Membrillo

Here's a fun project if your pantry if over stocked with jellies and jams from the summer canning season, but you just can't help yourself from the joys of boiling fruit and sugar: make membrillo!

Membrillo, or quince paste, is a thick, sweet fruit paste traditionally paired with Manchego, a Spanish sheep's milk cheese, but, really, don't stop at just one kind of cheese. And don't stop at cheese, either. How about using membrillo in a pastry?

If you're not familiar with quince, quince is a hard fruit related to apples and pears, and has a most beautiful, sweet floral aroma. Quince is most often cooked, as it's too sour for most people to eat out of hand.

Quince are in season now, and because I run into quince a bit at work, I decided to tackle the recipe for membrillo in the current Vegetarian Times. Extremely easy, and quite impressive when you whip out a last minute cheese plate and can brag about your homemade membrillo.You'll start by peeling, coring, and chopping the quince. Then you'll cover the quince along with a few strips of lemon peel with water, and simmer covered until tender.Whirl the quince and lemon peel around in a food processor, then add it back to the pot along with sugar and a little lemon juice.
From here, you just simmer until the puree reduces to a very thick paste and magically turns a lovely shade of pinkish orange. Tannins are the magic.Spread the paste in a parchment paper-lined container for easy lifting when the paste is done chilling and firming, then cut off a few slices to enjoy.Membrillo
adapted from Vegetarian Times
makes about 1 cup

2 quince, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
3 strips of lemon peel
sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

• In a medium saucepan, add quince and lemon peel. Add enough water to the saucepan to cover the quince. Bring water to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Simmer 10-30 minutes, or until tender (yours may take significantly longer to become tender depending on the fruit). Drain water from quince.
• Add quince and lemon peel to a food processor and puree. Measure the volume of the quince puree, then return quince puree to the saucepan.
• How ever much quince puree you have, add an equal amount of sugar to the sauce pan, along with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
  
• Simmer quince and sugar mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, until very thick, about 45-90 minutes.
  
• Transfer quince paste to a parchment paper-lined container, and cool.
• Unmold quince paste, and slice.
  

Gazpacho

When I think of gazpacho, I think of chilled soup showcasing the freshest summer tomatoes and cucumbers. This soup is thin, refreshing, and studded with chunks of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and onions.

That's not exactly what I received when I sat down to dinner with some friends, the cook a native Spaniard, and an excellent cook at that.

The soup was chilled and did featured summer-sweet cucumber and tomatoes, but there were no chunks of vegetables. Exclaiming that I've never had gazpacho without chunks, my friend goes on to say that they don't put chunks of vegetables in gazpacho in Spain. Or at least where he's from.
Always my go-to guy to hear rants and raves about how Americans bastardize Spanish foods, he goes on to tell me that Americans also load up gazpacho with garlic, which in a no-no in Spain. Or at least where he's from.

Instead the Spanish use onions. But be careful, he warns. American onions are much stronger than the onions in Spain, so be sure to use red or sweet onions and reduce the amount called for.

And as I sat dunking hunks of crusty bread into the vibrant and refreshing, smooth gazpacho, even as a garlic-lover, I couldn't imagine that garlic would improve in any way on what he had made.

And, so, I went home to make my own gazpacho using his advice. The addition of smoked chipotle powder is my own touch, and certainly not authentic. In the end, I did add diced cucumbers, sweet red peppers, and onions to the finished gazpacho as a garnish, because I just like a little crunch in my gazpacho.
Gazpacho
serves 8-10

3-inch-long piece of baguette, cut into 1-inch cubes
10-15 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 medium cucumbers, peeled and coarsely chopped, plus 1/2 cucumber finely diced for garnish
1/4 small red or sweet onion, plus 1/4 onion finely diced for garnish
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon smoked chipotle powder
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 red pepper, finely diced for garnish

• Place bread in a small bowl, and squeeze juice from enough tomatoes over top of bread until bread is thoroughly wet with a small pool of tomato juice sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Transfer bread and tomato juice to a blender and blend until smooth.
• To the pureed bread, add tomatoes, cucumber, onions, salt, paprika, smoked chipotle powder, and sherry vinegar and blend until smooth. The blending will have to be done in batches since not all of the vegetables will fit in the blender, so dump blended batches into a large bowl or pot as you go.
• Strain blended vegetables through a small-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing on sides to push liquid through. Discard solids.
• Working in batches again in the blender, slowly drizzle olive oil (divided among batches) into the top of the blender, while the blender is running, until incorporated.
  
• Transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
  
• Garnish individual bowls of soup with diced cucumbers, onion, and red pepper before serving.
  

Amada

I went to Amada for my birthday, but decided not to blog about it. That is, blog with pictures of each dish accompanied by a description and opinion.

Why didn't I snap pics?

I wanted the night off, and...

You've all been to Amada and already know the good work that Garces does. I hadn't been, though I certainly know of Garces' good work. I tried when they first opened in 2005 but you needed a reservation (you still need a reservation most nights), and I loathe premeditated dining (unless you premeditate it for me), so never bothered trying.

This is the real reason why I decided to blog about Amada: unlike most restaurants (tapas or no tapas), there are enough veggie dishes on the menu that a vegetarian could order the recommended 3-4 plates per person and return 4-5 times without having to order the same thing twice.

And I'm not even counting the cheese plates and desserts, dishes that could have meat easily removed, or taking into consideration the seasonal menu changes.

That is all.

Amada
217-219 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-625-2450