Cancer pagurus

Cancer pagurus is the scientific name of one these fellows:

Well, to be honest, that's how they look like once they have been cooked, and this is how you should go about it: grab a large pot and fill it halfway with water, adding enough salt so that it tastes like sea water. This means a lot of salt. The pot should be large enough to hold the crabs, and I do not recommend cooking more that two medium-sized crabs at a time. Bring the water to a boil with an onion studded with a few cloves, and add also a glass of white wine. Once it's boiling, put the live crabs inside. There's no other way, sorry. As soon as the water comes back to a boil, time 20 minutes. Skim the water now and then. After the 20 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the crabs from the pot, run them under cold water, and let them cool. Once they are cold enough, put them in the fridge for half an hour or so. That's when you start disassembling them: remove that belly bit that is missing in this picture:

After that, remove the legs with a swift circular motion. This is what you want to obtain:

Then, you must separate the carapace from what's left of the crab. It's not easy to explain how to do this, fiddle around a bit and you'll get it. Once you've done it, there are a few things you should throw away, others you must keep. The juices are precious, do all this above a plate that catches the juices. Anything that looks edible is edible, that's my best explanation. In particular, the innards are the best part. Collect all these bits in a bowl, breaking them into bite-sized morsels. Add the collected juices, one finely chopped hard-boiled egg, some mustard, a splash of whiskey, maybe some mayo. You want to create a yummy paste that you'll spread over crusty bread. Some people like to put this paste back into the carapace, once it's scrubbed and clean. I prefer to serve in a bowl. Chill everything, and serve the legs and the paste with a dry white wine. It may not look perfect, but I can assure you it tasted divinely!

Summer holidays

If we had to illustrate our summer holidays in Madrid through food, this would be our choice:


(Ensalada de pimientos-melva, Taberna Almendro 13, La Latina, Madrid.)

Quinoa

This is our new discovery, a pseudo-cereal that goes by the name of quinoa. The Incas referred to it as 'the mother of all grains', and it was a very important source of nourishment for many centuries. For some reason, pleople have rediscovered it recently, and its nutricional qualities have been touted especially by vegetarians.

Gastronomically speaking, its flavour is delicate yet nutty. The texture is very particular - perhaps a bit chewy. It does fill you up, but you do not feel bloated. I guess it's hard to describe, we can only say it's totally worth to try it at least once.

The web is full of "quinoa and black bean salad" recipes, so what we did for our first meal featuring quinoa was to read a few of those for inspiration. What we have actually done:

- 1 cup of quinoa, thoroughly washed in cold water and rinsed
- 2 cups of water
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 cup each of canned black beans and corn, washed and rinsed
- 1 tsp of ground cumin
- 1 tsp of cayene pepper
- 3 tbsp of chopped coriander
- juice of one lime
- olive oil and salt

Sautee the onion and garlic in a sauce pan that has a tight fitting lid with a splash of olive oil. When the onion is soft, add the cumin and pepper. Fry for a few seconds, until fragant. Add the quinoa, mix well. Add the water, season with salt, and bring to a boil. Close the lid, turn the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes. The liquid should all be absorbed by then. Turn off the heat. Stir in the beans and corn, and wait a few minutes until they are heated through.

In a large bowl, mix a few tbsp of olive oil with the lime juice to make a sort of vinagrette. Mix in the quinoa mixture, stir in the coriander, and check for salt and olive oil. We had it warm with wilted spinash that was briefly sauteed in garlicky olive oil, but it's supposedly very good chilled.

Here's a nice picture of the final result:

The beauty of simplicity...

or the simplicity of beauty?

Coq au Vin

It's hardly the appropriate time of the year, but on a whim I decided to cook a pot of coq au vin. I have used this recipe a few times with sucess. It came out on Saveur # 108 and it is attributed to Anne Willan and her book The Country Cooking of France. I don't have access to pearl onions, I don't use butter to cook the mushrooms as I think olive oil does a better job here, and I rarely touch celery. Otherwise, I follow the recipe closely: it works. Serve it with egg noodles and an assertive red wine, full of spices and with a touch of oak.

New toy

The "it was on sale" excuse is simply a pathetic attempt at justifying spending a ridiculous amount of money on a food mill...

Grilling vegetables (and fruits)

This would probably turn out better on a proper charcoal grill, but we like the results we obtain using an enameled cast iron gill pan - think Le Creuset - on a gas stove.

This is simply wonderful this time of the year and quite easy to do. Here's how we do it: start by washing all the vegetables, wiping them dry and trimming them. Then,

- slice aubergines in half lengthwise, then with a cut parallel to the previous one, slice each half in half again, keeping the two pieces attached. Next, cut the two halves in three or four pieces with cuts perpendicular to the first ones, creating sort of long and fat matchsticks.
- cut courgettes in quarters lenghtwise if they are small. Actually, and this applies to the aubergines also, the smaller are the courgettes, the better.
- cut red bell peppers in half and clean the seeds and ribs. Slice them lenghtwise into 2 cm strips.
- remove the stalks from the mushrooms. Chestnut mushrooms work well here, but preferably you want tastier varieties...
- trust us, this is surprisingly very good: cut peaches in half and remove the pit. They are wonderfull grilled...
- cheery tomatoes are also delicious...
- we must experiment more with this idea... Apples come to mind, red onions also, any other suggestions?

Put all the cut vegetables in a large stainless steel bowl. Sprinkle with coarse salt, season with vegetable oil, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Mix well.

Using a silicone brush, oil the grill pan very lightly. Put it on the stove, and when it is hot start adding the vegetables. From here on, follow your intuition. Some guidelines:

- you don't want the pan to be too hot or simply warm. You have to constantly adjust the heat to be able to accomplish this. You want to grill the vegetables, not burn them...
- baste the pan and vegetables with a bit of oil now and then. Sprinkle some salt also, but avoid salting the vegetables too much;
- it's nice to create visible grill marks on the vegetables, so when you put them on the grill leave them undisturbed for a few minutes before turning them over;
- it's not easy to give guidelines regarding how long should you cook each vegetable. It's largely a matter of taste how well you want them done. Avoid overcooking, as always. If the vegetables are tender, as soon as they are heated through they should be done...

Serve with crusty bread and a chilled rosé sparkling wine, champagne if you can afford it, but definitely on the dry side.