Text 23817, 129 rader
Skriven 2009-05-05 08:09:00 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Jim Weller
Ärende: CHAIN COFFEE 90505
==========================
 -=> Quoting Jim Weller to Glen Jamieson <=-

 GJ> I have tried a few flavoured coffees - vanilla, hazelnut, etc -
 GJ> but I much prefer a good, straight coffee

 JW> I dislike commercially prepared flavoured coffees but have no
 JW> problem flavouring my own with good quality ingredients, like dark
 JW> rum and raw sugar.

I have to admit that it is a long time since I have used dark rum in
my morning coffee, although we do know someone who uses 70% alcohol
rum flavouring essence in his.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 
      Title: RAW MATERIALS - ALMONDS/HAZELNUTS
 Categories: Info, Spanish, Catalan, Euro-w
      Yield: 1 servings
 
           ;
 
  What is the single most important foodstuff in Catalan cuisine, the
  single ingredient that most saliently defines it [and I don't mean
  salt]? I don't know. Garlic, maybe. The tomato, perhaps. Rice? Salt
  cod? Pork?
  
  What I do know is that some culinary raw materials are very obviously
  more important to the cuisine than others: that garlic [and onions],
  for instance, are vital to it, while shallots and leeks [though
  they're certainly used] are not; that tomatoes are honoured more than
  courgettes, rice more than potatoes [though potatoes are much-loved],
  salt cod and pork more than, say, lobster and lamb.
  
  I've picked out some fifteen such raw materials [or classes of same]
  to write about here in some detail - items without which I simply
  cannot imagine Catalan cuisine as I have cOlTIe to know it. I exempt
  from this list the really important ones - garlic, onions and
  tomatoes above all - because there's hardly a dish in this whole
  idiom [it sometimes seems] that doesn't include them. They don't get
  chapters of their own, that is, because every chapter [almost] is
  about them. Those other fifteen, though, are a bit more specialised,
  and deserve some separate attention. They are aubergines, almonds and
  other nuts, anchovies, rice, poultry, salt cod, wild mushrooms, wild
  game, snails, legumes [or pulses], organ meats, olives and olive oil,
  eggs, fresh fish and shellfish and pork. What follow are notes on
  [and recipes involving] each, arranged alphabetically.
  
  AMETLLES, AVELLANES I PINYONS - ALMONDS, HAzELNUTS & PINE NUTS The
  first time I had Catalan almonds was at the venerable wine firm of De
  Muller in Tarragona. A bowl of them came out with samples of the
  company's lovely vi ranci. I didn't pay much attention to them at
  first since I was concentrating on the wine, but I happened to be
  watching as one of the directors of the firm casually picked one of
  them up, rubbed it quickly between his fingers [thereby crinkling off
  its skin], and popped it into his mouth - and I idly followed suit.
  The, almond was delicious - a crunchy concatenation of smoky, salty,
  earthy flavours. It got my attention right away, and I suppose I must
  have promptly inhaled half the bowl. They were the best almonds I had
  ever tasted.
  
  And it was alongside that pool one August afternoon that I first
  tasted those almonds - still hot from a light roasting and
  accompanied by Can del Mulo's own sparkling wine and by a plate of
  little grape-sized home-grown cherry tomatoes, sprinkled with coarse
  sea salt. "Put a tomato and an almond in your mouth at the same
  time", Lori said. I did and was instantly transported to some corner
  of gastronomic paradise. The sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes,
  the sting of the salt, and the warm intensity of the almonds knit
  together perfectly; I could not, at that moment, have imagined
  anything - any mere truffle or spoonful of caviar or forkful of some
  new creation by Troisgros or Guerard - tasting better.
  
  Unfortunately, Spanish almonds - Tarragonan, Ibizenco or otherwise -
  are all but unavailable in Britain. California is the world's largest
  producer of the nuts. There's nothing wrong with Californian almonds,
  of course. They can be very good. But they are almonds on a different
  level, almonds which just simply aren't quite the same thing at all.
  Spanish almonds are usually larger than their Californian
  counterparts, flatter and more, well, almond-shaped - more
  gracefullooking, if you will. Their skin is dark brown and loose,
  relatively easy to rub off and they have a rich, deep almond flavour.
  Californian almonds, which are different varieties altogether in most
  cases, tend to be plump and squat, with lighter, striated skin that
  is difficult to remove. They often have a moist, slightly chewy
  texture, and are rarely as intense in flavour as the Spanish ones.
  Still, of course, they're better than nothing - and they work
  passably well in the Catalan dishes that call for almonds.
  
  I have fond memories of Catalan hazelnuts, too - especially some
  small, very round ones, roasted to blackness and still hot enough to
  burn the fingers, which I encountered one day at a big communal
  luncheon near Tarragona. [There's something about those Tarragona nut
  trees...] But I find American-grown hazelnuts to be more successful
  than American-grown almonds in general - more vividly "Spanish" in
  flavour - and perhaps for that reason I don't romanticise the Catalan
  ones as much.
  
  Almonds and hazelnuts are sometimes said to have been introduced into
  Catalonia by the Moors, but linguistic evidence suggests that the
  Romans may nave imported them first. [The Catalan words for both -
  ametlla and avellana respectively - derive from Latin, not Arabic.]
  Pinenuts, the edible seeds of certain pine trees, probably predated
  almost everybody - but it seems reasonable to suppose that it was the
  Moors, who used them amply in their own cooking, who first
  popularized their culinary use in the region. In any case, like
  almonds and hazelnuts, they are very highly regarded in the paisos
  catalans [author Josep M. Espinas calls them "the caviar of the
  forest"], and very widely used - especially in pastries and of course
  in the all-important picada.
  
  Walnuts, which the Catalans think go particularly well with wine [as
  do I], are also widely grown in the region today - there's even a
  comarca in the province of Lleida called La Noguera, "The Walnut
  Tree" - as are chestnuts, which are commonly associated with the dead
  in Catalan tradition and thus served mostly at wakes [famous in
  Catalonia for their gastronomic sophistication] and on holidays
  commemorating the departed.
  
  From: CATALAN CUISINE - EUROPE'S LAST GREAT CULINARY SECRET By: COLMAN
  ANDREWS ISBN: 978-1-8986-9776-3 Scanned by: KEVIN JCJD SYMONS, MARCH
  2009
 
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