Spain is a carnivorous nation, and a main course often revolves around a hunk of pork or a stack of clams, with the only green thing on the plate being a sprinkling of parsley. But, times are changing and some top chefs are reworking traditional presentations by using meat or seafood as a garnish for vegetables rather than the other way around—think of a plate of blanched artichokes and crunchy green beans with the ham relegated to an ingredient in the sauce. Vegetables may not be the new meat quite yet, but shoppers are slowly demanding greater variety and quality.
As you browse the April markets, go light on the fauna and heavy on the flora, particularly the tender spring asparagus, baby spinach and young kale now in season. The hardcore gastro nerds can keep an eye out for newly resurrected heirloom varieties in the Boqueria. Now highly coveted, Montserrat and Raf tomatoes, Copo de Nieve potatoes or sweet and tangy Cristal peppers were all near extinction a couple of decades ago. The pool of available varieties has shrunk so dramatically with mechanical reproduction that various local collectives are recuperating ancient seed varieties and putting them in germ plasm banks for posterity.
Spain’s most progressive chefs have gone beyond simply sourcing organic boutique spuds: now it’s about combining homegrown harvests with high-tech techniques. For instance, Andoni Luis Aduriz, at Mugaritz near San Sebastián, experiments with edible grasses, and produces oddities such as bubbles made with pink beetroot juice.
ASPARAGUS AND SHALLOTS
April is a bit of an in-between month in terms of seasons, but one bright break in the harvesting lull is fresh green asparagus. Look for perky stalks with tightly closed tips. Steam lightly and dip in extra virgin olive oil or a little melted butter (don’t worry, asparagus consists mainly of water and fibre, so the extra calories shouldn’t matter too much). Alternatively, dribble with oil, sprinkle with rock salt and grill until they start to blacken. They're full of vitamin C and are a good diuretic. This is also the month to look for fresh white asparagus—a world away from the droopy canned variety, which is most people’s experience of these pale spears.
Although we're used to seeing the allium family (onion, garlic, etc.) all year round in their ‘dried’ stored state, the fresh crops are harvested around now. Shallots (chalotas/chalotes/escalonias and many more variations) are still a fairly rare sight in the markets here, and fresh ones are rarer still, but look for them at specialist market stalls. Like other alliums, shallots have long been thought to have healing properties, helping combat poor appetite and digestion as well as respiratory infections. Dropping shallot bulbs into boiling water for 20 seconds will make them easier to peel and a little less pungent. If you’re cooking with shallots, don’t subject them to too high a heat or, like garlic, they'll turn bitter. They can also be eaten raw and, when chopped very finely, they make a wonderful base for a vinaigrette. --KF
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