Spain: Recipes and Traditions from the Verdant Hills of the Basque Country to the Coastal Waters of Andalucía

by Jeff Koehler, Kevin J. Miyazaki (Photographer)

From the craggy Catalan coastline to the undulating, red-soiled hills of Andalucía, the diversity of the Spanish countryside is without rival. Its cuisine directly reflects this landscape, with each region celebrating its own ingredients and culinary traditions. In Spain, long-time Barcelona resident Jeff Koehler gathers the country's many time-honored dishes and age-old culinary customs, and distills the Spanish table down to its essence—food that is prepared simply but full of homemade flavors, and always meant to be shared.

Each chapter is an ode to Spain's delightful kitchen, from gazpachos, salt cod, and poultry, to savory and sweet conserves. The story of the country is told through 200 recipes from classics like Shellfish Paella, Artichoke Egg Tortilla, and creamy Flan to delicacies such as Chilled Melon Soup with Crispy Jamón and Monkfish Steaks with Saffron. Dishes from Spain's leisurely multicourse meals and simple tapas alike celebrate seasonal ingredients: wild mushrooms, asparagus, and local game. Sidebars trace Spain's rich culinary traditions, taking us from ancient Moorish cities to the arid fields of the Castilian countryside, and allow us to meet the people who still, with devotion, cultivate them. Accompanying these are hundreds of evocative photos of the markets, orchards, green hills, and fishing ports from which this delicious cuisine originates.

Add to this a thorough glossary that includes techniques such as preparing snails, using saffron, and making perfect fish stock, as well as a helpful source list. Novices and veterans of the Spanish kitchen alike will gain a deeper understanding not only of Spain's cuisine but of its culture.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Spain, Reference, Travel

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2013

Reviews

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit fussy in his ideas of ingredients, but that is understandable, to make good, true-to-roots iberian pen. food on must have the correct peppers, meats, veg, and fishes. how to get that outside nyc or perhaps reno and boise, is a different matter. but a good basic starter cookbook that surveys most of spanish areas and signature dishes, paella, tortillas, oxtail, monkfish, tapas, barbate style tuna, salmorejo, cod a dozen ways, endive at least two ways, etc
what makes spanish food so good are the ingredients and freshness. 3 of the world's ten best restaurants are along the bay of biscay, not because their dishes are so so unique and wonderful, but that the ingredients are fresh caught, butchered, grown, picked right there locally.
try it yourself, local food grown with integrity tastes better, no matter what the style
now thinking about growing and making my own smoked paprika, pimenton.
this author wrote a whole cookbook on paella, so he is fairly obsessed
also, he is from barcelona and cataluna, and this book is weighted to that area recipe-wise.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reviewer complained that these ingredients are too hard to find outside Spain. Well... yeah... It's Spanish cooking, isn't it? Another reviewer complained that this is not what the average Spaniard eats on a daily basis. To that I say it depends on the size of their wallet. But seriously, some of the best meals in any country come out for special events or holidays. A good number of recipes in this book are -those- meals. I saw plenty of dishes I ate on my short visit to Spain represented here. Beyond those, does anyone really need a recipe explaining how jamon and manchego cheese gets placed between pieces of a delicious bread?

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recommend this cookbook to: people who have visited Spain, fallen in love with the food culture of various regions, who want a coffee-table picture book, with extremely authentic recipes to help them relive their experience. Also, for anyone who can't afford to go to Spain, who wants a tour of all its regions through food-culture--this is the book for you, if you're willing to plop down $40.00.

I don't recommend this for: vegetarians, or anyone squeamish about eating all parts of an animal (there were a few things that grossed even totally-non-squeamish me out).

Why this failed to get a higher rating from me:

1. Mediocre but expensive design job--too many pages of difficult-to-read, small typeface on colored background annoyed me. Also annoying was the silly yellow splotchy ink-bleed (done on purpose) on the white page edges--for decoration!. And the ALL-CAPS ingredient lists, in 2-column layout, makes the recipes difficult to scan.

2. Although the authenticity is obviously impeccable, the cultural information presented is just not very interesting, mostly because it's been said by everyone else who has written a Spanish cookbook or hosted a Spanish cooking show in the past 20 years. Also because the author's tone is journalistic (not very creative). The photography is nice however.

3. Too many recipes that aren't really recipes. Example: Galician boiled potatoes with paprika, for which we're instructed to scrub and boil potatoes, then peel them, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and paprika. These psuedo-recipes serve to make the book thicker (each filling an entire page of thick, expensive paper) adds to the cost of the book without providing enough value.

Why I liked it: The last three chapters (13--Desserts; 14--Drinks; and 15--Homemade Conserves) gave me some new and interesting ideas, which I definitely will add to my kitchen repertoire. This year when the garden is bursting with ripe tomatoes, I'm going to can tomato marmalade and sweet preserved tomatoes with thyme.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was reading this just as friends were leaving for a business trip to Barcelona, so I was able to pass on some interesting places that they might visit: a store that sells products exclusively made by monasteries and abbeys, for example, or some Christmas traditions like beating the poop log. (Read the book.) The book had glorious photograph, and it was well written. My personal issue with it was that the foods (recipes) offered up weren't what I eat. They eat a lot of pork in Spain (all bits) and a lot of starchy fattier things I wouldn't be cooking. I did save a recipe for an almond yogurt sponge cake, but overall this book would be a better learning tool for someone who really wants to learn Spanish cooking techniques.

[Honest Mabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

it’s okay

Not a lot that I would make and not as many recipes as I had hoped for the size of this book

[Gabrielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is...okay. To echo some other reviewers, most of the recipes are a bit fussy, and lots of the recipes require some specialized ingredients. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite the foodie and I love using authentic ingredients in ethnic recipes, but sometimes it just gets a little tiring for Every. Single. Recipe. to call for blood sausage or salt cod or a rabbit. I've been to Spain. They don't eat those foods every day. There's plenty of other foods you could feature in a cookbook about Spain....

...like for example the recipes in Claudia Roden's "The Food of Spain," which I recommend instead of this one. In addition to the fine recipes that actually make me want to jump up and start cooking, Roden's writing is always lovely and her historical context well-researched.