Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Spanish Masterclass

I was lucky enough to get a seat at a couple of very good master classes last week.  Put on by the Australian Sommeliers Association and the Spanish Trade Commission, there were two sessions complete with a panel of local and imported personalities and lots of goodies in between the sessions.  A lot of work had obviously gone into setting up these tastings, the very nice upstairs room at Comme was the location and a number of hard to get wines where flown in from Spain. A lot of support from all the major importers as well.

Apart from the wine there were a number of good Spanish things to munch on, cheese, olives, bread etc.  But the real standout was the Jamon Iberico from Broadway Gourmet.  I think I ate about half a kilo of the stuff, so I feel qualified to say that this particular Jamon is the best I have had in Australia, really well flavored and textured, impossible to pass up. It not avilable at retail in Melbourne yet, so you'll have to go to Movida to try some.

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Mejillones con Bechamel

There isn't a lot of new stuff on the tasting bench at the moment, some new stuff is coming in the new year.  However, I have been enjoying some Spanish food and taking a second (or fifth) look at some of the wines I've tasted over the year.   Mussels with bechamel is a great snack or have it with a salad and call it lunch.

You will need: 

• Mussels. As many as you want to eat.  If you have 4 or more people 1Kg is a good size for tapas.
• 1 cup of bechamel (or white) sauce. I use the aussie version: butter, flour, bay leaf, pepper and onion.  Many Spanish recipes use olive oil, garlic, onion, parsley, and a little nutmeg. 
• egg beaten and bread crumbs for coating
• Olive oil for frying and finishing

How to make it: 

Steam the mussels and remove the cooked meat, saving the best shells.  Make the bechamel and leave it to chill so that it becomes hard.  Put a spoonful of bechamel over each mussel so that cover the bug and fill the seashell. Coat the top of the shell with egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fry the top half of shell.  throw the completed mussels on a plate with a bit of salad and drizzle with olive oil.

There are a couple of variations on the theme: add a small slice of jamon on top before crumbing (my favourite), add some grated cheese to the top and give it a quick grill after frying, and finally add some mild blue cheese to the bechamel for some extra funky flavours.

I find manzanilla is perfect with this dish, but an albarino with some good acid would go down a treat.

Roast Lamb (Asado al Horno)

The people of northern Spain love lamb, it even has a D.O. in Castilla y Leon.  A salted leg of lamb baked in a slow oven with just a bowl of water to keep it moist is the traditional method.  It comes out of the oven falling off the bone and has great flavour.  It is also marinated with herbs, spices and citrus juice at times.  This is a cheats version to get a very tender roast that oozes flavour and matches well with the wines of Ribera del Duero.

You will need:

• 1.5 kg of Lamb shoulder, preferably de-boned and rolled;
• A hand full of fresh thyme leaves;
• 2 teaspoons of smoke paprika;
• 2 gloves of garlic;
• 2 teaspoons of rock salt;
• the juice of 2 lemons; and
• a glug of olive oil.

Putting it together: 

I leave the thyme leaves on their stalks and just cut it into small pieces, but you can pick them off if you don't like the look of the woody bits.  Put everything but the meat, oil and juice into a mortar and pestle and grind it up.  It doesn't need to be finely ground, just well mixed and the thyme leaves bashed up a bit.  Add the lemon juice to form a paste.  Add enough oil to turn the paste into a runny mixture.  Coat the meat in the marinate, if you have a rolled shoulder try to stuff some of the mixture into the centre of the roll.  Let it marinate for at least two hours, over night is better.

I find the ol' webber does a good job of slow cooking this type of stuff.  2.5 to 3 hours on medium heat or until the centre of the roll is about 65-70 degrees.  Let is sit for 5 minutes somewhere warm and then carve up.  Serve with a good red from Ribera del Duero.