The package

Published by Maya on November 12, 2007 08:11 pm under General

Nope, we’re not dead -yet-. Let’s say, the past few weeks haven’t been too inspiring. Juanpi did write some words about our latest affairs with the Republic and there is much more going on these days, so I will leave the irony for him, while I tell you about something nice we experienced. Yes, among all those bad things, there were also some pleasant ones. -Luckily-.

Namely, we received a long awaited package from Spain. Now, whose face wouldn’t cheer up after opening a 20-kilo box, loaded with delicious products, most of which you can not purchase in your country? In Juanpi’s case, I was so happy to see again that smile all over his face -which was so characteristic of him and kinda disappeared soon after moving to Slovenia. With a pretty fair reason, I might add.-

However, this big package included the following items:
-Brown lentils (lentejas), chickpeas (garbanzos) and Spanish brown beans.
-Jars of homemade quince paste (membrillo) and green plum jam
-Local sheep and goat cheese
-Pickled smoked capsicum, dried capsicum and ground sweet paprika (all three from La Rioja)
-Coffee beans from Portugal
-Pate of sardina, numerous cans of fish, salted codfish

-Real Spanish tomato sauce (tomate frito)
-Jars of almond cream
-Fresh and dried chorizo and other sausages
-Cider, La Rioja wine and local extra virgin olive oil
-Pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, prunes
-Dried spices like bay leaves, thyme and oregano, cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans
-Lemon essence, orange flower water, cuajada powder and rennet (cuajo) for making cuajada…

Ufff, I think I got them all. I gathered samples of these things for you to imagine it better.

Spanish survival kit

I was mostly happy for the spices (as you can imagine), because it’s not so simple to get such fragrant ones here in Slovenia. Even those I grow at home, can’t compare with the hot-Spanish-sun-absorbed bay leaves (aka hojas de laurel in Spanish) or sharp bitter taste of oregano. Finally, we never have summers with 40 degrees plus that would last for 2 or 3 months – and that’s what really gives these spices strong aromas. Knowing my obsession for spices, my future mother-in-law provided me with these she picked in her village in the southwestern region of Spain. I’m sniffing them like an addict everytime I open the cupboard where they are stored.

Pity that the smell doesn’t transmit (yet) through internet… (I leave you with this photo until then;)

And now about capsicum/paprika/pepper/pimiento (choose the name you prefer). Spain has a great reputation for peppers, and some of the best ones come from the northern region La Rioja. Since my future father-in-law comes from this region, I have already tried many of the La Rioja products while in Spain, for example their wonderful wine, tomatoes, asparagus, chorizo, mushrooms, pears and -of course- peppers of all kind. They sent us numerous home pickled jars of smoked peppers (pimientos ahumados), used usually for a very popular dish called Lomo con pimientos del piquillo (recipe to follow soon).
Then, we got also dried peppers which are a bit quite spicy and therefore must be used with moderation, and ground sweet pepper, a strong fragrant powder. Together they make a great couple in a dish called Patatas a la riojana, a potato stew with chorizo.

Basically, in La Rioja they hang the peppers over the smoke created by burning small pieces/splinters of wood. After that, they peel off the burnt skin of peppers and store them in jars, in an emulsion of oil and vinegar.

For the stew you need to add a half of this aromatic dried pepper

Ground pepper
Its smell fills up the kitchen everytime I open the tin. Can be added to heavy meat stews (with moderation).

For those of you fond of almonds and their products, I have something interesting here. Namely, I was always curious to try a drink based on almonds. Since spotting it in my favourite local grocery store (the price, ouch!), and since Juanpi mentioning the almond milk that everyone loves to drink in Spain, I just couldn’t take it out of my mind. I was promised to receive this delicacy within the package. I really thought it would come in a carton or even bottle, as a drink, but what I got was a … jar of almond cream (crema de almendra). And then Juanpi explained to me that you have to mix a spoon of this cream with milk (or even any other drink) and that’s what makes a delicious almond milk. I have to tell you, it’s gorgeous. I tried eating it on its own, but I guess I don’t have to tell you how dense and heavy it is. We also tried adding it to coffee and cocoa. The other day I stirred a spoon of it into vanilla pudding. They told me, it can be added to all kinds of desserts and beverages, hot or cold. And for those with veeery sweet tooth: you can even spread it on a slice of bread… or eat it directly with a spoon!

Consider this a serious threat to the Nutella in your house

Another great wish of mine was to get orange flower water, which is actually common for Middle Eastern cuisine where they add it to various desserts. From there it spread all over Mediterranean. I learned about it while living in Spain where they use orange blossoms even for tea (dried ones) and make high prized honey of them, too. No doubt I’m going to use this little bottle for pretty good purposes!

Azahar is the Spanish name for orange blossom. Tea from dried orange blossoms is known for its calming effect and makes a perfect good night drink. Next to the bottle there is lemon essence, used in same way (as an aroma for desserts).

I was talking already about cuajada powder I brought from our last visit in Spain. Now I was sent rennet to make my own cuajada at home. Basically, what you need is milk, heated to 40 degrees, to which you add some drops of rennet (or cuajo in Spanish) and then, all you have to do is… wait until it sets. In Spain they normally eat it with honey or sugar. Makes a very tasty dessert – a must for milk fans.

On the box of cuajada in powder you can see the wooden recipient, that was traditionally used for making cuajada.

One of the most fragrant things in the package (and there was quite a number of them) was coffee. Coffee beans, to be precise. I’ve heard so much about this coffee that Juanpi’s family buys sometimes in Portugal, that I needed to see why such a fuss about it. The coffee comes from Cuba and what is special about it, is that they glaze the beans with sugar and roast it, which gives the cofee a spectacular aroma and shine. Eager as I was to try it, having no coffee grinder at home, I used the nut grinder (which is far from cofffee grinder, I know) and ground coarsely the beans, enough for 2 cups of coffee. I’m not a coffee fan and haven’t drunk coffee for the last 3 years at least, that is, ever since I turned into the tea world, but I do like the smell of freshly ground coffee. I’m telling you, the aroma of this Cuban coffee blows your senses away. In Slovenia I haven’t found anything yet that would deserve to be called “coffee”, at least not in the present days. I remember, coffee used to smell much better in good old times, maybe ’cause our Balcan brothers used to provide us with it. I don’t really know, was way too small back then, although the memory of the smell stayed in my head somehow. Well, something is for sure, the Balcans are specialists for good coffee as well. The southern you go, the better they prepare it.

I haven’t seen coffee beans since 90′ when they quietly withdrew from supermarket shelves and got replaced by ground coffee, and then by those instant wanna-be-real-coffee substitutes, even decaffeinated ones. How can that battery-acid be called coffee at all?

Even devoted to tea as I am, I wasn’t left indifferent when preparing this cup of coffee.

As black as night

…and here it is… a cup of Cuban coffee. You don’t even need to add sugar. And I definitely think, adding milk /cream to this cup would be a sin. Though you can try with almond cream