Tag: Spanish

the true flavor of Spanish beef giardiniera – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

The Spanish beef giardiniera it is a culinary delicacy rooted in the rich gastronomic tradition of local cuisine. This dish, known for its balanced combination of flavors and the quality of its components, is an eloquent example of indigenous culinary mastery. The history of preparation is deeply intertwined with domestic cuisine, especially in the Madrid region. There original recipe it has been passed down from generation to generation, representing a point of connection between past and present in the Spanish table. It involves the creation of a meat-based dish slow cooked beefwith a selection of fresh vegetables, typically carrots, peas and potatoes. The meat, typically the animal’s cheek or breast, is cut into uniform pieces and braised in a rich sauce made from a combination of tomato, onion, garlic and spices, such as paprika and bay leaves. Finally, everything is cooked slowly until a soft and succulent consistency is achieved. Presented on a traditional Spanish plate, beef giardiniera can be accompanied by Side Dishessuch as roast potatoes or mashed potatoes.

All about panther milk, a historic Spanish cocktail – Italian Cuisine

Panther milk is a Spanish gin and condensed milk cocktail, born in the 1920s and recently back in fashion in Barcelona

If you have recently been on vacation to Barcelonaby immersing yourself in the famous local nightlife, you will probably have come across a very popular cocktail with a singular name, "Leche de pantera", or panther milk.
This centenary drink is a simple cocktail, very alcoholic and with a sweet and particular taste, and has recently come back into vogue, especially in the most tourist and student bars, where both the classic and revisited and colored versions are served.

What is and how "leche de pantera" is made

Panther milk is a drink with rather simple preparation and ingredients: one mixture of gin, condensed milk and water or ice. It is generally served cold, sometimes with crushed ice, inside a tall glass.
The color is reminiscent of milk, a bright beige; the taste and taste are pleasantly sweet, but the combination of ingredients means that the alcohol content is quite high; and then the rich taste which, combined with its creamy density, make it almost a dessert, ideal for the evening. Since it came back into fashion in Spain, and in particular in Barcelona, bars have competed to create the most colorful or most creative variant. Among the currently most popular recipes there are the well-known pink version, called precisely "Pink panther milk", less alcoholic, more palatable and with a candy pink color, which in addition to playing with the name makes this drink perfect for Millennials and Instagram-proof. A recipe launched by the Tasca El Corral bar in Barcelona. Gin, milk, egg white and a sprinkling of cinnamon powder are also well known.

From remedy for soldiers to student cocktails in Barcelona

On the birth of this cocktail, which dates back to the 1920s, there are several theories. According to the most accredited, it originated when General José Millán-Astray of the Spanish foreign legion he commissioned one of the most well-known bartenders at the time, namely Perico Chicote of the Hotel Ritz in Madrid, to create a drink for his soldiers that was simple, cheap and easy to prepare and store and to carry around during the various missions. It is said that the military were so satisfied with the result that they all went to congratulate the bartender personally. A legend tells instead that they had created the recipe the military injured and confined to the infirmary, who they had the idea of mixing alcohol for medical use with condensed milk, later going to replace alcohol with gin or other spirits they had available.

Beyond the story of how it was born, we know for sure that panther milk, after having disappeared from circulation for a long time, it was re-launched in the seventies by the students. Riding on the trend of the moment, a former legionary then decided to open a bar called in the center of Barcelona La Barretina in an alley along Carrer de la Mercè, in the Gothic quarter, to reproduce the recipe and serve it. The bar no longer exists, but the others in the same area have decided to follow in its footsteps, continuing to launch new reinterpretations and delighting students and curious tourists.

Photo: Leche-de-pantera Pantera milk_C losvinos.jpg

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Tapas, never again without. Spanish morsels conquer the world – – Italian Cuisine

In Spain they are an unshakable institution, a national habit that, even outside the border, is loved more and more – think that in June we even celebrate the World Tapas Day. Not just aperitif: the tapas brighten up and solve our convivial dinners. And if, according to science, cooking for others is a real cure for our health, they are the perfect solution to enjoy lively morsels in the company even at home.

First we make a distinction: there are ‘tapas’, which are the appetizers that plug the small hole in the stomach that you have at a certain time, when the work day is over and a glass of wine falls into our hands … They are spread throughout the Iberian peninsula and are more similar to our appetizer. And then there are the ‘pinchos’, the sophisticated tapas of the Basque country, an internationally recognized land as a gourmand, where the morsel rises to a mini culinary masterpiece.

The accompaniment of a alcoholic beverage – wine and beer in the first place – is the rule, while non-alcoholic is not contemplated. There main difference with the Italian aperitif is the social aspect: while we conceive it as choosing a place to sit, drink and tease before dinner, in Spain – Basque land or not – it is atraveling experience. The ‘tapeo’ or ‘ir de tapas’ is moving from bar to bar to another glass accompanied by a new snack. Often on the weekend there is dinner based on tapeo: instead of ‘comer’, eating is preferred ‘Picar’, tease. In the Basque Country in particular, this often happens in feet, which makes social exchange even more lively.

Tapas can potentially be anything. The most famous of all is the tortilla, of course, the tall and creamy omelette with potatoes. And also in the pinchos or "Pintxos" – as we say in Euskera, in Basque – we can indulge ourselves in infinity (it also exists an excellent app called "Pintxos". To quote some of the more typical: cod (that is different from the stocafisso!) with aioli sauce (which also tastes great with stockfish!) or the ‘pincho de la carrillera’, or the beef cheek with a sauce that could be made of apples rather than caramelized onions.

While tapas are more like what could be served in an Italian aperitif – often the basis is bread, with anything above it, from anchovy on – especially in the case of pinchos, it is often a question of real mini-portions of dishes that in one meal could be main secondary dish. So much so that in many cases instead of pincho – of Russian salad rather than mushroom skewer or grilled squid – you can order the 'ración', that is the portion. To share, or make dinner.

In the Basque Country friends are rarely invited home: they are rather invited to go for pinchos. Not so with us. But what about invite friends to "go for pinchos" to your home? For a different and fun dinner, you could set up two or three ‘bar de tapas’ or ‘bar de pinchos’ in your home! Thus, even if the rooms are small, the guests can be moved to small groups of bars in bars, each – just like in reality! – with his specialty. It could be a point that offers morsels of sea, for example skewers of prawns and bay leaves and grilled aromatic calamari; one that serves foods of South American inspiration, like the mini tortillas revisited in Italian and the Mexican peppers and one addressed to the cheeses – puff pastry with toma and caramelized onions and buffalo rice balls.

The selection just made? Absolutely arbitrary and fantasy! You can indulge in your imagination, feel like experience and art in recycling of leftovers (for example, those of chicken). Prepare everything first, prepare the individual portions, prepared as a bar – with a lot of alcohol in the various points, maybe a sangria on one side and a Brazilian cocktail on the other.

The important thing is the appearance of the eye: the whole counter must be visually rich in pinchos, from immediate stimulation of salivation. And every morsel itself is taken care of in the look: even the most banal slice of bread with tuna and pickle is presented in 'more 3D' form, one could say. More scenic, in short: for example, place the gherkin or chilli or tomato not among the tuna and bread, but above the tuna steak, proudly soaring, pierced by its toothpick, ready to be challenged and tasted.

Carola Traverso Saibante
July 2019

DISCOVER THE COOKING COURSES OF SALT & PEPE