There’s a lot to love about Basque cuisine, but what I think I love most about it that I’m averaging – averaging – twenty minutes from door to table. It’s been ninety degrees this week, and coming home, throwing a few perfectly fresh and seasonal vegetables in a skillet and a fish in the fryer and being off my feet with a glass of wine in my hand ten minutes later is fabulous.
I’ve been cooking mostly out of The Basque Book and the four dishes below are all from it. I’ve just gone ahead and bought it. I like Basque Country, but the recipes I’m most interested in are a little fussier, so I’m going to save those for weekends. And I’m still working my way through the José Pizarro book.
Huevos rotas (“broken” or “messy” eggs) is a favorite all over Spain (I learned to make them from one of the Madrid episodes of Made in Spain, and I cook it at least once a week), and each region has its own quirks, but the core of the dish is eggs fried sunny-side up in a pool of hot olive oil deep enough that they basically poach in oil, over skillet potatoes and chorizo. I added fresh sliced tomatoes and poblanos to the version shown below.
Huevo mollet con patatas is a lighter, more summery riff on the same theme. These potatoes are boiled, with green beans thrown into the pot to blanch just before tdraining, dressed with a loose, sharply mustardy fresh mayonnaise. The recipe called for soft-boiled eggs but I poached them here. I’ve made this dish twice in the last two weeks and fully expect to make it again this week.
Coliflor con refrito de pimenton is exactly what it sounds like – cauliflower blanched and then panfried, dressed with a fast sauce of white balsamic vinegar, paprika, salt, and olive oil. I’ve cooked it once with a piece of pan-fried cod, and once with a whole deep–fried sea trout; I like having the protein but I really could happily just eat the bowl of spicy, acid-bright cauliflower by itself.
The last photo, which was my dinner just tonight, is menestra de verduras. Most of the recipes I’m coming across are richer and heartier, featuring later-summer vegetables – carrots, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, green beans, fresh white beans – but basically, the whole point of menestra de verduras is seasonality and freshness, and the recipe based on the one in The Basque Book is an early-summer version with peas, lima beans, leeks, asparagus and artichokes. Vegetables, sautéed garlic, jamón, a light roux. That’s it. Simple, elegant, and delicious.
I’ve also made two different tuna-and-tomato dishes that I didn’t catch photos of – a salad of salt-and-vinegar-dressed tomatoes, jarred guindilla chiles, and big fat chunks of seared sashimi tuna (that one is from Basque Country), and a charred vegetable salad of eggplant, tomato, peppers and garlic, cooked down to goo and smashed onto bread with the fancy tinned tuna.
Later, in high summer and into the early autumn, I’ll be turning my explorations to Andalusia, but I’m going to linger here a little while longer. I am enjoying this.
