Basque Cuisine plus recipes and vocabulary words

A week ago, I bought two cookbooks on Basque cuisine: The Basque Table by Teresa Barrenechea and the bilingual Cocina Vasca/Basque Cookery by Juan de Echevarria. I'm quite fascinated by Basque cooking, even more so after having two fantastic lunches at a Basque restaurant in Chino Hills called Centro Basco, so I've decided that I want to try and learn to cook as many Basque dishes as I can. I've already made quite a few (some have been a part of my family's staples for so long that I was surprised to find out they were traditional Basque! And here I thought my family made those recipes up...)

Aside from using food to learn more about Basque culture, it has also helped me learn and memorise words. This is why it's easy for me to recall that in Euskara an onion is kipula, water is ura, and salt cod is bakailaoa. Sometimes, this is easier to do than flash cards although I use both.

A few months ago, one of my friends from the Basque Country sent me a recipe for Intxaursaltsa (also: Intxaursalsa) which in English is sometimes known as Walnut Cream or Walnut Purée. Through that, I was not only able to add more words to my vocabulary but it was also very much appreciated in my family, especially by my Pops who loves sweet things and nuts.

Seeing as I haven't asked her permission to share the recipe, I won't be posting it here. Instead, I will give you guys the recipes found in the two books I mentioned earlier. There is a slight difference in each but both remain quite simple.

The first is from Cocina Vasca/Basque Cookery:

Intxaursaltsa

500 gms walnuts (crush with a mortar and pestle until it has become a paste)
2 litres full-cream milk
4 eggs (beaten)
450 gms sugar
1 stick of cinnamon

- Put the milk to boil with the sugar and stick of cinnamon and when it boils, take the cinnamon stick out.
- Remove the milk from the stove and when it has cooled a little add, the walnut paste and the beaten eggs.
- Put the mixture on low flame and constantly mix for about 20 minutes. (If you stop mixing it will start to boil and separate).
- Transfer the intxaursaltsa into a serving dish. It will thicken as it cools. Eat alone or serve with ice cream.

This next one is from The Basque Table:

Creamy Walnut Purée

1/2 lb walnuts
4 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
4 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar

- Using a mortar and pestle, crush the walnuts until they are ground fine but not quite a paste. (You can use a food processor for this if you take great care not to overprocess the nuts.)
- In a large saucepan, combine the water and cinnamon stick. Bring water to a boil over high heat. Add the walnuts, reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, until the water is almost completely evaporated and the ground nuts are very thick. Discard the cinnamon stick.
- Add the milk and sugar to the saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, until the mixture is slightly thickened. If you'd like a thicker mixture, cook it for 5-10 minutes more, or even longer. Let the purée cook in the pan, then cover and chill the purée for at least 2 hours.
- Spoon the purée into small bowls, and top each serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Serve immediately.

The great thing about Intxaursaltsa is that you can eat it cold or warm and by itself or topped with ice cream or whipped cream. I usually prefer it at room temperature and by itself.

Although both recipes posted here are in English, here are some vocabulary words you can use if you try the recipe out:

• intxaurra - walnut (intxaurrak - walnuts)
  
• esnea - milk
• ura - water
• kanela - cinnamon
• azukre - sugar
• arrautza - egg (arrautzak - eggs)
  

My next Basque cooking project will be either chicken or Gateau Basque so hopefully I'll be able to post pictures next time!

BONUS: While watching one of my new favourite shows on EiTB, Objetivo Euskadi, I noticed that this week's episode which deals with traditional Basque dishes includes intxaursaltsa. In the show, the couple who make the intxaursaltsa add the crumbs of 5-day old bread. It looked pretty interesting!