Enjoying the Good Life in Barcelona – Iberian Jamon sandwiches

My wife and I just had the good fortune to spend several days with friends in Barcelona. We got to see the sites/sights, but also had the opportunity to spend time with the family and enjoy aspects of the culture and life that were more ‘down home’. It was a real treat.

To pass on some of the food basics there, I’m going to write several blogs about what we had, and give you an idea of how to create as best we might in this country. One delectable treat that seems commonplace and acceptable for any meal, including breakfast, is Spanish Ham or Jamon, which is oft served with a crusty bread. Here is one basic presentation:

Ingredients:

A crusty bread (see recipe below), most typically fairly flat and cut length-wise in two. Not unlike a Panini bread.
A good ham – recommended if you can find it – Iberian Ham. Serrano (aka the web) seems like a substitute that may be more readily available. (I’ll wax eloquently about the ham in a minute).
Fresh tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt
Fresh garlic (optional)
Manchego cheese (also optional)

What to do:

At one restaurant for a starter we had the toasted bread (lightly toasted) served with the above ingredients so we could ‘make our own’. The first order of business is to take a piece of tomato (served here in cut halves) -- you are to crush and rub the pulp into/all along the top of the toasted/cut side of the bread. [We also had this several other times and sometimes they do this step for you – the bread comes out with the tomato all mushed into the bread.] I know it sounds a bit strange, but the effort is worth it.

Then you have the option of smearing some garlic into the bread as well [I like garlic, so this was a no-brainer for me, but its good either way.]

Sprinkle olive oil (Not too much!) over the bread.

Sprinkle salt (and pepper if you so desire) on top.

Put on a layer of very yummy Iberian Ham. Enjoy!

About Spanish Ham:

Jamon (I’m missing some accents here, I’m sure) is a wonderful cured ham. It seems to come in a wide range of types, qualities, and prices. All of what we had was good! Great, in fact! At some of the tapas places, sandwich places, etc., you could see rows of the whole hams hanging from the ceiling. I would have loved to have hauled one of these back to the States with us.

The ham is very tasty – not too strong, not too dry, but dry, not too salty. Just an excellent cured ham. The closest I can come to in my experience here are prosciutto, serrano, and perhaps a high quality southern cured dry ham.

About the bread:

The ‘sandwich’ bread was a crusty white, seemingly from a fairly flat loaf. It had large yeast holes, and was always sliced in two length-wise. Below is a recipe for basic Spanish bread from the web. I found several, but none mentioned the thickness. I’ll give a few suggestions, and after a few tries, I’ll follow this blog up with another as to the results. For now this is based on my fairly extensive experience making breads.

Pan de Orno

First, you need 1&1/2 TBS of bread yeast, 3 cups warm water, 7 cups of white flour, two teaspoons of salt, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. See recipe here:

http://user.xmission.com/~dderhak/recipe/bread.htm

[NOTE: you can halve this recipe or even 1/3rd it. Just make sure you have about 1 tlbs of yeast in any case.]

Further recommendations. Don’t over knead this and don’t force in too much flour. To gain the proper thickness I would recommend a semi-moist dough. Then stretch it out gently after the first rise into flat (1/2 inch to ¾ inch by 10-12 inches by 3-4 inch loaves. Do this without much kneading in-between (kneading creates elasticity and you don’t want this to ‘spring back’ too much).

After about a half hour of additional rise, gently pull out the bread again to elongate the loaves and flatten them a bit further. Finish the rise, and bake. This elongation process helps make larger yeast bubbles in the bread. There are several things you can do to make a nice crust.

Most recommended is -- put the bread in the middle rack of your hot oven (450) with a pan underneath. Just before shutting the door toss in a cup of cold water in the pan below or a handful of ice cubes. Shut the door and bake.

Alternatively you can start with a pan of water below and/or brush the loaves with water several times during the baking. From experience, the ice-cube/cold water method works the best.

Joe Koob

BTW Sorry for the long absence, but I was in Florida for the winter and I have become lazy about blogging while there – though I still cook!