Got back from my honeymoon in Spain

[lantern]

First I can't thank Gore enough for all the help he gave me on what was my first(but not last) trip overseas. If you ask him a question he gives so many details and links to sites it's amazing. Thank you sir.:bow:



Now, we had an amazing trip. We took off from Charlotte and stopped in Italy for a couple hours before landing in Madrid. After starting at 6am, it was 31 hours later before I got any sleep. So, the first day was an awesome shower and sleep.

The next 2 nights were spent in Leon. Just a great great town with history all around. The folks here are fairly short relative to what we are used to and with my being 6'7" and my wife being over 6' we did get stared at like they were trying to see if we were storming the village to take over.


The next 3 nights were in Segovia. Land of the almighty roast baby pig. All the hype is true. The roast baby pig is absolutely the best pork I've ever had. We had the deep fried version as well but aside from tasting like REALLY good pork chops it couldn't stand up to the flavor of the cochinillo. Everybody talks about the crispy skin, but they just don't convey it well enough. So, here goes..... Think of perfect crispy chicken skin and make it pork skin. It has the crisp brittleness of a lays potato chip so that as soon as you touch it with your fork or knife or whatever it breaks right through. If a city could be my soulmate....it would be Segovia.


The last 2 nights were spent in Madrid prepping for our journey home and we DID NOT want to go. But, with a fantastic view of the Royal Palace from our room and a fantastic final meal of cocktails, wine, T-bone steak and quite possibly the best potato croquets and pork loin I've ever had I couldn't ask for a better way to say goodbye.

I have way too many pics to post here, but here's the link to my flickr page so you can follow along via pics. And no, unfortunately there are no food pics. My camera was too big and goofy to pull out while we were eating and she had very little interest in taking pics with her phone while delicious food was in front of her. We got a couple, but getting her to send them correctly to me from her phone is proving difficult.:mrgreen:


Her ya go.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskChngNM

 

[DUBBAGA]

Stunning photos, those are some lasting memories right there!

 

[Gore]

Absolutely beautiful pics, and so many of those places look familiar! Now, you're not going to get away so easily. We're gonna need to get some more details. Get yourself a few days rest, but there's plenty of room in Woodpile to give us some stories with some select pics. You didn't even mention jamon! How can you go to Spain and not mention jamon, ... or wine even! Take your time, you don't need to get it all out at once. There's one farker who goes on vacation in Spain and makes about 50 threads. :roll: I'm sure you can have him beat. :thumb:

 

[Stingerhook]

Thanks for your honeymoon link, I assume that is the beautiful bride.

 

[Joe Black]

Chris,

That looks like a completely awesome trip. Don't worry about a camera or no food pics. Just take me along next time and I will make any pic you want. I can't wait to hear some of the great stories that you must have. I'm really happy for y'all. Now you can settle down and get to cooking in this 99* heat.

Welcome home, glad you had a wonderful time, Joe.

 

[Okie Sawbones]

Sweet! I love Europe, especially France. Glad you had a good time.

 

[Titch]

great pictures mate, Some wouldn't show , but I'm guessing thats my Internet.
Glad you had a great time, Did you clean up the Mess Gore left Behind?

 

[lantern]

Thanks for your honeymoon link, I assume that is the beautiful bride.

Yes, that's her. She's not exactly happy that I posted unapproved pics of her. But, I said that's the penalty for forcing me into ANY picture.:biggrin1:



And Gore.....yes I will post some details in the woodpile complete with pics. And I will DEFINITELY talk about jamon.:wink:

 

[AussieMatt]

Thanks for sharing Chris, great photos.

And congratulations!

 

[landarc]

So, I assume you learned how to roast the baby pig. And will be posting. Yes?

 

[gtr]

Thanks for posting this! I've been to Spain a couple times, but not nearly enough. The thought of selling everything and moving there is a constant in my mind. Looks like y'all had a fantastic honeymoon - it is certainly a romantic setting.

 

[cowgirl]

Beautiful photos Chris! Thanks for sharing!

 

[lantern]

So, I assume you learned how to roast the baby pig. And will be posting. Yes?

I realize that I can't get little pigs of the same breed and diet, but I WILL BE doing this soon. I've talked with my butcher down the street and he initially said he wouldn't be able to get much smaller than 25lb pigs and the price was going to be around 150 bucks if I had it done for me. HOWEVER, when I went in today they said that the day after I came in their hog farmer came in and said he had a sow that was about to have some piglets and he would bring a few by. If he brings them by alive it would not cost much of anything and I could kill and butcher the pig myself. So.....I'm pretty excited.





And GTR. We BOTH had this conversation while we were there. We did not want to go home at all.

 

[Gore]

I realize that I can't get little pigs of the same breed and diet, but I WILL BE doing this soon. I've talked with my butcher down the street and he initially said he wouldn't be able to get much smaller than 25lb pigs and the price was going to be around 150 bucks if I had it done for me. HOWEVER, when I went in today they said that the day after I came in their hog farmer came in and said he had a sow that was about to have some piglets and he would bring a few by. If he brings them by alive it would not cost much of anything and I could kill and butcher the pig myself. So.....I'm pretty excited.





And GTR. We BOTH had this conversation while we were there. We did not want to go home at all.

Recipe for cochinillo can be found here:

http://www.restaurantejosemaria.com/cochinillo-asado-segovia/

The recipe is pretty simple. Traditional Spanish recipes are very simple and they expect the quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves. Note below that the temperature is in Celsius: 200C is about 390F. The ovens are typically wood-burning, so you should be able to cook these fine in your pit. I have noted temps for piggies as low as 350F in my travels (yeah, I'm nosey and check the temps on these ovens when I can), so there is some variance. Also, the weight of these piggies listed below is about 10 pounds!

A simple google translate yields:

It is important to consider three basic aspects when choosing a good Piglet grilling:

- To know the origin, race and family.
- Know if mothers are fed adequate and natural feed.
- Your age should not exceed three weeks with an ideal weight from 4.2 to 4.8 kg.en channel and uneviscerated.

The recipe is simple, but requires dedication and sensitivity slaughter to his presentation at the table.

Way to prepare Piglet

After he sacrificed, well bled, skinned and eviscerated, washed with cold water until it is white inside and out. Piglet placed on a table, you open the spine at knifepoint from bagpipes to tail, taking care not to break the skin. In a pan or grill put some boards, we take a little water, put the suckling pig on top and back, season inside and put in the oven.

The suckling pig in the oven

We being at a temperature of approximately 200 degrees, Piglet introduce such. After about two hours, we take it out, add water to the pan (which will have evaporated) and if it has caught color we turn. And with the back up, the skin pecking carefully, we give a brushstroke with virgin olive oil, all the back and again it's put in the oven about an hour. In the last half hour, we will be outstanding if necessary to protect somewhere excess Heat ears, feet ... When we consider that is golden and crispy skin can be roasted and ready, then we take it out definitely the oven and present in the table.

Presentation and carving the roast suckling pig

By historical tradition our roast suckling pig is presented in the table whole, as it leaves the oven. It starts or carves with a plate in the presence of diners. It is a ritual to show the right point of firing and tenderness. Degreased juice and salt to taste, then gets up and served separately in clay pot, hot.

 

[Norm]

What a great trip!

Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Cool stuff. We went to southern Spain on a trip (turned out to be a baby-moon).

I think we messed up; I wish we'd gone to Madrid and north. The food was okay down south, but nothing like your pictures or all the stuff Gore posts.

Lovely scenery though

 

[lantern]

Recipe for cochinillo can be found here:

http://www.restaurantejosemaria.com/cochinillo-asado-segovia/

The recipe is pretty simple. Traditional Spanish recipes are very simple and they expect the quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves. Note below that the temperature is in Celsius: 200C is about 390F. The ovens are typically wood-burning, so you should be able to cook these fine in your pit. I have noted temps for piggies as low as 350F in my travels (yeah, I'm nosey and check the temps on these ovens when I can), so there is some variance. Also, the weight of these piggies listed below is about 10 pounds!

A simple google translate yields:

It is important to consider three basic aspects when choosing a good Piglet grilling:

- To know the origin, race and family.
- Know if mothers are fed adequate and natural feed.
- Your age should not exceed three weeks with an ideal weight from 4.2 to 4.8 kg.en channel and uneviscerated.

The recipe is simple, but requires dedication and sensitivity slaughter to his presentation at the table.

Way to prepare Piglet

After he sacrificed, well bled, skinned and eviscerated, washed with cold water until it is white inside and out. Piglet placed on a table, you open the spine at knifepoint from bagpipes to tail, taking care not to break the skin. In a pan or grill put some boards, we take a little water, put the suckling pig on top and back, season inside and put in the oven.

The suckling pig in the oven

We being at a temperature of approximately 200 degrees, Piglet introduce such. After about two hours, we take it out, add water to the pan (which will have evaporated) and if it has caught color we turn. And with the back up, the skin pecking carefully, we give a brushstroke with virgin olive oil, all the back and again it's put in the oven about an hour. In the last half hour, we will be outstanding if necessary to protect somewhere excess Heat ears, feet ... When we consider that is golden and crispy skin can be roasted and ready, then we take it out definitely the oven and present in the table.

Presentation and carving the roast suckling pig

By historical tradition our roast suckling pig is presented in the table whole, as it leaves the oven. It starts or carves with a plate in the presence of diners. It is a ritual to show the right point of firing and tenderness. Degreased juice and salt to taste, then gets up and served separately in clay pot, hot.

Yep, that's what my research has come up with. Simple salt rub and water in the pot. My biggest problem will be getting piglets remotely the correct age and size. I will know soon when my butcher calls me. I still am keeping expectations low as I don't have access to the EXACT piglets that they use in Segovia. I put quite a bit of emphasis on ingredients and technique when recreating something and I just won't be able to get the piggies or the ovens.

Now, that being said.... I have thought about doing this in my oven as since the segovian wood fired ovens are so very clean burning without much if any smoke flavor. It should taste closer to the glorious clean flavor of cochinillo. It really did taste like a pork and chicken cross in the great way that good rabbit does but with an otherworldly tenderness.

I want 2 piggies. One to do in the oven one to do on the smoker. That way I can have a comparison.



On a side note. I've seen some places in Segovia doing the pigs one part at a time. One of them being Maribel. If the cochinillo we had there was done separately then I think it has less to do with being whole and more to do with the pig because Maribel's cochinillo was dynamite!

Random question... Have you eaten at Sitio? We did and let me tell ya....the cuttlefish there is off the hook!! Unfortunately my wife went from glory to horror show as she has recently developed a mollusk allergy. Well we were too stupid to research what other animals are related to oysters, clams, scallops and such. Yep, cuttlefish are related and she paid the price that night but luckily she was better by 11am the following day. But MAN MAN MAN was that cuttlefish great!!

 

[Happy Hapgood]

Congratulations you two! Fantastic pic's!