Sometimes things just fall in your lap and you have NO idea where they came from.  But mine is not to question why…

Remember the Calcotada I told you about?  Where you eat giant onions dipped in pepper and almond sauce (Romesco)?  Well, a few weeks ago in Dénia, we were walking along an area we rarely visit, and suddenly Al says, “OMG!  Are those CALCOTS?”  Why, yes they were.  We raced over to EntreAromas, where, sure enough, the guys were in the parking lot, roasting calcots.  Coincidence #1.

Turns out they do this only once a year — they bring in all the ingredients from Cataluña (the region around Barcelona) and they have one day that they do the full monty.  And yes, “we just happen to have only 3 tickets left.”  Coincidence #2.

We change our plans with our friend, Consuelo, and return, with her, to EntreAromas at the appointed time.  The waitress shows us to a long outdoor table, where everyone is laughing and talking and dunking calcots, and the 3 of us are seated on the corner.  (Consuelo was a little frazzled that we were actually going to sit with strangers.)  We immediately strike up conversations with the friendly table companions and not 10 minutes into the afternoon I discover that the woman sitting right next to me is an avid cook, well, actually a chef, and she’s owned 2 restaurants.   This day just gets better and better.  Coincidence #3.

We spent the entire afternoon eating, drinking a leetle vino, and getting to know our new friends.  Even Al, who doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish, was fully engaged, all hand signals and smiles.  Our lunch lasted til nearly 6pm — a sign of a very good day.  And even then, Uncle Tio invited us to his house for “just one more little drink.”  And by the way, he says, “You can see my chicken!”  But it’s time to escort Consuelo home, so we politely declined (secretly wishing we could go home with Uncle Tio).

Rosario - The Savor Spain / Tipsy Toro Chef

Rosario and I talked foodie talk and she agreed to send me her very-authentic recipe for Romesco, that was given to her by a man in Tarragona, the home of calcots.  She swears it’s the BEST Romesco ever.  (Yes, I’ll share.  Later.)  And then, much to my surprise, she began speaking with Al in English.  She speaks English!  OMG! Now the wheels are really turning!  Coincidence #4.

Thankfully, I was alert enough (despite copious amounts of wine) to ask for Rosario’s email and ask if she’d be interested in having coffee one day soon.  She happily agreed, and we made a date.  I couldn’t wait to tell her my ideas.

As I tripped all over myself trying to explain what I was trying to do, with wine and cooking classes in Spain, she grinned broadly and heartily agreed to play!   I had always wanted a knowledgeable, personable Spaniard to teach the cooking classes in Spain — but finding someone with the right combination of friendliness (we don’t need no snobs!), experience, availability, and English skills, was something I thought I’d never find.  And there she was.  If that’s not serendipity, I don’t know what is!

The rest, as they say, is history. Rosario has agreed to become the resident chef for Savor Spain and Tipsy Toro.  Rafael will teach the wine classes.  And now we have the perfect team.  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating:

LA VIDA ES DULCE!

It never ceases to amaze me how many incredible things there are in Spain that we  Americans don’t know anything about.  Las Fallas is definitely in that category.

Falla under construction

In March of every year, in Comunidad Valenciana (the “state” of Valencia) on the Mediterranean coast, giant statues, anywhere from 5 to 50 feet tall and made of styrofoam, paper, and glue, are squeezed into narrow streets and squares in the capital city of Valencia and in the smaller villages throughout the region.  The artwork is spectacular.  The enormous statues are a satirical poke at local politics, celebrities, and world events.

Las Fallas has become such a big event that designing and building the statues, called Fallas, has recently been designated as a full-fledged college degree program.  There are hundreds of people who spend all year creating the Fallas for a week long celebration (the best part is just on the weekend) and then on the last night, starting at midnight they torch ‘em.  It’s a stunning sight — 3 story tall figures being engulfed by flames while firemen dowse the close-enough-to-touch buildings to keep them from burning down.

Here’s a little peek  at one of the workshops.

During the entire year, neighborhood associations called Casal Fallers work to prepare for the festival.  Granny and Poppy, Mom, Dad, the kids, and Uncle Bob all get to play.  All year long they have parties and fund raisers (frequently involving paella)  to prepare for the March festival.  Many members of the Casal have elaborate costumes that they wear for events and parades throughout the year, and each Casal has their own band of musicians that stroll around all year long playing everything from traditional songs to Shakira’s latest hits.

If you come to Las Fallas, pay attention to where you’re walking.  Fireworks are a big part of the party and we’ve seen even 3 yr olds lighting and hurling firecrackers — but these are no wimpy Black Cats.  We’re talking ear-shattering mini-explosions.

As usual, the details give clues about the culture.  I spend the whole week with a grin plastered on my face, from watching things like fully decked out children playing soccer in the street, babies tooting on their little plastic horns, the kids in the parade in full costume with their heads buried in their cell phones texting their friends.  My personal favorite, though, is seeing a beautiful young Spanish woman strolling down the street in her spectacular Fallera dress, makeup, special hair-do — and sipping on a bottle ‘o beer.

And if you’re a prude, you better stay home.  The Spaniards don’t share our shyness about nudity — many of the statues are quite sexy and often feature over-the-top big boobs.

Here’s a little travel tip.  If you don’t like crowds — and the crowds are enormous in Valencia –  then consider seeing seeing Las Fallas in one of the many villages in the area where they celebrate the holiday with equal enthusiasm.  The Fallas are built by the same workshops as the ones in Valencia, you still have the mascleta (fireworks) and the parades and costumes and bands — just with a fraction of the crowds.  And you can actually find a bathroom or a place to eat!

Spain is like a big ol’ onion that has layers and layers of fun stuff to uncover.  We found out last weekend that one of those layers is very literal — an onion festival.  Nope, not kidding.  In the northeast of Spain,  in and around Tarragona (near Barcelona), during February and March they have a special treat called a Calçotada. The star of the show is a giant green onion, called calçot, as chubby as a baby’s wrist.

Calçots with Romesco

Just like regular onions, when you roast calçots they become sweet and tender.  This is where it gets messy — and fun!  You grab a  calçot with your hands and strip off the outer, burned layers.  Then you swirl it around in Romesco — a thick sauce made with red peppers, garlic, almonds, and olive oil  (and sometimes hazelnuts and tomatoes — there are dozens of variations). OMG OMG OMG!!!  This alone is enough to make me completely happy for a week.  But that’s not all.

Roasted Artichokes & Cava

In addition to the calçots you also get roasted baby artichokes, butifarra (white Catalan sausage), lamb, and white beans. Oh!  And I got so entranced with remembering the food that I almost forgot — if you’re lucky you’ll also combine your day with a visit to one of the many wine regions around Barcelona.  We drove to Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, home of Spanish sparkling wine, where we toured Freixenet, the famous Spanish champagne maker, and then went to a local “masia” (farmhouse turned restaurant) for the Calçotada. Incredible!

So here’s a tip — whenever traveling in Spain, be aware that you could stumble across something interesting at any minute.  Don’t be shy about talking to the locals because there are often activities, festivals, and food that are unique to that area.  Since we experienced the Calçotada we’ve told the story to several Spanish friends who live further south, and not one of them knew what calçots are!

Holidays are over, the new year is off to a racing start and it’s time to get my act together.  If you’re subscribed to Tipsy Toro blog posts, thanks! And please watch your email for a request to reconfirm your subscription.  We also started off the year with a new email service to send blog posts to you directly (same as before only better). And if you’re not yet subscribed to Tipsy Toro and Savor Spain, well, why not?

And I’m way behind in doing the cookbook giveaway that I promised.  So let’s start off the new year with catching up on old promises.

Our cookbook winner is (drum roll please):  Caroline!

We did a very scientific close-your-eyes-and-point-randomly-at-the-list kind of drawing, so it’s totally legit.  Caroline, please email us at info@savorspain.com and send us your mailing address and phone number so we can get that shipped off to you right away.  The cookbook we have in store for you is a great one — The Spanish Table by Steve Winston.  I know, he doesn’t sound very Spanish, but he knows what he’s talking about!

Here’s to a wonderful 2012 — The Year of the Dragon!  (how cool is THAT?)

There’s a new wine shop about 30 steps from the apartment where we stay in Dénia.  In the window is an attractive little plaque:

Abrimos cuando llegamos,

ceramos cuando nos vamos

y si vienes

y no estamos

es que no coincidimos.

I stopped in my tracks and laughed out loud, with people walking past me, wondering what the heck was so funny about a wine store. This is just so great about much of Spanish culture.  Although they are very hard working and industrious, they also value the simple things — the pleasures of everyday life — above their need for big houses and fancy cars and impressive job titles.

So what does that cute little plaque say?  To me, this pretty much sums up Spanish priorities.  NOT to be confused with laziness or lack of initiative!

We open when we get here

We close when we leave

And if you come and we’re not here…

Well, we didn’t catch each other.

Wine

Chocolate

I’m tempted to just leave it at that.  But after dinner a few nights ago, we pulled out some great chocolate to pair with a couple of Spanish wines, and  I was shocked when our friends said “Really?  You drink wine with chocolate?”

Whoa….  I thought everybody knew that wine and chocolate are the primary 2 food groups. And especially together!

So we opened a few different types of chocolate (OK, I’ll admit that in this case it was some of the world’s finest Ecuadorian chocolate – Kallari), and 3 bottles of wine, and started comparing.  Kallari makes several different types of chocolate, in varying degrees of intensity, and also with some intriguing additions – like chiles.  That makes pairing with wine particularly fun and challenging.

If you’ve never tried pairing wine and chocolate, take the plunge.  Have some friends over for a nice dinner, and then afterwards, pull out a little bit of 2 or 3 types of chocolate  (sustainable, please!) and a few types of wine.  Pour everyone a small amount — about 1 or 2 oz — of each of 3 wines (don’t worry, you can finish the wines over the next few days — you can use the dreaded Vacu Vin to keep them fresher, but don’t tell anybody I said that).

Break the chocolate up into small pieces, and give everyone a plate with a small piece of each chocolate.  Of course, be careful to keep track of which chocolate us which.

Start with the driest wine you have, and taste the chocolate, quickly followed by a sip of the first wine.  Repeat with the second chocolate, and stick to the first wine.  Stay with the same wine, different chocolates, and note which pairing you liked the best.  Then do it again with the second wine, which should be slightly sweeter.  Then end with the very sweetest wine, tasting it with each of the chocolates.  Although it’s not Spanish, I love making the last one Port.  Portugal.  Close enough.

The general idea is to pair a lighter wine with a lighter chocolate.  If you’re like me and you prefer dark chocolate, that usually goes best with a big, bold wine — and almost everybody prefers a sweet wine with dark bitter chocolate.  Remember, wine and food pairings are all about your palette.  Don’t let any wine snob tell you what you should like.  Sometimes you’ll find a really great pairing that suits you perfectly that nobody else likes.  That’s what’s so fun about it.  No snobs allowed.

Below are some Spanish wine varieties to try with chocolate:

Syrah
Garnacha – preferably old vine
Tempranillo – preferably old vine
Sherry (sweeter type)
Port (OK, it’s not Spanish, but try it!)

Then report back.  Would love for you to comment and let us know what you tried, and what you liked!

You know how some women get all excited for Black Friday shopping?  My version of that is preparing for our annual Tipsy Toro Fiesta.

A few years ago we decided to introduce our friends to the food and wine of Spain.  So we bent the rules, and set the party time at 2pm, so they could come and hang out for the entire afternoon… and evening, just like we do in Spain.  Now the Tipsy Toro party has become a tradition, and a chance for us to show friends and potential clients why we’re so crazy about Spain.

It starts several weeks in advance, choosing the right date and planning the menu.  Then we start ordering food and doing any advance prep that we can.  I’ll admit, I can get a bit carried away.  We prepare around 20 different tapas, and 2 big paellas.  Thank goodness that so many tapas in Spain involve prepared foods, like jamon, chorizos, cheeses, and canned goodies of all kinds.  That makes it considerably easier — although I can’t resist cooking up all our favorites too — tortilla, herbed goat cheese stuffed peppers, meatballs, and the list goes on.

And since we’re now officially certified wineauxs, we also include a Spanish wine tasting.  It’s a great opportunity to try lots of different Spanish wines, and help convince our beer-and-spirits-lovin’ American friends that wine is waaaaayyyyyy cooler!  We have a rule — no wines over $15, so it’s not about price, it’s about quality.  And whoever brings the best bottle of wine, wins a bottle from us that you can’t buy in the U.S.  If you haven’t tried doing a simple, informal wine tasting, we highly recommend it.

Here’s a couple of quick pics — what are your favorite tapas?  Favorite Spanish wines?

If I were a wine snob I’d try to impress you that “I know people.”  But since I’m not — and I think wine is something you should enjoy because you like it, and because it goes great with food, instead I’ll tell you the truth:

(with your best teenage voice)  Ohmahgawd!  Guess what I got to do?

My friend Sali introduced me to her friend Joaquin (in Jerez de la Frontera) while we were there for Vendimia just a few weeks ago. Welllll…. turns out that not only is Joaquin a budding wine entrepreneur — a very knowledgeable one — but he also has friends.  In restaurants.  Now those are MY kinda people!

So Joaquin invites us to an evening of wine tasting and food pairing at Gula restaurant in Jerez.  Miguel, the chef and owner was warm and friendly and served up some amazing food.  This is the part where I admit that I was so caught up in the experience that I started making a few notes about the food and then ignored my notebook completely.  But here’s what I can tell you.  We started with a paté — and Spaniards love their paté so it´s always worth trying.  Miguel´s was exceptional — made with piquillo peppers, eggplant, and that incredible Spanish tuna.  You can bet I’ll be trying to figure that one out for my own parties!  With that we had Duo — an Albariño from Galicia.  That you can´t buy in the U.S.  dammit.

Then we laughed and talked and sipped our way through several more courses of amazing tapas and wine.  And finally the main course — beef cooked perfectly and paired with Syc Mitarte — high on the list of the best wines I’ve ever tasted.  Another one you can’t buy in the U.S.

I could go on and on and bore you with all the details — which include chocolate and cava.  But instead, I’ll just say if you happen to be in Jerez de la Frontera and you want a really great food and wine experience, contact Joaquin and tell him Denise from Tipsy Toro sent you.  And to save some Syc for me!

What Pisto should look like - from http://mapmagazine.com

You know the jokes about men not reading directions and putting a bookcase together — only it comes out looking like a Rubik’s cube?  Well, I guess it’s time to break the myth that it’s only men.

Guilty.

The Thermomix arrived on Tuesday (instead of the anticipated Wednesday) and I was so excited I yanked it (gently) out of the box, rinsed off the pieces parts and set to work making dinner.  Red Thai Chicken Curry.  Despite a couple of necessary substitutions (you really think I can find galanga root at Safeway?) the curry came out really good.  Umm…. except I think you’re supposed to be able to recognize the chicken pieces, right?

Then I tried Pisto.  There are lots of different variations in Spain, but basically it’s Spanish Ratatouille.  Peppers, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and garlic.  You eat it on toasted bread, or spread it on sandwiches.  YUM!

So I grabbed all my farmer’s-market-fresh veggies and went to work.  Onion. Check!  Peppers.  Check!  “Whir 4 seconds at velocity 3 to chunk the vegetables.”  Check!

Wait.  Chunk? So what’s up with the veggie puree in there?

Long story short, we wound up with what we decided would make a nice, healthy pasta sauce.  So I guess I better set aside some time this weekend to read the damn directions.

I feel like a kid at Christmas.  At the same time I’m a little  (OK,  a LOT) embarrassed at the indulgence of buying a stupid-expensive kitchen appliance.

The first time I saw the Thermomix, I was fairly rational.  “I have a food processor.  I have a mixer.  I have an oven. I don’t need to spend the baby’s milk money on yet-another-kitchen-gadget.”  So I put it out of my mind.

Then I saw it in another friends’ kitchen. And another. And another.

Now wait just a damn minute.  These guys are not “stuff” collectors.  They only buy things that are practical (for the most part).  You don’t see many Spaniards with garages-full of junk they paid for and never used.  So there must be something to this, right?

So I watched, and asked questions.  “Do you really use this, or does it just take up space?”  (The question is leading on purpose — Please Tell Me I Don’t Need This!)

“Oh, MY!  I couldn’t live without it!  I use it all the time — for EVERYTHING!”

Crud.

Then the justifications started.  “Well, we spent $1,000 on a couch that we never sit on.  And there’s that scooter in the garage that cost $2,000 and we only ride it a handful of times a year.

And I’d use this all the time.”

I know, I know.  Why do I feel the need to justify?  I work hard.  I earned that money.  I can spend it however I want to.  But still, a kitchen machine that costs 10x what my stand mixer cost?  Really?  Can it be that good?

Well, as of yesterday, we’re going to find out.  I made myself feel better by saving the money little by little over several months.  And yesterday I took a big, deep breath, and filled out the order form, faxed it in, and had a UPS confirmation within an hour.  Wow!  These guys are GOOD!  So I’m takin’ that as a good sign.  This Thermomix thing was meant to be…

Right?