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| Samfaina con pollo is a dish of sautéed summer time greens with rooster. The dish requires 3 ways of frying–sofreir, saltear and rehogar. Straightforward steps that develop a number of taste. |
Vocabulary tells us lots about culinary methods. And Spanish delicacies has nearly a dozen phrases for various methods to fry meals.
Freir is “to fry.” However, sofreir is to pre-fry, or fry frivolously. Refreir is to refry. Then there are saltear, sauté; rehogar, to brown; dorar, to brown or “make golden;” sudar, to sweat in oil; sellar, to seal or sear; pochar, to poach in oil, and caramelizar, to caramelize. All of those happen in oil. Olive oil, after all.
Frying is the cooking course of by which the meals is immersed in sizzling oil. The verb comes with its corresponding nouns and adjectives—frito is, you guessed it, a fried meals. Fritura means a plate of fried meals, reminiscent of fritura malagueña, Málaga’s well-known combined barbecue. Patatas fritas, fries, are cooked in deep oil. Breaded and battered meals are fried—suppose croquettes, shrimp.
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| Fritura malagueña is a combined barbecue, finest when the fish are fried in olive oil. See the recipe right here. |
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| For Spanish fries, the potatoes fry in sufficient olive oil to cowl them. The recipe for how-to make Spanish fries is right here. |
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| Deep-fry croquettes in olive oil. Recipes for 3 sorts of croquettes, mushroom, ham and cheese-potato, are right here. |
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| Gambas rebosadas, batter-fried shrimp, are a favourite in tapa bars. The recipe is right here. |
Sure, you possibly can deep-fry in further virgin olive oil. Warmth olive oil to a temperature of 360ºF/ 180ºC. That is properly under the smoking level of olive oil, 380ºF to 410ºF. At this temperature a crust varieties on the floor of the meals, so the oil doesn’t penetrate it, but it surely doesn’t brown too shortly, permitting the inside of the meals to prepare dinner totally.
Sofrito, although, is greater than the act of frying. Sofrito is process, approach and end result. It means gently frying components in olive oil to provide new flavors and complexity to a completed dish.
Sofrito often begins with sluggish frying of onions, garlic, generally peppers, in just a bit oil and infrequently finishes with the addition of chopped tomatoes. The tomatoes, too, are “fried” till their liquid cooks away. Sofrito, if sieved, can turn out to be a sauce in its personal proper. However often it is step one in a extra advanced dish. Paella, for example, begins with sofrito, to that are added rooster or rabbit, different greens, seafood. Rabo de Toro, braised ox-tail, begins with a extra advanced sofrito with leeks and carrots in addition to the onion and garlic to which the items of meat are added.
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| Sofrito builds taste for paella. Begin with garlic and peppers, add greens, brown rooster or rabbit, then add tomatoes, rice, liquid. Paella, step-by-step, right here. |
Pochar and hacer sudar are subcategories of sofreir. Pochar is a phrase poached from English. In Spanish, the phrase for poaching an egg is escalfar, not pochar. Pochar is used particularly to imply cooking one thing, often chopped onions, in oil at a really low temperature with out letting it brown. Determine 20 minutes. It’s okay to cowl the pan. Sudar is analogous, which means “to sweat” the onions in oil till softened. Not precisely frying, though it does happen within the medium of olive oil.
This brings me to the topic of sliced or diced potatoes destined to be integrated within the well-known Spanish tortilla de patatas. Whereas a Spanish prepare dinner would most likely say, “freir las patatas,” I are likely to say, in English, “poach” the potatoes in olive oil. As a result of, though the potatoes are immersed in a lot of oil (which is drained off), you positively don’t need excessive frying temperatures. You need the potatoes to prepare dinner slowly and by no means brown. (Don’t fear, should you use olive oil, they don’t take in a number of oil.)
Saltear simply means sauté. Writing recipes in English, I invariably use the phrase “sauté” once I imply so that you can fry cut-up meals in some oil. Sauté comes from the French phrase, sauter, which means “to leap.” The concept is to maintain the meals transferring round within the frying pan. The Spanish equal is saltear, which doesn’t really imply “to leap,” (that’s saltar), however “to skip over.” For those who’ve ever watched an skilled prepare dinner flip a pan filled with chopped onions with a jerk of the arm, you realize what saltear is. Salteado de champiñones is a sauté of mushrooms. Salteado de guisantes or habas is a vegetable sauté of peas or fava beans. Both may very well be topped with a huevo frito, egg fried in sufficient olive oil to almost cowl it.
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| Salteado de champiñones, mushroom sauté, is the proper aspect dish with grilled steak. Recipe is right here. |
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| Salteado de guisantes, a dish of recent peas sautéed with ham, topped with an egg. See the recipe right here. |
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| The Spanish method to fry an egg, immersed in olive oil. Instructions for how-to are right here. |
A phrase that doesn’t exist in Spanish is for Chinese language stir-fry. The strategy of shortly frying cut-up meals at extraordinarily excessive temperatures appears, properly, overseas. I believe it is because knowledgeable wok frying actually does attain the smoking level of olive oil. If that is your factor, use sunflower oil, aceite de girasol. I do a number of stir-frying. I do use olive oil, however I preserve the temperatures under the smoke level. Principally, a Spanish salteado with soy sauce.
Rehogar means “to brown in oil.” Cooks generally say to “sellar” meat or rooster in a sizzling pan with a bit of oil. Though sellar means “to seal,” what they actually imply is “to sear,” to rehogar or brown the floor, which develops the Maillard response, changing proteins and starches to deep, savory flavors.
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| Brown rooster items in oil–rehogar–with a number of cloves of garlic earlier than including liquid to complete their cooking. (Recipe under.) |
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| A refrito of garlic. |
The recipe under for Samfaina con Pollo, a Catalan dish of sautéed greens with rooster makes use of three of those frying methods. It begins with a sofrito, continues with a salteado, or sauté, with eggplant and zucchini. The rooster is rehogado, or “browned” earlier than being added to the greens. Every step contributes taste and complexity to the completed dish.
Sauté of Summer season Greens with Hen, Catalan Fashion
Samfaina con Pollo (Samfaina amb pollastre)
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| Prepared for the sofrito, salteado. |
You possibly can differ the portions and proportions of the greens.
2 medium onions (10 ounces)
3 cloves garlic
2 frying peppers (8 ounces)
1 pink bell pepper (8 ounces)
1 giant zucchini (14 ounces)
1 medium eggplant (14 ounces)
4-5 tomatoes (1 ½ kilos)
3 + 2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly floor black pepper
Purple pepper flakes (optionally available)
Sprig of recent thyme
For the rooster
½ rooster, reduce up (1 pound 10 ounces)
Salt
Freshly floor black pepper
Thyme
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons Spanish brandy
Water, if wanted
For the samfaina:
Chop the onions finely. Slice the garlic. Minimize the peppers into ½-inch items. Minimize the zucchini and eggplants into ½-inch cube. Take away cores from the tomatoes. Grate them, discarding the skins.
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| Stir or flip the onions. |
Sofreir the onions and garlic.
Place the garlic in a skillet with 3 tablespoons of the oil on medium-high warmth. When garlic begins to sizzle, however earlier than it browns, add the chopped onion. Sauté the onions, stirring or flipping them incessantly, till they’re utterly mushy, 10 minutes. Regulate warmth so the onions don’t brown.
Elevate the warmth and add the 2 sorts of chopped peppers. Proceed to maneuver the onions and peppers with a picket spoon or paddle till the peppers lose their liquid and start to sizzle. Flip down the warmth and proceed sautéing till peppers are sofritos, fried till mushy.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Stir within the diced zucchini and eggplant. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and pink pepper flakes, if utilizing. Proceed sautéing on medium-high warmth till all of the greens are softened, 5 minutes. Add the tomato pulp and juices and sprig of thyme. Flip up the warmth till tomatoes start to splutter. Decrease warmth and prepare dinner the samfaina, uncovered, till greens are tender, about 10 minutes extra.
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| Samfaina, able to serve, is vegetarian. Add rooster to it, if desired. |
For the rooster:
Season the rooster items with salt, pepper and thyme. Enable them to return to room temperature.
Warmth a heavy skillet on medium-high. Add the oil. Flippantly crush the garlics, with out peeling them. Add them to the skillet. Place the rooster items within the skillet, skin-side down. Allow them to brown very slowly with out transferring the items round within the pan, about 5 minutes. Flip the items and allow them to brown on the reverse sides. When rooster is properly browned, rigorously add the brandy and prepare dinner till the alcohol is cooked off.
Both add about ¼ cup of water to the pan to complete cooking the rooster or else switch the items to the samfaina pan to complete cooking with the greens.
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| Add rooster items to the samfaina greens. |
