The “Rolls Royce” of Spanish spices, saffron is precious, expensive, and a quintessential ingredient in the Spanish pantry.
#Thyme in spanish cooking full#
Fun fact: Pimentón is full of iron, and helps prevent hair loss! It is sprinkled over Galician-style octopus with olive oil, added to garlic soup, and is used to add umami to many stews, including Asturian Fabada and Cocido Madrileño. After they are dried, they are then deseeded, skinned, and ground in traditional stone mills, and voilà! The result is the most delicious smoky condiment that enhances an array of dishes. This gives the peppers their characteristic smoked flavor. Capsicum peppers (Jacaranda, Jariza, Jeromín, and Bola pepper varieties) are strung and then slowly air-dried & manually rotated over a very slow-burning holm oak for about two weeks. Despite its vast popularity and demand in Spain today, the production is still very artisanal. The method for the more popular Pimentón de la Vera dates back to the 16th century when monks at the monastery of Yuste in Extremadura started growing and finding culinary uses for the newly arrived peppers from the Americas. There are two quality appellations- Pimentón de la Vera (in Cáceres province) and Pimentón de Murcia (in the coastal southeast). It comes in spicy, sweet, and semisweet variations. Vibrant red paprika, called Pimentón in Spain and referred to as “red gold,” is one of the most cherished spices grown and used extensively in Spain. The following is a checklist of the most essential and popular spices and herbs grown in Spain and used in everyday cooking today: PIMENTÓN (PAPRIKA) And sea salt is harvested along Spain’s vast coastline and on the Balearic and Canary Islands, and is used in just about every meal, even breakfast! Pimentón is also used to flavor charcuterie like Chorizo and Jamón (dry-cured ham). Dried sweet and spicy peppers are used in a kaleidoscope of ways, most notably to make ground paprika (“pimentón”), an essential ingredient in flagship Spanish dishes like paella. Mediterranean herbs such as bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and especially parsley are all essential in the Spanish kitchen. They also brought cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and coriander (cilantro) to Spain, which are fundamental elements today in Sephardic cooking in Spain and beyond. And what about the spices and herbs used in Spain? The Moors brought saffron (called Az-Zafaran in Arabic and azafrán in Spanish) to Spain, originally from Asia Minor. Ingredients such as tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes were brought back to Spain and incorporated into local cuisine. Dishes so ubiquitous in Spanish cooking now (Spanish tortilla, “pan con tomate,” “gazpacho,” and roast peppers, to name a few) did not exist in Spain before colonization. Spain’s cuisine is fascinating, varied, and influenced by many diverse cultures, from the Moors, Sephardic Jews, and Latin America.
0 kommentar(er)
