IAN & SPAIN

Just the other day I had a fantastic coffee after a very long lunch. It was a very typical coffee in my region and realized I haven’t written about coffee for a very long time and there are so many variations. This coffee, in particular, was a Café Cremaet (Burnt coffee in Valenciano) also known as a Carajillo Quemado which, to be honest, is a drink that has been gaining popularity over the years.

This typical Carajillo variant from the Valencia region is a recipe for coffee with alcohol that has a lot of flavour, aroma and nuances thanks to the unique mix of ingredients.

If you want to learn how to do it, I will spill the beans! (Sorry for the pun!) I will explain the recipe step by step and the tricks to learn how to make a Café Cremaet (flambéed rum coffee) at home whenever you want.

The origin of Cremaet coffee is full of controversy as there are several stories/legends around when and how this alcoholic coffee recipe appeared.

What is of general consensus is that Cremaet coffee has its origin in Cuba. It is effectively a variant of the café Carajillo (coffee and straight rum) which refers to a typical drink at the time when Cuba was a Spanish colony and the Spanish soldiers combined coffee with rum to have courage, 'corajillo', at the time of the battle and hence its adaptation to Carajillo.

As for the Valencia variant, the story goes that a soldier from Castellón brought this recipe with him after returning from the Cuban War. Not liking rum straight, he made a mixture of coffee, rum and flavourings that gave rise to this famous carajillo variant: the Cremaet or Valencian Carajillo.

Nowadays you can order a Carajilllo with almost any type of alcohol: whisky, rum, brandy etc but the Valencia Cremaet should always be made with Rum.

The Café Cremaet is a long-founded tradition in Valencia. The most purists affirm that “just like paella, it is either from Valencia or it is not…The café Cremaet is either with rum or it is not Cremaet”.

So how do you make Cremaet coffee at home?

These are the ingredients you will need for one serving:

• Aged Rum, 20 ml. (Not white rum) Negrita Rum tends to be the most popular.
• Sugar, 2 tablespoons approx. (ratio: volume of sugar = volume of rum)
• 1 or 2 Coffee beans - the most toasted
• Cinnamon stick, a 2 cm piece.
• Lemon peel, 1 piece - removing the white interior part of the skin so as to avoid bitterness.
• Coffee, 30 ml.

Step by Step Recipe:

Step 1 Preparation - Preparing the Syrup

In the first place, we must have a heat-resistant glass or pot since in one step of the Cremaet recipe we need to flambé.

In that heat-resistant container, you will add all the ingredients: sugar, rum, a piece of cinnamon, coffee beans and a piece of lemon peel - make sure you have scraped off the white interior part of the lemon peel - this will remove the bitterness.

Step 2 - Making the Syrup Infusion

Now it's time to mix it so that the sugar dissolves in the rum and the aromas and nuances of the coffee beans, cinnamon and lemon peel are extracted.

There are two ways to do it:

Quick way: If you happen to have a vaporizer on your coffee machine, heat the mixture with the steam until it all the sugar has dissolved and the ingredients have fully infused the syrup.

Not so quick way: if you don't have a vaporizer on your coffee machine, you must first stir the mixture and then heat it in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the ingredients have fully infused the syrup.

Step 3 - Flambé

Once the syrup is made, grab a lighter and burn off as much alcohol as possible. It is important to stir with a spoon to burn off the alcohol at the bottom of the container. Please remember that to flambé it is important to have a heat-resistant recipient or glass as it could break if not.

Step 4 - Layering the coffee

Take a small coffee glass - it needs to be a glass to appreciate the layering effect. Fill the glass 1/3  of its volume with the hot syrup previously prepared. Feel free to add one of the coffee beans, a piece of lemon rind and a piece of cinnamon to the coffee glass for presentation if you wish. One would normally remove this before drinking anyway.

The next step is crucial if we want to obtain the 3 well-differentiated layers characteristic of this recipe:

Brown: Coffee cream.

Black: strong espresso coffee

Liquid Gold: dense and transparent rum syrup

To do this, it is important to be very careful. Make sure you are using an espresso machine or a Nespresso machine for this as you will not create the coffee if you don’t. As the coffee falls from the machine let it fall into a teaspoon so that the coffee overflows from the teaspoon onto the side of the glass. This will break the fall of the coffee and allow it to ‘sit’ on top of the syrup. The coffee cream will rise to the top naturally. Once you have filled the remaining two-thirds of the coffee glass you are ready to serve.

The perfect way to end a long lunch, especially a Valencian Paella! Let me know how you get on!

Remember like anything, you can always fine-tune it to your taste preferences - if you want it less sweet, remove some sugar and add some more rum!

Good Luck!

Rice dishes are one of my favourites, but Valencian oven-baked rice or “Arroz al Horno” when I first came to Spain wasn’t exactly one of them until I tasted the real deal. I took a disliking to it mainly because it was often too dry for my liking. However, when I learnt the tricks to get it right, everything changed. It was just a process of practise making perfect, to be honest. There is a fine line between 'ok' rice and 'great' rice and I must admit it has taken me several attempts to even get close to a great “Arroz al Horno”. As with all traditional dishes they tend to be a lot of work but fortunately, this dish isn’t that time consuming and the result is just fantastic. It is actually quite simple. Valencian cuisine is normally eclipsed by the Paella but this dish is very much part of the Valencian’s staple diet. Traditionally it was prepared with the leftovers from the “cocido”, a meat and vegetable stew, but nowadays everyone makes it with fresh ingredients. Another of its advantages is that it doesn’t make as much mess as a paella when you are cooking indoors!

This dish is cooked in a large flat earthenware dish. If you don’t have one you can also cook it in a non-stick baking pan. However, the result is better in an earthenware dish. The ingredients you will need for this recipe are the following:

Ingredients for 4 people :

400g  Round Valencian Rice – the same you use for a paella - Bomba variety is the easiest to use as it will not go too soft, it is a lot more forgiving if you overcook it or get eth measurements wrong.

300g Pork Ribs chopped up into small pieces

300g Pancetta (thick-cut bacon) chopped up into small pieces.

200g Grated tomato

4 Onion Morcillas (Spanish black pudding)

1 large tomato cut into thick slices

1 large potato cut into thick slices

300g   Cooked Chickpeas (garbanzos)

1 whole head of garlic

Saffron

Paprika

1 litre approx. Chicken and vegetable stock

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (preferably Picual for frying)

(In Valencia you can buy "Arroz al Horno meat packs" already made up in some supermarkets so if you find one you only need to pull together the rest. I like to add a little extra pancetta if I buy a pack as they don't normally put much in them)

It looks like a lot of ingredients but it is fairly straight forward so I really encourage you to give it a go. 

The first step is to get the oven on full heat so it starts heating up while you are preparing the rest and start heating the stock. It needs to be almost boiling when you add it to the pan. Add a little saffron to the stock to give it a bit of colour and when the stock is hot add the chickpeas to it to heat them up, keep the stock hot. If you have homemade stock fantastic but the chances are you won't and I didn't, so I used as most people do, a ready-made stock from the supermarket.

Grab a frying pan, put in some extra virgin olive oil and start to fry the potatoes slices. They don’t need to be cooked just half cooked and slightly browned. Remove them and place them to one side.

  .              

Now you need to fry the pork ribs. They need to be really well cooked so they go brown and crispy around the edges. Once the ribs are turning slightly brown pop in the whole garlic with the pancetta until it goes crispy too. You need to put the pancetta in slightly later as it cooks faster than the ribs. Once ready remove it all from the pan and place the meat and the garlic in the earthenware dish.

Take the morcillas and quickly fry them, without cutting them up, in the fat that has been left in the pan, just for a couple of minutes and take them out. You are not cooking them now just sealing them and giving the fat a bit more flavour. The next step is to add the grated tomato to the oil with a teaspoon of paprika and fry it gently in the remaining oil for a minute or two. At this point, you need to add the rice to the frying pan to seal it for a minute or so before putting it in the earthenware recipient. This will soak up all the fat and flavour from the pan and is essential for the final result. At this point, you need to add the hot stock and the chickpeas to the earthenware dish as quickly as possible, move the ingredients around so they are all evenly in place and put the potato and tomato slices on top. Now place it immediately in the oven on full heat for 20 min (250ºC). During the last five minutes of the cooking time turn on the grill so it browns the top. When it is ready all the stock should have evaporated. Remove it from the oven and let it sit for five minutes before serving.

As with all rice dishes the amount of stock or water is the key to success. The easiest way to measure the correct amount of rice and the correct amount of stock is to find a coffee cup or a small glass. I have one that holds approximately 100g of rice so I use one cup per person. The rule of thumb is for every cup/glass of rice you will need two cups of stock minus one from the total number. So if you are using 4 cups of rice you would need 7 cups of stock (using the same cup measurement). 

The secret to this recipe is time management and really cooking the meat well. The objective is to get all the ingredients into the oven while they are still hot so the oven doesn’t have to heat them up but starts cooking straight away from the minute it goes in. 

Now, just serve up and enjoy!

Puchero or Cocido Valenciano is a great winter warmer and although it is very common to see it on the table at Christmas, it is without a doubt one of the most popular 'platos de cuchara' in winter, at least in the Valencian region.  Effectively it is a stew with giant meatballs but it is enjoyed in two stages. It may seem very simple and rustic but it can be a fairly long meal and takes time to digest. It contains almost everything you could possibly imagine putting in a stew. What makes this stew different from the rest of the stews in Spain is the use of local sausages and local vegetables. The Valencian community is well known for its vegetables and this is well portrayed in the Valencian ‘Puchero’.

As with most traditional recipes, there is nothing written in stone, except (traditionally) using a giant cauldron!  So grab the biggest pot you can find otherwise there is no way all the ingredients will fit in. Remember the stock, the meat and the vegetables can all be frozen afterwards so if you have a lot leftover, which you will, ration it out in Tupperware and freeze it for another day or use it for another recipe.

For the stew you will need the following :

½ medium-sized Chicken (approx. 1,25kg of meat)
2 large meatballs (recipe as follows)
1 piece of bone marrow
1 piece of knee bone
150 grams of beef 
1 Blanquet sausage 
1 Onion Morcilla sausage 
100 grams of pork fat
300 grams of chickpeas (soaked in water overnight)
Saffron
1 stick of Celery, 1 stick of Cardoon, 1 sweet potato, 1 white turnip, 1 yellow turnip, 1 parsnip, 3 potatoes, 3 carrots, 1 leek, 5 runner beans and ¼ cabbage. (As far as the vegetables go, you can chuck in whatever you have at hand, but this is the standard recipe in Valencia)

So, to make the stew it is as easy as cleaning and peeling the vegetables and placing them all in the pot with the meat and the meatballs, except for the carrots, potatoes, runner beans and the morcilla. These need to be held back for later as they cook more quickly. Cover with water and slowly bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low heat and let it simmer for 90 minutes. Remember to skim off the foam that rises to the top. After 90 minutes pop in the rest of the ingredients that were held back and then simmer for another 90 minutes. To make the meatballs all you will need are the following ingredients:

2 eggs.
150g lean minced beef
150g minced pork.
1 sausage (with skin removed)
200g Breadcrumbs
1 tbsp. Fresh chopped parsley 
50g Pine nuts
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon powder
10ml fresh Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Stew net for binding
Cabbage leaves for wrapping up the meatballs.   

If you feel like saving some time you can always make the balls the day before. Mix the meat, salt, pepper, parsley, cinnamon, eggs and pine nuts to taste. Pour the breadcrumbs in and knead it all together until it forms a thick mass. Add the lemon juice and knead it all together again. Separate the meat mass into two parts and then roll into two large balls. Once you have made the balls wrap each ball in cabbage leaves and then place it inside the stewing net and tie it up tight and add to the rest of the meat for the stew.

Once the stew is ready it is customary to first enjoy a bowl of soup from the stock cooked either with rice or noodles. Some may add a meatball or two to the soup and others may add a bit of everything and then move on to the rest of the meat and vegetables later, the choice is yours. It would also be customary to make 'oven-baked rice' (Arroz al Horno) the following day with the leftovers.

So there you have it, a very hearty meal from the heart of Valencia and ideal for this time of year, it may not look very sophisticated but it tastes incredible! 

    Enjoy!

In two days, on the eve of the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men, however, you wish to call them, we'll once again follow the family tradition - cancelled last year because of the pandemia - and go out to the “Reyes” market in the Cabañal.

The Cabañal market is very well known in Valencia and it is the night when parents leave their kids at home asleep (with a relative watching over) and escape to buy a few last presents and give a helping hand to the overworked kings. Even though most presents have already been bought, a wander around the market in the early hours of the morning is a must, especially for my wife. From the neighbourhood, and after years of frequenting the market at Christmas, she knows every trick in the book on how to get a bargain and if you are prepared to hang around, she seems to know the right time to really push the bartering into fifth gear and walk away with ridiculous bargains, normally around 4:00am. At that time the sellers are tired after a long day's work, their opportunity to sell has come to an end, within a matter of minutes no one will have any reason to buy any presents at all and above all toys. This is when the toy prices plummet by over 50% so you can whip up some great presents for next to nothing.

Although we enjoy wandering around the market and picking up a few stocking fillers, the real reason we head down there every year is to feel the Christmassy atmosphere that is in the air and enjoy our seasonal ‘churros and hot chocolate’, normally the first of the winter season.

On a chilly night, at 2:30 in the morning a hot cup of chocolate and freshly made churros is pretty much unbeatable, just what you need to get you through to the end of the market! However it’s not all about shopping, the number of people you bump into is unbelievable and this makes progress sometimes painstakingly slow especially for me at least, as I am not much of a fan of crowded places so I get a bit irritable and would rather take a quick detour to the local coffee shop and wait for the women there!

  I must admit I quite like this market though, its full of junk mostly but still it's fun and if you look hard you can come across some nice stuff and if you are cheeky enough you’ll get a decent price. But it’s this night that kicks me into “pudding” mode and I start to cook sweets at home, normally during the summer and autumn I don’t bother but when the cold arrives and the smell of churros is in the air, I can’t help myself. So I thought I would share a recipe for churros, you can’t always find them when you want them and honestly, they are not difficult to make. So here is a recipe I was taught and I hope you find it useful too.  Remember the chocolate is the easy part, you can buy that in powder format in any supermarket, I normally buy the powder made by ‘Chocolates Valor’, which is really very good. Remember it must be thick!

The ingredients you will need for approximately 4 servings of churros is the following:

300gr Flour
400ml water(300ml if you want the churros slightly heavier, a question of taste)
1 tsp. of yeast/bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp. fine table salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

First you will need to heat up the water and add the salt. If you are using tap water drop a slice of lemon peel in, this will help get rid of that tap-water taste. Once boiling, remove the water from the heat and let it cool slightly. When you can pop your finger in without burning yourself, add the flour that you have previously mixed with the yeast (brand ‘Royal’ is ok) or bicarbonate of soda. Mix in the flour and yeast mix bit by bit until it has become an even mass without any lumps. It shouldn’t be a very thick mix (unless you’ve reduced the water, it will be thicker). Once ready, let it sit for an hour or so. It’s important not to use too much yeast otherwise they will swell up too much and absorb a lot of oil and become indigestible. 

Now fill an icing syringe or bag with a wide nozzle and squeeze out about 15cm of churros mix, cut with scissors at the nozzle tip and let it drop into abundant hot olive oil, careful it doesn’t splash the oil! Let it cook until golden and repeat the process until all the churros are cooked. When you remove them from the oil place them on a kitchen towel to soak up excess oil and sprinkle with sugar. One trick is not to cook too many churros at the same time, the more in the oil the quicker the temperature will drop and for the churros to be crispy and not soak up oil, the oil must be very hot throughout the entire cooking process.

So as you see they are no more difficult than pancakes so give it a go and start dunking churros with a cup of thick hot chocolate!