international meal | spain

Back in January, Larry marked a recipe for Catalan Fish Stew with Pimenton Mayonnaise in Food & Wine magazine and it's been on my list of recipes to try ever since. I hadn't intended for it to be one of our international meals, but when I was at the store shopping for ingredients, I realized this recipe was going to cost me a fortune - so I decided to make something special out of it. I grabbed a hunk of Spanish cheese, some crusty bread and a bottle of Spanish wine and decided that tonight was Spanish night.

On the menu:

• Catalan Fish Stew with Pimenton Mayonnaise
• Torta la Serena (cheese) with crusty bread
• Crema Catalana
• Las Rocas Garnacha (red wine)

This was our easiest and quickest international meal yet, and the results were delicious. Despite its fancy name, the fish stew was a fast recipe to make and we both loved it. It was loaded with chunks of fresh halibut, serrano ham, and green olives - which is why it was so expensive to make. The pimenton mayonnaise topping was out of this world - we have recently discovered the deliciousness of smoked Spanish paprika, and once again it didn't fail us.


I hadn't planned on making dessert, but once I got home I couldn't help but google "Catalan dessert recipes" and Crema Catalana popped up. Crema Catalana is the Spanish version of Creme Brulee and I had all the ingredients on hand so I decided to give it a go.

Wop wop, it was a flop. The recipe warned of over-cooking the custard and causing it to break, and I think I may have undercooked it because it was extremely runny. Before serving, I put it under the broiler to create a caramelized crust. After 20 minutes (!!!), the sugar still hadn't caramelized much and the custard itself was boiling and bubbling like molten lava. Oh well.

(Sad news: My beloved Nikon D40 DIED. Did you know that a camera's shutter can wear out? I had to resort to charging up my little point & shoot camera to take these photos.)