Our Cookbook Club is back in business! In early 2023, Bernadette from New Classic Recipes started a cookbook review club. We’d review a specific cookbook selected by the group, post a recipe and decide whether (or not) that book deserved space on our (physical or digital) shelves. After a brief pause, we have resumed our reviews with a new moderator Joanne Tracey at Brookford Kitchen Diaries, author, baker, and sunrise chaser. We’ll review a new book every month or so, cook up a storm, and give you our recommendations.
“Basque: Spanish Recipes from San Sebastián & Beyond,” Pizarro, Jose, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne and London, 2021.
Pizarro has created a lovely cookbook featuring recipes from the Basque region of Spain, one of his favorite places to be. As he says in his introduction, the book is about the food but also the people and the stories, and every recipe has a little something to either further explain the technique or ingredient, or illustrate it with an experience. He writes about the people of the area:
“For people from the Basque Country, food is the most important thing. It’s sharing big plates of food around the table, it’s celebrating happy occasions, it’s a way of life. As much as I like visiting my friends in their Michelin kitchens, where I am always bowled over by their creativity, what I love is simple food, good ingredients sourced locally wherever possible, cooked with little fuss.”
The features
The book is organized with only four chapters: Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Desserts, and there is something for everyone here. Additionally, a feature I love is that the recipes themselves are all given a title of either ‘Pintxos’ or ‘At the table.’ Pintxos, are small tapas plates, while the At the table recipes are to be enjoyed family style as a main course.
Three pintxos = supper
I chose to make three pintxos for our supper recently, and there was much from which to choose. After pondering for quite some time, I settled on some white anchovy stuffed olives, toasts with a homemade fresh cheese and roasted peppers, and small stuffed onions. The combination made a lovely supper, and we loved all the dishes, especially the onions. I had fun making the cheese because it was exactly the way my mother made her ‘lemon teacup cheese’ but with the addition of peppercorns and cloves, which lent a really lovely background flavor to the cheese. I was delightfully surprised, as I thought the cloves would overpower the cheese; they did not.
Easy to make with simple instructions
The recipes were all easy. I put the onions on to blanch, then made the cheese because it needed to drain for a half hour. By the time I finished stuffing the onions and popped them in the oven, the cheese was ready. While the onions baked, I finished everything else, so it was actually pretty simple and fun to put this all together. It felt like a feast.
Next…
I have several other recipes earmarked to try from the fish section, including a fresh whole clam dish with lemon and parsley and some goat cheese croquettes. There are quite a few recipes using salt cod, bacalao, which is also an old New England staple, including an omelet and a lovely pan-fried dish with tomatoes and charred red peppers, Tortilla de Bacalao. My friend John at Bite! Eat! Repeat! made the omelet for his review, and you can read all about it on his site. Take a wander over.
A glug is just a glug
Pizarro assumes you know how to cook! Sometimes his directions are, for instance, to add a good glug of olive oil or a small handful of chopped parsley. His glug or hand might be bigger than mine, but we get the idea and he wants us to rely on our own instincts.
Recommended
There are some good basic recipes and techniques here, and I do recommend this book for your shelf; it already found a place on mine.
Toasts with Requesón, Red Peppers, and Thyme
I made the full cheese recipe, but halved the other ingredients for our supper, and we still had leftovers. The cheese will not be wasted.
Makes 20 pintxos
• 3 giant or 5 large red bell peppers
• Handful of thyme, leaves stripped
• 2 tbsp. small capers, rinsed and dried
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and ground pepper
• 20 slices of baguette
For the Requesón:
• 1 liter (1 quart) whole milk
• 3 cloves
• 10 black peppercorns
• Pinch of sea salt
• Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
To make the cheese, heat the milk, cloves, peppercorns, and salt to 185 F. (85 C.) Remove from the heat and add the juice of 1 lemon and stir. Let this stand for 10 minutes so the curds separate from the whey. If need be, add a bit more lemon juice.
Line a colander with cheesecloth placed over a bowl, and pour the milk through. Let this stand at least 30 minutes while you work elsewhere. When ready, scoop out the curds, removing as many of the peppercorns and cloves as you can find (I found all but one of mine). Chill.
Blacken your peppers under a hot broiler or gas burner. Place in a covered bowl for five minutes to steam, then remove the skins. Discard the seeds and finely slice. Toss the peppers with the thyme, capers, and a good glug of olive oil and season to taste.
Toast the baguette slices and top with the peppers, then the cheese, and drizzle with a little more olive oil and serve.
Roasted Onions Stuffed with Parsley & Garlic Migas
Pizarro explained that migas are small, fried bread cubes that you add to dishes for texture. He has many memories of chatting with his grandfather while he was cutting the leftover bread into small pieces in order to make the migas. His mother would then fry them the next morning, gorgeous little golden nuggets.
- 8 small onions
- Olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 oz (50 g.) stale bread cut into small cubes
- 1 oz (25 g.) chopped dried apricots
- 2 oz (50 g.) toasted pine nuts
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- Small handful of chopped parsley
Cut off the base and top of the onions, but leave the skins on. Blanch for 20 minutes in simmering water to soften then, then peel off the skins. Use a small knife to remove the heart of each onion, and chop this piece. (I found using a small demitasse spoon worked better than the knife).
Preheat the oven to 340 F. (170 C.) Heat a little olive oil in a pan and fry the chopped hearts with the garlic for a few minutes. Add the bread, apricots, and toasted pine nuts and fry for a few minutes. Season and add the parsley. Stuff the mixture into the onions, place on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, and roast for 20-25 minutes, until the onions are tender and golden. Scatter with sea salt and serve.
Gordal Olives Stuffed with White Anchovies
I couldn’t find Gordal olives, so I chose the biggest green Manzanilla olives offered at my co-op. Pizarro talked about the difference between anchovies and boquerones, white anchovies. The white anchovies are cured in vinegar, whereas the anchovies most readily found are cured in salt, fileted, and put in tins with olive oil. Although the same fish, there is a great difference in taste.
This doesn’t even really need a recipe! Just roll up the white anchovy and stuff it in the pitted olive, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
I couldn’t leave it alone though, I added some lemon zest and a bit of the juice to garnish, bit being another technical cooking term of course!
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I’ve been to one of Jose Pizarro’s restaurants in London a couple of times. Amazing food! Thanks for highlighting this book which I must look out for.
How wonderful! I bet the food was wonderful!
I loved your review of this amazing book. I attended a cooking class in San Sebastian pre-covid, when we drove around most of Spain and it was amazing. I’ve been such a fan of pinxtos ever since.
What a wonderful experience! I’m sure the memories will last a lifetime.
I could just graze all the time on little plates like this!
Love this review! I am sharing mine in a few minutes and have included a link to your story! Great to be back cooking again as a group!
I loved this book and found it inspiring in its simplicity! I’ll link to yours as wee, John (you made one of the dishes I was considering!)
This looks wonderful. I’d rather each small bites than a large meal. I am definitely going to makes these!
I’m with you! I love a meal of delightful little nibbles!
Looks lovely!
Thanks Jan! We’ll make all these again for sure.
I love every morsel you have presented so beautifully, Dorothy! Thank you!
Joanna
They were delicious little morsels, and fun to make! Thanks Joanna!
You are more than welcome, Dorothy!
Joanna
💕🩷
Tapas is a way of eating (and life!) we learned in Asturias and absolutely love. Your dishes look wonderful, Dorothy, 😊 I’d never thought to make Requesón, we always bought it so there’s something new to try. One of my favourite dishes were boquerones, fresh anchovies marinated in lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and parsley ~ so simple but completely delicious. Spanish people will happily queue at a fresh fish counter for ages because fishmongers take such great care in preparing everything as requested, which in the case of boquerones is taking off the heads and removing the guts (los tripos) from a huge pile of tiny fish! No chance of finding those lovely anchovies (or dare I say, such conscientious fishmongers) here but we still love a tapas night!
What a lovely comment, Lis! I can see the busy fish counter and all the folks waiting for their treats!
The requeson is so easy to make, you’ll want to do it always!
All these flavours together with thoughts of a sultry afternoon on the verandah – heaven in a mouthful!!
With a warm breeze blowing through our hair!
I have this and it’s a great book, I *love* Basque Food
The book and the food are delightful!
Absolutely!
I was so tempted to cook each of these – they look great. He does assume you have some technical knowledge but I really enjoyed this book.
It was a great choice Jo! I’ll be trying a few more of the recipes.
Tapas for dinner sounds heavenly. Thanks for the top notch review.
Thanks Bernadette! It was tasty!
Your dishes sound delicious.
Many thanks! This one was lots of fun to review!
My mouth’s watering…
Thank you! We loved it all!
This reminds me of a very tasty trip to Spain! Everything looks so tasty and inviting. I’m especially intrigued by the addition of cloves to the cheese. I need to give it a try! 🙂
I was hesitant about the cloves, they have such a strong flavor. But the three cloves (I actually followed the directions) gave a beautiful background hint of something delicious, that didn’t scream cloves! Let me know what you think if you give it a try.
Interesting recipes
They were fun to make and eat!
Hi, Dorothy – I am delighted that the Cookbook Club is continuing to operate. Your pintxos look incredible!
They all went together beautifully, but I would expect that!
A glug or a handful reminds me of my Grandmother’s pinch. 🙂 Sounds like you’re enjoying this cooking adventure, and your family is enjoying being called to dinner.
It’s always an adventure, in our own kitchens!
I love tapas for dinner, the onions sound especially good!
Oh, they were delicious Jenna! Thanks!
Tapas make a great meal-perfect bites. It’s good to know which cookbooks are worth buying. There are so many from which to choose.
It’s extraordinary isn’t it? New cookbooks every day.
These recipes look delicious. I admit that the only Spanish *food* I know about is a drink, Kalimotxo [Coke + red wine]. Thanks for the recipes.
Hmm, Coke and red wine. I guess if you drink enough of it….
Exactly. I was introduced to it in Spain years ago and while I don’t love it, on a hot summer day it is better than it sounds.
Awesome!!!👏 ☕️☕️💕
Thanks! It was fun!
I understood that it’s ongoing.🤔No?
Yes, it is! Once a month or so. Thanks!
Oh, I think I could eat like this every night!
Me too! Just what I love, little bites.
Hi Dorothy, your choices look delightful. My family are not that easy to cook for as they don’t like vegetarian and they don’t like unusual meats. Sigh! I was a vegetarian for 10 years before I got married and it is calling me again. I’m going to start trying to include so veggie dishes on our menu.
Something for everyone!
This sounds like a fun cookbook. I’ll consider adding it to my cookbook collection.
It was a nice addition to my shelf!
I’ve added it to my bookshelf. Now, I just need to look through it.
Enjoy the browsing!
What fun these delicious recipes are. Perfect for any occasion. One of these days I will make the cheese. Can’t wait for the duck legs post, I do love duck!
The cheese was so easy to make Diane! My mom made a similar cheese, but she didn’t add the cloves. That made a difference.
The baked stuffed onions sound really good.
Thanks! We really loved them, and we’ll make them again.
Yum! All of these recipes sound great!
Those toasts and stuffed olives sounds delicious! An interesting book!
I really enjoyed it Ribana! Thanks for stopping by.
Oh my, Dorothy, I’m salivating at the thought. Loving these. Into the recipe folder they go! 🗂🙏
Thank you! It was a lovely little feast for sure.