Exploring Summer - Seasonal Cooking in Asturias
- Abigail Schmitt
- Jul 15, 2024
- 4 min read
Cider and other regional specialties
Summer in Spain - it's already mid-July, and the hydrangeas have been in bloom for at least four or five weeks now. They grow wild here, along the beaches and cliff-sides, and are cultivated in nearly everyones' gardens, showing their bright and varying shades of pinks, purples, reds. Now, they are gradually losing their color after a solid 4-5 weeks of soaking up the sunlight and near-daily rains. Iris grow in the towns and mountains in Picos de Europa, and wildflowers are everywhere.
Roadside Observations
The roadside grasses are taller than me, and the wildflowers of all colors blossom and fade each day. I notice here in Spain that the heal-all, a plant with the ability to help with cuts and scratches (and apparently pain relieving properties) grows much bigger and taller than it does in Washington or MN. There are nut trees in all the fields, as well as fruit trees heavy with peaches, plums and apples. The walnuts are also heavy and green, already asking to be made into nocino. It has already been two weeks of living in the countryside of Asturias and every day has felt fresh. With only a few more weeks here, I want to spend as much as I can in the sun, outdoors, exploring more, eating more, and of course drinking more cider.
Seasonal Food
Our neighbor (in the little town of 14 people we’re living in) has been giving us bottles of cider from neighborhood trees, as well as all sorts of cakes from his wife and vegetables from his garden. Right now his seasonal harvests are cabbage, zucchini and kale. I see squash blossoms all over the gardens here, and I’m thinking I will ask for some to make pasta later this week. The peaches and nectarines are in full juicy swing, and plums are dropping from roadside trees. We have been making good use of the summer produce, cooking from home often. So far the favorite meals we have made have been:
Mussels: We started with a simple broth of onion, slivered garlic, chopped tomato, deglazed with lots of white wine and cider and made brothy with chicken stock. Mussels were added to the very hot broth and topped with a lid still on high heat until the mussels opened. Eaten with crunchy bread and more cider of course.
Mussel notes: such an easy and quick meal, a one-pot-wonder as we like to say. Don’t forget to wash the mussels and pull off their “beards” (the mussels holding onto their seaweed-y “rope” in the ocean.)
Pastas: Carbonara with pancetta, spaghetti with mussels or clams escabeche, olives and tomato, fresh tagliatelle with jabali (wild boar) bolognese
Grilled meats: Steak with chimichurri and grilled mushrooms - Andrew found some chanterelles while biking in the mountains nearby, and that was quite the treat. We supplemented with setas, or oyster mushrooms from the market and grilled those too. We had this dish on the first day with seared oyster mushrooms and in the middle, a pile of seared + salty ibérico. It was impeccable.
Cabbage and garlic like to be grilled wrapped in tin foil with evoo + salt
Fruit on the grill adds to your salads or sauces: Peaches, pineapple, oranges and lemons are top on my list for summer season. Watermelon can be great grilled too, especially if you cut it open and it’s a bit unripe. Make sure the grill is very hot!
Eggplant, zucchini and peppers are grilled dry (no oil) and let to steam + cook.
Things I love to grill but don’t really see at the markets: Corn.
Whenever we have gone out to eat, the food has been amazing. Here in Asturias the best traditional dish we have tried is the fabada: a cauldron of brothy beans with three types of meat: pork belly, blood sausage or morcilla, and chorizo. Other dishes we’ve tried are simple and fresh: little squids grilled with lemon, pears poached in cider, and lots of cakes.
Cider
Of course I have to mention the cider, as that is one of the main reasons we’ve come to this area. There are cider houses everywhere, with bottles costing around €2 each. Cider is poured from an arms length up high into your glass below waist level and only about 2oz is poured, another 2oz spilling on the ground. Technically you’re supposed to drink it all in one go, and the aeration helps with the flavor and texture. Most of the cider that we have tried tastes similar to each other, with the differences being mild. They’re often bottled with the mother, and 90% of them are flat. We went to the cider festival in Nava the other day to try more of them, and they varied only slightly. The thing that we were most interested in was this cured meat stand that had everything from cabrito (goat), cerdo (pork), vaca (cow), jabali (wild boar) and venado (deer). Perfect pairings with cider.
Fiesta'l Cordiru
One of the best sundays of food was last weekend when we happened to find a lamb festival up in the mountains. There were wooden signs reading “Fiesta’l cordiru” and it was truly up a mountain. There were lots of people from the towns nearby, and 8 different families grilling whole lamb over fires that had been going all day. They served it to us in the afternoon in containers and covered in a sauce they said was “onion, garlic, white wine and spices” - so delicious. All the flavor comes from the fire, and the outer parts of the meat are caramelized perfectly. We ate it with the bread they gave us and cider that we bought from the tent nearby. Even when buying a bottle outside of the markets, it is only about €3.50 / bottle.
Outdoors
As part of our time here in Spain, the best discoveries have been in the nature, within the mountains and beaches. Picos de Europa is only a couple hours driving (the Alps of Northern Spain) and there are many beaches are just 40 mins north of us - all little jewels we have been biking to and from. I will let the photos speak for themselves.
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