BASQUE RECIPES

                                                                             BASQUE STYLE CHICKEN 

A simply marvelous dish the other week: Basque styled chicken.   I headed back to the study of my wife's grandfather Pierre Franey for the fundamentals. In leafing through a number of his books I discovered some themes within his technique and sauces. There is definitely a Spanish, or Iberian, or Basque theme- whatever you want to call it really- but it comes when the classic French saute structure sees a hefty dose of garlic, both green and red peppers, tomatoes, olives and some form of heat- chiles, red pepper flakes, etc...

Here is the recipe below. I actually added a nice hefty dollop of Tabasco in at the end which really deepened the flavor.

You would think that you should serve something like Basque Chicken with a Basque red, yes? Well, maybe, but the Basque region is known for its whites called Txakolina. This is super crispy white made from the grape Hondarribi Zuri. Lemon acid, a little spritz, and a high saline quotient make this a no brainer when oystering, or chowing on shellfish.

So, your next thought might be a Rioja, or Ribera del Duero- classic Spanish reds. I would also pass on these. Garlic, olive oil and tomatoes scream the Mediterranean for me and that puts us closer to Barcelona and with the power of the sauce and the heat of the red pepper or Tabasco I would want a raw, earthy, sun roasted wine. In Spain, I'd look at the Monastrells of Alicante- the peninsula that sticks out in the Med, south of Barcelona. I'd also highly recommending heading North into the Languedoc-Rousillon area of France. (I actually had an amazing Costieres de Nimes, Chateau la Baume, with my Basque Chicken.) Anyways...the preparation is classic and can be done with pork, chicken, lamb, or steak...Make sure to adjust pan roasting time based on how long you need to cook the meat.

Basque Chicken (as adopted from Pierre Franey)

Take out a large roasting dish, a huge Creuset pot with a heavy lid will do. Put it on the stove and set the heat to high. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Take 2 chicken breasts (skin on) and lightly dredge them in flour. Add oil to the pot and add chicken breasts skin side down. Salt and pepper them. Let them cook until the skin has caramelized and is golden brown. Once brownness is achieved, flip the breasts and cook 2-3 minutes on the other side. At this point, the skin should looked cooked, but the meat will probably still look pretty raw.

While your browning the chicken do your chopping and prepping.

Chop up 1 large onion.

Chop up 3 cloves of garlic.

Chop up 1 green pepper.

Chop up 1 red pepper.

Get some pitted olives.

Open a can of San Marzano tomatoes and mash the whole tomatoes with a fork so that they're rather broken up.

Open up your beef stock and make sure its ready.

Make sure you have some white wine.

Check to make sure you have your spices- bay leaf, dried thyme, salt pepper.

Getting back to the chicken. After those 2-3 minutes on the meat side, take chicken out of the pot and set aside. Add onions and garlic to the pot. Stir around for about 2 minutes to coat. Add peppers to the pot. Cook about 3-4 minutes (let them start to cook.) Then add bay leaf and large pinch of dried thyme. Make sure mixture is thoroughly cooking by now- then hit it with a shot of white wine. Deglaze the pan by scraping up the bottom. Put the chicken breasts back in the pot. Add the tomatoes now. Add a shot of beef stock- not too much...you want it to marry with everything, not water it all down. Add your Tabasco now. Add the olives. Salt and pepper some more.

Now, cover the pot with the lid and stick it in the oven (or per Pierre, you can let it cook on the stove if you don't want to start your oven.) For chicken, I like it really roasting for about 20 minutes. The flavors will come together and the chicken should be just done. Pork, maybe 25 minutes.

Make some rice.

Plate with rice and add breast over rice with sauce on top. Maybe finish with chopped parseley.

Serve with a Mediterranean red.

Basque style chicken

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                                                                                          BASQUE STYLE COD

This recipe was given to me and my mum decades ago by a Basque fishmonger from Medina del Campo. Medina is a market town very close to my village. Ever since the Middle Ages, the town has held a Sunday market that sells the most wonderful produce, including great fish.

If you do not have homemade tomato sauce (see my essential recipe page below), you can replace it with good-quality shop-bought tomato passata. We use canned peppers – preferably the Spanish piquillo variety that are widely available in supermarkets, though Italian roasted peppers are good, too. If you are serving this to children and they find the taste of piquillo peppers too strong, just leave them out.

SERVES 4

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

olive oil

sea salt

4 x 120g-130g cod steaks

plain flour, to dust

10 tbsp tomato sauce (see recipe page below) or good-quality tomato passata

100ml white wine

4 canned piquillo peppers

chopped parsley leaves, to serve

Preparation:

Slice the garlic and fry it for one minute in the olive oil (do not let it get too golden). Set aside. Salt the cod steaks, dust them with flour and fry for two minutes on each side over a medium heat in the same oil in which you fried the garlic. Add the passata or tomato sauce and then the white wine. Put a pepper on top of each fish steak and sprinkle it with a bit of the garlic. Sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley on top and let the whole thing simmer over a low heat for five minutes to burn off the alcohol in the wine. That is all.

Basque style cod


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GOXUA

Goxua (which means "sweet" in Basque) is a typical dessert from the Basque Country, especially from Vitoria-Gasteiz. Gasteiz pastry chef Luis Lopez de Sosoaga claims to have first created the dessert in 1977.  Goxua consists of a base of whipped cream, one layer of sponge cake and a layer of caramelized custard. In the northern part of the Basque Country, it is usually filled with jam. There are two ways to serve goxua: in individual bowls as if it was custard or curd, or the traditional form of cake in a clay pot.

From Wikipedia, the free enclycopedia.

Today I explain the step by step to make this delicious Basque Dessert that is great to culminate a good meal because of its creaminess. Enjoy it!

Author: Pilar Monge

Recipe Type: Dessert

Servings: 2 people

INGREDIENTS

For the Cream Pastry layer

·         200 ml of Milk

·         ½ lemon peel

·         1 Vanilla pod

·         8 grams of Maize Flour (Maize)

·         8 grams of Butter without Salt

·         1 Egg L

For the layer of Nata Mounted

·         100 ml Cream to Assemble (35% MG) or Whipped Cream

·         20 grams of Sugar Glas (optional)

For the Sponge cake layer

·         6 soltillas or Sponge cake

·         20 grams of white sugar

·         A splash of water

·         30 ml of Black Rum

STEP BY STEP

1.    We put to heat in a saucepan to fire half 3/4 parts of Milk next to the shell of Limón and the sheath of Vanilla that we will have opened previously.

2.    On the other hand we put the cream and put it in the fridge.

3.    Next, mix the rest of the Milk with the Maize Flour until there are no lumps.

4.    When you have infused the milk, remove it from the heat and leave it covered for about 10 minutes to absorb the flavors better.

5.    Once the milk has been flavored, remove the rinds and the vanilla branch. Add the Milk to the bowl where we have the rest of the milk and mix. Then we add the Egg to the mixture and when it is mixed we put everything back in the saucepan and continue stirring slowly for about 10 minutes, when it starts to thicken the cream. Before finishing, incorporate the Butter Nut.

6.    To make the syrup we will put the Sugar in a frying pan with a trickle of Water , when it has dissolved we add the Rum , let it reduce and reserve it while it cools. Then we put the cupcakes to make them drunk .

7.    We only have to pass it to our individual molds , first place a layer of cream on the base, then a layer of rubberized cake and finally a layer of custard. Let them cool in the fridge .

8.    Presentation : Add a generous spoonful of sugar on the glasses and caramelized with a torch to give a crispy touch.

TIPS

- Mount Cream : You can add about 20 grams of sugar glas but I in this case with the mixture of all the layers I have not seen necessary. On the other hand I remind you that to mount it more easily you must introduce in a freezer about 15 minutes before the cream, the bowl and the rods.
- Amount of Cream : If you are not going to build a whole boat I recommend that you first put in a boat the one that you are going to use before putting it in the freezer. By doing this procedure we make sure that the cream is distributed.
- Citrus Bark : Remember that when you remove the peel of lemon and orange you should not cut the white part because bitter. About the size, the bigger they are better so that later it is easier to find them, but if you have made them small you simply strain the mixture and ready.
- Cream Pastelera : In the case that you have some lump you can paste it to make it thinner.
- Syrup : If you do not have rum you can also use brandy or whiskey.
- Assembly : if you do it in a large casserole I recommend that you first put the cake in the base, then the cream and finally the custard, because in this way it will be easier to serve.
- Caramel : If you do not have torch you can use liquid caramel.

Goxua