April 18th is World Food Travel Day, an initiative of the World Food Travel Association, and Martín Berasategui’s Melvin restaurant is delighted to get in on the celebration. One of the most wonderful things about food is its ability to transport us to far-off places, even from the confines of our kitchen. So today, bring a little Spain into your home!
Melvin is famous for its creative fusions and reinventions of Mediterranean food, as the residents of our properties at Abama Tenerife know very well. There’s no combination more sublime than enjoying the flavors of the coast of Spain from a Canary Islands paradise. But until we can sit together again on Melvin’s terrace, taking in the beautiful blue of the Atlantic, we’re delighted to transport Abama to you.
Here’s our latest installment of delicious recipes from Melvin’s head chef, Diego Dato. We hope you enjoy them!
Prawn ceviche
Preparation: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
500 g of raw prawns, shells and heads intact
1 tbsp of chopped chives + 1 tsp of chopped chives for garnish
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp of capers, chopped
1 pinch of dried oregano
The juice and pulp of 1 lime
4 tbsp + 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp of virgin olive oil + more for sautéing the crayfish heads
1 jalapeño, chopped into small pieces
2 tbsp of black olives cut in rounds
Method:
Mix together the jalapeño with 4 of the tablespoons of cider vinegar.
Prepare the prawns. Remove the heads from the bodies and the eyes from the heads, and set them aside. Peel and clean the bodies and put them in another bowl.
Sauté the heads with olive oil in a pan over medium heat for about one minute, so that they turn pink. Put them in a very fine, cone-shaped sieve, and crush them with a ladle so you can collect the juices. Set these juices aside to cool.
Place the chopped garlic, 1 tbsp of chives, and capers into a deep container. Mix them with the lime juice and the other 2 tbsp of cider vinegar, then emulsify with the tablespoon of olive oil. Using a whisk, add the juices from the prawn heads bit by bit, mix well, add the jalapeños in vinegar, and then add the prawn bodies. Marinate for 15 minutes.
It’s important not to over-marinate, because you’ll lose the buttery texture of the prawns.
Finish and presentation:
When it comes time to serve the ceviche, you can present it all together in a bowl, or arrange the crayfish on one side of a plate and put the rest of the marinade, to which you should add the black olives and the rest of the chopped chives, on the other side.
The secret:
The jalapeño should not be excessively spicy, as too much spice will cancel out the flavors of the seafood and the rest of the ingredients.
Hake in green sauce with clams
Preparation: 15 minutes + 45 minutes for the fish stock
Ingredients for the fish stock:
2 tbsp of virgin olive oil
2 medium onions cut in rounds
1 handful of mushrooms cut in rounds
1 green part of a leek, chopped
2 kg of the heads and spines of white fish, washed well to eliminate any remaining blood, and cut into small pieces
1 sizeable pour of white wine
1 pinch of course salt
2 liters of water
Ingredients for the hake:
4 hake loins
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tbsp of virgin olive oil
1 pinch of flour
Chopped parsley
20 large clams
2 deciliters of fish stock
Salt
Method for the fish stock:
Heat the olive oil in a pot over a gentle flame and sauté the onion, mushrooms, and leek for 5 minutes. Once the vegetables are soft, add the fish. Increase the heat and cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring from time to time. Season lightly.
Add the wine and let it boil for a few seconds. Add the water and simmer for 15 minutes on low heat. Remove from the flame and let the stock sit for some 10 minutes so the impurities settle to the bottom. Strain and keep the stock refrigerated.
Method for the hake:
Cut the hake into 4 nice pieces and debone them so they are completely clean. You can ask them to do this at the fish counter when you buy the fish.
Heat the oil and garlic in a frying pan. When the garlic pieces begin to dance, add the pinch of flour, sauté for a few seconds without letting it brown, and then add the fish stock and boil for 1 minute.
Season the fish and lay it in the pan with the skin side up, on a very low flame, for 5 minutes. Flip the pieces with a spatula and leave them for 2 minutes more. It’s important that the flame remains gentle.
Finish and presentation:
Just before removing the fish from the flame, add the clams and put the lid on the frying pan. As they open, remove them one by one. When the last one opens, add them all back into the pan. If any refuse to open, throw them away. Garnish with plenty of chopped parsley and serve.
The secret:
If you don’t have time to make the fish stock, you can use a good quality one that is premade. But if you do it at home, we recommend doubling or tripling the recipe so that you can freeze it and use it for other recipes.
Baileys Mousse
Preparation: 2.5 hours
Ingredients:
320 g of egg yolk
60 g of cornstarch
250 g of sugar
¼ liter of cream
½ liter of milk
1 vanilla bean
50 g of grated coconut
1 deciliter of Baileys Irish Cream
½ liter of whipped cream
Method:
Put the yolk and sugar together in a bowl and mix well. Sprinkle in the cornstarch bit by bit and use a spatula to bring it all together until it forms a dough.
Use a small, sharp knife to cut open the vanilla bean and scrape out its seeds, first on one side and then the other. Heat the cream, milk, and coconut in a saucepan and add the vanilla bean seeds as well as the empty vanilla bean.
Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat a bit, and add a bit of the milk mixture to the yolk and sugar mixture, combining it well with a whisk. Once full integrated, add the rest of the milk mixture and stir. Take out the vanilla bean husk and save it for use in other things.
Put the entire mixture back into the saucepan, heat it, and stir constantly with a spatula until it thickens and begins to boil, some 5 minutes, so that it loses the flavor of the cornstarch.
Remove it from the heat, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Finish and Presentation:
Once the 2 hours are up, add the Baileys, mix well, and add in the whipped cream, which should be very cold. Incorporate it carefully with a spatula so that the mousse is light and fluffy.
Place the mousse in small glass bowls or goblets and leave it to chill again before serving.
The secret:
Make sure that the mousse is very cold when you are ready to serve it. You can accompany it with a good scoop of ice cream or ripe red fruit.
