. If you’re using baby spinach, just chop them up a bit. If you’re using the regular kind, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook them for a minute, then rinse them in cold water and roughly chop them.

When the chickpeas are tender, add the cod and spinach, and let cook for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat off and let it rest, covered, for a few minutes. Taste it and add more salt it needed (and/or more paprika) and serve.

Coming to an end

As my mother likes to put it “Summer is ten minutes long”, and it seems that those ten minutes are almost up. Even though it won’t be officially over until September 21, one can most certainly feel it already fading away, August’s lazy blurry light starting to give way to the much crispier, more nitid September atmosphere. La Liga is finally back, and my beloved Barcelona just scored a whopping 5-0 against Villareal. Oh yeah. Tourists are going back home and I do no longer have to wait 45 minutes in line at the fish monger, or fight my way through the crowded streets downtown, which is relieving. Soon we’ll be able to take the dogs to the beach again, and to have it all for ourselves. Now that’s the description of luxury, if you ask me.

I’ve been trying to enjoy what’s left of the summer as much as I can since classes start back on September 12 (I’m a college student) and fall will come to take away the festive atmosphere that reigns over the estival months. The gent and I are going on a week long trip to Tuscany, of which we’ll hopefully come back all geared up to tackle the back to school frenzy (including appartment hunting – not fun).

Last Thursday my parents and I went on one of the guided hikes the National Park of Picos de Europa offers for free (props to the guide for making it an awesome experience, it almost feels like going with a group of friends except one of them is incredibly knowledgeable about all things mountain related, including flora, fauna, histoical background…). We hiked from the village of Sotres to the summit of Peña Maín, on the Central Massif of the Picos.

View of the Picu Urriellu, flagship of the Picos de Europa

Then after toting my camera all the way up, the battery died before I could capture the view of the sea behind the mountain range.  Bummer. It didn’t bother me all that much though; it’s hard to get upset when surrounded by so much beauty. And it was a little cloudy anyway, as you can see, so it wasn’t as impressive as it would be had the sky been clear.

Saturday morning we were hungry for more, so we went to the Pienzu, a nice leisurely hike well suited for those not used to  doing a lot of walking, easy but very rewarding.

Also during the weekend one of the best festivals of the summer took place: the Mercáu de Porrúa (traditional market held yearly in the little village of Porrúa) where dozens of artisans of very diverse trades set little stalls to show their craft, along with many food stalls offering our typical delicacies, live music and juggling performances. Porrúa is a small town of only 400, but they’ve managed to put together – throught their cultural association, El Llacín – a wonderful event that draws in 20,000+ people each year, which is pretty amazing. We woke up Sunday morning to beautiful weather and blue skies, which was perfect for my picture taking purposes since the crowds would probably be enjoying what might be their last day at the beach. Porrúa is a little over 2 miles away from Llanes, so walking seemed a better idea than taking the car.

Once there, we started wandering through and snapping away. There was weaving and spinning…

All kinds of handmade objects… (although many of the artisans had a no picture policy after having issues with people copying their designs…)

Even a “pimp my bike” sorta thing.

Bagpipe playing and dancing…

Including some funny fellas…

And animals that little kids could ride.

Then on the food department, there were lots of different embutidos:

Picadillo to go on tortos or into a sandwich:

And you know it wouldn’t be Asturias without all those cheeses…

There was café de pote, which is coffee made by boiling it in water and then straining it through a cheesecloth before serving.

And also traditional cider making:

Grilled sardines were pretty popular too.

But most of the action was going on at the parrilla (barbecue grill) where the costillas (ribs) were cooking and smoking away:

Not to forget the boroña preñada, a very dense (even fudgy) cornbread filled with embutidos. Utter deliciousness.

So all in all, a very fun festival that I come back to year after year. And I think that’s pretty much it for now. I’ll be back after my trip with a Tuscan treats galore post

So what are you doing to take advantage of the last days of summer?