Pollos guisados - Stewed chickens (pg 207)

I have to admit that I love stews.  They are generally easy to fix, can contain a lot of flavors, feed a crowd, and can be made in advance.  This Pinedo recipe, on page 207, checks all those boxes.  

Her Recipe

My Translation

I also have to admit that I don't have any pigeons on hand, so I have to make this one with just chicken.  I noticed she didn't say to cut the birds up, but I assumed they were.  I chose to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs (a favorite).  But look at all the ingredients that make up the sauce!  

My Redaction

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 cloves garlic

7 ounces onion

1 1/4 pounds tomatoes

16 large, pitted black olives

4 ounces mushrooms

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon flour

2 cups boiling water

1/8 cup fresh oregano leaves

olive oil for cooking

Everything but the chicken.  Its picture is further down. Not the olive oil, either.

First, heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven.  I put enough in to lightly cover the bottom of pan once it was hot.

Add the chicken thighs and brown them over medium heat.  You can do this in batches if you want them to be more brown.  I did one batch.  Note:  I interpreted "half fried" as "brown them."  After they cooked on one side, I turned them to brown the other side.

While the meat is browning, chop the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, oregano, and mushrooms.  Also, slice the onions and olives.  I had a big bowl nearby and I placed each ingredient in the bowl once it was chopped or sliced.  Add the raisins, too.

Once the meat is browned, add all the ingredients from the bowl into the Dutch oven.  Stir them well.

Add the boiling water, salt, and pepper.  The sprinkle the flour over the top.  The goal is to avoid lumps and clumps of flour.  Stir well.

Bring the whole mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.  

Simmer over that low heat for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve by placing one thigh with a scoop (or two) of sauce over the top.

This is a bit crowded for standard browning, but I didn't worry about it.

Everything in the bowl, as viewed from the top.

The bowl, as viewed from the bottom, after added to the chicken.

Stirred well.  Note the herbs are not finely chopped.

Now it is everything.  See how the flour was sifted with no clumps?

Stirred and starting to bubble.

Ahh, done.

My Notes

Miss Pinedo suggested using flour or toast.  By that she probably meant toasted or dried bread crumbs, which is a time-honored method of thickening a liquid.  I chose flour because it was convenient, although I do have copious amounts of dried crumbs that I store in my freezer.  Either works.  I have learned that with stews, bread crumbs seem to make a more "gooey" sauce, meaning thicker with more body.

For my low heat, I used 1 or 2 out of 10 on my stove's settings.  I was looking for just a little bubbling in the middle; that's all.  Slow cooking will get the meat very tender.

I judged the amount of water to use by how high the level in the Dutch oven was -- it was almost as high as all the ingredients together.  And that was 2 cups.  

The house smelled so good while the stew was cooking, and continued to smell good afterwards.  Yum!

The Verdict

I kept the meal simple:  stewed chicken, toasted onion rolls, and wine.  Don't forget the wine!

The chicken was tender.  I never used the knife because the meat broke up easily with a fork.  The meat was not dry, either.  

The sauce:  Oh, the sauce!  Full of flavors, textures, and surprises.  My guest taster, who didn't know all that I put in it kept saying, "Are these raisins?" and "There are mushrooms!" and similar comments.  He loved all the ingredients he discerned while eating.  

Overall, we both loved the sauce.  It was complex in its flavor profile, but no one flavor stood out.  I consider that a win.  I got the balance right, even for the amount of salt and pepper.  The tomatoes cleared formed the basis of the sauce but it was not a "tomato-y" sauce.  It was fun to taste different ingredients along with a bite of chicken.

The toasted roll came in handy for sopping up the sauce once the meat was gone.  

My guest taster had seconds.  That is also a win!

Success!

The leftovers were just as good reheated.  

Did the flour really thicken the sauce?  I will say, "Probably not" but the long cooking with the lid off reduced the sauce and it did thicken up a little.  How much was from the flour, I cannot tell.  Would bread crumbs have been better?  I've used them in stews before and I think it would be thicker.  But with only one tablespoon, maybe not.

It just occurred to me that Miss Pinedo's tablespoons were probably two of ours - so it could have been thicker had I thought of that earlier.  I realized that after reviewing her table of weights and measures on page 274:  she said, "A tablespoon measures an exact ounce."  Our standardized tablespoons measure one-half ounce.  I need to keep that in mind for future experiments.

Albóndigas de frailes - Friar's Meatballs (pgs 7 - 8)

I had two bone-in, large porkchops that needed to be cooked, and this Pinedo recipe looked very inviting.  I've had success with her meatball recipes before, so I felt confident that I could tackle this one.  I didn't make a large quantity, but I can see how this recipe would extend to do that.

Her Recipe

My Translation

My Redaction

1 pound pork, weighed after bones and gristle are removed
4 ounces onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme and some more
1/2 Tablespoon fresh mint and some more
1/2 Tablespoon fresh Italian oregano and some more
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley and some more
3/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup flour

Fresh herbs!

Note that the herbs measurements are approximate, just to give a target for your cooking.

Start heating a large saucepan with water that is at least three inches deep.

Coarsely chop the onion, garlic, and herbs.

Grind the pork, onions, garlic, and herbs once through a meat grinder.  Then mix in the breadcrumbs and grind the whole mix again.

Add one beaten egg and mix well.  Melt one tablespoon of butter and mix it well into the meat mixture.

Form meatballs about two inches in diameter.  If the mixture is not sticking together well, consider adding more breadcrumbs if too wet or more liquid (an egg or butter or water) if too dry.

Put the meatballs, however many that can fit comfortably in the pan without being crowded, into the boiling water.  You will probably have to cook them in several batches.  Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer.  Gently stir them a few times while cooking.  After 10 to 12 minutes, remove the first batch with a slotted spoon; place in serving bowl.  Cook the next batch.  Keep cooking until all the meatballs are done.

While the meatballs are cooking, put flour, one egg yolk, and 1/2 cup cold water into a bowl and stir well.  If the bowl has a lid, shake it, too, to mix it.  

Once the meatballs are done, take 1 cup of broth that the meatballs were cooked in and put it in a small saucepan.  Bring it to a boil.  Turn the heat down to medium, then, while whisking the broth briskly, start pouring in the water/flour/yolk mixture.  Keep the broth moving!  

The broth mixture should simmer now.  Add 1 tablespoon butter and a tablespoon or so of finely chopped herbs (a mixture).  Simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the broth thickens.  Add salt to taste.  

To serve, pour some of the thickened broth over the top of the meatballs.  Put the rest of the broth into a pitcher and place on the table.

The first grind with the breadcrumbs sprinkled on top.

Breadcrumbs mixed in.  Ready for the second grind.

Second grind with butter and egg mixed in.

Meatballs achieved!

A gentle simmer, so they don't break apart.

About that much mixed, chopped herbs for the sauce.

Simmering the sauce to get it thick.  

Cooked meatballs.

Meatballs with sauce.

My Notes

I have a grinding attachment for my mixer, so this is convenient for me.  I suppose you could start with ground pork, finely chop the onions and garlic by hand or using a food processor, then mix in the rest.  The point is to have the meat so fine that everything sticks together well after being mixed.

The eleven meatballs I got were cooked in two batches (of five and of six).  I wasn't sure how long to cook them, especially because they first sank then rose to the surface after about four minutes.  But I checked their interior temperature with an instant read thermometer, and they were still pretty cold.  So I kept simmering them until the interior temp was about 160 degrees F, which took 10 to 12 minutes.  I think it would be hard to overcook them.

The amount of water I used to cook the meatballs was a lot, and I realized that I didn't want that much sauce for the meatballs and that the flavor would probably be weak if I used it all.  So I decided to use one cup of the broth.  That still made about 1 1/2 cups of sauce, which was a lot.  

My goal for the sauce was to make it thick and have an herbal taste.  Pinedo did not call for salt but I felt it needed it, so I mixed in 1/2 teaspoon and that was just right.

The Verdict

We wanted a light dinner so our meatballs and sauce went into our bowls along with some whipped sweet potatoes mixed with cardamom, mace, and a splash of cream.  And wine!  Don't forget the wine!

I was pleased to see that the meatballs were fully cooked into the middle.  They also stayed firm enough to hold their shape, even when being removed from the serving bowl into our eating bowls.

The amount of sauce on them for serving looked nice, but my guest taster and I both wanted more sauce while we were eating the meatballs.  We poured in small amounts from the pitcher of sauce as we ate.

The meatballs themselves were very tender, almost delicate.  They had a soft pork flavor enhanced by the herbs, onion, and garlic.  No one flavor was dominant.  I thought I could taste the herbs more than anything else and my guest taster thought the onion was stronger than the rest.  

The sauce was thick enough to stick to the meatballs (hooray!).  It had a stronger herbal flavor than the meatballs, which I wanted because I thought it should emphasize the herbal aspect of the meatballs.  Fortunately, it wasn't too strong.  I thought the balance was just right.

So, success!  Whew!  We had four meatballs each, so there were some leftover as well as sauce.  I think they would make a good evening snack when a full dinner wasn't wanted.

Pudin de Lolita - Lolita's Pudding (pg 215)

On page 215 is this pudding, dedicated to Lolita.  I wish I knew who she was.  There are other puddings dedicated to other women, some of whom are clearly Encarnación Pinedo's nieces.  This could be to one of her nieces who was referred to by a nickname.  Or it could be to a family friend or cousin.  

What is intriuging about it is that it is a sweet pudding (one and a half pounds of sugar!!!) but it also has meat in it.  It reminds me of the old (early 1800s and prior) ante recipes.  They were originally designed to be served at the beginning of the meal (thus ante or "before") which did have meat and sugar in them.  Later they were declared to be desserts, and typically did not have meat in them.  Pinedo put several ante recipes in her book.  I made one previously, which you can view by clicking here:  Ante de Camote y Pina - A Luscious Dessert with Sweet Potatoes and Pineapple (pg 16).

The questions I had with this recipe are:  Exactly what kind of pudding is it?  She offered a variety of pudding styles, from boiled to steamed to baked to baked in a bain marie.  She mentioned using crumbled bread, so is it like a bread pudding?  But with the requirement of cream and eggs, presumably lots of them, I wondered if it were more like a baked custard.  I still don't know exactly what a "kettle cup" is, but I presume it is around what we call 2 cups or 16 ounces.  She said three kettle cups, which is six of our cups.  That is a lot of cream!  

I decided to create it as a custard pudding, with the eggs and cream being the major support and the other ingredients making it interesting.  I was very tempted to bake it in a bain marie, but decided she would have specified that if she felt it was important.  Puddings like this need to be baked in a very low oven so the custard doesn't curdle or cook up like scrambled eggs.  I also chose to interpret a kettle cup as one of our 8-ounce cups, at least at the beginning of making the recipe, until I saw how the thing was going together.  Then I would adjust as needed.

She did mention early in the pudding section that puddings should be put into shallow baking dishes.  Instructions noted!

Her recipe

My Translation

My Redaction

1 pound sliced almonds

1 1/2 pounds sugar

8 ounces chicken breast, already cooked

3 cups cream

1/2 ounce butter, melted

1/2 cup bread crumbs

6 large eggs, separated

For crumbs: I started with two 3-inch diameter rolls, broken open to dry, & pounded in the mortar.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Butter the inside of a large, shallow ceramic dish.  (See Notes.)

Chop the chicken breasts into about 1/4-inch pieces.  

In a large bowl, mix the cream and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the melted butter and mix well.

Separate the eggs.  Beat the yolks well and then mix them into the cream mixture.

Mix the bread crumbs into the cream mixture.

Mix the chicken and almonds into the cream mixture.  

Whip the egg whites to stiff.  Fold them into the cream mixture.

Fill the baking dish.  

Bake for 1 hour (see Notes), until the center jiggles when the pan is shaken but stops when the movement stops, and the top is browned.  

Let cool at least a little before serving.

Chopped chicken.

Cream, sugar, yolks, and breadcrumbs, all mixed.

With the chicken and almonds.

With whipped egg whites.  That is one full bowl!

My Notes

Instead of two chicken breasts as she specified, I decided the one really big one I had on hand would suffice.  I weighed it instead of counting the quantity.

The chicken breast was previously cooked on a grill after being rubbed with olive oil and ground black pepper.  There was not a lot of seasoning on the piece I chose, so I don't think the pepper influenced the flavor of the dish.

I did some reading in my Ratio book by Michael Ruhlman in order to get a sense of how many eggs were "necessary."  Believing this would be a custard-like dish, I decided to use 6 eggs for 3 cups of liquid, giving a ratio of 12 ounces eggs to 24 ounces cream.  Keep in mind that eggs are very carefully sized for us, whereas Señorita Pinedo made do with whatever eggs were available to her.  They could have been all different sizes.

I had no idea how much volume the recipe would make, so I ended up using two ceramic baking dishes; one held 2 1/2 liters and the other 2 liters.  It helped to use a ladle to move the batter into the dishes.  

I thought it was done after 45 minutes of cooking, but once I broke through the crust on the top, the middle looked liquid, so I put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  It is possible it was ready at 45 minutes -- it was browned and it certainly smelled good.  

Ready for the oven.  Two full baking dishes.

After 60 minutes of baking time.

The Verdict

Letting the pudding cool a little seemed to give it a chance to set up in the middle.

The browned top was a crunchy crust.

My first bite was ... interesting.  Wow, was it sweet!  But the flavor of the meat came through, which was intriguing when combined with the almonds and the sweet.

The custard I expected was more like the matrix which held together the chicken and almonds.  It was not dense; I suspect because of the whipped egg whites.  

It tooks a few bites before I really liked it.  My mouth had to adjust to the concept of meat and sweet.  But then I liked it.  The almonds added a nice crunch.  

It was sweet, as I said, and it was rich.  I will have more, as will my guest taster who was trying to guess all that was in it and thought there was some fruit in it.   He certainly enjoyed it.

In thinking about this blog post, I had trouble deciding if it was a dessert (but it had meat in it!) or a side dish (but it was sweet!).  My guest taster thought you could have it as either, depending on what you wanted for the meal.  I think that is good advice.  

I then shared this with two other guest tasters.  One, quite the foodie, thought it wasn't very sweet at all (I was astonished) and liked that because he doesn't really like sweet foods.  He also felt, at first, that it had undercooked bread in it but then later decided that wasn't it and it wasn't a problem.  He loved the nuts and how crunchy they were.  He was surprised to know there was meat in it.  

The other guest taster did not enjoy the food.  He felt his mouth was "conflicted" because of the meat and sweet combination.  It was "okay" but not something he would want to repeat.  But he did think that he could get used to it if he other opportunities to try it.

Success!

It was just as good warmed up the next day.  Maybe even better, as I got more of the custardy part in each spoonful.

I hope Lolita would be pleased with my result.

If I were to do this again, I would use half the amount of chicken and almonds, and I would use about 1/3 of the amount of sugar.  But I would still use the same amount of cream and eggs and bread crumbs because my mouth kept wanting more of that matrix around the meat and nuts.  I think changing the amount of butter is optional.

If I did this as a modern "upgrade," I would reduce the amount of sugar a lot, try using whole milk instead of cream, and consider using raisins as a delightful bit of chewy sweet.  But still use chicken, because I think it surprises people, and that is always fun.

Huevos con queso - Eggs with cheese (pg 127)

If you are new to this blog, I translated Encarnación Pinedo's 1898 cookbook, El Cocinero Español (The Spanish Cook) and am attempting to get it published.  In the meantime, I cook from it and post the attempts here on the 15th of the month.  I also publish them on my other historical cooking blog, "Goode Eates", found here:  https://historicalrecipes.blogspot.com 

Today's recipe is on page 127, "Huevos con queso" or "Eggs with Cheese."

My Translation

Keeping in mind that she was cooking over fire; the idea of browning with a hot fire is equivalent to broiling in an oven.

My Redaction

Per serving:

butter

1 slice bread

1/4 to 1/3 cup shredded cheese

1 egg

ground pepper

ground nutmeg

The butter asked politely to be included.

Melt butter in frying pan.  Add slice of bread, sprinkle most of the shredded cheese on the bread, break open the egg, and gently let it sit on top of the cheese.  Sprinkle the egg with the rest of the cheese and then with pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Set heat to low, cover the pan, let cook for 6 to 10 minutes or until egg is cooked almost to your liking.  When the egg is nearly cooked, place pan under the broiler for a minute or two to finish melting the cheese and brown it a little.

My Notes

She didn't say to use butter on the pan, but I did anyway.

I used mozzarella cheese, although I think a stronger flavored cheese would be good, too.

I tried this twice.  The first time the heat was 2 of 10, I did not cover the pan, and after nearly 45 minutes, the egg was not cooked and the bread was toasted too much.  I put a lid on it and let it cook a few minutes more before broiling it.  The result was an egg that was overcooked (I like runny yolks) and dry toast.  Not exciting.  My guest taster didn't realize that there were any spices on it, and I had trouble tasting them even though I knew they were there.

Build the bread stack in the pan.

Bread and cheese

Bread cheese egg.

Bread cheese egg cheese spices.  Use more spices.

After about 30 minutes of cooking.  The cheese melting but the egg is still uncooked.

After cooking under the lid for about 10 minutes.  Egg is cooked.

Under the broiler for less than two minutes.

Overcooked, in my opinion.

The Verdict

The second time the heat was set a little higher, 4 of 10, and I covered the pan.  After 8 minutes the egg was nearly done but the toast was burnt (ugh).  I didn't broil it because I didn't want to cook the toast any further.

I also used more spices, but not too much.  

What I got was an egg that was cooked just right and toast that was blackened on the bottom and not tasty.  I could taste the spices, which I liked.

Attempt #2, after about 8 minutes cooked under the lid.

Egg is just right.  Toast is burnt.

My conclusion:  use the lower heat and cover the pan.  No one wants to wait 45 minutes or more to eat their egg and toast.

So success?  Almost but I'm not sure I can really count it as such yet.  With a little practice I could get the timing just right and really enjoy it.

I think this would be a good meal to serve a crowd with these modifications:  Heat the oven to 350 degrees F, use a cookie sheet and set up each serving on the sheet so you can cook a bunch at a time.  You might not need to broil them but the broiler is right there if you do.  While one batch is cooking, set up the next.  

This also seems like a good camping recipe, since you get toast and an egg with one pan (and a lid!) and one cooking run.