Turrón from Jijona

It is said that 'Turrón' was originated at the arabian peninsula, in the XI century a book called 'De medicinis et cibis semplicibus' was published, inside there is a recipe of a sweet called 'turun'. Later on, the arabs brought that recipe to Spain where it was changed a little.

The original recipe was more simple than today, it was a mixture of toasted almonds and cooked honey. Instead of almonds, it was possible to see the turrón made of hazelnuts, pinions or walnuts.

In the XV century it is possible to identify different types of turrón depending of the geographical zone of Spain. Hazelnut turrón was made at the north Mediterranean region, At the south plateau and Andalucía was the 'alajú' a turrón made of pinions, walnuts and almonds. In Alicante region was typical the turrón made of almonds.

The end of october is the end of the agricultural cycle , after that, farmers start the elaboration of the turrón to be ready to be sold at Christmas.

It is said that the turrón was known at the Royal Court thanks to Philip the Second. Also, the authorities from Alicante spent a lot of money to give turrón to famous people from Madrid and Valencia as a present , soon it became part of the salary at Christmas time.

In the XVII century the turrón started to be exported to Europe , at that time, the egg whites were added to the original recipe, this way, the turrón did not leak honey and its colour was clearer.

In the XVIII century , the honey started to be scarce, so farmers decided to add sugar to the original recipe, leaving the recipe as it is known today.

The first time when Turrón from Jijona was elaborated was in the XIX century, it is the result of grinding turrón from Alicante, it was specially made for children and elder people.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 2 rectangular tupperwares.
• 300 grams of marcona almond.
• 100 grams floral honey.
• 100 grams sugar.
• 1 egg white.
• Ground lemon rind.
• a teaspoon of cinnamon.

 

Method:

 

1-  Take a frying pan, toast without oil almond flour or whole almonds, that you are going to grind later.

 

 

2-  You can add some toast almond pieces to the mixture.

3-  Take a casserole, add the sugar and honey, put on a low heat , and stir until all the sugar is disolved , then you add cinnamon and lemon rind.

 

 

4-  Whisk the egg's whites until they go stiff.

 

 

5-  Put the heat off , Add the whites to the mixture and stir with encircle movements. .

6-  Put on a low fire , add the ground almonds , stir well during 2 minutes and let cool.

 

 

7-  Put some parchment paper over one tupper. Knead the mixture with the hands, then put it in the tupper. Smash the mixture , this way the almonds  will release its oil

 

 

8-  Cover the turrón with parchment paper, place other tupper over it, afterwards place some weight in the tupper, as you can see at the pictures:

 

 

 

 9-  Let stand for 3 or 4 days at room temperature.

Alicante

«Alicante (provincia)» de Ulaidh & HansenBCN - Trabajo propio. Disponible bajo la licencia GFDL vía Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alicante_(provincia).svg#mediaviewer/File:Alicante_(provincia).svg



 

Alborea almonds soup

                                                                               Receta en Español

I found the following recipe in the book from Carmina Useros 'Mil recetas de la cocina de Albacete y su provincia' , it is a typical soup from the village called Alborea from Castilla , Spain. A Castilian soup where almonds are added.

Ingredients:

• 3 garlic clove.
• 3 yolks.
• 120 grams of bread.
• 70 grams of peeled and chopped almonds.

Method:

1-  Cut the bread into thin slices 1 cm thick.

2-  Pour some oil in a pan , fry the bread slices. Keep them aside.

3-  Take a big pot , pour oil and sautée garlic cloves.

4-  Add 1 liter and a half of water, add salt. Put on a low fire until it gets boiling point.

5-  Brake the bread slices into little chunks.

6-  Add bread and chopped almonds to the pot. Turn off the fire.

7-  A little time before serving the soup add yolks to thick the soup, do it as it is told in the following steps:

8-  Put yolks, who are at room temperature, into a cup . Stir well.

9- Pour two spoons full of some liquid from the pot into the cup , stir well. Add more spoons little by little and stir well after each spoon. This way yolks will heat very slowly.

10- Once yolks are at the same temperature as the rest of the soup , pour them in the pot and stir one more time.



Albacete

Kabsa (chicken rice from Saudi Arabia)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Kabsa is the national dish of Saudi Arabia, it is rice accompanied by chicken, lamb or fish. The recipe I present to you is rice accompanied by chicken.

I found this recipe at this blog where you can find other Saudi recipes:

http://www.yasalamcooking.com/chicken-kabsa/#.UoqAEHiDN0s

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken in Pieces.
• 1 cup basmati rice.
• oil.
• 1 tomato diced.
• 2 chillis cut into strips.
• 2 bay leaves.
• Half a stock cube.
• 1 onion in pieces.
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• 6 cardamom beans.
• 5 cloves.
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• 2 black lemons.
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin.
• 1 teaspoon coriander.
• 1 teaspoon salt.
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper.
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger.
• 200 grams tomato sauce.
• Some raisins.
• (Optional) 1 diced boiled egg and some toasted almonds.

Method:

1. put oil,onion and garlic in a casserole, put on a medium heat and sautée until gold.
2. Add bay leaves, cardamon, coriander, salt, black lemons, pepper, ginger, cumin, cloves, cinnamon. Sautée for a minute.
3. Add tomato sauce, diced tomato, stock cube and chillis.
4. Mix well and put on a low heat.
5. Add chicken and cook for some minutes stirring well to mix chicken with the spices.

6. Add water to cover the chicken totally, put on a high heat and boil, After reaching boiling point put on a low heat and cook for 35 minutes covered with a lid.

7. Once chicken is done, take 2 cups of the broth you have obtained after cooking it, we will use this broth to cook the rice.
8. Mix the broth with the rice in another casserole, put on a high heat , after reaching boiling point put on a low heat and cook covered for 10 minutes.
9. Serve chicken on the rice, add raisins, (egg and almonds if you want).

Where to buy the ingredients:

I bought black lemons in a shop at Antonio Calvo street, close to Madrid's mosque.



Saudi Arabia

Carbayones

                                                                               Receta en Español

'Carbayón' is a typical dessert from Oviedo (Spain). The first time this dessert was elaborated , it was at the I International fair of Gijón in 1924.

José Gutiérrez cooked this cake to represent Oviedo at the Fair.  

This cakes are named after the way Oviedo's inhabitants are known: 'carbayones'. It refers to an old, famous and symbolic oak (carbayu in Asturias) to the city, it standed close to the Campoamor theatre.

It is a tasty cake made of yolk and almonds over a layer of pastry dough, topped  with glazed sugar. 

Ingredients:

•   1 sheet of frozen puff pastry.
•   125 grams of grinded almonds.
•   1 egg.
•   4 egg yolks.
•   125 grams of sugar for the filling.
•   125 grams of sugar for the sugar glaze.
•   1 lemon zest.
•   1 splash of sweet wine or brandy.

Method:

1-   It is healthier to make the dough by your own, in case you don't have time (as in my case) you can use frozen puff pastry.

Let the pastry thaw at room temperature.
Sprinkle a little flour over a plane surface and roll the pastry out.

Cut the pastry the same size as the molds, you can see in the next picture how I managed to cut the pastry.
I used paper molds, it is better to use metallic ones. If you use paper molds the weight of the filling flattens the 'Carbayones' , they should be like rectangular cupcakes.

Put a layer of pastry in each mold:

2-   Now we prepare the filling; put in a bowl the grinded almonds, one egg, 2 egg yolks, 125 grams of sugar, a splash of sweet wine or brandy and zest from half of the outter skin of a lemon.

Mix well with a whisk until you get a dough.

3-   Fill the molds with the mix until the edges , in case you use paper molds don't fill to the edge because it could spill while cooking.

Preheat oven at 180 ºC , put 'Carbayones' into the oven at the same temperature for 20 minutes or until they are brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool.

4-   While 'Carbayones' are in the oven we can prepare the yolk glazing.

First we make a syrup, put 50 grams of sugar and 75 ml water in a saucepan. Boil for some minutes until the sugar dissolves and then put aside and let it cool.

5-   Whisk 2 egg yolks in another saucepan, Once the syrup is cold pour it little by little over the egg yolks, stir constantly . Add the zest from half of the outter skin of a lemon and continue stirring. 

Put the pan at low heat , continue stirring until the mix thickens.

 6-   Now we spread the yolk glazing over the surface of the 'Carbayones'.To do it, we 'paint them' with the help of a brush, make the yolk glazing the more thick you can.

Let 'Carbayones' cool before adding the sugar glaze.

7-   Sugar glazing is the more delicate part of this dessert; Put in a saucepan  75 grams of sugar and 50 ml water.

Put the saucepan at low heat , stir constantly until you see that the mix in getting a slightly white colour.

Now you must act fast, it is time to 'paint Carbayones' with the brush.

The mix gets solid very fast, that`s way you should paint fast.

In case the mix becomes solid, you can add a little water and start the process again.

Once the sugar glazing is solid you can start eating your 'Carbayones'. I made 8 big carballones, depending on the mold you may obtain more cakes with the same measures of ingredients.

My comments to the Recipe

This is not difficult to do, but it takes time. It  has a marvellous taste, the mix of almonds, eggs and lemon zest make them exquisite.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Asturias