Caldo - Rustic Spanish Soup

Top soup with crispy fried ham

Spanish caldo is one of those meals which comes from the depths of the Spanish countryside when field workers, needing something nutritional would light the fire and throw whatever they had into the pot. This makes 'caldo' one of those recipes where there are absolutely no rules.

Caldo generaly refers to a stock, with stock comes soup - it all depends on what you decide to add. Spanish supermarkets and greengrocers sell caldo packs which usually consist of a couple of carrots, cabbage, turnip or swede, boiled up with a good chicken stock caldo can offer a highly nutritious meal. Not something that would interest the Spanish gourmet? Think again, a good caldo has its roots buried in the heart of Andalucian culture not unlike the paella from Valencia, it also taste very good and is so versatile it really does welcome a whole range of ingredients.

What really makes a caldo is a little sliced serrano ham, you can also use crispy fried pancetta. The ham works during the cooking stage and also a few crispy shavings on top of the soup offer a bit if crunch alongside the veg.

Ingredients (10 servings)

4 Carrots
1 Onion
1/2 Small cabbage
1 Small swede
1ltr Chicken stock
200g Chick peas (soaked overnight or from a jar)
6 Black peppercorns
1 Bayleaf
1ltr Water

How to Cook:

1. Boil up a basic chicken stock using leftover chicken or a raw carcass.

2. Remove the carcass from the stock.

3. Meanwhile, prep the veg by roughly breaking the carrots (skins left on), cubing the swede, quartering the onion and chopping the cabbage into large pieces.

4. Add the veg to the stock along with the peppercorns and bay.

5. Hand carve about 150g of serrano ham, chop into strips and add to the soup, along with the chick peas.

6. Bring to the boil and then simmer over a low heat for about an hour and a half  until the veg becomes tender.

7. Caldo is ready! Serve in soup bowls.

For crispy ham or pancetta carve a few thin slices and lightly fry in olive oil before placing over the top of the soup.

Top Tapas Spring Clean

Well its that time of year! Almond and olive trees are in full bloom (at least in the Altiplano) and we thought it was time to give the blog a new look for Spring 2011. The last format was very basic so we have stuck to the same idea with a newer template compliments of Blogger (we also like it easy!). Old blogs tend to gather a certain amount of clutter so we have refreshed the links, got rid of the nonsense and also added a handy guide of page links for those interested in Spanish ham, namely carving, storage, flavours and how to cook with it. You may find that you get directed to our main website - don't be afraid! there is a lot of handy info on there for the adventurous gourmet among you.

There is also a new menu at the top of the page which is full of handy bits and pieces plus of you live in the EU you can also test run a free sample of premium acorn Iberico ham with your next order.

Sales pitch over, so what is in store for the coming months? We are looking forward to the rugby world cup, there was a time when Spain did qualify but unfortunately not this time around! Always good to see the minnows do well, so its back to England (not literally) although we will be following all the home nations to see if the All Blacks can be toppled (a mighty task on home turf)

Speaking of turf... (now for the recipe bit) try gambas al pil pil over barbequed steak, plenty of flat leaf parsley to garnish with some big juicy prawns, will try and get a photo up soon as its absolutely delicious last weekend!

More recipes on the way and as always feel free to leave a comment, we love hearing your feedback!

Seafood Paella

There have been quite a few videos on the blog over the past couple of weeks, it has to be said that we have gone a little video mad on the tapas front and plan to do a lot more for the more simple tapas recipes. After all, pictures speak a thousand words...

If you would like to be kept up to date with new videos then feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel here. Not all will be published on the blog so you may find a few surprises.

The video below is a seafood paella cooked over the barbeque - Enjoy.



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Rosemary Stick Kebabs

Rosemary is one of those herbs that adds a unique flavour to many dishes, strong on flavour and influence it is not uncommon to find rosemary being bashed around with the pestle and mortar to help kick start marinades, or dress the odd Spanish pork chop or two.

Rosemary does however lend itself well to the humble kebab, not in the way you might expect either as for this recipe we are using just the sticks.... If you have a big rosemary bush somewhere in your garden and would like to knock up some unusual kebabs then these easy tapas may well impress the guests...

Rosemary kebabs - Delicious!

get the clippers to that rosemary plant and what you will need is the older stems but not too thick, for this kebab recipe a thin stalk is required but a mature one - think bamboo kebab skewers. Once you have your rosemary 'sticks' remove most of the leaves but leave the ends on as per photo above.

Next thread over your vegetables and meat - small pieces, remember these are tapas! then throw on the BBQ, the kebabs should be ready in under 5 minutes and the rosemary will have infused some real flavour into the meat. The sticks will not burn as they are full of moisture, acting as kebab skewers with a herby flavour hit.

Ingredients for these kebabs were chicken, serrano ham and red pepper.

Enjoy.


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Love Spanish Ham?