September18, 2012 Dinner- Spanish Tapa of Peas and Artichoke Hearts, Hearts of Palms and Ham and saffron.

September18, 2012 Dinner- Spanish Tapa of Peas and Artichoke Hearts, Hearts of Palms and Ham and saffron.

We had to go shopping for Suzette’s Santa Rosa assisted living facility at 4:30 p.m. and did not return home until 6:30 p.m. so we decided to make the Spanish tapa that we had eaten at a small seaside village near San Sebastian last year that utilizes canned ingredients and ham that required little prep time and because I had two fresh artichokes I had cooked two days ago, so we had a fresh ingredient that was part of the dish.

I removed the leaves and spiny cores from the hearts and diced the hearts while Suzette found an unopened bottle of Italian olive oil and chopped up a smoked pork chop and began sautéing it in 1 1/2 Tbsp. of olive oil.  When we looked at the jar of artichoke hearts in water we had, we found that they had become moldy and disintegrated into a pile of mush.  So we then opened an open bottle of hearts of palm because they have a similar structure to that of artichoke hearts and when we smelled them, they smelled slightly moldy also.  We opened a fresh jar of hearts of palms and it smelled just right.  So I diced four hearts of pam while Suzette was sautéing the pork chop in a skillet with frozen peas.  She then added the artichoke and palm hearts to the skillet and a dash of Spanish saffron and after a minute of sautéing the dish was done.

I ran to the cellar to fetch a bottle of my favorite inexpensive Spanish red wine, La Granja, which is 50% Tempranillo and 50% granache ($4.99 at Trader Joe’s).   I also had made a mayonnaise and lemon dipping sauce and ate the leaves of the two artichokes.  You can also eat bread with this dish, but we did not.  I had made ham sandwiches for lunch, so had had enough bread for the day.  

While the tapa was cooking Suzette cleaned up a two week old lb. of fresh green figs and stuffed five of them with goat cheese and cut up and put the rest into a sauce pan with some sweet Spanish muscatel wine and some sweet French Vouvray white wine and poached them until the liquid almost evaporated.

So for dessert, Suzette made us bowls of vanilla ice cream garnished with fresh poached figs and a bit of chocolate syrup.

I opened and drank a few sips of my newly purchased Francoli grappa made by Fratellifrancoli Distillery in Italy ($28.99 at Jubilation) from nebbiolo grapes grown in the Ghemme region and aged in oak barrels for three years.  It still had that grappa edge to it.  In my opinion Antinori grappa is better because it has less edge, but Antinori‘s grappa is almost twice the price.

On balance a great meal because we discovered that hearts of palm has the same consistency as artichoke hearts and offered a different flavor and color to the dish, so in the future we will probably use both in this dish.  

Bon Appétit