Tag Archives: Cardoon

Putxero Day 2 – arros al forn (oven-baked rice)

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Although this rice uses exactly the same ingredients as yesterday, it has it’s own distinct character because everything dries out a little more in the oven and the flavours intensify.

First off then, pop your oven on to about 180ºC. It needs to be hot by the time you have the rice ready to go in so the stock doesn’t get a chance to go off the boil.

Because we want dry (but not horribly dried out,) rice today, we have to measure the next bit pretty carefully. If you are cooking this in a ceramic or terracotta dish, the stock-to-rice ratio is exactly 2:1. If you use a metal baking dish, you will need a little more stock, and if you cook wholemeal rice, you should increase it to 3:1.  I used one and a half glasses of rice and 3 glasses of stock today. riceandstockIt is also really important to heat your stock to boiling before pouring it over the rice; otherwise, it will all take a good while to start cooking, and things will go all gluggy. Best to get your stock in a pan and on the heat while you deal with the rice and other bits.

Pour your rice into the base of a large, shallow terracotta dish (or a baking tray) and cut however much leftover meat, veg, chickpeas and pork fat you want to decorate your rice with and into bite-sized pieces, slicing the meatball into large rounds. ingredients

Sprinkle them about however you like, but make sure that the meatball slices and the dices of fat are on top – they will brown and melt beautifully and are the bits everyone always fights over.IMG_9784Once you have everything ready, season to taste and pour your boiling stock over the top. Into the oven for 30 or 40 minutes – until the stock has been absorbed by the rice and the top is looking goldenly fabulous.IMG_9789

Serve onto plates or, if you are friendly enough with your dining companion, eat it straight from the dish, following the paella etiquette rules.

Potage (thick vegetable and chickpea soup)

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One of Iaia’s great winter staples, this thick vegetable soup can take just about anything you throw at it. She often puts small pieces of diced Serrano ham, or whichever vegetable looks good at the greengrocers.  You can use vegetable stock for a vegetarian soup, but I happened to have chicken stock in the freezer so this recipe was made with that.

Chickpeas are somewhat contentious in our household. Oscar loves them but I am a little less enamoured and tend to add far fewer than he would like (occasionally omitting them altogether, by accident, of course). However, they really do make this soup properly filling and really satisfying.  We buy dried chickpeas and soak them overnight in a heap of water before adding them to any slow-cooked stew or soup for a full couple of hours at least. If you are using the canned version, pop them in at the same time as the haricot beans to heat through and absorb some of the flavours. As with most stew-like dishes, this one improves after sitting quietly overnight.

ingredients

What you need for four people:
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 large (3 small) pear tomatoes
2 carrots
1 stick of cardoon if you can find it
4 medium young artichokes
250g chickpeas (pre-soak if dried)
1 small jar of white haricot beans
600ml or so of good stock
2 hard boiled eggs
salt
olive oil

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What you do:
I prefer to do all the washing, chopping and grating before turning any heat on as it saves me the frustration of watching my base veggies burn because I can’t peel or chop something quickly enough (and yes, I learnt this the hard way). So, finely chop your onion and garlic, then chop the carrot and cardoon into smallish pieces and wash your spinach thoroughly. Now grate the tomatoes, discarding the skin, and last of all, peel the tough outer leaves off the artichokes, slice off the base and the leaf tips so that only tender pale artichoke, which you will cut into eighths, remains.
When everything is ready, put a generous tablespoon of good olive oil into a large, heavy-based saucepan and gently fry the onion and garlic. Once they have softened, add the tomato and stir for a couple of minutes so that it gets a bit of a fry, too – this brings out a deeper flavour than just letting it boil along with everything else.  In go the carrots, cardoon and artichoke with a stir. If you are using pre-soaked chickpeas, pop them in now too.
The amount of stock you use will depend on how large your vegetables are. I used about 600ml for this particular potage. The idea is to just cover everything so that you end up with a really thick broth.  Once you have put the liquid in, you can add some salt to taste and then you have to turn everything down to the lowest heat possible and let it simmer very gently for at least 2 hours. Iaia says, “fes-ho poquet a poquet” which means “do it little by little”.
Towards the end of the cooking time, add the spinach, beans and canned chickpeas, which will be happiest (and tastiest) with about 20 minutes of gentle simmering.  Just before serving, roughly chop your two boiled eggs and let them sink into what should be a very good-looking pan of potage.
Serve with: bread and red

Arros d’hivern (winter rice)

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Winter is never very long or arduous in Valencia but there are some days when the cold gets right into your bones and hot, nourishing soupy rice is the only thing that will warm you up.  This is one of the first things I learnt to cook here and one of my favourite rice dishes. It is also incredibly easy!

The cardet (cardoon in English) is delicious but it may be a bit hard to find. If you can’t manage to get your hands on any, just leave it out – there is no need (and no way) to substitute it.

What you need:

Two meaty pork ribs cut into pieces (650g)
A medium-sized swedeingredients
A stick of cardoon
Sweet paprika
One pear tomato
A jar of white beans
A bunch of spinach.
8 small handfuls of white rice (250g)
Enough water to cook the rice and still be soupy
Saffron or turmeric powder*
Olive oil
Salt (season as you go and to your own taste).

 *People have a strange aversion to white rice here. They love to see it coloured yellow. Saffron is bloody expensive and gets lost in this dish, so I usually use turmeric. Otherwise, just leave it white.

What you do:

Peel and chop the swede into bite-sized chunks.  Strip the cardoon of any leaves and if the stringy fibres are particularly thick, strip some off. Chop into mouth-friendly lengths. Slice the tomato in half and grate it onto a plate, discarding the skin. Wash the spinach thoroughly and chop or tear it a bit, so you don’t get giant leaves on your spoon when it comes to eating.
Pour enough oil into a large saucepan to coat the bottom and heat (if your pork is especially fatty, use less olive oil).
Pop the pork into the pan to brown; the browner it gets, the tastier the rice – but don’t burn it!
Put a generous pinch (or a small teaspoon) of sweet paprika into the pan and stir quickly so that it doesn’t stick and burn. After about 30 seconds, add the grated tomato and stir to deglaze the pan.
Pour in enough water to cover the pork, then add the swede and cardoon and top the water up so that everything is generously covered. Bring to a boil.
Cover the saucepan and turn the heat down. Simmer for at least two hours or until the swede and cardoon are cooked through (there are two factors to take into account here; one is that the bigger the pieces, the longer they will take to cook, and the second – and more important – factor is that the longer it simmers, the better the stock will be so no half-hour skimping!).
When the veggies are cooked** and you are ready to eat, check your seasoning and if you are happy with it, turn the heat back up to get a rolling boil before putting the rice in. Stir it around a bit and cover again, so as little stock as possible evaporates. About 10 minutes before the rice is cooked (read the packet – every rice is different, here it takes about 20 minutes to cook through), add the spinach and white beans and give everything a gentle stir.
Ladle into bowls and let sit for five minutes before eating. If you are lucky, you will get a sort of skin over the top, which is proof of a fantastic arros d’hivern!

finished dish

 Serve with: a full-bodied red to help warm those wintery cockles.

 **I usually make a double quantity and at this point, before putting the rice, spinach and beans, take out half the stock, pork and veggies to freeze for another day. It means you will have this delicious rice in just 20 minutes next time!