Coca de recapte

Hi!

Today I would like to share another typical Catalan dish, coca de recapte; it is a sort of catalan version of pizza, meaning coca (cake), de recapte ( for provision or to gather supplies).

The coca de recapte is nothing else but a bread olive oil dought with whatever you can find to put in top, most typically with escalivada and salted hearring or sausage. As the same words says, this was an easy food, that could be eaten during next days (it is as good cold than recently baked hot) and you didn´t need to refrigerate it. As well it is said that in the old days, in the small villages of rural Catalonia, the coca de recapte it was done by gathering some spare ingredients from few houses/families and going to the village bakery to cook it. So there is where the name comes.

Either the name comes from, this is a super easy meal, ideal for having many guests at home, or for a day out or picnic. As well, you can make a big batch of dough and freeze it and will stay perfect for few months.

Ingredients

• 10dl bread flour (we use flour with 11% protein)
• 3dl water
• 10g fresh yest
• 2tsp salt
• 0,75dl virgin olive oil

Preparation

Mix everything but the olive oil in a big bowl, use better slight warm water, work it with hands till it is a big dough, and then in a clean surface work it till you achieve an homogeneous dough. Keep in mind that this recipe it has low water content, so in the beginning might seem it is too dry, nevertheless, because not all flours are the same, if you can´t achieve a nice homogeneous dough, add bits of water.

Let it rest for 3h in a warm place covered with a clean cloth.

After the 3h, add the olive oil and work the dough again, let it rest for 30min.

Now the dough is ready to be cooked. You can cut the dough in four parts and, if you like it really thin, with this you will have 4 oven tray size coques (plural of coca).

If you want to freeze it, extend the dough and when it is ready for the ingredients, place it on top of a baking paper and roll it, then put it to a freezing bag and it can go straigh to freezer!

In the pictures you will see below, we cooked two coques, and froze the other two, one with spinach and tomato, and other one with onion. As I said earlier, the most typical way is with escalivada which it tastes amazing, but for me, the most delicious one is the one with onion but adding a bit of smoked pancetta.

For making the onion it is really simple, cut onions really thing and spread them around the dough, if you want add smoked pancetta, but otherwise just add salt, pepper and olive oil and 15 min at 200°C in the oven and it is ready!!

For the spinach, really simple too, in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, saute the fresh spinach, when they start to shrink add salt and pepper and sunflower seeds if you have them. After saute the spinach for 3-5 min they will be ready so spread them in the dough and cut some tomato to put in top and 15min into oven at 200°C and it is ready too!

About the timing in the oven, it depens on the thickness of each coca, when the dough changes to slight toasted brown colour it is ready! Of course I rolled the dought really thin, and with that I did 4, but it depens on how thick you like it you will get more or less coques.

Hope you like it

Mr South 

Filled squid

Hei! I had cooked this dish long time ago, but forgot to write about it.

This dish, brings me a lot of memories. When I remember my grandma (who passed away many years ago) the memory that comes first to my mind is helping her cooking this dish. It was the first time I cooked it, but I hope you like it.

I want to say as well, this dish represents a very typical catalan concept, mar i muntanya (sea and mountain). There are many dishes in the typical catalan recipe book which combine fish and meat, it might seem odd, but some combinations are delicious! Hopefully in the next posts we can post more mar i muntanya recipes!

Ingredients

• 3 onions
• 3 tomatoes 
• laurel
• 6 medium squid
• 50g shrimps
• 1 egg
• couple dried tomatoes
• small zucchini 
• garlic
• bit of Porto wine
• olive oil
• salt 
• black pepper

Preparation

Serving for 2.

We have prepared a vegetarian version, in my grandma´s recipe, she used the meat from a llonganisa (this is made with minced meat from pork, a quite fatty part) so you have to change the zucchini and dried tomatoes for minced meat.

In a casserole add a bit of oil and slow cook two and half onions chopped in stripes and couple of sliced garlic till it gets golden. 

Grate the tomatoes and add it to the casserole with onions, add a bit of Porto wine and a laurel leaf.

Chop small the remaining onion and a small zucchini and saute it in a different pan. When ready add the shrimps and the head/arms of the squid and small chopped dried tomatoes.

Boil and egg.

Place in a bowl the content of the pan and the boiled egg. You have to chop really small all the ingredients, go with scissors, is easier and less messy.

 

Clean the body of the squid with water and then use the chopped ingredients to fill the squid. Use fingers, it is easier, and you have to compress it as to feel quite hard. Close the squid body with toothpick.

After adding the grated tomatoes and the Porto wine in the casserole, cook it slow for 20 min and keeping the heat low, add the filled and closed squid. Cook 15 min, turning the filled squid and it is ready to serve!

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I took them with the phone.
Salut!
Mr South

Fideuà

Hei!

Here we come again with another typical catalan dish, fideua. This dish, is really simple and doesn't need much ingredients.

- Shrimps

- Squid

- Clams

- Garlic

- Onion

- Tomato

- Fish broth

- "Fideus"

What fideus are? Fideus are a kind of pasta, like spaghetti, but much thinner and much shorter.

Source: http://cambresbuides.blogspot.fi/2008/01/pensaments-inconnexes-xii.html

To make fideua is mandatory to use this type of pasta, you might not find it as thin as this one, doesn't matter, here in Finland I use this:

OK, let's start with the preparation, keep in mind, that all the time you are using the same pan, so if you can have a "paellera" is perfect, otherwise try to find the biggest pan you can use, because we want the meal to be cooked in a big surface but not too thick.

So, first, saute the peeled shrimps with little bit olive oil, salt and pepper. You don't want to cook them much, cause later will be cooked again with the broth, when ready reserve them aside. Same thing with the squid, which has been cut in little pieces or rings first. Reserve it aside too.

Chop really small a small onion and a small tomato and fry it, add couple chopped garlic nails, if you are as garlic addict as we are, put few more. Add as well one leave of laurel. Ok you are in the point where the "sofregit" (the mix of onion, tomato and garlic) is becoming ready so it is the time to put strong fire on and add the "fideus". You might want to add a bit more of olive oil, and the objective is, without stopping stirring, to give a nice toasted colour to the "fideus" (like in the first pic).

Once the colour of the "fideus" is mostly brownish, add the HOT fish broth, how much? I would say around double the volume of "fideus", but save some just in case you need more. I never know how much it is, but i have like a rule, always cover by half a centimetre the "fideus".

When the "fideus" are cooking and the broth is by the "fideus" level, add the shrimps, squid and clams, and then let it cook till the broth i almost gone.

Don't serve it right away, once you think is ready, let it rest for couple of minutes.

You can eat it with little bit of "all i oli". In here I added some chopper roast red peppers but didn't have clams. Hope you like it!

Escalivada

Being today 11-9, Catalan national day, going to show you how to make THE MOST traditional Catalan dish ESCALIVADA

Actually it is not a main dish, but a side dish or a base to make many other meals, but the base is always the same.

It is prety easy, you don´t need to be Gordon Ramsey as to make escalivada, ingredients:

- Red peppers

- Eggplant

- Onion

- Garlic

Onion and garlic are not mandatory, but beeing a garlic addict as we are, we cook it as many ways as we can imagine. About the red peppers, just make sure you can get some nice, fresh and thick red peppers, otherwise if they don´t have much "meat" they will, most likely, burn.

As to prepare the red peppers and eggplant rinse it with water and chop off the green part of the eggplant and put it to an oven tray, we did put aluminum folio as to be easier to clean later. Then put it to the oven at 200-250°C for about 30-45 min. Depending on the size of the vegetables it might take longer, so keep an eye on them.

Once they are soft, take them out of the oven and let them cool, if would be much easier to peel the vegetables. The red peppers are really easy to peel and to remove the seeds.

As you can see, there is a lot of food out of one eggplant and 2kg of red peppers, we did so much red peppers cause we found them really cheap, otherwise the typical way to do it its having 50/50 each.  With this you can eat it right away, put it in fridge and eat in in couple of days, or putting in small freezing bags and eat it whenever you want.

So, how to eat escalivada, as we say earlier, there is many dishes in catalan cooking where escalivada is one key ingredient, we might post some in the future, but my preferred way to eat those is the eggplant little bit hot, with some maldon salt and a blast of good olive oil. As for red peppers, i recommend, as a side dish for a big steak, fry few garlic nails with little bit of this red pepper.

Hope you like it, and have a nice Catalan day!