Tapas

are the most thrilling contribution of the Spanish to world cuisine. I have always liked small portions of flavorful food, rather than huge plates of "home-cooking". Not only do the varied flavors keep you interested, but the nature of tapas - as they are meant to be served - means that you can eat them while engaged in some activity such as serious drinking. As long as I can keep from dripping manchego or good spanish olives with their attendant oil on my keyboard, things work out just fine.

Bay Area Crabs

I've been out crabbing on San Francisco Bay. When the weather's nice, with the Golden Gate bridge soaring overhead, it can be very peasant indeed! But what to do with those crabs?

First, a disclaimer: Dungeness crabs are illegal to catch inside the bay, so I get these from Pacifica, some distance to the south. Inside the bay, however, you can catch anything else - red crab and rock crab, mainly. I've also caught a kelp crab or two, but as these are trapped by mistaking your line for a kelp frond, (their food), they're very rare catches. I also dont know how legal they are as the rule is 4" wide - and kelp crabs, even mature, dont get this big - their size is all in the arms. I do know they are somewhat legal to catch though, as sport divers take them.

The main differences between the crabs, cooking wise, is that Dungeness crabs are more easily cleaned - the membranes are softer, and the chunks of meat bigger - and they are sweeter. Red crabs are almost as sweet, but have a more meaty flavor (I cant think of a better description, sorry). Rock crabs can be good on a good day, but sometimes I find them either bitter, salty or muddy. With both Rock and Red crabs, the best meat is in the main claws; but patience will yield as much from the body.

Kelp crab, if you can get it, is excellent - even better than Dungeness, probably because of its vegetarian diet. The portions are small, apart from the claws, but its somewhat easy to pick out of the body, with large chunks of sweet meat at the base of the legs.

Sausages

A lot of German food is about the ingredients; mainly pork products, as it happens. German favorites include all kinds of sausages, of course - knockwurst, frankfurters, weisswurst from Munich, and of course my favorite, bratwurst. None of these are to be confused in any way with the US-made sausages of the same name, most of which have far too much corn syrup, not to mention meat of questionable origin and rearing. Bratwurst, for example, in America, seems to be mainly what they call "italian sausage", except it has beer or corn syrup (or both) added. In Germany, I still remember the wonderful caraway-spiced sausages fresh off the grill, oozing with juice. The way to treat these is first to par-simmer them for about 5-10 minutes, before finally grilling them over a gentle heat until the surface is crisp. The simmering makes them more juicy.

I cant wait for the summer to come in, but in the meantime I'm stuck indoors.

Today's recipe

Not exactly Irish, but I've been meaning to cook those beans that accumulate at the back of the cupboard for a long time now. Any hard beans will do in this recipe - these look like cranberry beans.

First, soak overnight, then replace the water and boil hard for 5 mins, then simmer for about an hour. I threw in a few garlic cloves and garden herbs - oregano, bay, marjoram - just for fun. In the meantime, I cubed some belly pork, and lightly dusted in salt/pepper/flour/cayenne/smoke liquid. These I roasted, and added to the beans when they were drained and done. At this point there was still a little of bean water, and some pork fat around to moisten the dish. Finally I threw in a few more herbs, and warmed it up before serving.

Moules Mariniere

An old favorite from my days as a kid. We'd head out on Sundays for a drive out the country, and oftentimes this would end up at a beach, or we'd stop off at a favorite mussel-hunting ground on the way home. My dad always used to say with a grin, "the fattest ones are at the sewage outlet". This in the days when raw sewage was drained straight into the sea.

Nevertheless, we never got sick on mussels. Or of mussels.

The best way was the simplest: Clean the mussels of dirt, their beards, little stones, mud, tiny shrimp and fingernail-sized crabs, then pop in a pot with a small amount of water to create steam, and when the bottom mussels opened, they released more liquid which would then boil up to the next layer, and so on. Nowadays I might add some white wine and herbs; but the old way had simplicity. They were eaten right away; hours after pulling from the rocks.

If we had too many, we pickled the rest (cooked and shelled) in straight vinegar.

One of the most memorable meals I never had

While I was on vacation in Donostia, one of the loveliest cities in Euskady, I went dining late at night on tapas around the Catedral de San Sebastian. One of the taps bars there had a huge platter of some red and white seafood, looking a little like chopped up octopus tentacles, which turned out to be barnacles, a local speciality. Unfortunately for me on my backpackers budget, they came in at a hefty 30 Euros per plate. I asked to have a smaller portion, just to try the flavor, as neither myself nor my SO had ever tried them; but although the other patrons (locals) pleaded my case with the bartender, he refused. So alas, I cannot tell you what they tested like. But that barman did not give me fond memories of spanish hospitality. (I should say that this was an informal place, where he microwaved portions of food at the bar as the barflies asked for them, so such a request wasnt outrageous).

Still, I have fond memories of Donostia. I gather its a place where the snooty spaniards head when on vacation; Hamptons style.

Potato Pancakes

Always a favorite. My mom always insisted that they be cooked in pork fat, in 2 kidney shapes on the pan. Traditional.

Grate 6 medium potatoes, 2 medium onions together; then drain off the excess water. Add some flour to the point where it forms a loose paste, then salt for seasoning. Rest.
Fry for a few minutes until the top is just dry, then flip over and cook another minute or two.

Serve with either apple sauce, or sugar and cinnamon. Yum!

Bacon and Cabbage

Yes folks! I said BACON and cabbage. Not corned beef and cabbage; that disgusting Americana derived from the absence of any kind of bacon in America.

First find some ham - decent, unsugared ham. Take salt pork from the mexican section if you cant find anything else, but make sure there is mostly meat on the block. Now soak it overnight to remove most of the salt; then drain and bring it to the boil with some fresh water. Cook it for about an hour or more, until its somewhat tender to a knife. More if needed.

Finally thrown in the cabbage, shredded (Savoy of poss.), and cook in the bacon water, with the bacon, for a further 15 mins. Drain and serve with mashed potatoes. Now how hard was that?

Stick a knob of Irish butter on top of the mash.