PO‘IPU — The Spanish Sauce Romesco is a bold, nut and red pepper-based sauce, originally from Spain, said Chef Michael Simpson of Living Foods Market Aug. 29 during the culinary demonstration at The Shops at Kukui‘ula.
The sauce, sometimes mixed with leaves of fennel or mint, is served with fish, but can also be served plain with a wide variety of other foods, including poultry and vegetables, states an online source.
For the demonstration, Simpson simply cut slices of a store-baked bread, alluding to how, during the spring, salsa romesco is served as an accompanying dips for calcots, a spring onion typical to Catalonia, Spain.
“We serve a variation of this sauce at Living Foods Market,” Simpson said. “It has some punch to it. It has to because of the cayenne pepper.”
Simpson said a batch of sauce takes about 40 minutes to prepare and the hardest part of the process is the preparation of the red peppers which are blackened over an open flame, using tongs to turn the peppers.
“They’ll look like hell,” Simpson said. “But they should look like that. If you start to see them ash, you’ve gone too far.”
Once the peppers are blackened, they’re placed in a bowl and covered, the steam from the charred pepper helping to facilitate the removal of the skin from the peppers.
When all of the 2.5 pounds, or about six peppers, are done the skin needs to be carefully removed and the juice squeezed into a bowl.
“Remember, they just came off the fire and they will be hot,” Simpson said.
The skinned peppers are halved and the seeds removed and, along with the stem, put into the same bowl as the juice.
Two cups of bread pieces are soaked in 1.5 cups red wine vinegar in a separate bowl. “For those who want a gluten-free version of the sauce, mashed potato can be used instead of bread,” Simpson said.
Two cups of raw almonds, although several online variations of the recipe also utilize pine nuts and hazelnuts, are toasted slightly for color and cooled to room temperature.
Two heads of garlic are peeled and trimmed of its woody stems, Simpson noting prepared garlic can also be used, but if used, needs to be increased in amount.
“Now comes the fun part,” Simpson said, adding the almonds into a food processor to grind the slightly toasted nuts to a fine texture. “It’ll be a little noisy when you first start.”
Alternately, the garlic, soaked bread and peppers are blended in, the juice being added at the final step. Extra virgin olive oil, 1.5 cups, and three ounces of tomato paste are added. If the sauce is too thick, a little water can be added to thin the sauce.
The half teaspoon cayenne pepper, four tablespoons of smoked paprika, 2.5 tablespoon salt and a tablespoon of pepper are added and the sauce blended thoroughly, testing for balance and adjusting as necessary.
Living Food Market is a full service restaurant including baked goods and pastries and grocery market featuring local products and the freshest organic produce, open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at The Shops at Kukui‘ula, where weekly culinary demonstrations and live entertainment is part of the Kaua‘i Culinary Market coordinated by the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau.
Ingredient listing
2 cups almonds
2 heads garlic
2 cups bread pieces
1-1/2 cups red wine vinegar
2-1/2 pounds (approx. 6) red bell peppers
1-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 oz. tomato paste
1/2 tbs. cayenne pepper
4 tbs. smoked paprika
2-1/2 tbs. salt
1 tbs. black pepper
