GIN AND ALMOND COOKIES (TRADITIONAL MINORCAN RECIPES)

 
GIN*:   Minorca’s mosttypical drink is, perhaps, the distilled spirit of juniper, and is called <<gin>> or<<ginebra>>.  It is made as follows:
     Put 12 ounces (350 grs) of juniper seeds to infuse for forty-eight hours in 9 litres 85 cls.(2 gallons 1 pint approx.) of over-proof <<aguardiente**>>  adding 2 litres 50 cls. of pure distilled water (inold days rain water was used). 
      Put the containerwith this liquid into a bain-marie, and leave it until the aguardiente used hasbeen given off, and then bottle.
      If it is desiredto give the colour of Holland’s Gin to the liquor, it will suffice to burn a little sugar ina spoon, taking care to move it about whilst it is being heated, andwithdrawing it from the fire before it gets burnt.  Then mix it with theliquor.

* The British occupied Minorca for most of the18th century, leaving behind gin as one of their legacies. Soldiers and sailorsasked for gin in the island’s taverns and soon local artisans began to importjuniper berries to keep them happy. Gin’s special flavour is attributable tothe fruit of the juniper bush (Junniperus communis), a fundamental original ingredient. When it is industriallydistilled, tradition is observed: copper stills and wood fuel are used.Afterwards, the gin is stored in oak barrels before it is bottled. During themanufacturing process, no additives are used.

For centuries, juniper berries have been used thanks to their healingproperties. In pharmacopoeias, they were used to make oil, honey or gums. Theywere boiled with wine or taken as pills. Their beneficial properties were usedin numerous different situations: to cleanse the kidneys and blood, to avoidflatulence, and bring on menstruation. It was also said that if the berrieswere burnt, the smoke protected against the plague.

In the reign of William 3rd of Britain, aqua juniperi, the result of distilling alcohols withjuniper berries, became spectacularly popular. So many abuses occurred when ginwas made that the British Parliament passed a Gin Act in 1736 prohibiting itsproduction and consumption. Far away from their country, the British on theisland of Minorca continued to drink gin, a variety made with alcohol producedfrom grapes.

The Minorcans reduce its strength by drinking it as a pomada (with lemonade) or pellofa (with soda water and lemon peel).

 

 

**  Aguardinete(Spanish), aiguardent (Catalan), aguardente (Portuguese), and augadente(Galician) are generic terms for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29%and 60% alcohol by volume.  The terms mean “fierywater.”   The word is a compoundword that combines the words for “water” (agua in Spanish; água in Portuguese; auga in Galician)and “fiery”(ardiente in Spanish; ardente in Portuguese and Galician).

<< CARQUINYOLIS>>  -- Almond biscuits – Ingredients:    12ounces (350 grs approx.) of sugar.
¼ pint of water.

6 ounces (175 grs approx.) of chopped up almonds.


12 ounces (350 grs approx.) of flour.
 

Knead all together and flatten the dough outwith a rolling pin to the thickness of a centimeter.  Cut out stripsmeasuring one and a half centimeter wide and about 10 centimetres long . Put them on flat molds so that they don’t touch each other and cook in the oven.

Why Gin? Why Minorca? Why Almond biscuits?  

Some years ago a friend mentioned in a letterthat he was abandoning his established Mallorcan abode for Minorca.  I was (briefly, idly) curious whether thiswas a positive or negative move on his part, but soon realized that the decampmentreally was predictable and characteristic. I myself tend to the “lonely sociable.” My friend is “lonely unsociable.” Even his small town in Mallorca had grown too big for him.

Over the years I began researching Minorca inbooks, occasionally at the cheese counter (Formatge de Maó), and in my littleLuis Ripoll [1] pamphlet, the source of these recipes.  Everything looked appealing and I think Imyself might be happy there if a few variables seemed less so.  Everything seems far too variable latelyexcept bad news headlines and snarky broadcast opinions polluting the universe. We’re a long way from the peaceful, wide-eyed optimism ofC.T.A. 102. [2]

Personally, I love gin (not all gins – that’sthe point, they vary too – but something tells me I would like the Minorcanstyle of gin, which I suspect would remind me of the Hollands varieties I’vetried)  and these almond biscuits seemperfect. It's a beautiful Mediterranean flag also with the medieval castle, the high walls, etc. 


[1]  From Luis Ripoll, 125 Cookery Recipes ofMajorca, Minorca, Ibiza (translated by William Kirkbride).  Palma deMallorca, 1975.

 [2]  C.T.A. 102 -- The Byrds

Amy Winehouse/Three Ibizan Recipes

I. Rape a la Casolana

An Ibizan recipe for John Dory 

 

Lightly fry a small quantity of onion, tomato, garlic andparsley.  Add sufficient water to cook init a pound of John Dory fish, cut into slices. When cooked, drain and put to one side the broth, and let the  fish go cold. Then lightly fry it and season with garlic and finely chopped parsley,some drops of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.

Separately in a stewing-pan, lightly fry in a little oil agood-sized onion cut up fine, a whole clove of garlic, a bay leaf and aspoonful of red pepper.  Let fry for alittle while, then add the pulp of two tomatoes and three spoonsful offlour.  Stir for a moment and then putthis fry into the fish broth to cook, and when boiling, add the slices of JohnDory and let cook for half an hour.

II. Cacoleta de Patates.  

 Ibizan Potato Stew.

This is one of the most unpretentious dishes of Ibizancuisine, and very popular among country people.

In a stewing-pan with some olive oil lightly fry togetheronion, tomato, a clove of garlic, and parsley.  Add potatoes in the required quantity, wholeif they are small and cut in half if they are of larger size.  Turn them over with the fry, season with salt,ordinary pepper, red pepper and powdered cinnamon.  Then add enough water to cover them, bring upto the boil and incorporate some beaten up eggs.  Remove as soon as the potatoes are cooked. 

 III.  Flao.   

AnIbizan Cheese Tart.

Take a pound of flour and knead with a mixture half of waterand half of oil, adding a small glass of anis liquor, and a few grams ofaniseed.  Knead until a firm dough isachieved, and then spread it on a flat round mold.   

Make a fancy pattern all around the edge.

Separately beat up four eggs and mix them with a pound (450grs) of sugar, adding a few leaves of mint. When well mixed and beaten, spread the mixture over the aforesaiddough.  Put it at once into the oven, andlet it cook for half an hour in the moderate heat.

When cooked and cooled down, sprinkle with ground sugar.



Note:  We learned the sad, predictable, but still crazy-sounding news of Amy Winehouse's death last Saturday when we stopped for gas somewhere on the Mass Pike on the way home from Maine.  As is so often the case, what eventually emerges from the original fog of no details is the fog of details.  All one can say is "what a waste."  Learning that Carole King's very sad song "You're So Far Away" was Amy Winehouse's favorite was very sad.  Reading about her cremation at Golder's Green Crematorium reminded me of a Graham Greene short story I read once whose name I can't recall.  A climactic scene of regret and non-resolution occurred there also.  Thinking about Amy Winehouse, an artist I didn't really follow (except in lurid news reports), but kind of admired, made me think of Ibiza (Eivissa in Catalan) -- its lively music and rave party scene, of course, which I associate with her, but mostly because it lies in the extraordinary, wild and romantic Balaeric island chain, where I used to visit a friend a long time ago, and which seems to suit her music's mood.  To celebrate her life, I thought it would be appropriate to post several  "tipico" Ibizan recipes.  I hope you enjoy them.  They're included in Luis Ripoll's 125 Cookery Recipes of Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza, a real "find" if you can find it.  Another Ripoll entry is found HERE.   The John Dory illustration in second position above  is by William MacGillivray (1796-1852), dates from 1831-41, and is part of the Natural History Museum collections in London.

Salt To Taste

Cane rat aka grasscutter aka ground-pig


I.     "Cane Rat (Thryonomys Swinderianus), a large African rodent which also goes by the name grasscutter (especially in W. Africa) and ground-pig (a misnomer which has been current in S. Africa, perhaps because of its bristly hairs).  It can live in various environments, mostly but not always in damp areas; enjoys an excellent vegetarian diet (roots, young shoots, bark, etc.) and is capable of causing havoc in some crops such as sugar cane.

        The cane rat may reach a length, not including the tail, of nearly 60 cm (24") and provides a substantial amount of good meat.  It is eaten on a large scale in sub-Saharan Africa." 

From:  Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food.  Oxford, Oxford University Press,  1999.

Millet beer




II.    In Native Stranger: A Black American's Journey into the Heart of Africa (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), Eddy L. Harris provides this account of cane rat stew in the Ivory Coast:

   "Denis asked if I was hungry and took me to the home of a woman making stew. He was tired and so was I. It had been a very long day. We would rest awhile and have something to eat with her before going home..

       We sat outside and drank millet beer, frothy and sweet. Then we ate this woman's strange stew. Denis watched me carefully -- too carefully, it seemed.

   "What's the matter?" I asked.

   "Nothing, " he said. "How do you like the stew?"

   "It's different," I said. "But it's good."

    He was playful again.

   "Did you ever eat a rat before?"

    I kept eating. Nothing surprised me anymore.

   "Don't worry," he said. "It's not like a rat in the sewer. It's more like a field rat."

   "Oh, I wasn't worried," I said, glad that he had explained the difference.

    The stew was vaguely sweet, pungent, a new taste.

    We drank more millet beer and the evening began to glow. Denis smiled. He became for me then all that was right about Africa, the warmth, the generosity, the laughter."

III.         A long, happy (it seems to me now as it seemed to me then) time ago, during my first visit to Mallorca,  I purchased (as I usually do when I travel) a local recipe book so that I could remember my vacation and the many new and wonderful things I ate after I had returned home.  In this case, I also wanted to remember the sounds and spelling of  Mallorquin, Mallorca's unique and remarkable language.  The book contained the following recipe, which I have never tried (and am unlikely to):

        Frito de Ratas (Rat Fry): 

      "The rats are skinned, well cleaned and given a good boiling.  Drain and cut into little pieces.  These are fried in a frying pan with a lot of oil seasoned beforehand with salt and pepper.

      When cooked, add a good quantity of garlic, leeks and tomato, and if in season, one or two chilis.

        In La Puebla (in the northern part of Majorca), where this dish is general, they always advise you to "lift the elbow", that is to say, wash it down with plenty of good red wine.

        Needless to explain that the rats in question are the ones called "ratas de campo" or field rats, which abound in the area of La Albufera (bordering the Bay of Alcudia), and in the surroundings of La Puebla."

From Luis Ripoll, 125 Cookery Recipes of Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza (translated by William Kirkbride).  Palma de Mallorca, 1975.

IV.        Also from Ripoll's book, and highly recommended, is the following recipe, which no visitor to Mallorca, especially one who had been a guest in a private home, would fail to recognize:

Pamboli

Pamboli (Bread and Olive Oil)

        "Bread and olive oil is maybe the plainest item of food in Majorcan cuisine; but that doesn't prevent it from being one of the most widely eaten.

        Pamboli is nothing more or less than slices of bread -- brown or white -- dressed with a little good quality olive oil and, if desired, a dash of vinegar.

        If we want to make it more succulent, we can include, before dressing it, some slices of tomato.  Would then have in the Majorcan language "pamboli tomatiga".  We can improve this item of food further by adding green or black olive, whole or cut up, and a spoonful of capers, as well as some samphire (an aromatic cliff plant used in pickles).  Salt to taste."

Pamboli -- grisaille view

V.        What connects all this is the following: 

          The other day, while consulting Alan Davidson's magnificent Oxford Companion on another subject, I encountered his entry on the curiously-named Cane Rat and became interested in the history and lore surrounding this rodent.  (For instance, did you know that calling someone a "cane rat" is a mild term of disapprobation in South Africa?)   I learned that this charming, herbivorous field creature is a standard item of "bush fare" and considered a valuable, fairly inexpensive food source in Africa.  But one thing led to another, as usually happens, and I eventually ended up learning about Eddy Harris's fascinating volume and  remembering my Mallorquin cookbook and its odd-seeming "rat fry" recipe.  It had been years since I opened Ripoll's book, which is really more of a pamphlet that conveys great authenticity in the rusticity of its paper, printing and graphics.  Opening to the Frito de Ratas page, I discovered a pink phone message slip dating from the early 1980s alerting me that an ambulance chasing lawyer in Manhattan wanted to speak to me about a pending case.  The message bore the date of Caroline's birthday.  Curious.  I then began writing this mini-semi-survey.

       I consider it propitious and not an accident that this ends with the excellent, healthy and humane Pamboli, the quintessential Mallorquin foodstuff. 

       The message to me -- the clear and unequivocal message -- is that we need to leave the cane rat and other animals alone and to eat more Pamboli.

        This post is dedicated to the memory of Cy Twombly.