20 Spanish recipes. Page 1 of 1. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Basque Burnt Cheesecake.
No crust goes into the pan, only a tall collar of parchment, and the batter bakes at 230°C until the top turns deep brown with a bitter caramel smell. After four hours or more in the fridge the cake is firm, and a while at room temperature before serving brings the center back to soft and creamy.
Chicken, rabbit, green beans and saffron make this the Valencian version, a long way from seafood paella. Once the rice is spread thin in the pan it is never stirred again, so the grains stay separate rather than creamy like risotto, and a thin crisp crust called socarrat forms on the bottom.
Caramel poured into the mold sets hard, then melts again as the flan bakes and chills, so when it is turned out an amber sauce runs down over the custard. The sugar is taken past gold to deep amber, which gives that sauce a slight bitterness. The custard itself bakes slowly at 150°C, set in a pan of hot water.
The seasoning is lard, garlic and salt, nothing more. A milk-fed half lamb, laid flat on the bone, starts fat side down at a low temperature with pan juices spooned over, then is turned and finished hotter to color the outside. The timings are written for that thin, spread-out half; a rolled leg or a thick cut from an adult animal will not follow them.
Almonds, garlic and soaked white bread are blended smooth, then olive oil is drizzled in as a thin stream until the soup turns white and creamy. Raw garlic gives it a sharp bite. It chills for at least an hour and is topped with green grapes or sliced almonds.
Short noodles take the place of rice in this Spanish pan dish, a close cousin of paella. Toasting them in oil until the tips turn golden gives a nutty note, and leaving the pan mostly unstirred after the stock goes in lets a thin crust form underneath. The shrimp and squid are only seared at first and go back on top near the end, so they stay tender. Serve with aioli if you have some.
Salty flakes of cod meet sweet, juicy orange in this Andalusian salad, and that contrast carries the dish. The cod is torn along its grain into light, chewy shreds, while red onion and black olives sharpen the edges. The fish only poaches in barely moving water, because a hard boil turns it tough. Soaking out the salt takes most of a day and has to begin the night before, but on the day itself the salad goes together in minutes and sits well beside a glass of sherry as a tapa.
Small beef meatballs are browned only on the outside, then finish cooking in an onion and tomato sauce with a little paprika. The sauce tastes fuller after a day, so it can be made ahead and served with bread or rice.
The batch makes 12 small half-moon pastries, each one sized for a single hand. The filling is ground beef cooked with onion and sweet pepper and seasoned with tomato paste and cumin. Spooning off the leftover fat and letting the filling cool completely keeps the inside of the baked pastry from turning greasy or weak.
Piped through a star tip, the dough comes out deeply ridged, which gives the oil more surface to work on and crisps the whole outside evenly. The churros are rolled in cinnamon sugar straight from the fryer, sometimes with a quick sauce of dark chocolate melted with an equal amount of cream. After about ten minutes the oil seeps inward and the crunch fades fast.
Stale bread soaked in water goes into the blender with the tomatoes, cucumber and pepper, and it makes the soup heavier and smoother than vegetable juice. No heat is involved at all, only two hours or more in the fridge. This Andalusian cold soup is only as good as its tomatoes, which need to be fully ripe.
Behind a thin crumb shell sits hot, creamy bechamel, carrying the salty flavor of finely chopped jamon. With a filling made mostly of butter, flour, and milk, the cured ham, though small in amount, carries the salt and aroma of every bite. In Spanish bars they come out as tapas, two or three to a small plate.
A Basque cheesecake with its top scorched nearly black, and yuja-cheong (Korean citron preserve) stirred in so a citrus note follows the rich cream cheese. Crumpled parchment set higher than the pan leaves its creases pressed into the sides.
In Europe it is common to have churros dipped in chocolate sauce for breakfast. Here the sauce is dark chocolate and milk in equal amounts, melted over a double boiler until it coats a spoon. Out of the oil, the star-shaped ridges split and crisp, while escaping steam leaves the center a little hollow and chewy.
Thinly sliced garlic warmed slowly in olive oil until pale gold sets the flavor of the pot. Pushed further, it turns bitter and the whole pot tastes of it. Day-old baguette soaks up the chicken stock and partly dissolves, thickening the broth without flour, while smoked paprika tints it red and adds a faint smoky note. Beaten egg poured in a thin stream sets into soft ribbons rather than curds.
Red, paprika-tinted fat from the chorizo slowly colors the broth while the large white beans of this Asturian stew soften all the way through without splitting. Bean starch and pork fat thicken it with no flour, and a shake of the pot rather than hard stirring keeps the bean skins whole.
Garlic and dried chili warm slowly in olive oil until fragrant, the shrimp cook in that oil, and whatever is left gets mopped up with baguette. The garlic should only reach pale gold at the edges when the shrimp are added, because browned garlic turns the whole pan bitter.
Bite-size potato cubes roast on a hot tray rather than in a fryer, picking up firm, crisp edges before a smoky, spicy tomato sauce is spooned over them. Rinsing the cut cubes until the water runs clearer, drying every surface and spacing them apart on the tray gives those edges their crunch, since wet or crowded pieces steam.
Thick coins of octopus sit on slices of boiled potato, finished with nothing more than olive oil, smoked paprika, and coarse salt. With so little seasoning, texture carries the dish: a hard boil tightens the flesh, so the octopus rests in its hot water after the heat goes off and softens gently.
Potatoes cooked slowly in plenty of olive oil turn creamy and soft, while the same slices fried over high heat scorch outside and stay hard in the middle. That gentle start gives a Spanish tortilla its thick, tender layers once the eggs are added. The nerve-racking part is the flip: a plate goes over the pan and the half-set omelette turns out in one motion before sliding back in. Both sides end up golden, with a moist center.