Categorized | Culture, People, Recipes

7 Comments For This Post

1. Koldo Says:
   December 5th, 2009 at 7:22 AM

   Here you have the easiest Basque recipe:
   Idaho Potatoes in green sauce (Flora Alzola Barainka, Riddle & Mountain Home, 1900-1906)

   Serves four:
   1 kilogram of Idaho potatoes
   4 tablespoonsful oil (in the old times Amuma used a kind of butter)
   3 garlic cloves
   Plenty of chopped parsley

   Prepare the potatoes by peeling them, cutting them into slices (5 mm) and rinsing them under the tap-
   Put the oil and the garlic cloves, chopped very fine, into an earthenware casserole. Fry them lightly, without allowing them to brown, and then add the sliced potatoes, turning these over once or twice in the oil.
   Now add sufficient warm water to cover them and salt, according to taste together with a large quantity of chopped parsley-
   The mixture should simmer very gently, but not be stirred; only move the casserole about occasionally to make sure it does not set on the bottom.
   Boil until the potatoes are ready, which should take some 25 minutes or so. If they seem to be drying up before they are quite cooked, then a little more warm water must be added.
   When adding the oil to this dish, with parsley and garlic cloves, it is also possible to put in a slice of previously-soaked dry sweet pepper; as another alternative, slices of hard-boiled egg can be added when the potatoes are already cooked. Some cooks put in a hake head (could be cod) when the dish is about half-cooked.
   * The fish (hake or cod) should be clean, removing the gills and eyes and rinsing it in running cold Bruneau river water.

   With the inspitarion of Juanito Echevarria, in dedication to my Granma Flora Bengoechea Alzola, born in Bruneau in 1903.

2. Koldo Says:
   December 6th, 2009 at 2:56 AM

   I’m not sure if you are receiving my recipe. Anyway: here you have the famous Biscayan Sauce, the greatest (with the piperrada- Urdazubi, Zugarramurdi,…Altzai-: nire ustez).

   Serves 6
   80 gms bacon
   6 tablespoonful Navarre oil
   12 dried sweet peppers
   3 medium-sized onions
   3 garlic cloves
   2 hard boiled egg yolks
   3 decilitres of Bruneau river water, or fish or meat stock
   3 slices toast
   1/2 a teaspoon sugar
   salt
   Cayenne pepper

   Fry the bacon and whole garlic in earthware casserole with the oil. When they are pale golden brown, add the onions sliced into very thin rounds and leave them to simmer on a very low flame till they are soft, taking care that they do not burn.

   Add the toast slices to thicken sauce

   Finally, add the flesh of the dried sweet peppers (which should have been left to soak in warm water for two or three hours, previously), scraping it off with a knife. Some cooks add a medium size tomato, peeled and cut into small pieces, but this is a matter of taste.

   Now add half a teaspoon of sugar to counteract any bitter flavour which the peppers may have given to the sauce. Season. Now and the hard-boiled egg yolks put to the fine sieve and the water, or fish or meat stock, according to the weather the sauce is to go with a fish or a meat dish. If desired, a small amount of Cayenne pepper may be also added (Try with Ezpeletako biperrak sauce as well).

   Allow the ingredients to cook for a quarter of an hour, until they thicken, and then put them through a fine strainer.

   If the sauce appears too thick, add a little water to thin it.

   Serve it very hot. Take care!. Kontuz ibili!

3. Koldo Says:
   December 7th, 2009 at 5:55 AM

   Jose Maria Busca Isusi was one of the greatest experts in Basque cuisine. For him, at the top of the Basque sauces were the Green Sauce and the Biscayan Sauce. The third could be the Bearnetarr Kutsu Euskalduna= Basque Bearnaise Sauce:

   5 shallots
   3 egg yolks
   Tarragon
   120 gms butter
   1 teaspoon paprika
   1 very dry sweet pepper
   3 tablespoonful vinegar
   1 large glass dry white wine
   White pepper
   Juice of half lemon
   1 tablespoonful very finely-chopped parsley
   Salt

   Put the shallots into a pan with the tarragon, all chopped very fine, with the vinegar and the white wine. Reduce this liquid on a high flame to about half. Put on one side.

   Into another casserole put the dry sweet pepper, having first ground it to powder in a mortar, with to egg yolks, the paprika, a little ground white pepper and about 60 gms. of butter in small knobs. Set the casserole on double-boiler (the temperature should not go above 80º), and begin beating the mixture, adding the concentrated stock, after having strained it, a little at the time; the beating must be continuous. Add the other egg yolk, the other 60 gms, of butter as small knobs and, if a larger quantity of sauce is needed, the more yolks and butter must be added, without stopping the beating process.

   Finally, add the lemon-juice and tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Season with salt.

   To keep this hot, it should be left on the double-boiler, beating it from time to time.

   This is a sauce to serve with meat and fish dishes, as well as an accompaniment to eggs and vegetables such as endive, artichokes, etc.

   If the sauce curdles, add a spoonful of cold water and beat it hard, away from the flame.

   With the inspiration of two great cooks: Juanito Etxebaria & Milagros Diharasarry. On egin!.

4. Koldo Says:
   December 7th, 2009 at 6:07 AM

   For those great celebrations you have in the USA, here you have a nice drink:

   Cidre au patxaran
   (Association Sagartzea, Donaixti-Ibarre, Baxenafarroa)

   Mix 1/4 patxaran with 3/4 cider. Serve it very cold (without ice).

   Be careful & don’t drive!

5. Koldo Says:
   December 17th, 2009 at 10:02 AM

   Comencemos por recetas de pastores NAVARROS. Hoy haremos MIGAS una comida que el pastor se llevaba a la montaña. En los viejos tiempos, se acompañaba con sebo y, como mucho, con tocino. Hoy se ha sofisticado un poco. La receta pertenece al restaurante TUBAL de Tafala, uno de los mejores restaurante de Navarra.

   Ingredientes para cinco raciones

   1 pan de cabezón o de pueblo, de tres o cuatro días de 1500 g.
   1 taza grande de manteca de cerdo
   el sebo de un riñon de cordero
   15 centímetros de txistorra
   6 lonchas de bacon
   2 filetes de lomo de cerdo
   1 cucharadita de pimentó dulce
   1/4 L. DE AGUA
   3 dientes de ajo
   un poco de guindilla (o polvo de pimiento de Ezpeleta)

   Elaboración

   Cortar el pan en sopas cortas y finas
   Depositarlas en un paño humedecido con un poco de agua y desmenuzarlas con la mano. Cerrarlas con el paño, atando las cuatro puntas del mismo, teniéndolas durante veinticuatro horas.
   Picar el sebo muy menudo y hacer igual con los ajos.
   Cortar en trozos pequeños la txistorra, el bacon y los filetes de lomo.
   Poner un calderete o sarten a fuego lento con la manteca y el sebo. Inmediatamente, se vierten los ajos picados. Antes de que empiecen a tomar color, se incorpora el pimentó, la txistorra, el bacos y el lomo, dejando freir cinco muntos. Agregar dos terceras partes del agua y la guindilla. Pasados tres minutos, se empieza a agregar el pan, lo que se hará en cuatro veces, removiendo constantemente con una espomadera, teniendo que quedar ni secas ni con caldo. En el caso que necxesiten más agua se va añadiendo la que nos queda mientras se termina de hacer.

   * Se comen muy calientes del caldero o sartén con cuchara de palo.

   – Acompañadlas de un vino fresco: tinto o rosado (Ardo gorri, Naparra). en California tenéis buenos vinos.

   – Mucho cuidado: ni dejéis que se enfríe, ni abuséis. Como dice un amigo mio, está es comida para estómagos navarros.

   A los pastores que bajaban con los rebaños a pasar el invierno se cantaba esta jota:

   “A la Bardena Real,
   ya vienen los roncaleses
   a comer migas y pan
   por lo menos, seite meses”.

6. Deena Says:
   December 18th, 2009 at 1:30 PM

   I just published a Marmitako recipe to add to the list:

   http://mostlyfoodstuffs.blogspot.com/2009/12/marmitako-basque-potato-tuna-soup.html

7. Koldo Says:
   January 14th, 2010 at 7:33 AM

   Sigo con pastores vizcaínos, pero de Idaho:

   Guisado de oveja, al estilo Owyhee-Bedarona

   Cortar la carne de oveja joven en trozos. Echar manteca de cerdo en una cazuela y colocar los trozos de oveja. Añadir mucha cebolla picada y unos ajos.

   Cuando todo esté dorado, echar un vaso de agua y que siga haciéndose hasta que esté tierna la carne.

   * Flora Alzola, del caserio Etxebarri de Bedarona, llegó a Idaho en 1900. Vivió en Bruneau, Riddle y Mountain Home.

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