American in Spain

Living in a fishing village has its perks. When the fishing seasons change, suddenly everyone knows someone that has some fish to get rid of. Mackerel season just started, and I’ve heard lots of people around town saying, “Hey, you want some mackerel? I’ve got some extra.” It’s unclear to me exactly why this happens. My best guess is that they overfish, either intentionally or by accident, especially at the beginning of the season when the fishing’s good, and they can only sell a certain amount of it legally in the market, so they give away the rest to friends, and the friends give it to their friends, and eventually the fish trickle down to all the dinner tables in town.

I don’t regularly interact with many of the fishermen, but the other day Bruno, my neighbor and local butcher, knocked on my door and offered me some. I threw it in the fridge and, the next day, asked him how I should prepare it. What follows is the incredibly simple recipe he gave me.
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On Saturday morning, my wife got a call from her boss, who had just sold his motorcycle, and, as part of the sale, had acquired way more barnacles than he could consume, so he offered us some. Barnacles are a special delicacy in Spain, particularly in northern Spain and Galicia. At Christmas time, barnacle prices can reach 99 €/kg ($65/lb)! The best, most expensive ones come from the Cantabrian sea on the northern coast of Spain. On Saturday we were given 1.5 kilograms of the good, expensive barnacles, so on Sunday we had a feast.

I had never eaten or cooked barnacles, so everything was new and fascinating to me. Here’s what I learned…
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Recently someone told us of an outside-the-box way of preparing a Spanish tortilla de patatas. Rather than cutting up peppers and cooking them inside the tortilla, what if you put the tortilla inside the peppers? An inverted Spanish tortilla!

When a friend of ours who has a little vegetable farm gave us a bag of enormous gorgeous green peppers, we knew we had to try this recipe.
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Last weekend, my in-laws came over and Marga and her mother made rosquillas for the first time. Like churros, another Spanish delicacy, rosquillas are basically just fried dough, except this dough contains a little white wine and anisette for flavor. Mmmm….anisette…
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As a direct consequence of some recent pimento cheesery, a plan was hatched among some bloggers I have gotten to know to hold a Sandwich Party, a weekend in which everyone makes a sandwich that’s unique or special for them and blogs about it. I figured I would go for the most uniquely Spanish sandwich I know, the bocadillo de tortilla de patata, or the Spanish potato omelet sandwich!
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Due to the request from Uncle Steve, I present to you the recipe for cow tongue, as prepared by Marga and her family…
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