Spanish Christmas Recipes - Starter And sweetmeat

Two customary Spanish Christmas recipes:

Starter

Traditional Food

Almond Soup

Normally served as a dessert in Castille all straight through the year. At Christmas, however, it is served as a first procedure for Christmas dinner with saffron. This spice has found it's excellent growing conditions in Spain, especially in La Mancha, where each autumn the saffron flowers are picked and in a traditional, process fully carried out by hand, the stigmas are toasted to furnish the finest saffron in the world, known as Calidad Mancha.

1.25 litres (2 1/4pt) milk

75 g (3 oz) sugar

150 g (6 oz) powdered almonds or almond paste

2 tbsp fine fresh bread crumbs

2 cloves of garlic

Coarse salt

A few threads of saffron

A few sprigs of parsley

White peppercorns

200 ml (7 floz) olive oil

Garnish

12 small, very thin slices of bread, fried in olive oil

50 g (2 oz) toasted chopped almonds

Bring the milk to a boil.

In a mortar, mix together the base salt, saffron, pepper, garlic and parsley.

Mix the powdered almonds, sugar and the composition from the mortar into the boiling milk.

Lower the heat and let cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve garnished with the slices of fried bread and the toasted chopped almonds.

Dessert

Touron Ice Cream

(ice cream made with two nougats) with chocolate sauce

Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain. There are innumerable variations - chocolate, coconut, praline, etc. - but the oldest and most authentic recipes are those for soft (Jijona) touron, made with ground almonds, or hard (Alicante) touron, made with whole almonds, or served as an ice cream, accompanied by chocolate sauce. The sauce is made not with butter but with olive oil, as it used to be made when cocoa was first brought to Spain from the Americas.

150 g (6 oz sugar)

4 tbsp water

6 egg yolks

150 g (6 oz) soft Jijona nougat

2 tbsp Malaga wine

200 ml (7 floz) liquid crème fraîche

3 egg whites

75 g (3 oz) hard Alicante nougat

Sauce

200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tbsp water

Roughly break up the Alicante nougat.

Butter a 500 ml (1 pt) soufflé dish.

Place a paper collar nearby the edge of the soufflé dish, letting it increase 5 cm (2") above the rim. Place in the freezer.

Prepare a light syrup with the water and sugar.

Beat the egg yolks and the warm syrup together in a blender.

Break up the Jijona nougat into the two tablespoons of wine. Beat the crème fraîche. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

Carefully fold together, in the same order, all of the mixtures.

Sprinkle the soufflé mould with some of the Alicante nougat.

Pour in the ready cream mixture.

Leave in the freezer for several hours, or overnight for best results.

After removing the composition from the freezer, remove the paper, sprinkle with the remaining Alicante nougat and serve with the warm chocolate sauce.

To make the warm chocolate sauce

Place the chocolate and water in a bowl or duplicate boiler and melt over a pan of simmering water.

Gradually mix in the oil, whisking constantly.

Enjoy!

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Spanish Christmas Recipes - Starter And sweetmeat

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