Spain…On the Road Again is on tonight!

Watch it, record it, DVR it. For Austinites, the first episode of Spain…On the Road Again airs tonight at 10 p.m. on PBS.

Spain…On the Road Again

Batali and Bittman in Spain

I’ve heard a bit of buzz about a new program called Spain…On the Road Again. Here’s the gist: Gwyneth Paltrow, chef Mario Batali, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols embark on a road trip in a fancy, schmancy car to give viewers a closer look at Spain’s cuisine and culture. The 13-part TV series premieres the week of September 20 on PBS. (In Austin, the first episode airs Friday, September 26 at 10 p.m. Yours truly will have to tape it, as 10 p.m. is quite late for those of us who need our eight hours.)

I am excited about this program. José Andrés kindled an interest in all things Spanish with his show, Made in Spain. I do have a love-hate relationship with holier-than-thou Gwyneth, but the love part of the love-hate thing compels me to watch her, even if she does say obnoxious things in the press and offers her opinion when no one was asking (that’s the hate part). Also, I want to see what she wears (the love part again). But she’s probably just doing this to show off her fluency in Spanish (hate her). It’s very complicated.

Anywho, the first episode, Tilting Windmills in Castilla la Mancha, starts with Mark and Mario at Madrid’s fish market, while Gwynnie and Claudia “lounge luxuriously eating churros and hot chocolate.” (Hate, hate, hate.) Then Gwyneth and Mario drive to Toledo for a cooking lesson with one of Castilla la Mancha’s top chefs, while Mark and Claudia travel the route of Don Quijote, tilting at windmills and learning how to make Manchego cheese. Apparently Mario tries bird sushi, which doesn’t agree with him.

Click the link to the episode for a short preview.

Los Dos Cooking School

On April 17, which also happens to be my birthday, we were on our honeymoon, in Mérida, Yucatan, and spending the day with Chef David Sterling at Los Dos Cooking School. The full week’s adventures are chronicled on our travel blog, but I felt that the experience at Los Dos deserved a post on this blog, as well.

Los Dos was 95 percent of the reason we included Mérida in our trip. The cooking school has been featured in Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, and Gourmet, but we first heard about it on a television episode of Rick Bayless‘ Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

Chef David Sterling might be a gringo from Oklahoma, but he knows his stuff when it comes to Yucatecan cuisine and history. Our favorite way to “get” the culture of any place we visit is through its food, and Los Dos is the place to go to learn about Yucatecan food.

Our morning started with breakfast at the school. We met a couple from the Netherlands (she was Portuguese, he was German) and two New Yorkers, one who owned a bed and breakfast in Mérida. After introductions, the history lesson began.

The most important thing to know, said Chef Sterling, is that there is a difference between Mexican and Yucatecan food. Yucatecans will say, “Let’s go have some Mexican food.” Yucatecan cuisine is a fusion of native Mayan food with European influences. In traditional Yucatecan cuisine, there are no enchiladas, jalapeños, or many of the other foods with which we’re familiar. You can bet it’s still spicy, though. Yucatecans use the habanero, an extremely hot pepper believed to originally have been taken to the peninsula from Cuba. I tried the habanero salsa (I’m Texan, dammit. I had to represent!), but I don’t feel the need to do so again any time soon.

That morning we learned about everything from Mayan farming to the origins of chocolate to the history of local spices and how Christopher Columbus misnamed spices, such as calling allspice “big pepper.” Chef Sterling recommended three books: Spice, The True History of Chocolate, and America’s First Cuisines.

Mercado
Next we gathered our things and headed out to the mercado to buy the groceries for the recipes we were to cook. Guidebooks describe this market as “Mexico with no holds barred; not some sanitized gringo version of a Mexican artisan’s market, so be prepared.” Chef Sterling gave us fair warning that if we got lost, he would never see us again. Keep up with the group. Check.

Mérida’s municipal market is a vast, noisy affair. You’ll find clothes, shoes, art, hardware, stoves, hammocks, rope, jewelry, vegetables and produce, meat, chicken and even live birds. There’s a section I tried to ignore that Chef Sterling said, “blurs the line between food and pet.” The produce sections were full of unusual varieties of squash, fruits, and spices. My favorite new find was chaya, which is similar to kale or spinach, but with two to three times more nutritional content.

Back to Los Dos
After making it out of the market alive, we had two taxis waiting to take us back to Los Dos. We spent the afternoon making tortillas, Pollo Pibil, Arroz Verde, and my favorite Los Dos recipe, Crema de Cilantro. Crema de Cilantro is essentially a leek and potato soup, a recipe that’s thousands of years old, but a relatively new addition to Yucatecan cuisine. Chef Sterling’s recipe has been “Mexicanized” by adding squash for texture and taste, serrano chiles for heat, and cilantro for fresh, aromatic flavor. We ate it hot, but it is supposed to be just as delicious when served chilled.

While everything finished cooking, Chef Sterling invited us to have a cerveza and put our feet in the pool. Half an hour later we came inside for a big, satisfying Yucatecan meal.

Crema de Cilantro

• 1 lb. calabaza (pattypan squash or zucchini), stems removed and cubed
• 1 large potato, peeled and cubed
• 8 cups chicken stock (I use vegetable stock.)
• 2 large leeks, chopped, including about 1 inch of green (Substitute: 3-4 large spring onions, or a mix of onions and leeks)
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 chiles serranos, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups cilantro, rinsed, finely chopped and firmly packed
• 1/2 cup Mexican crema (Substitute: créme fraîche, plain yogurt, or sour cream)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• One recipe Totopos
• 10 squash blossoms (optional), cleaned
• 4 Tbs. cilantro, rinsed and finely chopped

STEP 1: IN A LARGE SAUCEPAN CONTAINING THE STOCK, cook the cubes of squash and potatoes for approximately 20 minutes, or until vegetables are very tender.

STEP 2: MEANWHILE, IN A LARGE SKILLET, sauté the leeks, garlic and chiles in the butter until the leeks are translucent. Add to the potato/squash mixture; stir and continue cooking, returning to a simmer, approximately five minutes. Using a handheld immersible blender, purée the ingredients until fine. Add the cilantro and purée again as above to incorporate all ingredients. Add crema and purée one last time until thoroughly blended. Check for seasonings.

STEP 3: TO SERVE, ladle hot soup into warmed bowls. In the center of each serving, float a few of the totopos on top of the soup. Then float one squash blossom per bowl on top of the strips. Sprinkle finely chopped cilantro over the entire bowl including the rim.

More Photos at Los Dos

Scenes from an Austin farmer’s market

Photos from a Saturday at the Austin Farmer’s Market.

To market...

A sampling of goat cheeses from West Wind Dairy

Tamalady has good balance.

Colorful peppers make for yummy salsa.

Obligatory local musician.

Caskey Orchard peaches...just as good as Fredericksburg. (Yeah, I said it!)

Lovely garlic for sauces. Also for warding off vampires.

Roberto's catch of the day.

The Leaning Pear

Bella Vista Ranch was not our only culinary adventure last weekend. After we packed up the bottles of wine and olive oil, we were on the hunt for a place to eat lunch. In the heart of Barbecue Country, bordering on Chicken-Fried Steakville, I was a bit worried about what we might find. I’m what Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary calls a pescatarian, meaning the only meat I eat is fish. They just added the word this year, in fact, but I’ve been eating this way long before Merriam-Webster recognized it (about three years).

I was pleasantly surprised by The Leaning Pear Café & Eatery, right off of River Road. There were a few things on the menu for a selective eater like me, but everyone else found something to their liking, as well. Luis had the Slow-Braised Cuban Style Pulled Pork Sandwich, which consisted of sweet relish, provolone, and spicy mustard sandwiched between two slices of grilled ciabatta bread. After eying the Caprese Panini, the Leaning Pear House Salad won out. It combined two of my favorite ingredients, pear and goat cheese, with spiced pecans and a shallot vinaigrette. Delicious, but I wouldn’t have minded a bit more pear in the salad. Then again, I really do love pears. Dessert was locally-made chocolate cake for Luis, my mom, and me, and a gorgeous strawberry shortcake for dad. The four of us washed it all down with the tropical iced tea.

With a focus on seasonal, fresh, and local food, The Leaning Pear blends a bit of Hill Country with a bit of Italy. We give The Leaning Pear four thumbs up (our thumbs plus my parents’ thumbs) and plan to return when we next find ourselves in Wimberley. After all, I still need to try that Caprese Panini.

Chocolate cake: The verdict

Under the Texan sun

One of our favorite, most-used Italian cookbooks is Jamie’s Italy. This cookbook features many of the same meals we ate while in Italy (the pappa al pomodoro will change your life). You might be familiar with the chef, Jamie Oliver, who is also called The Naked Chef because he “strips” back to the essentials.

Again and again in the book, Jamie stresses that you need the best tomatoes, the freshest ingredients. He calls for fresh olive oil, as well. This presented a problem because most olive oil is imported, with a span of 14 to 17 months between the time it’s pressed and the time it arrives on the shelf. The oil is already old when it hits the supermarket, and most of the flavors and the healthful polyphenols (antioxidents) are long gone.

Imagine our excitement when a Google search for “olive oil” and “Texas” brought up Bella Vista Ranch, home to First Texas Olive Oil Company, a commercially-producing olive orchard in Wimberley, Texas!

There’s what in my olive oil?

Last weekend, Luis, my parents, and I piled into the Jeep and drove one and a half hours through the Hill Country to Bella Vista Ranch. During the noon tour, we found out that the problem with the shelf life of oil was only the tip of the iceberg. To make matters worse, Jack Dougherty, our tour guide and the man behind the olives, let us in on some disheartening news.

• 95 percent or more of our olive oil is imported from Italy, but 96 percent of olive oil produced in Italy stays in Italy.
• Spain produces the most olive oil, but they sell it to Italy to be bottled under an Italian label. (How’s that for marketing strategy?)
• Olive oil is one of the most adulterated European exports. In other words, our bottles of olive oil contain various mixtures of grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil, and/or sunflower oil.

Boo. So what are a couple of cooks to do? Move to Italy? (Yes, please.) But until then, stock up on local oil, of course!

The tour and tasting

Jack led us on a tour of the ranch, starting with the olive trees. We learned about how the Blue Norther freezes kill the trees, and there’s not much to be done about it. Jack says during times like that, you have to be a praying man or a drinking man, and since he bottles his own wine, he doesn’t need to pray.

In the tasting room, we sampled the Alfresco Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a grassy oil with initial green notes and a peppery finish at the back of the tongue. (The reason restaurants add pepper to their dipping oil is because the oil has lost the pepper flavor.) We also tasted the Alfresco Blood Orange Oil, an oil custom-blended for First Texas Olive Oil. To create the oil, blood oranges and olives are pressed together, resulting in a sweet, intense orange flavor that’s great for using in salad dressings, on fish, or anywhere you might use citrus rind.

A couple of other tips about cooking with olive oil:

• The good stuff (extra virgin) will create a lot of smoke when you fry with it. Jack tells us that the smoke is all of the healthful benefits burning away. Save the extra virgin for dressings, dips, and drizzling on top of food. Use the less-expensive stuff to sauté or fry.
• Olive oil is best when used eight to nine months after it has been bottled. After opening the bottle, use within 80 to 120 days.

Jack says women read Under the Tuscan Sun and then volunteer to harvest olives at Bella Vista. Most don't find the 110-degree weather to be very romantic, though.

The tour at Bella Vista also includes a wine tasting. Bella Vista Cellars buys locally-grown grapes and presses them into Italian-varietal wines, such as Tejanti (Texas Chianti). Be sure to try the Blackberry Wine, too, which is made from blackberries grown on Bella Vista Ranch. It’s fruity without being too sweet; perfect as an apéritif (a before-dinner drink to stimulate the appetite) or a dessert wine.

Bella Vista Ranch ships orders from their online store. Tours are conducted on Saturdays and Sundays and run $10 for both the wine and olive oil tasting. Visit their site for directions and more information.