Tapas

I had lunch today at one of my very favorite places, a tapas restaurant.  For those of you not familiar with the genre, tapas originated in Spain.  Sangria is a wine with fruit and brandy in it, served frequently there.  Unfortunately, it attracts flies.  Spanish taverns began covering glasses of sangria with a small plate to keep them out.  Not wanting to serve their customers an empty plate, they came up with small appetizers to put on the plates.  So tapas are small Spanish dishes that are meant to be shared.  They have a beautiful profile of sherry, olive oil, and garlic.

So I thought, what tapas dishes can we make from items we've recently had in our boxes, or things in season now?  Well, here goes!

Photo via Steamy Kitchen

Artichokes

A number of wonderful tapas dishes involve a strongly garlic-flavored olive oil.  It's great on artichokes too.  Another preparation uses lemon along with the wonderful garlic oil.

Apples 

Manchego cheese is a sheep milk cheese commonly used in Spanish cuisine.  It pairs well with apples.  Slice the apples thinly, soak them in rum or brandy for a couple of hours, and serve with the cheese.  Another option is to make an apple paste.  A creamy salad of apples and walnuts is another classic tapas dish.

Photo via Food.com

Oranges

Valencia is a city on the Medeterranean (east) coast of Spain, and they grow oranges in that region.  So yes, there are many tapas dishes that have oranges, such as this orange and onion salad.  There's plenty of beautiful, young asparagus in the store, so don't use canned asparagus when you make orange and lemon sauce to serve it with.

Spinach

One of my very favorite tapas dishes is this one, spinach with currants and pine nuts.  I add a teaspoon or two of good sherry vinegar just before serving.  This chickpea and spinach stew from Seville is another delicious option. 

Photo via about.com

 

They're Finally Here!

We're getting a treat this week.  It's the thing I wait for all winter long.  When spring gets here, so do the artichokes. They've only been a recent discovery for me, but all spring long I could eat them day after day after day.  My six-year-old son also thinks they're very fun to eat.

Artichokes are related to thistles. So, technically, they're a weed.  The artichoke that you see is an unopened flower. If you let it bloom, they turn into very large, beautiful purple flowers.  But don't do that. You're wasting a perfectly good choke!

Photo via Wikipedia

If you're not familiar with artichokes, I highly recommend you watch this video clip from Alton Brown.  As a matter fact, if you're cooking anything for the first time, see if you can find a video clip of Alton cooking it. He's a great teacher.  A few months ago, when he was in town, I went to see his live show. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.

Artichokes are easily made simply by steaming them. What you want to do is cut off the sharp tips on all of the leaves, and then steam them upright until they begin to open. This might be 25 or 30 minutes.  Practice making fancy sauces, Hollandaise or Bernaise or something similar, or even just a vinaigrette, and you're good to go.  

Photo via Cooking With My Kid

There are three phases to eating an artichoke. First, are the leaves. They are tough and fibrous, but when you pull them off right where they attached to the choke they have a whitish flesh that is soft and delicious. So dip that white part in your sauce, and scrape the meat off with your teeth.  This is the fun part.

The heart of the artichoke is the most prized piece.  After eating the leaves, there will be a fuzzy part with purple tips on top of the flat part of the artichoke. The fuzzy part isn't good to eat, so take the edge of a spoon and scrape it all off. Make sure you get it all.  You can cut the heart of the artichoke into bite-size pieces and eat it. Dip it in your sauce.

Photo via Epicurious

The inner part of the stem is also soft and very good to eat. You need to take off the outer husk that's stringy, and then eat the delicate part inside. When I cook artichokes, I use a vegetable peeler to take off the fibrous part before cooking them.

This is my favorite recipe for artichokes.  While they steam, make a simple vinaigrette of Dijon, lemon juice, and olive oil.  Slice the artichokes in half, drizzle over the dressing, and finish under the broiler.  A couple more of my favorites are here and here.

Enjoy!

Getting All 'Choked Up!

So remember how last week we promised yellow squash that then never arrived?  Well, apparently, we started some sort of trend because this week the missing item ended up being the local asparagus.  Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!  So to help compensate, we chocked your boxes full of lots of extra goodies.  Some of you received, corn, tomatoes, or onions, and then some of you received artichokes.  So if you find yourself scratching your head as you stare at that veggie that looks more like a deranged pineapple than an edible vegetable, fear not!

The awesome foodies at Food & Wine put together a tutorial on how to cook fresh artichokes.  So whether you want to roast them up, toss them with pasta or snuggle up with a bowl of spinach & artichoke dip, their tips will help you master the artichoke and have your friends and family ooo'ing and ahh'ing.  Who needs produce in a can any way?  Get fresh with it!

Check out the tutorial on Food & Wine here: How To Cook Artichokes