[Spanish guitar playing]
The cuisine of Andalucía,
whether honoring traditional dishes or over-the-top modern techniques,
is a distinctively Mediterranean cuisine.
Like most cuisines, it is defined by location,
cultural heritage and the bounty of regional ingredients;
vegetables and fruits, legumes, complex carbohydrates,
and of course a strong foundation in extra-virgin olive oil,
are the hallmarks of this cuisine.
Let’s look at how Andalucían chefs take these fresh ingredients
and adapt recipes handed down through the generations
to provide restaurant customers with delicious menu items....
whether it is casual style or fine dining.
We’ll look at a rustic staple of the region, migas,
we’ll sample a modern take on a corn soup that could also be served as a tapa.
We’ll look at some traditional and modern desserts and several seafood dishes.
With a coast line that touches two oceans,
it is not surprising that fish and seafood play a prominent role in Andalucían cuisine.
And with an abundance of oil, deep frying food,
including fish has been part of the cuisine for thousands of years.
In Granada, one famous restaurant deals in almost nothing but fried fish.
This is Los Diamantes (los dee-ah-MAHN-tays), a cross between a tapas bar and a restaurant,
where crowds gather every night to "tapear" before dinner
or to chow down on fried shrimp, squid, or baby octopus.
The fish is always fresh and crisp, not oily.
In most cases it is battered and then fried in extra virgin olive oil.
Chef Celia Jimenez shows us a deep-fried fish that is not battered,
but is dipped in a flour made especially for frying,
which according to Jimenez, is a more coarsely ground flour.
It gives a crisp, crunchy exterior to the fried fish
that goes very well with the supple texture inside.
This fish is bacalao, or salt cod,
and is fried in extra-virgin olive oil.
Bacalao like this has been used for untold generations
as the fish served during the many fasting days of the church calendar.
Chef Juan Andres Morilla at El Claustro in Granada,
winner of Spain’s Best Chef Bocuse ‘dOr Competition in 2009,
prepares a sturgeon from local producers in Rio Frio.
[Chef Juan Andres Morilla] Here, we have a very special dish with very intense flavors and aromas.
When we received the sturgeon from our purveyor, as odd as it might sound,
we leave the fish in the walk-in for five days or so, so that it can rest.
Contrary to all other fish, where the fresher the better,
with sturgeon — slightly aged fish is better.
It is a fish that has a lot of collagen that needs time to break down,
so that when we cook it, we end up with a tender product.
We accompany it with a Jerusalem artichoke or sunchoke purée…..
We also accompany the fish with a baby squid that we have grilled with just olive oil,
then sliced into little rings.
And finally we are going to add the very special sturgeon that we have been glazing in a jus,
that is composed of 50% veal glaze and 50% fish fumé,
which gives us a very interesting "surf and turf" aspect
(or as we say “mar y montaña.”)
You'll feel like you're eating meat in some bites and fish in others.
[Music playing]
[Narrator] Even chefs with a notable reputation for invention and innovation
are still rooted in tradition.
Kisko García shows us how to make migas,
a hearty dish that is as central to the cuisine of southern Spain
as pasta is to Italy or couscous is to Morocco.
[Kisko García speaking] Migas are a very traditional dish from the mountainous regions.
People would normally eat it before they go out to the country
to tend to the herds, to pick olives, or some kind of hard work like that.
As you can see here, the components are jamón Ibérico panchetta (or bacon),
chorizo (also made from Ibérico pigs),
garlic,
green pepper and bread....
The bread has been a little toasted.
And of course olive oil.
We place the pancetta in the hot pan and we fry it.
It has to be “torradito” which is what we say when it acquires color, or toasts a little.
It means crispy or well-cooked.
Lets add the green peppers now, which are not spicy by the way.
As you can see, what we have done with the garlic is to cover it is oil and
roast it very, very slowly until it is soft.
So let’s add the garlic.
These are crumbs from normal bread from the day before.
What we do is to dry the crumbs in the oven even more for a little bit.
We have to be patient with the migas
and allow for them to touch the bottom of the pan and let them crisp up with the fat we already had there.
We are barely going to stir now, and in about 5 minutes it should be done.
In Grenada, a humble shop owner shows us the simplicity of good food.
Francisco Lillo is the first to admit that he's no fancy chef.
But at his lovely small gourmet paradise, La Oliva,
he prepares a simple and delicious dish
that relies entirely on great products,
starting with Iberian pork, a tender sirloin (or "solomillo") cut in medallions.
[Francisco Lillo speaking] So, we start putting a little bit of salt on the medallions.
And now pepper.
This is an olive oil from Baeza. made with Piqual.
I put here a little bit of salt and I first crush the bay leaf....
[sound of mortal and pestal]
Now, we crush the [....]
[Narrator] A dash of extra-virgin olive oil from nearby Baeza...
[Francisco Lillo speaking] ....We put the Oloroso.
[Narrator speaking] A splash of aromatic Oloroso sherry and a humble camp stone.
With a fragrance of garlic, bay leaves, parsley, and the sherry,
it makes a dish fit for the annals of gastronomy.
[Francisco Lillo speaking] We put the meat like that!
I have to say to you, that I think,
a lot of salt with meat — is a perfect combination cooking.
[Narrator speaking] When recipes and techniques are handed down from generation to generation,
even with modern twists,
they become affectionately called “traditional cuisine.”
Maria García Morillo at the Estate Castillo de Canena,
takes a traditional Cream of Corn soup that could be served as an appetizer or tapa,
but re-introduces it with unique flavors and textures.
This traditional soup uses all local ingredients
but with some unique garnishes.
After puréeing the corn with cream, salt and pepper, she strains the mixture.
Now for a most unusual ingredient—corn nuts,
which Maria crushes in her mortar for a garnish for the soup.
But first, for contrast she garnishes the soup with cubes of foie gras,
then sprinkles the crushed corn nuts,
and finally a dose of Castillo de Canena Arbequina olive oil to top it all off
and marry the flavors together.
The traditional recipes of Andalucían cuisine are woven into the fabric of everyday life,
of what was grown in the backyard or farm down the road.
Andalucians live and eat healthy as a matter of course
and desserts are no exception.
José Carlos García, at Café de París in Málaga
introduces us to a dessert made with fresh local fruits.
[José Carlos García speaking] We are going to cook these peaches, for approximately 25 minutes,
with star anise, vanilla, and a little water in the oven.
It can also be done sous vide.
These ones in particular were made in the oven at about 260ºF (125ºC),
Like I said, for about 25 minutes or until we have a nice and soft texture.
The ice cream flavor is what we call here in the region “toasted custard”
which in practical terms could be compared to a crème brulee,
or crème catalan.
It is essentially a custard over which we toasted the caramel
and we have made the base with that.
We have frozen this to -4º F (20ºC)
for at least 24 hours and we will process it in this machine right here
that makes the ice cream in less than a minute....
So, this is the custard. It is hard and frozen right now.
....With tiny little blades that shave really small ice crystals off our frozen custard....
[Ambient Noise]
And now we have this ice cream in less than a minute.
And now, the raspberry purée is already prepared,
will be produced as a foam and submerged in the alginate bath to form a pellicle.
It will stay liquid inside, but on the outside it is completely surrounded, it is spherification.
What the bath is doing right now is creating a pellicle on the outside.
See the thing is that when the purée starts loosing its chill,
the foam starts flattening and loosing the emulsion.
With this coating, this pellicle will prevent that liquefied foam from escaping.
This technique is called inverse spherification where the bath is done in alginate
where before, with the other spherification, the alginate is mixed into the product.
This is a very advanced technique that is being utilized throughout the world.
The great thing is when you apply it to a traditional cuisine, which is what we've done here,
it gives it a little more of a contemporary feel.
I mean, we have traditional and simple peach and raspberry purée,
but with this, we bring it to a whole new level.
This is one of the characteristics of our cuisine.
Without loosing our character or identity, we are able to be contemporary when it comes to technique.
We finish the dish with a strawberry or raspberry crisp.
This is just fruit and sugar.
We melt it and finish in the oven for a nice crispy décor
that provides another textural component to the dish,
and a visual complement to the spherification.
So, in the end we get a very local dish, very fresh, close by....
In other words, we don’t travel far at all to get all of these components.
This is one of our core ideas here, the proximity of ingredients to our kitchen.
[Narrator] Spaniards take delight in this course.
From whimsical modernist sweets like Dani García’s Strawberry Meringue Wrapped in Spun Sugar,
or to traditional Andalucían desserts like Juan Luis Salcedo’s classic gachas,
or Sweet Pudding with Fried Bread.
These dishes are all Andalucían, through and through.
Incredible dishes like these are just a sampling of Andalucía’s gastronomy.
Wherever you go in the region, even in inland mountain villages,
you find the same attention to detail
and the same focus on quality handed down through the generations.
[Music Playing]