Caldereta is a slow cooked stew from Spain, with variations across Latin America and the Philippines. Usually made with beef, I use a venison neck roast here.
Spanish Recipes
While I grew up cooking Italian food, Spanish was the first cuisine I actively studied, decades ago. This is my collection of Spanish recipes, mostly using fish, game and edible wild plants and mushrooms.
Spanish cooking draws on a huge array of influences, from their centuries' long occupation by the Moors, to the Columbian Exchange after 1492, to Basque and French influences, and even Celtic touches in Galicia.
Seafood is huge in Spain, so you will see a lot of Spanish recipes here using fish and seafood. Same with game, as the Spanish are known for hunting things like wild boar and partridges.
Some of my favorite Spanish recipes include fish with green sauce, a classic often done with hake, salt cod fritters made with homemade salted fish, partridge, quail or pheasant escabeche -- a dish of cooked game birds, soused in a vinegary sauce that is amazing eaten as a cold lunch -- and what may be the ultimate wild game stew, chilindron. Chilindron is normally made with chicken or lamb, but it's great with virtually every type of game animal.
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Puchero
Puchero is a hearty stew made all over the Spanish-speaking world. This is a Mexican puchero recipe uses beef or venison and lots of vegetables. Simple, satisfying and it keeps well.
Saffron Aioli
Aioli is one of those magic sauces, equally at home with both fried foods and poached meats. It is a Spanish garlic mayonnaise — aioli requires garlic to be an aioli — to which I’ve added some saffron for color and flavor. How to make saffron aioli? Well, traditional aioli uses just garlic and olive
Catalan Monkfish
A great monkfish recipe from Spain. Monkfish tails, seared and then sauced with a roasted garlic, saffron and tomato sauce. Any firm fish will work with this recipe.
Spanish Green Sauce for Fish
This is the classic Spanish green sauce for fish, most often as merluza en salsa verde, but you can sub in other fish for the merluza, which is hake.
Spanish Mushroom Rice
Basically this is a paella that hinges on mushrooms, with pork and paprika playing harmony. Wild mushrooms like porcini are best, but whatever you have will do.
Kak’Ik, Guatemalan Turkey Soup
A turkey soup recipe from Guatamala called Kak’ik, meaning “red and spicy” in Maya. It’s a great turkey soup to try when you’re looking for something new.
Spanish Butifarra Sausage
Spanish Butifarra is a great basic sausage recipe to learn: Pork, salt and pepper, maybe one or two other spices.