The Basque Table: Passionate Home Cooking from One of Europe's Great Regional Cuisines

The Basque Table: Passionate Home Cooking from One of Europe's Great Regional Cuisines

Offers more than 130 recipes for soups, salads, vegetable dishes, meat, poultry, fish and seafood, and desserts Few people have stayed in one place as long as the Basque people have stayed in Basque Country, which spreads from northern Spain across the Pyrenees into France and stretches out to the sea. Basque Country has remained intact from the time of cave paintings to today. The Basque language is a language unlike any other; even Basque DNA is different from any other European DNA. So it should come as no surprise that the food of Basque Country, while similar to what is found in other parts of Spain and France, is distinct as to its place and people of origin. Restaurant owner and chef Teresa Barrenechea invites one and all to come sit at the Basque table and learn while enjoying. Though nueva cocina has invaded Basque cooking, Barrenechea has intentionally left it aside for another book. She cleaves to tradition in The Basque Table , to the pinchos (like tapas ), first courses, and main courses that make up the traditional meal served in Basque homes. It is a deceptively simple cuisine, something of a tightrope act, that demands of any cook the ability to select the best possible ingredients. When, in a dish like Chuletitas de Cordero (grilled lamb chops), you are only working with the chops, olive oil, garlic, flat-leaf parsley, and salt, there's no place to hide. And yet, when everything is exemplary and the chops come off the grill at the perfect moment, the effect in the mouth and in the heart and soul of any diner will defy description. A tough kind of simple, in other words. A fierce pride shows in Barrenechea's recipe descriptions and food notes. She holds herself to the highest cultural standard. What she aims for and achieves is a replication in print, with an American kitchen in mind, of exactly how a certain dish should taste to the Basque palate. So take heart in dishes like sweetbreads with garlic and parsley, crayfish in hot sauce, mushrooms with scrambled eggs, white bean stew, roasted fresh ham, chicken Basque style, fresh cod with red and black sauces, grilled prawns, and trout Navarra-style. You may be cooking at home, but you'll be sitting and eating at a Basque table. And there's no other table quite like it. --Schuyler Ingle Divided by language and geography from the rest of Spain and France, the country of the Basques has steadfastly maintained its own culinary traditions. This hearty cuisine reflects its origins among a hardworking people who needed a lot of sustenance. For those gourmands, even a thick sirloin steak was inadequate without a topping of local cheese and heavy cream. Given the country's site on the Bay of Biscay, seafood also figures prominently in Basque cooking. No seafood products go uneaten, neither squid nor baby eels. Cod, preserved in salt, makes fish available at all times of the year. Teresa Barrenechea presents Basque recipes that reflect the cooking in her two New York restaurants. Her small appetizer dishes in the tradition of Spanish tapas provide the home cook a good starting point for exploring one of Europe's least-known regional cuisines. Mark Knoblauch "Startlingly simple and free of gaudy garnishes, the recipes come from the heart and the home kitchen. Their success depends on the quality of the ingredients rather than culinary sleight of hand." -- Chicago Tribune "Teresa Barrenechea presents Basque recipes that reflect the cooking in her two New York restaurants. Her small appetizer dishes in the tradition of Spanish tapas provide the home cook a good starting point for exploring one of Europe's least-known regional cuisines." -- Booklist Its a delight to encounter a book that revels in the honest flavors of farm, garden, and sea. As I sit back and read Teresa Barrenecheas book, there unfolds a cuisine at once pure, simple, and joyful. Teresa is a natural cook who helps us understand a diverse and sophisticated culinary tradition and a rich and fascinating culture. -James Peterson The Passion of Teresa Barrenechea for her beloved home countrys cooking is evident on every page of this masterful examination of a long-neglected, wholly wonderful cuisine. -John Mariani In Europe, the Basques are known for their creativity in the kitchen and their long-enduring culinary heritage. In Spain's Basque Country itself, food and eating are the center of everyday life and the focus of endless conversation. Basque women lovingly pass on their cooking techniques to daughters and granddaughters, and Basque men, who belong to traditional cooking clubs called txokos, themselves enjoy lingering over stove and table. In recent years, many fine cookbooks have celebrated Europe's best regional cooking, from Tuscan and Sicilian to Burgundian and Provenal. In The Basque Table, Teresa Barrenechea reveals the secrets of what until now has been an undiscovered gem among the Continent's cuisines. For starters, there are plates full of pinchos, the Bas