May 30, 2012 Dinner- Spanish Tapa of Artichoke hearts, green peas, pork, pimiento, and saffron

May 30, 2012 Dinner- Spanish Tapa of Artichoke hearts, green peas, pork, pimiento, and saffron

We went to a party after work given by IQ and stopped at Lowe’s at Lomas and 11^th and purchased some pork sirloin steaks on the way home.

So we did not get home until around 8:30 p.m., and were hungry.

We wanted something easy and quick to cook.  Suzette suggested that we make the Spanish tapa we had discovered at a small restaurant in Pasia, Spain last May.  Pasia is the sister city connected to San Sebastian and a deep water port we hiked to from San Sebastian. We took a ferry to the old part of the city nestled on a rocky promontory on the north side of the bay across from the port area, where there were a number of restaurants.  At one, we ate a wonderful appetizer made of all PPI as part of a cheap Comida del Dia for 10.50 Euros.

The secret ingredient in the dish is the fabulous olive oil of Spain that does not impart a flavor or have an oily taste, so lets the ingredients shine through.  The dish is simple; canned or bottled artichoke hearts packed in water, Spanish ham, cubed and fried into lardettes, green peas, that can be canned or frozen and thawed, pimientos, that can be canned, and a dash of saffron.  If you want Spanish pimiento, it is sold at Ta Lin.

We did not have any Spanish ham, so I removed the meat from one of the pork steaks, we had just purchased, into ½ inch cubes and Suzette fried them in the best olive oil we have, which is Chilean.  We opened a bottle of artichoke hearts bought at Costco that were packed in water, and we took a package of frozen red bell peppers we had previously roasted and a package of frozen green peas from the freezer.  Suzette defrosted the peas and bell peppers with warm water (about 1 cup each of peas and artichoke hearts and 1/2 cup each of red bell pepper and ham).

I quartered the artichoke hearts and removed as much water as I could by pressing them with a paper towel.

When Suzette finished frying the pork into lardettes, she lowered the heat and added the peas and sautéed them with the ham and then added the red pepper and finally added the artichoke hearts and a dash of Spanish saffron, we had bought in Spain last year, to the skillet in which the pork lardettes were sautéed.  

When all the other ingredients were combined and mixed and heated in the skillet with the olive oil fried ham lardettes, we served the tapa in a bowl.  We each had about a 1 ½ cup portion of tapa that was sufficient for a dinner portion.  I drank a glass of the De Ponte rosé and Suzette had a scotch and we had a lovely light and quick meal.  Prep and cooking time was about twenty minutes.

Bon Appétit