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Classic Córdoba cuisine - with a contemporary touch

Poster: Gillaine Hathaway 01/05/2007

GILLAINE HATHAWAY WAS DELIGHTED TO BE INVITED TO A SPECIAL FINE DINING EXPERIENCE ON THE COAST, WITH SPANISH WINES AND FOOD THE STARS OF THE EVENING.

There we were on the Costa del Sol enjoying an aperitif in the evening sunshine on the sunny terrace of La Sal Restaurant in Estepona - sampling wines from the Belasco family, who have bodegas in Navarra, Torro Rueda and Lujas de Cuyo, and one in Argentina. 
More wines were then served with a meal in the restaurant itself, created by Paco San Francisco Perez Lorente from Córdoba and the owner of La Sal Restaurant. Paco is well known for his elegant restaurant, which has delighted diners and food critics alike for many years; while the Belasco family have won countless awards for their wines. And the guests were an equal mix of Spaniards and foreigners - but then, that is the Costa del Sol at its best!
For eight years La Sal Restaurant was located in Cancelada itself, but Paco recently decided to move nearer to the main road and has taken over the restaurant and terrace at the Hotel Doña Matilda. 
Though Sandra Pérez is his hard-working and devoted chef, the following recipes - like all the dishes he serves in La Sal - were created by Paco, who over the years has modernised the classic dishes of Cordoba. His aim has been to make them lighter and easier to digest. Old-style cordobés dishes, he says, require a siesta after lunch, which for many of us in these modern times is impossible. 
Here are two of his cordobés specialities: a starter of salmorejo and a main course of jarrete de Córdoba. And the dessert!  Well that is a surprise. And no, don't skip reading about the first two courses - just enjoy each plate in turn. 

SALMOREJO CORDOBÉS

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

For the soup: 
1 kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled
250 ml olive oil
200 gr bread (fresh, but make sure it is a nice country bread, "pan cateto", that is dense rather than fluffy)
1 teaspoon of salt

For the garnish:
200 gr serrano ham cut into cubes
2 hard boiled eggs, cubed
1 green pepper, cubed

• Put the tomatoes, bread and garlic into a food processor and pulse until finely ground.
• Sprinkle in the salt.
• Now add the olive oil, little by little, just as you would if making a mayonnaise, until the mixture develops a thick creamy consistency.
• Taste for seasoning and add more salt and, if you wish, pepper.
• Chill in the fridge until you are ready to serve then simply pour into serving bowls and sprinkle over the garnish.

Those of you who are familiar with salmorejo might be surprised to see no lemon juice or vinegar in Paco's recipe. He explains that the tomatoes provide all the acidity and that there is no need for anything else. See if you agree and, if not, you can always add a squeeze of lemon juice at the table.

It requires a little more effort to make Paco's main course, a delicious lamb stew. It is, in fact, a slow-cooked dish and needs three hours cooking time. But the actual prepping is not difficult and the flavour is truly wonderful. Incidentally Paco suggests serving with this dish a bottle of Homenage, a Belasco family Crianza. 

JARRETE DE CÓRDOBA

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

4 lamb shanks
4 large tomatoes
4 Spanish onions, peeled but left whole
4 red peppers, cleaned and left whole, but with the seeds removed
4 cloves of garlic, with the skins on but lightly bashed to break them up a little
250 ml olive oil
1 ltr good quality red wine
1 ltr water
1 small bunch each of thyme and oregano
2 tablespoons of sweet paprika
1 teaspoon of salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 medium-sized carrots, peeled and cut into rings

• In a large cooking pot heat the oil.
• Add the garlic and shanks and cook until the shanks are golden brown.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the wine and the water.
• Add the onions, tomatoes, green peppers, paprika, salt and pepper and herbs, and return to the stove and cook on a low heat for two hours, checking from time to time to ensure that the shanks do not fall apart.
• Remove the vegetables and process until smooth and then return to the pan along with the carrots.
• Cook for a further half hour and serve with potatoes, cooked as you wish. (Paco actually suggests chips, as he says they go so well with the tasty sauce that has been created over the slow cooking process.)

Now for the dessert, and we leave Córdoba for a total invention by Paco, who after 15 years living on the Coast has developed the following chocolate soup as a tribute to all us foreigners!
It is a dish that is made just before serving and if you cannot find mint ice cream in the shops Paco suggests using a good quality vanilla ice cream, which you allow to soften before stirring in two tablespoons of finely chopped fresh mint and re-freezing until its time to serve the hot soup.  He also prefers to use Belgian chocolate in this dessert.

SOPA CALIENTE DE CHOCOLATE CON HELADO DE MENTA

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

800 gr dark good quality chocolate (80% cocoa)
800 gr Ideal milk
300 gr mint ice cream
Cocoa powder to decorate

• Break up the chocolate into a bowl and melt over a pan of boiling water (making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl).
• Once melted, slowly stir in the Ideal milk until a warm and soupy consistency is reached.
• Serve with a scoop of mint ice cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.

Wine a family affair

Since 1831 eight generations of the Belasco family have been making wines in Navarra, with ever-growing success. In 1980, however, they decided they wanted to expand and become known for their wines of quality, so they bought Bodegas Marco Real in Olite, the old capital of the kingdom of Navarra and today the capital of Navarra wine. 
Since then the family have gone on to construct new bodegas and become known for such new wines as Señorio de Andion (from Navarra itself) and Viñedos de Villaester (from Toro). They also presented another new wine, the Rueda Vila del Sopie, before deciding to invest in Argentina where they created the Belasco de Baquedano bodega in Mendoza.
The Belascos are now well known for a variety of wines from fresh aromatic - the perfect accompaniment to Mediterranean dishes - to modern high-quality Crianzas and elegant, intense top-of-the-range wines.
Over the years they have also won countless international awards.

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