Spanish

Homemade Tamales with Black Beans and Spanish Rice

June 5, 2014 by Charles Leave a Comment

For the best tamales, you should use your abuela’s recipe. In my case, not having an abuela of my own, I borrowed the recipe from Stephanie’s abuela — Marie E. Salazar.

At first, I thought that making tamales would be difficult and agonized over the proper ingredients and procedure. I wondered whether the effort would pay off and whether the tamales would taste like those tamales we once had from a street vendor in Santa Fe. And most of all, I wondered whether I had the energy to embark on a two-day adventure of stewing, cooking, folding, and steaming, all by myself.

In her write-up, …

Flan

September 19, 2010 by Charles 3 Comments

There is, apparently, a right way and a wrong way to eat dessert.

When I lived in France, one of my favorite things to get at the Franprix was the flan four-pack. After a hot afternoon, jammed in a metro, one small satisfaction was getting home, pulling back the plastic top, and sinking my spoon into the cool caramel center. Whatever fleeting frustrations I had, melted away. You had to love a country whose grocery stores carried a fifty-cent flan.

Week after week, I enjoyed my flan. Break off a container, pull back the top, sink the spoon in, and enjoy. I might get lost in certain arrondissements. I might not understand the jokes in the movies. I might get frustrated with certain french customs. But I knew my flan. Or so I thought.

One night, I was at a small party, when…

Pumpkin Flan

September 19, 2010 by Charles 5 Comments

After making a plain flan, I decided to try a seasonal adaptation. The pumpkin layers a little bit, but otherwise, this pumpkin flan …

Ajo Blanco – White Gazpacho

September 7, 2009 by Charles 1 Comment

Gazpacho requires a descriptor. As I’ve noted previously, asking for plain, old “gazpacho” just won’t cut it.

There can be tomato gazpacho, watermelon gazpacho, or mango gazpacho, the cold soup characterized by its underlying fruit. But there can also be green gazpacho and white gazpacho, the latter often referred to as ajo blanco. Ajo blanco is made from ground almonds, combined with what makes gazpacho, gazpacho: bread, garlic, and vinegar. Once prepared, ajo blanco is traditionally served with green grapes.

While ajo blanco remains incredibly popular in southern Spain, its tangy flavor may…

Tomato Gazpacho

July 16, 2009 by Charles 4 Comments

Tomato gazpacho is not redundant.

Gazpacho got its start in Andalusia, the southern-most province of Spain, sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries – long before the tomato arrived on European soil. Owing to its origins and its meaning – gazpacho comes from an Arabic word meaning “soaked bread” – some food historians believe the Moors brought the dish to Spain as a sophisticated field ration.

Other food historians trace the dish to the early Romans, who soaked their stale bread…