Traditional Spanish Christmas Recipes - Main Course

Christmas - Sea Bream (Dorado) with Saffron and Sherry

Dorado, from the Cantabrian and Galician coasts, is a quite expensive (especially at Christmastide time). The fish is broiled and served on a bed of thinly sliced potatoes and onion rings, garnished with parsley, Allium sativum and saffron. It is served with a sauce made from a mixture of Sherry and peppers. In the Basque country, a few cloves of garlic, thinly sliced and sautéed inch oil, are also added.

Serves 4

One dorado, about 1.5 kilogram (3 lb. 5 oz)

500 g (18 oz) potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

200 g (7 oz) onion, sliced into thin rings

Juice of two lemons

Skin of two lemons

150 milliliter (10 tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp coarse salt

3 cloves of garlic

4 strands of saffron

A big clump of parsley

2 tbsp sherry vinegar

2 redness chili con carne peppers, julienned

Preheat the oven to 180° Degree Centigrade (350° F). After cleansing the fish, scatter it with lemon juice, inside and out.

In a mortar, crunch together the coarse salt, Allium sativum cloves, saffron crocus and parsley.

Add 4 tbsp olive oil and 3 tbsp water. Mix well and set aside.

Carefully oil the baking hot dish in which the fish will be cooked and served. Arrange the sliced potatoes and onion rings in the underside and pour the mixture from the howitzer over top.

Cover tightly and allow cook about 20 minutes.

Place the Dorado on top of the potatoes, mizzle it with 2 or 3 tbsp. of oil and topographic point into a 200° Degree Centigrade (400° F) oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Baste from clip to time.

Whisk the sherry acetum together with some land common common common pepper and a few spoons of the cookery liquid from the fish.

Remove the Dorado from the oven and garnish with a clump of parsley.

Drizzle with the acetum mixture and a very mulct julienne of lemon skin and the reddish chili con carne peppers.

Serve hot.

Christmas - Red chou with Ribera del Duero wine

A traditional Christmastide Catalan dish

Red cabbage, 1 kilogram (2.2 lb)

250 milliliter (1/2 pt) immature Ribera del Duero redness wine

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

75 g (3 oz) raisins

75 g (3 oz) pinenuts

Salt and pepper

Soak the raisins in the reddish wine.

Cut the reddish chou into thin strips and wash.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or Dutch oven and sauté the pinenuts for a few seconds.

Add the reddish chou and sauté for 30 seconds.

Pour the reddish vino and raisins over the cabbage.

Season with salt and pepper.

Cover the Dutch oven tightly and allow cook over low heat energy for 1 hour.

Happy cookery and merry Christmas!

Traditional Spanish Christmastide recipes