Photo by Emma Lee
Jose Pizarro is one of life’s great enthusiasts. He and his books (and this is his fifth) are instant sunshine. I am not enormously well-travelled in Spain, and my repertoire of Spanish dishes is limited — but this book makes me greedily impatient to right these wrongs. I feel in compiling these recipes he’s had some strange insight into my mind, and has tapped into just the sort of food I want to be cooking. Yes please to Oxtail Croquetas (I’ve never met a croqueta I do not love, but oxtail croquetas, along with the slow cooked oxtail recipe whose leftovers make the croquettes, really have my number). Also ringing my bell is the recipe for Slow-Cooked Pork Cheeks with Oloroso Sherry; the Roast Chicken with Orange, Cumin & Apricot Rice; Fried Anchovies with Allioli; Beetroot, Blood Orange, Pomegranate & Goat’s Cheese Salad; and Huevos a la Flamenca, a soft-soused dish of aubergines, onions, chorizo, peppers and tomatoes with eggs poached in it. But the recipe that has brought real joy into a grey day is for Tortas de Aceite, one of which I am nibbling on while writing this (I’ve almost eaten my way through the entire batch, but in my defence, I did make them yesterday, so really I’m being heroic). These are flaky olive oil biscuits, flavoured with fennel seeds — I’ve had them with anise, which is obviously similar, before — that are completely unlike any other biscuits (or cookies, if you’re American). They are aromatic rather than sweet exactly, and I adore their savouriness, so compellingly balanced with the just-caramelised sugar sprinkle on top. I’ve only ever eaten them as they are, but it occurs to me now they would be just wonderful with some fresh soft goat’s cheese. Mine aren’t quite as crisp as the ones I’ve eaten before, bought in beautiful boxes from Spain, but I like them even better this way. They’ve made my week!
ANDALUSIA: Recipes from Seville and beyond by José Pizarro (Hardie Grant, £26.00)
Photography: Emma Lee.
