MY FAVOURITE INGREDIENTS

GARLIC & PARSLEY

Garlic and parsley are probably the two most important ingredients for me. There was a very famous Basque TV chef, Karlos Arguiñano, who I used to watch every afternoon. He always used to finish the plate of whatever he’d cooked with some parsley leaves: that’s a very Basque thing. In the north of Spain, we add garlic and parsley to everything. When you go to the butcher, they chuck a bunch of parsley into your bag for free; my mum would always keep a bunch of parsley in the fridge in a glass of water. Picking parsley leaves and peeling garlic were the first things I learned to do in the kitchen, and 90% of the savoury recipes in this book contain garlic and parsley, whether whole, or in the form of my special oil, ajillo (see here). Why do I use garlic and parsley so much? Because they enhance the flavour of whatever I’m cooking, without dominating it – unlike smoked paprika (pimentón), which is typically associated with Spanish cooking but has a very prominent flavour. You might not be able to discern them but they lift everything they are added to.

WINE & ALCOHOL

When you add alcohol to your cooking, it changes everything. In Spain, we use a lot of alcohol in our cooking, because there’s always half a bottle knocking around. A splash of wine or sherry adds an extra element of flavour.

TINNED GOODS

In Spain, our tinned produce – particularly fish – is of very high quality and is priced accordingly. Open any kitchen cupboard and you will be sure to find salted anchovies, ventresca (tuna belly), sweet piquillo peppers and white asparagus. Make a baguette with ventresca and you will be in heaven. Preserving these ingredients is labour-intensive. That’s why they are expensive. People have a better understanding of this now, but before they would be like, ‘£20 for a tin of tuna … what?’

Anchovies are hugely important in northern Spain. The season is short (from May to August), so after the fish are caught, time is spent readying them to be preserved. I visited one of the most famous suppliers in the region, Don Bocarte, who produce 4.8 million anchovies a year. Amazingly, their female employees do everything by hand – there are no machines. First, the anchovy heads are removed one by one, then the fish are placed in neat rows in buckets, layered with sea salt. These buckets are kept in a dry store – not a fridge – for a year before they are removed. The smell of the cured anchovies is unbelievable. It’s nutty, almost like jamón. I leant in to smell them, and I didn’t want to take my nose away! The salt, which turns a deep brown, is shaken off, and the anchovies are then carefully separated by size before being skinned, deboned and filleted and tinned – careful, painstaking work. At the end of the process, each of the workers places a label that looks like a raffle ticket with her personal number in the tin. That way, if anything is wrong with the anchovies in the tin, the company knows who filled it!

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Delis will offer a range of brands, but Ortiz anchovies are also good quality and an affordable price, and are available from many supermarkets now.

When I buy a tin of anchovies, I always keep the oil and use it when making mayonnaise (see here) to add extra flavour – you could also use it in salad dressings.

JAMÓN IBÉRICO

Jamón is so important to Spanish food. In a Spanish kitchen, everyone always has some sliced jamón in their fridge: it’s so easy to put a plate of it on the table, though we also love to use it in baguettes for an amazing sandwich (a bocadillo) and, of course, to cook with it.

Jamón ibérico is made from the legs of black Iberian pigs, but the top class is jamón ibérico de bellota, which is made from Iberian pigs that have been fed exclusively on acorns for three months in the autumn, during the acorn-foraging season. It has an amazingly sweet and nutty flavour.

There are many different brands of good-quality jamón ibérico de bellota available to buy. I like to use 5J (Cinco Jotas), because I have known the producers for many years, and it’s well known and is stocked by lots of shops and used by many restaurants. But as long as you buy jamón ibérico de bellota, it’s going to be good.

We visited a Basque pig producer whose pigs are small, black and white, and weigh maybe 80–90 kilos. These pigs, Euskal Txerria, are a breed facing extinction – in 1980, there were only fifty of them left in the whole country, and nowadays you can find just 130 sows. The pigs we saw are free-range and acorn-fed on a farm near Arruitz, a beautiful place under the care of Bixente Goñi, a farmer with more than forty years of experience.

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OLIVE OIL

When you open olive oil, try to use the bottle as soon as possible. It’s like perfume: by the time you have a few centimetres left, the flavour is gone.

Arbequina olive oil

Arbequina is a type of very tiny olive from the Catalonia area and Majorca. This is the main olive oil that I use. It is very elegant and clean – some olive oils can be too peppery or bitter, and change the flavour of whatever you add them to. Arbequina complements other ingredients, enhancing their flavour rather than obscuring it. If you can’t find it, use a good extra virgin olive oil.

Pomace olive oil

This is a type of oil made from the second pressing of the olive. It allows you to cook at a slightly higher heat without burning or killing the properties of the olive oil. It’s widely available, but if you can’t find it you can use any light olive oil.

VINEGAR

When I was a child, I used to take the bottle of vinegar and hide from my mum when she was cooking. I’d pour it out into its lid and drink it, I loved it so much. I used to have white lips! My mum never let me dress the salad because I would add too much vinegar. I still love it now, but I don’t drink it straight, and though I’m generous with it when I make dressings, I don’t add quite as much as I used to.

Moscatel vinegar

My favourite vinegar, Moscatel’s sweetness is balanced by its acidity. I almost always use it for dressing salads or raw ingredients.

Jerez vinegar

Stronger and with more of an oaky taste than Moscatel, sherry vinegar is great for cutting through other flavours – I tend to use it when dressing roasted, smoky vegetables.

ARAGÓN OLIVES

I’m not very keen on black olives but I do like Aragón olives, which have a soft and almost creamy texture. I always buy them unpitted.

CHORICEROS (DRIED PEPPERS)

Every kitchen in Spain has a string of dried choriceros hanging up. We use them a lot to make sauces like romesco, or when marinating or braising. I can’t imagine cooking without them – the flavour they give is nutty and rustic and lifts everything else. They keep for a few months. Ñora peppers are similar to choriceros but smaller and rounder in shape. Their flavour is less smoky, but you can of course use them in place of choriceros if you have some.

GUINDILLAS (DRIED PEPPERS)

Guindillas are a type of pepper grown in the Basque country. Long and slim, they add a subtle extra layer of spiciness but are mild enough not to overpower other flavours. Whenever I use dried choriceros, I add a guindilla too. You can also buy them jarred and pickled: preserved in this way, they make a perfect pintxo to have with a drink (see banderillas, here).

SMOKED PAPRIKA (PIMENTÓN)

It’s most common to use smoked sweet paprika, although for a few recipes, like the octopus here, for example, I use smoked hot paprika.

SALT & PEPPER: A NOTE ON SEASONING

It’s a simple thing but, whatever you’re cooking, seasoning each ingredient slightly as you add it to the pan (rather than seasoning everything at the very end) means it’s easier to gauge how much salt you’re adding and to ensure that the dish is neither under- nor over-seasoned. It’s really difficult to get it right when seasoning large quantities – the key is just to add a little bit as you go.

GENERAL NOTES

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