Inside the Spanish pantry
CAVA
The Spanish version of Champagne, it is widely available internationally but can be substituted by other white sparkling wines.
CHORIZO
Air-dried pork sausages (pictured overleaf) flavoured with paprika. Although chorizo sausages have a reputation for being spicy, they’re usually not because, contrary to popular belief, the Spanish are generally quite intolerant of spiciness.
Any product with the label ibérico means it comes from an acorn-fed Iberian pig. This is considered the best quality pork product in Spain, and the best food item on the planet according to the locals, who consider it a food group on its own. See the CHORIZO IBÉRICO pictured overleaf.
Pictured overleaf, this is the fattiest version of PANCETTA, as the name suggests.
GASEOSA
Lightly sweetened soda water. A half quantity of soda water and half clear lemonade can be used to substitute.
GUINDILLA
This term is often used generically to describe a chilli but has two specific meanings as well: a moderately piquant chilli that is only around 1 cm (½ inch) in length when dried; when not dried but conserved in vinegar, this term refers to a 10 cm (4 inch) long, thin green chilli that is also moderately piquant. The mildest type of this guindilla; the most prized, in many people’s opinions, come from the Basque country and are called pipparas.
IDIAZABAL
Galician cured cheese made from unpasteurised sheep’s milk.
Dry-cured Spanish ham. While Jamón serrano is made from white pigs from the Sierra mountains, Jamón ibérico is made from the black acorn-fed Iberian pigs.
LANGOUSTINE
A crustacean, also known as scampi. You could use moreton bay bugs, king prawns (shrimp) or crayfish instead.
MORCILLA, pictured overleaf, is the Spanish version of smoked blood sausage. As the ingredients are slightly different to other varieties of blood sausage, if you can get morcilla when it’s recommended, it’s worth doing so. Butifarra negro is the Catalan variety of blood sausage and can be used interchangeably with morcilla.
Peeled palm cabbage, pictured overleaf, also known as hearts of palm, palmitos and swamp cabbage. They are used in salads and as a side dish. The fresh version is not widely available but may be bought in tins or jars. Palm hearts are used in a similar way to artichoke hearts and asparagus.
PANCETTA
Cured meat made from pork belly. It is not smoked. Pictured overleaf.
A non-spicy, sweet, dried type of red pepper. See picture overleaf.
A finger-sized variety of green pepper (pictured overleaf) native to the region of La Corona in Galicia. Intensely sweet when flame-grilled and sometimes super spicy. (The Spanish may not like spicy much but they do love a lottery.)
PIMIENTO DE PIQUILLO
Small, firm-fleshed red peppers from the Lodosa region in Spain. They are pre-roasted and sold in jars or tins. Can be substituted with oven-roasted red capsicum (bell pepper).
A mild and sweet plum-shaped dried pepper (pictured overleaf). Can be substituted with dried ancho peppers (also called poblano or mulato peppers) but these can be unpredictably spicy.
PIQUILLO PEPPERS see PIMIENTO DE PIQUILLO
Belly of pork cured with salt. Used like bacon in cooking.
SHERRY VINEGAR
Also called JEREZ VINEGAR and XERES VINEGAR Typically used to dress salads but can also be used in the same way as balsamic vinegar for deglazing pans and lifting the flavour of sauces. The expensive ones are aged in wooden casks.
Smoked version of pork product PANCETTA. Used in the same way as bacon.
Small, wrinkled brown tubers (pictured overleaf) from the Mediterranean with crisp, nutty-flavoured white flesh. They are dried, ground and soaked to extract a type of milky by-product known as horchata, which is similar to rice milk.
TOCINO
Made from pork fatback rather than pork belly, TOCINO (pictured overleaf) is salted but not cured or smoked. It is bought raw and fried to be included in recipes in the same way as FATTY PANCETTA, which can be used instead of it in recipes.
Wrapped, smoked and dried pig fat from Galicia, pictured overleaf. There is no substitute.
