Cooking in Galicia

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Today is the day we learn to cook pulpo (octopus). It was not an early day, but still the alarm went off at 6, but I didn’t get out of bed until seven. The hotel is pretty large, so breakfast has timed seatings so they can make sure everyone gets seated. The breakfast room was on the second floor in the first building. It was your typical layout, meat, cheeses, breads, fruit. There were no hot items, as they were all cooked to order. The coffee was the best of the trip, your own individual pot and a smaller pot of hot milk. Not to mention, instead of having the communal serving pieces each place setting had their own tongs to take to the buffet. You didn’t have to worry if someone didn’t wash their hands, dropped it on the floor, of if some child put it in his mouth. Yes, at one place we had breakfast saw a child do exactly that with the serving utensil on the buffet. Might as well of just sneezed on the food.

After breakfast, we went back to the room to brush our teeth and then were off to the market to meet Maria, our host for the day. The map showing the directions was very deceptive, google maps filed to mention the steep hill you had to go up, made it look as if it was downhill. In addition, the streets that were supposed to be there were not. Google is just not set up for medieval city plans, I suggest they strap the camera on someone and have them walk the cities. By the time we got to the market I was already exhausted, but quickly recovered as we spent about an hour walking through the market. Was not a big market day and several stalls were closed, but you certainly get the picture. This is still the type of market that the locals actually go to shop, not just eat. You can however by, meat, vegetables, etc. and the restaurants in and around the market will cooked it for you right then.

The meats, especially the pig, were plentiful, but when you got to the seafood there were two entire building dedicate to it. Everything from squid and octopus to sea bass and monkfish. It was all pretty fresh, except the one section that was dedicated to frozen. Most of the prawns, crabs and lobsters were still alive. The vendors would shake them so they would move so you knew just how fresh they really were.

Unlike many of our cooking classes that include a market trip, we did not actually purchase ay food that we would be preparing, except Galician corn bread. It is absolutely nothing like what you’re thinking. It is a dark and heavy bread made with corn flour, but you’re not eating chili with it. After the market we got in Maria’s car, and she took us to the cooking school. I was very glad we didn’t have to walk, since we would be standing for the next few hours cooking.

We arranged this class through a website called “A Taste of Spain” they are totally devoted to food and wine related travel. Maria is the owner of the school and does some classes herself, but mostly for locals and company’s doing employee event. Carina was our chef de cuisine for the day. She spoke some language but conducted the glass in Spanish while Maria translated. It was a private class, so it was just the two of us, and we learned so much more that way.

We made three seafood dishes and a dessert. The seafood was “pulpo a feria”, traditional baked scallops (yes exactly what we ate last night) and monkfish in green sauce. The dessert was a Santiago Cake.

You always make dessert first, (this is basic cooking 101 for a dinner party, make dessert first and get it out of the way) and Santiago cake was our dessert. It is so simple even us non-bakers can do it easily. It is crushed almonds (not milled almond flour as you want some coarseness t it) eggs and sugar, that is it. Mix, but do not over work, bake at 180 for about 20 minutes. It comes out moist and tasty and its gluten free.

Next, we started the prep work for the scallops. One diced onion cooked down until brown, not caramelized but brown, then add about a cup or so of tomate (the stuff we have been eating on bread all trip) let that cook down, then had your diced Ibercio ham, cook some more and remove from heat. Oh, one whole bay leaf in the sauce. Preferably you want scallops in their shells so you can cook right in them, but if not clean your scallops (here the scallops have the coral still on, which is a pinkish part of the scallop that we never see at home). Next sprinkle with breadcrumbs, then layer your sauce, more bread crumps and set aside until you’re ready to bake. I don’t know at what temperature or how long we were eating when they went in the oven.

The octopus was so simple. The hardest part was making sure all of the tentacles were free of dirt. Then you cut off the head just below the eye, have a very sharp pair of scissors, my lobster scissors at home will work perfectly. To cook, in a large part of boiling water, dip the octopus in, tentacles first hold for 10 seconds repeat three times, on the third dip, leave in the water and cook for 20 minutes per kilo (you have to do the conversion). Off heat, but in the water let rest for 20 minutes more. After the resting period taste to see if it is to the tenderness of your liking, if not let rest a bit longer. To finish, cut the tentacles into bite sized pieces on to a wooden plate that was submerged in the cooking water. It is very important to do this with a wood plate and you also eat with toothpicks so not to change the flavor. Make sure some of the cooking liquid gets on the plate. To finish, olive oil, salt and paprika. That’s it, serve while hot.

Finally, the monkfish. The sauce starts with one glove garlic (ok when I make this at home it will be more like three) and one onion both diced. Cook the garlic first until fragrant, then add the onion. Cook this down. Meanwhile, you need to make the fish stock, boiling water, bay leaf, fish head, a bit of salt, nothing else. Simmer for about an hour.

To the onions and garlic add some white wine cook down, then flour to make a rue (yes you start with olive oil in the pan). Make sure to cook the rue so the flour is not raw. Finally, you had some fish stock, you want the sauce to be thick so do not add to much stock upfront. Wisk and let cook until the desired thickness. The last step is to add fresh parsley (this is why it is called green sauce) taste, then add salt if desired. Christina, salt was not added until the very end and only a pinch). The fish is then cooked right in the sauce. We also had some thick cut potatoes (peels on our suggestion) boiled until just tender to the fork, these were also finished with the fish in the sauce. The end result is just amazing, light, flavorful and oh that cornbread dipped into the sauce, pure heaven.

This was all topped of with a very nice white Galician wine. It was the second-best lunch of the trip so far. We finished with a bit of Pedro Jimenez. Maria called us a cab and we were sent off back to our hotel.

We were back at our hotel around 2:30. We only had one ticketed event for the afternoon, and it was at the cathedral right next to our hotel. Before the tour, we did need to buy a few items for the rest of the trip. We naturally got a bit lost, but ultimately did find the store. It has been sunny up until this point, and then the skies opened, umbrellas went up. A cold rain lasted for about 45 minutes.

The tour was of he cathedral towers and roofs, while we were being given the introduction and description of the roofs we would be walking on, I had a premonition of me falling off the roof, so I opted to (for the very first time ever) not climb to the top. Later Jerry said I made the right call. I went back to the hotel and Jerry completed the tour. Enjoy his pictures as I have nothing to say since I was not there.

My return to the hotel was not without drama, the elevator was out of service, and it was the only way other than four long flights of stairs, which my back did not want to climb, to the room. I asked at the front desk if there was another way, they said know and offered me a new room to rest in until the elevator was fixed. Well what good does that do, when my computer and everything we have is in our actual room. I just sucked it up and walked up the stairs, ankle and back screaming at me the entire way up.

When Jerry returned from the tour, he did manage to find an alternative route that only required one flight of stairs. We are both now in the room, wine thirty then dinner. Still a bit full from our wonderful self-made lunch, so dinner might be light. I could really use a good salad.

We are back from dinner, which was a recommendation from Rosaria, a colleague at work, who just happens to be from Galicia. The food was simple and very good. We were not overly hungry because of the cooking class, so we ordered what we thought would be three reasonably sized starters. A Spanish Ceasar Salad (olives, tomatoes, & chicken were the difference) the dressing was the same old blond Caesar you get back home. But it was at least a salad. The other two items we had were a Tortilla Espanola and Lacon al Aceite-Pimenton. The first being a Spanish style omelet, nice egg on the outside with cheese and potatoes on the inside. The latter was Jamon over potatoes with Paprika, good but needed more paprika. These were not small portions, and we could not finish. The place was pretty busy a mix of locals, tourists and pilgrims. I will explain pilgrims tomorrow.

While dinner was good this is not where the dish of the day comes from. The Dish of the day, I made myself and it was the monkfish in green sauce.

That wraps our first full day in Santiago. We have rearranged tomorrow, a bit of sleeping in, late breakfast, with the balance of the day devoted to the Cathedral.

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Comments

[Connie Craddock]

Cooking Class sounds phenomenal
I always enjoy your cooking class blog. Was this the first time you cooked octopus? I love that you cooked the dish of the day. A private cooking class sounds very interesting. How were you doing after the stairs, hill climb and standing for cooking? I would be looking for a massage therapist and a large tub to soak in!

[Sharon Hughson]

Hard Pass
All that seafood sounds horrible. But watching you cook would have been fun. Octopus? Hard no. *shivers with revulsion* That cathedral looks pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to learning more about it tomorrow.