My junior year of college, I spent the second semester living in Spain, studying abroad in the southern city of Granada. Studying abroad was the “cool thing to do” as part of your university experience, but I had no idea what a profound impact those four months would have both on my cooking and my life. I have such an appreciation and love for Spanish cuisine!
When I look back on my time in Granada, I am most grateful for the wonderful “host mom” I stayed with for those four months. I had requested to live in the dorms instead of living with a local family, and oh my goodness, what experiences I would’ve missed out on if that had worked out! My host mom Juana was not only a wonderful person, but she was a masterful home cook. So much so that, I kid you not, I would completely gorge myself on the lunch that she made us every day and often skip dinner entirely (we were on our own for dinner). I really got to experience traditional homestyle Spanish cooking through her, and I feel eternally grateful for that.
In today’s post, I’m going to share a few of my favorite flavors and recipes from Spanish cooking, in the hopes of inspiring you to bring them into your kitchen too.
One of the foods I ate the most while I was in Spain was the jamón serrano, which is a dry-cured Spanish ham. If you walk down the streets of any Spanish city, you’re bound to see legs of jamón serrano hanging up in a cafe or restaurant somewhere.
For people who have never heard of jamón serrano, I usually tell them it’s like the Spanish version of prosciutto. It’s wonderful sliced thinly and served with cheeses and nuts, or even in a sandwich. My host mom would often pack me jamón serrano sandwiches for trips, with slices of salty manchego cheese.
Jamón serrano can be a little difficult to find outside of specialty meat shops, but I’ve seen it more widely available in the past year or two.
Next up, Manchego cheese! Fortunately, this wonderful sheep’s milk cheese is easy to find in the US. It’s a firm cheese with a buttery, nutty flavor and a salty bite. I often eat it by itself in little chunks, like a good Parmesan cheese, but I’ll also slice it thinly and place it on crackers slathered with fig jam. It’s so good!
Whenever I make a cheese board for a party, Manchego is almost always on it. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend giving it a taste.
Now say hello to Spanish chorizo! As Sommer covered in her post, there is Mexican Chorizo, and then there’s Spanish chorizo. Spanish chorizo is dried and cured, and has a wonderfully vibrant flavor of pork and paprika.
You can slice it up and serve with cheese and olives, or you can use it as an ingredient. I’ll be incorporating it into a recipe below, so stay tuned!
Then of course, there are Spanish olives, and olive oil. I could not get over how cheap and flavorful the olive oil was in Spain. I wanted so badly to take a few bottles home with me but my bag was already packed to the gills.
Olive trees abound in Spain, and there are specific types of olives that certain regions are known for. My local grocery has a special Spanish olive mix that I love getting, and it usually has rosemary and garlic to accent the flavors. I’ll eat them as is with cheese or charcuterie, or sometimes I’ll pit them and bake into bread.
And for my last feature ingredient, marcona almonds! The first time I tried these, my host mom fried them up as a snack. I knew they were some type of nut, but when I asked her what they were and she kept saying “almendra,” I was puzzled. I thought, all the almonds I’ve known don’t look like that! Marcona almonds are pricey, but I’ve seen them more and more widely available in the US.
Marcona almonds are good on their own, but on my blog I share my favorite way to prepare them, the way my host mom did, as fried marcona almonds with rosemary olive oil and lots of flaky sea salt.
There you have it, lots of Spanish flavors for you to snack on or cook up in your own kitchen. Now I’m going to share one of my favorite recipes that incorporates some of these flavors, in a twist on Spanish tortilla. This recipe for Shortcut Tortilla Espanola with Chorizo is basically a potato and egg omelette, but with a modified cooking method that’s a little bit faster and uses less oil.
Start by cooking a diced yellow onion in some olive oil, until soft.
Remove the onion to a bowl, then cook diced potato, until tender.
Remove the potatoes to a bowl, and add diced Spanish chorizo.
Cook for a minute to brown slightly, then add the onion and potatoes back to the skillet.
Pour 6 beaten eggs into the skillet, and cook for a couple minutes to set the sides.
Pop the skillet into the oven for about 20 minutes, until the egg has set. Let cool slightly, then it’s ready to slice and serve.
Leftovers keep well and you can eat it any time of day. Enjoy!
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