Grilled Calçots (Green Onions) with Salsa Romesco

Love at first bite.

[ts]
First of all, apologies for misleading everyone, as these are not really true calçots.

What are calçots?

Once again, I first heard of them courtesy of Culinaria Spain a couple of years ago. Calçots are young green onions that are earthed up (that is, covered with earth) to blanch them as they grow. They are a Catalan delicacy; Catalonia is in northeastern Spain.

The season for calçotades (gatherings or events where one eats calçots) is from around November or December until March or so. Calçots are cooked over open fire until blackened, then wrapped in newspaper to keep warm. To eat, one peels off the charred outside and dips the calçot in salvitxada or romesco sauce.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calçot



[ts]
Reading about them already intrigued me, then I saw the real thing on an old episode of No Reservations, with Tony Bourdain attending a calçotada. Man, they looked so good.

Well, obviously we couldn't get real calçots here in Vancouver, so we made do with regular ol' green onions.


Whoa, fire!

[ts]
The green onions we had weren't very thick at all, so I didn't want to char them too much. Of course, it would've been better if we had them over open flame on the grill outside. However, it was being used as an "oven" to reheat our lengua estofada and cocido while our real oven indoors was busy cooking other stuff for our New Year's Eve party.

I had to make do with a grill pan. If it's any consolation, there was quite a number of small fires on that grill pan while the green onions were cooking.



[ts]
No recipe for this one. Just toss green onions in olive and season with salt. Grill. These grilled green onions must absolutely be served with Romesco sauce.



[ts]
This dish was my absolute favorite among all the dishes at the party.

Yes, I liked it better than lengua estofada, better than gambas al ajillo (prawns with garlic), better than our cocido (hearty pork stew), better than bacalao con patatas, better than the empanada, and even better than the fideuá (seafood noodle "paella").

And those were all very good eating!

But, those green onions were transformed after their brief stay on the grill. Their fragrance was intoxicating!

Paired with the Romesco sauce, they seem to have transcended to a higher plane of deliciousness. Truly, the pair was more than the sum of their parts.

Who knew that the lowly green onion had so much soul to give? Next time we go to market, we're going to stock up on these 49 cents per bundle of green onions and have ourselves another feast.

See the rest of our Spanish-themed New Year's Eve Menu here.

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Recipe
Grilled Calçots (Green Onions) with Salsa Romesco

green onions, as many as you wish
olive oil
Romesco sauce (recipe here)

Toss green onions in olive oil and season with salt. Grill. Serve with Romesco sauce.

[eatingclub] Spanish
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish "Omelette")
Roast Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Sardinas na Bangus (Milkfish in the style of Sardines)
Red Wine-braised Squid with Potatoes and Chorizo
Philippine Beef Salpicao (and a Spanish variation)
Stewed Tripe, Spanish-style
Lengua Estofada (Beef Tongue Braised in Red Wine and Veal Stock)
Bacalao con Patatas (Baked Salt Cod and Potatoes)
Salsa Romesco ("Queen of the Catalan Sauces!")
Grilled Calçots (Green Onions) with Salsa Romesco
Empanada de Pavo
(Galician-style Meat Pie with Turkey Filling), plus Turkey Cracklings!
Fideuá (Spanish Seafood Noodle "Paella")... and Paella
Cocido (Spanish Stew with Various Pork Cuts)
Slow-Roast Pork Shoulder, Two Ways

Salsa Romesco ("Queen of the Catalan Sauces!")

Salsa Romesco atop grilled prawns.

[ts]
How can we do a Spanish menu and not make Romesco sauce? As Núria says, it is the "Queen of the Catalan sauces!"

We first heard of Romesco sauce from Culinaria Spain. Unfortunately, the book did not contain the recipe itself, just one for salvitxada, which is very similar to Romesco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvitxada

But, I was set on making Romesco. It's so much easier to read and pronounce, after all. Can you imagine saying "salvitxada" over and over throughout the course of one evening? ;)

So, once again, we turned to Núria. Reading the recipe, it certainly wasn't hard. But, in any case, just to get as many tasks done in advance as possible, I decided to make our Romesco sauce for the party a couple of days beforehand.

Was I glad I did!

Yes, making the sauce wasn't hard, but was it ever time-consuming! Also, I thought the flavors were much better the following days.

[update]
Oooh, I didn't realize this could be entered into this edition of Weekend Wokking! We've been feeling guilty about not submitting anything in a while. The theme is CHILI PEPPER.

Ñoras (Dried Red Peppers)


[ts]
When I read Núria's recipe, I thought I would have to make subsitutions for these ñora peppers, as I was sure I wouldn't be able to find them. But, strolling around the Italian supermarket (incidentally, the same one where we happened upon some bacalao), I saw these small boxes displayed beside smoked paprika and saffron. Score!

I soaked the peppers in hot water.



[ts]
I had to remove the seeds and peel and use only the flesh. These peppers were small, and their flesh thin. My first reaction was, "What flesh?!! There's no flesh!"



[ts]
But, I set to work and used a spoon to scrape off the thin flesh clinging to the skins.


The small yield.

Roasted Garlic & Roasted Tomatoes


[ts]
I also had to roast some garlic and tomatoes for the sauce.

That was simple enough, except I left them in the oven a tad too long (more than 1 hour!), as JS and I were purchasing some morcilla sausage at a Portuguese shop and decided to swing by that same Italian supermarket mentioned above.

I squeezed the garlic out of their skins, and peeled the roasted tomatoes, discarding their skins.

Roasted Hazelnuts & Roasted Almonds

clockwise from top: roasted almonds; roasted tomatoes, peeled and seeded; roasted garlic; reconsituted ñora peppers, peeled and seeded; roasted hazelnuts, peeled

[ts]
I also needed to roast some almonds and hazelnuts. Then, the hazelnuts also needed to be peeled.

Finally, my ingredients were ready to be made into Romesco sauce!

What were they again? Ah yes, they were:
reconsituted ñora peppers, peeled and seeded;
roasted garlic;
roasted tomatoes, peeled and seeded;
roasted almonds; and
roasted hazelnuts, peeled.

Whew.

Also add to that list some olive oil, fresh garlic cloves, and salt (of course).

Although it wasn't an ingredient in Núria's recipe, I also added a touch of white wine vinegar to cut the richness of the nuts. I omitted the mint leaves just because we didn't have any on hand.

Everything got thrown into the blender.



[ts]
Ta-da!

This sauce goes well with seafood... or anything else! Here it is on some grilled prawns.



[ts]
Romesco sauce has such a great, complex flavor.

In fact, several guests at the party thought it was akin to Southeast Asian sauces, like a peanut sauce and even a shrimp paste sauce! It just has that big boost of very multi-dimensional flavor.

When we ran out of prawns, I just ate it with plain, white rice; I saw a few people at the party doing this. It was still so delicious and satisfying just by itself that I couldn't really complain.

Recipe: Núria's Salsa Romesco
Note: I doubled the recipe and ended up with a huge amount of sauce.



Next up, the reason we made Salsa Romesco in the first place.

See the rest of our Spanish-themed New Year's Eve Menu here.

Enjoyed this post? Why not subscribe to our blog? Subscribe via reader or subscribe via email. Thank you!

eatingclub vancouver Weekend Wokking posts:
Ravioli "Caprese": Tomato, Basil, Bocconcini
Eggplant "Clafouti"
Bibingka
Pumpkin Congee w/ Pumpkin "Beignets" & Sesame-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese w/ Pipián Verde
Adobo Mushroom Tart
Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Almond Eggplant "Bisteeya" (Bastilla)
"Mashed Potato Beef Burger" (Red-skinned Potato Salad in Taiwanese Sacha Cheeseburger)
Korean Soybean Sprouts Pancake (Kongnamul Jeon)
Lemon Chamomile Tiramisu
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Clear Oxtail Soup with Corn, Cabbage and Potatoes
Beijing Pickled Cabbage
Salsa Romesco ("Queen of the Catalan Sauces!")
Aguadito de Pollo (Peruvian Chicken Soup)
Bangus Belly à la Bistek (Milkfish Belly with Onions, Calamansi and Soy Sauce)
White Pork with Garlic Sauce, Two Ways (蒜泥白肉)
Mr. Zheng's Soupy Tomatoes and Eggs with Tofu (蕃茄雞蛋跟豆腐)
Steamed Fish and Tofu with Chinese Black Beans
Spinach and Cheese with Puff Pastry, Three Ways

We're submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient.

The host this month is Wandering Chopsticks herself!

If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.

Check out all Weekend Wokking Roundups.

Leftovers from 2009

Various HK-style café dishes
HK-style milk tea & lemon iced tea; seafood chow mein;
fried rice with langostines & basil; honey-garlic pork ribs;
pork chop with black pepper sauce; Chinese-style "Japanese" ramen;
some other noodle dish; HK-style curry with rice;
thick toast with butter & condensed milk, whole and up close

[ts]
With 2009 over, it's only fitting that we let go of these dishes or items that, for some reason or other (usually because of bad photos), have never gotten a post of their own. Our Drafts folder here sure needed a good purge. Those HK-style cafe dishes above were consumed in April 2008!

LATimes article about HK-style Cafés, if you're so inclined:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-hongkong16apr16,1,6223823.story

Bagoong Salmon "Wellington"


[ts]
Such a shame, the bad photos. This was actually quite a popular dish! We made this for one of our gatherings and there was none leftover!



[ts]
We spread some bagoong on top of salmon, then wrapped it with phyllo pastry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagoong_alamang#Bagoong_Alamang




[ts]
Even with the very unexpert wrapping of phyllo, the dish was still a hit.



"Giniling Jufran"


[ts]
A Filipino home-style dish with no name. Not posted because JS claims she cannot remember how she made this.

As the name giniling suggests, this has ground pork. Oh wait, JS now tells me she used ground beef. I guess this is why we never posted about this dish!

Other ingredients were bell peppers, peas, raisins, soy sauce, and ...?

I'm not too sure about any other ingredients, but what makes this a giniling Jufran? Well, Jufran Banana Ketchup, of course!

Our other giniling dishes
Mama's Giniling (v.1, v.2 and v.3)
Mama's Giniling (v.4 and v.5)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_ketchup



Philippine Braised Chicken Wings


[ts]
This is simply a dish of chicken wings marinated in our Philippine BBQ marinade, then braised, uncovered, until the wings were cooked and the marinade has reduced to a glaze.

Philippine Chicken "BBQ"
Philippine Pork "BBQ"

Spinach Ricotta Lasagna


[ts]
Um yeah, what it says there. This is a Spinach Ricotta Lasagna.

Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Crouton

self-explanatory

Finally, some sweet things!

Cranberry-Orange Almond Bread


[ts]
This was made by our resident baker, CSC. Unfortunately, the copy she wrote for this was rendered inapplicable because it mostly talked of our faulty oven before our move to the new house.

Ube (Purple Yam) Star Ice Cream Cake with Ube Halaya

Horrid, horrid photo!

[ts]
I should post about this since it's already a year late. If anybody can recall, this was one of the desserts we served for our Starry, Starry Night New Year's Eve party in December 2008!

Our labor-intensive all-Philippine New Year's Eve Menu:
A Starry, Starry Night in Vancouver -- Evoking the Philippine Christmas Spirit



[ts]
I realize now that we haven't posted about this because I don't actually have exact measurements on how to make this Ube Halaya, nor measurements for my Ube Ice Cream!

Ube Halaya is sometimes translated as Ube "jam". I made mine my cooking together purple yam, coconut milk, cow's milk, and sugar.

Here's a recipe from Kusina ni Manang:
http://kusinanimanang.blogspot.com/2009/01/ube-haleyahalayajaleya-basics.html



cut-out ube halaya stars ready for duty

Star Ice Cream Cake Assembly



And there you go! We are done with 2009!
More or less. =)