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| Spanish Recipes Cuisine | Mediterranean Cooking and Diet | Healthy Cooking Mediterranean Style |
In Spain, history and geography have come together to create a cuisine that is as colorful and varied as it is satisfying. Surrounded nearly on all sides by sea, and blessed with mild climes and almost year round sunshine, Spain has long offered up a bounty to its inhabitants. As land bridge between Europe and Africa, and gateway between Mediterranean and Atlantic waters, Spain has been a coveted prize pursued by barbarian tribes and great empires alike. From the Celts and the Visigoths to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, and Moors, Spain has had many a cook in the kitchen – though perhaps only a few chefs.
Under Roman rule, Spain was an imperial granary producing for the Roman market. Wheat and grapes were grown, but the cultivation of olives was encouraged by particularly rich harvests. Roman poets lauded the virtues of “Spanish oil,” and Roman gastronomes created recipes calling specifically for its use. To this day, the Roman taste for olive oil, wine, and salted fish remain essential elements of the Spanish cuisine. In the periods preceding and following Roman settlement, scarce little evolution occurred in the Spanish kitchen until the Moors.
The civilization of the Arabs in Spain was arguable the most influential to Spanish cuisine. From Damascus to Cordoba, the Moors carried with them a full banquet of new foods and cooking practices. They introduced the Spaniards to rice, almonds, apricots, oranges, dates, lemons, cucumber, eggplant, and artichoke, as well as the spices saffron, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and cilantro. The Moors brought their love of the sweet and savory mix, and their preference for meal course variety - the mid-eastern meze became the tapas of Spain.
An anonymous 13th century cookbook with in excess of several dozen recipes reveals Andalusian cooking to be a finely crafted and sophisticated affair. The cookbook features a number of Bedouin, Egyptian, and Jewish recipes. We find that in Andalusia, lamb, mutton, and chicken were popularly cooked with sweet fruits such as quinces, prunes, and pomegranate, and even nuts such as pistachio. Almonds, finely crushed, were used to thicken sauces, a technique still used to make picada sauce. Bread was commonly added to soup to give it weight, as is done in the making of Spanish gazpacho and Moroccan harira.
Other Moorish preparations included blending egg into dessert recipes such as flan, or the use of egg as a leavening agent. Sweets were typically flavored with orange and lemon zest, but also honey and almonds. The practices continue to pervade Spanish cooking up to present day.
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The “discovery” of the “New World” brought an expanded Spanish crop selection with the introduction of the tomato, sweet and hot peppers, zucchini, corn, several bean and potato varieties, vanilla, and chocolate. The intriguing combination of meat and chocolate is one of the more distinctive creations imported by the Spaniards from the peoples of the Americas. But despite a keen interest in Indian food crops, and an equally intense interest in the rapid conversion of the Indians, the Spaniards themselves seem to have resisted much of any actual cooking influence from the Indians. Historically, this may be due the fact that the colonizers looked down upon them even after the Indians accepted Christianity.
For the Spaniards, cuisine difference was in many ways synonymous with class difference. After the bitter expulsion of the Moors and the Jews from Spain, cooking with pork, ham, and pig sausage became a statement for a new “Christian” identity. Most beloved preparation of pig meat is the salt-cured jamon serrano, or “mountain” ham. Perhaps most well-known is chorizo. Substituting ham and pork where the Moors might have used lamb, quail, or pigeon developed as a point of pride for the Spaniards.
Spanish dishes are prepared using fresh ingredients from the local market, and are often grilled over an open fire. But while dining hours and habits are relatively consistent across the country, food preparation and preferred ingredients can vary a good deal. A love of olive oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes and peppers is perhaps the exception. Use of the characteristic Mediterranean flavors is shared by all.
The most famous Spanish dishes are in fact regional specialties. While some regional recipes are also favored more widely, many are mainly enjoyed in their region of origin. Paella and gazpacho fall into the first category. The colorful rice and seafood dish known as paella is a creation of Valencia. Robust tomato based gazpacho comes from the Andalusian regions. Versions of both can be found throughout Spain.
Similarly, tapas have found their way into homes, bars, and restaurants at every corner of the peninsula. Whether of the simplest preparation or the most complex, tapas are intended to be eaten in variety. The savory little platters may include eggs, cheese, fish, vegetables, stuffed meat pastries, and dips. Far from being mere appetizers, tapas make an excellent full course meal.
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