Friday Night Spanish

I was out of town Wednesday and didn't get back until late Thursday, so there's been no cooking.

Tonight I did a Spanish theme. Well, quasi-Spanish at least.

The plan for the meal started with the zucchini fritter from CPV. I intended to make these with the zucchini in last week's biokiste, but other dishes intervened. This week I wasn't going to let anything get between me and my fritters! :-) I'm really glad I took that position because the fritters are great.

To come up with a main course to accompany the fritters, I consulted La Cocina de Mama again and decided on a recipe for fish with tomatoes and capers. I deviated pretty substantially from the recipe: monkfish instead of fillets of trout (boring when farmed) or sardines (unavailable), tomatoes cut in 8ths instead of cherry tomatoes, fresh thyme instead of dried oregano, sbrinz instead of manchego or parmesan. The result was still quite nice.

I also cut some potatoes into small (1/4cm) dice, boiled them for a few minutes until they just started to get tender, then finished them in a saute pan with olive oil and salt until they were nicely crispy. Beside the potatoes I served a "pesto" I made with fresh basil, almonds (toasted in olive oil with salt and a bit of cumin added at the last minute), garlic, and a bit of olive oil. The result is fairly coarse (I didn't process it particularly long) and dry (just enough oil added to start to hold things together). This pesto is a real star and needs to be made again.