- [Sara] Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Aboard Oceania Cruises, our guests embrace a passion for travel, and our chefs are inspired by the flavors of the world and committed to providing fine dining at sea.

That's Oceania Cruises.

Oceania Cruises, your world your way.

- [Narrator] Since 1921, Season has brought you skinless and boneless sardine filets.

Our sardines are wild-caught and rich in omega threes for all your everyday meals.

Season sardines, great taste is always in season.

♪ And it feels good - [Narrator] Sunsweet Amazin' prunes and prune juice.

- [Sara] And by Mutti tomatoes of Parma, The Republic of Tea, and USA Rice.

(relaxing music) Today on Sara's Weeknight Meals, if Barcelona is the soul of Catalonia, we found the soul of Barcelona in its food.

I dine with a local family after we make a dish fishermen once cooked on their boat.

- [Nuria] Today were making suquet de peix.

It's a Catalan fish stew.

- [Sara] Wow, that looks delicious.

Salud!

Plus, a speedy weeknight meal with a kiss of Spain, pork cutlets with my Spanish olive sauce and a tour of Barcelona with an American expat, eating dishes not found anywhere else.

You wouldn't think pork, you just wouldn't.

- [Sam] Beef snout and foot stew.

- Oh my goodness, a stick-to-your-ribs thing.

Food before food before food and day drinking, lots of day drinking.

Oh dear, oh dear, I don't think I'm- Oh my God.

Barcelona like you've never tasted it.

Today on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(subtle music) Easy-breezy Barcelona is Catalonia's seaside capital, a magnet for foreigners like American expat, Sam Zucker.

He's my tour guide today and a fellow graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

So you're a CIA grad too?

- I am, yeah.

- But you're, are you cooking now?

- I'm not cooking anymore.

I'm a food photographer and filmmaker, and I've also been writing about food in Barcelona for a decade, and I'm gonna show you a few of my favorite places, but first, I thought we could start with a little bit of a breakfast.

These are called cocas, typical pastries, savory and sweet.

This is a coca de llardons.

Llardons are the crispy pork cracklings left over after we've rendered the pork fat.

- [Sara] Oh, yum.

- [Sam] And it has a bit of sugar and some almonds on top too, so it's sort of sweet and savory.

- [Sara] Okay, mm.

- Do you taste the pork cracklings?

- I do.

- Yeah.

- [Sara] This would be one of those things, I'd be eating it and minding my own business and suddenly say, "What is that unique taste in there?"

And you wouldn't think pork, you just wouldn't.

(subtle jazz music) - We're gonna have a little apertivo before we go to lunch.

- Nice.

- We're going to my favorite vermouth bar.

(chef speaking in foreign language) - [Sara] So, is this lunch?

- [Sam] Not yet.

Here, typically lunch will be the biggest meal of the day, but even so, people like to have a little snack before.

Well, there you go.

- [Sara] This is exciting.

- Cheers.

- Oh, cheers, okay, and we just drink this?

We don't have to, we don't have to shoot this?

- No, it's just sip it.

- Okay.

Is it common to have vermouth like this in the middle of the day?

- Vermouth really is a culture, it's not just a drink.

You could say, in Catalan, there's a saying “fer un vermut”, to do a vermout and that actually can just include meeting with friends for drinks during the day.

- [Sara] So these aren't tapas, these aren't called tapas?

- [Sam] This is something really common that you'd eat with vermouth, potato chips with conservas is a really popular pair.

Conserva refers to canned seafood and vegetables.

- Well, anything's better with a potato chip, right?

- Balance of textures, salty, vinegary.

- [Sara] Mm.

- [Sam] This is all meant to stimulate appetite.

It gets you hungry for more.

- Have food before food before food.

- That's how it is.

- Yikes.

So what's next?

- Lunch.

- Really?

- Good, let's go.

- Yeah.

Gelida is a Barcelona institution.

Once a bodega where you got wine from a cask, now it's the place for hardy working man's meals.

So we just dig in?

- Yes, this is cup y pota, a beef snout and foot stew.

- Oh my goodness, a stick-to-your-ribs thing.

This is so gelatinous, it's amazing.

- [Sam] Yeah, it's not spicy.

- Mm-mm, mm-mm.

- But it has a little bit of, just a little bit of extra depth of flavor.

- [Sara] It's really rich and terrific flavor.

- [Sam] Snails are in season right now.

These are cooked with garlic, they're cooked with ground beef and flavored with a bit of rosemary and you just grab a toothpick, just grab one.

- Uh huh.

- [Sam] And you dig the snail out.

- [Sara] Hm.

- Pop it in.

- All right.

- Don't be afraid to lick your fingers.

- Hm, hm, I like the meat sauce with it.

- [Sam] Yeah.

- Hm.

- [Sam] So a lunch of this type wouldn't be complete without wine.

- Of course, you're right.

- But we're gonna do it in a special way.

- Alright.

- See, we don't have any wine glasses.

- No, I'm, I'm wondering- - All we have is the porron.

- You're kidding me?

- Yes, this is actually on the- - I thought that looks like an oil and vinegar thingy.

- Exactly.

So the key is you start close to the mouth and as the stream goes, you pull your hand away and the farther you go, the cooler you are, basically.

You tilt it up and once you sort of get, the more you have to tilt it much more, but you have to, you have like, you have to kind of- - Look at it, I've already gotten it on my chin.

(both laughing) I just made their day.

I'm not doing that again, are you kidding me?

Okay, so up here?

- Well start close to your mouth.

- Uh huh.

- Get the stream going full on.

More, more, more, more, more and now, now.

Yeah!

You'll get there, you'll get there.

- I'm done.

(Sara laughing) Barcelona native, Nuria Gine Gras is a proud Catalan who grew up savoring the dishes her grandmothers taught her.

At 23, she moved to New York City where the food scene drew her to culinary school and a job at Gramercy Tavern.

After 17 years, she went home, started a family and a cooking school, A La Taula, in the apartment she grew up in, making the kind of heritage recipes she learned at the stoves of her grandmothers.

I met her at a Barcelona classic, Horchatería Sirvent, to share a nostalgic treat from her childhood.

- [Nuria] I used to come here with my grandparents.

We have always a refreshing drink called Horchata, Is it made of tiger nuts?

- [Sara] What's a tiger nut?

- Tiger nuts, it's a tuber like potato.

Basically they soak the nuts overnight with water, and then after, you blend it.

- [Sara] Now you don't, you don't eat these straight up though.

- No.

- Those are so funny looking.

- Yeah, they are.

- [Sara] Look like little pebbles.

(subtle music) I'm so excited, this is so different.

- Yes, thank you.

- Hm, hm, that is refreshing.

I don't think I've ever had anything like this.

- I used to go very often with my grandparents here and thinking of my grandmother now it makes me think like I'm excited to go cook the Catalan fish stew.

- Oh okay, let's get going, yes.

- Okay.

(subtle music) - Well, here I am in this gorgeous kitchen, Nuria's kitchen in Barcelona.

What are we making?

- Today, we're making suquet de fish, it's a Catalan fish stew, and the word suquet, it means juice, and it's the juice that the fish releases to the stock and to the potatoes.

I've been grating the tomatoes, you already cut, small diced the onions.

We're going to cook the fish.

I'm going to heat up the pan.

- [Sara] Okay.

- [Nuria] And add olive oil.

- [Sara] Oh yeah, that good Spanish olive oil.

All right, you want me to season the fish?

- Yes, please.

- [Sara] Both sides.

- [Nuria] Salt and pepper.

Okay, both sides.

- [Sara] What kind of fish is this?

- [Nuria] This is monk fish.

- [Sara] But you could use any firm-fleshed white fish, right?

- Yeah.

- So now we're flouring it, huh?

- Yeah, maybe the fishermen will get upset because I'm using flour and they will not have flour in the boat.

- [Sara] Oh, so this is like a fisherman's lunch on a boat?

- Exactly, that's what it is.

So they will use a big pot.

They will just put any fish that they could not, that didn't have any commercial value, they just will add it in the pot, but I'm doing it the way my family does it, which we flour and we like the flavor that we get.

- [Sara] That makes a lot of sense.

Okay, so I'll take that, yeah.

(water running) - [Nuria] Okay, I'm trying to make sure that this is hot.

- Yep.

- [Nuria] Okay, so we're adding the fish.

So the first time I ate suquet, it was in Costa Bravo, which is north from Barcelona and I really enjoyed the flavors for all the different elements that they add in this recipe.

When I tried, I decided I wanted to cook it at home and in my family, we have the tradition to always flour the fish.

We like the flavor that gets the fish.

We like it that it's sealing the- - [Sara] The juices?

- [Nuria] Thank you, the juices of the fish, and it's also thickening the sauce.

- And sort of grounds in the bottom of the pan, the flour and adds more flavor.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

- [Nuria] So I'm going to take the fish out of the pan and put it on a side.

- Okay, so we don't finish cooking it here, it finishes cooking with everything else later?

- That's correct, yeah.

- Okay.

- [Nuria] When I moved to New York, I didn't know how to cook, so I, then I started to pay attention to the recipes that my mother made and I realized that she started every single dish with onions.

- Sauteed onions.

- We're going to start to make the sofrito, so we need to add the onions please.

- Okay.

What kind of heat do you want underneath that?

- [Nuria] We are going to have it in low heat.

- [Sara] Okay.

- [Nuria] We're going to season with some salt, please.

- [Sara] And tell me what a sufragite is.

I think of suffragette.

- Yeah.

- Whole bunch of ladies getting pissed off.

(both laughing) - [Nuria] In Catalan, we say sufragite, and in Spanish, it's sofrito and it's basically frying onion and frying tomato.

I'm going to make it the way we make it in my family, which is really caramelizing the onion and then adding the tomato.

- So do you want me to get the shellfish?

- Yes, please.

Could you get the, the clams and the mussels?

- [Sara] Okay, and- - [Nuria] Please could you get now the wine.

- Oh, fine, we're gonna steam it in wine, huh?

- [Nuria] Yeah.

- [Sara] All right.

So what are we starting with, the clams or mussels?

We gotta cook 'em separately 'cause they cook in a different amount of time.

- Exactly, so we'll start with the mussels, please.

- Okay.

- We can add the wine.

- [Sara] I noticed that you've got a certain amount of mussels.

This recipe's for four people, right?

- Yeah.

- So four pieces of fish.

How many mussels per person?

- Two mussels per person and three clams per person.

- Okay, and how much wine?

- [Nuria] Third of a cup, please.

- Okay.

Okay.

And what temperature do we want?

So we put the lid on, we're steaming this essentially.

- Yeah, medium high.

- [Sara] And we're just cooking them until they open.

- Correct?

- Meanwhile, we did clean 'em before, right?

And removed any little beard and scrubbed them a bit.

- Yeah it's been usually, when you buy them, they're- - Pretty dirty.

- Yeah, they're pretty dirty.

- Yeah.

Okay, well boy, your onions look good.

- Yeah, that's the way we like it, so yeah, we are ready to add the tomato.

- [Sara] Okay, good.

Yeah.

(tomatoes sizzling) A pinch of salt.

- [Nuria] A pinch of salt.

- [Sara] We season as we go.

- [Nuria] Yeah.

I say to kiss every ingredient with salt.

- Yes, I like that.

So we cook it until this water from the tomato gets radiose, so it gets jam consistency.

- Jammy.

Look at some of the, I'm gonna take just the mussels out that have opened 'cause I don't wanna overcook.

Oh, they're all sort of opening.

All right, so now I know, I notice we are soaking the clams here in salt water.

- [Nuria] That's a way to purge the sand.

Yeah, so the, the clams spit out their sand.

- [Sara] So they open up and spit out the sand.

Do you want me to put some water?

- [Nuria] Hm.

- Good.

So if it over reduces, just add a little water.

- [Nuria] Yeah.

- [Sara] Yeah okay, good.

- [Nuria] So now I'm going to get the potatoes to get them ready.

- [Sara] Okay, and so these are just regular old baking potatoes, looks like.

- [Nuria] Yeah.

- [Sara] That we've peeled.

- So I wanna show you a technique that we use in Catalonia that it's, we call it Ascashada potato, and it means to break the potato.

- [Sara] Oh!

- [Nuria] We're just inserting the, the knife and then I break and it's very irregular pieces and we do that so the potato sucks the flavors, all the flavors from the stock, and also that way they release their starch.

- Yeah, it's like you're bruising the potatoes a little bit.

- Uh-huh.

- [Sara] Oh!

Oh my goodness, we have some open.

Oh my goodness, these guys went fast.

These are the sweetest little clams.

What do we do with this liquid?

- [Nuria] We're going to strain it.

- [Sara] I don't see any sand, but you might've had, oops, you folks at home might've had some sand and so you wanna make sure not to let any sand in there.

We did a good job cleaning 'em.

Okay, and so this liquid's gonna go back in here?

- It's going to be back in here and then we're going to add the fish stock in here.

- Okay.

- So we're going to mix it all.

- Okay, so I'll get the fish stock too then.

All right.

- [Nuria] It's very important that the fish stock, it's not salted because this liquid can be- - Very salty from that shellfish, okay.

- We'll taste.

- Okay.

All right, and all of this?

- [Nuria] Yeah, we're going to get it at boiling temperature.

- [Sara] Okay, okay and, and this is either homemade or store bought?

Correct, okay.

Okay, so how do you know the sofrito's ready?

- [Nuria] I know when I can, see how I put the spoon and there's no water?

- [Sara] Got it.

- And the sauce gets a jam consistency.

- Got it.

- So at this point, I wanna add the potatoes.

Okay, so we put them all, season with salt, or kiss with salt.

- [Sara] Kissed with salt.

There we go.

- [Nuria] And we really get them all covered with this flavor, and you add the stock to the potatoes, make sure they get all covered so they cook evenly.

- [Sara] So you say when.

- [Nuria] That's enough.

- [Sara] Okay.

Bay leaf?

- Okay, I think we have one down here.

- Okay, we're going to, yeah, once you put the bay leaf, I'm going to cover the potatoes.

Now we're going to bloom the saffron.

- [Sara] When you're working with saffron, you have to put some hot liquid on it and let it sort of come alive before you add it.

- [Nuria] Okay, so while this cooking, let's make the piccata.

- [Sara] So what is piccata?

- It's a way that in, in Catalonia with thickened sauces, it's a medieval recipe and we use a mortar traditionally.

So I got here garlic.

- One garlic clove.

- One garlic clove, and we're going to add some salt, and then I cut roughly the garlic.

- Okay.

- [Nuria] So to make a paste.

- Okay.

- The salt is going to help to break the garlic.

I'm going to grab this parsley and add it here.

Okay, so now we're going to add third of a cup of hazelnuts and almonds.

- [Sara] Toasted.

- [Nuria] Toasted, yeah.

Okay, that's looking, we are there.

- [Sara] Okay.

- Right now, I'm going to check the potatoes.

Now we're going to add the saffron.

I like to add it more at the end of cooking.

So we add the saffron.

What we're going to add next, it's the piccata.

- Okay.

Well, we're building a lot of flavor.

- Yeah, can you start smelling now the garlic?

- Yes.

- Maybe you have to come closer.

- [Sara] Oh, that looks so, and look at how it thickened.

I mean, it thickened from the potatoes, it thickened from the flour on the fish and now it's thickening from the piccata.

- [Nuria] Exactly.

- [Sara] That's wonderful.

- [Nuria] So I'm going to grab the fish, okay.

- And the juices from the fish.

- [Nuria] Hm, for our suquet.

It's not raw, it has been cooked a little bit, but still it needs- - To finish cooking.

- To finish cooking.

- 'Cause it's sort of thick.

- Yeah.

- [Sara] And the shellfish goes in last.

- [Nuria] I'm covering, but I was trying to think how much liquid I have so- - If you wanted to reduce it, you'd leave the lid off.

- [Nuria] Exactly, and soon we'll be ready to add the mussels.

- And then we're good?

- Yeah.

- Yay.

- [Nuria] Okay, let's check if the fish is done.

- [Sara] Oh, that looks so good.

- This is cooked, so we're going to add the mussels and the clams and look at the sauce, how much it thickened.

- [Sara] Yeah, that's wild.

- Here, we can do it together.

- Okay.

- [Nuria] It's going to add the- - [Sara] Oh, you're gonna make it pretty?

- [Nuria] Yeah.

- Okay.

- [Nuria] All right.

- Oh, let's eat.

- [Nuria] Yeah.

- Lunchtime!

- [Nuria] Yay!

- Oh boy.

Wow, that looks delicious.

- So Sara, today we're eating with dishes, but we will have to think the fishermen on their boat, dishes will use a big container.

Everybody will eat with just a spoon, or a piece of bread and they just pull- - From the same container.

- Yeah.

- Wow, that looks delicious, and what do we have here?

We have chickpeas and spinach.

- This is a very traditional dish that it's called a spinna ca la catana, spinach with pancetta, pine nuts, raisins, chickpeas with the spice, (speaking foreign language), paprika.

- [Sara] Paprika, yeah which is also very Spanish, nice.

Let's eat, you eat it while it's hot.

You know what's impressive is how deeply flavored the potatoes are.

You were absolutely right, they're like a sponge for the sauce.

- Yeah.

- So good.

- This is really good.

- [Sara] Does your mom make that all the time?

It's a really very healthy meal too.

- There's, there's really quite a few Catalan dishes that are like this.

- Right, right.

You're a spoiled boy from Westchester.

- I am.

- I mean, my God, look at how you eat now.

Alright, I just wanna propose a toast.

Here we go, yes.

Thank you so much for letting me into your home and showing me how to make this delicious dish.

- Okay, salud.

- Yes.

(subtle music) - I am gonna take you on a trip to Spain today.

I'm gonna start right now with pork cutlets with my Spanish olive sauce and we're gonna start of course, with the pork.

Now what I have here are some pork cutlets and I'm gonna pound them and we're making them into very thin cutlets so that there's lots of sauce with every bite.

I'm a sauce person, I love sauce, so let me show you how I like to do this, and this is about a pound of pork, boneless pork cutlets and they're very affordable, so this is a great choice for a weeknight meal.

I start with some plastic wrap and I put some water down first.

If you've ever pounded meat before, you're like what's the water for?

Well, the point of the water is that when you go to pound meat, if you've ever done this, especially with chicken, you notice by the time you're done with it that it looks like a piece of lace, it's got holes in it 'cause it stuck to the plastic when you were pounding it, but if you add water, it slides across the plastic and doesn't shred, so here we go and these are fairly tender, pork loin is.

Now this is actually a really fun activity after a bad day at the office, I highly recommend it.

Okay, so I'm gonna go hose down 'cause I've got raw meat on my hands and get rid of my cutting board.

I try to keep separate cutting boards for meats, or at least just wash it really well, but we don't want any cross contamination.

So a little bit of kosher salt and we wanna do this on both sides, but let me get the pepper on too, and some black pepper.

You can season the flour too, but I find that if you season the meat as opposed to the flour, it gets more deeply seasoned, and salt is very important, as is pepper.

Alright, now we're gonna use instant-ized flour.

It's flour that my granny used to use and it's, it's formulated actually to not lump up gravy.

It has a second really good thing that it does, which is gives a crisp coating when you're sauteing meat, fish, or any kind of protein.

Let me get some oil in here.

You can use olive oil or vegetable oil.

Just need to coat the bottom of the pan.

Okay, and now I like to flour the meat this way 'cause you can lift up the sides of the parchment paper to get it really coated.

I'm gonna get the first one in and then the rest are coming.

(subtle music) You wanna hear that sound when you put the meat in there 'cause it means that the pan was hot enough.

If you put your meat in a pan and you don't hear that psst, get it out, get the meat out, heat the pan further and then put the meat in.

So let's take a little peek here and see what we've got.

We don't need a lot of color.

You could get, you know, slightly more than this, but this is just fine.

After I turn these, I'm gonna quickly wash my tongs too and bring over the rest of the ingredients 'cause we don't want cross contamination.

Okay.

Alright, now the olives, and these are Spanish olives.

They're, they're pimentos stuffed olives, and I actually saw these being stuffed when I was in the region where this recipe is sort of based on, and let me just pull this off for half a second 'cause I don't want these to overcook.

We're gonna deglaze in just a minute with some sherry, another very important ingredient that comes from Spain, uniquely from Spain, so I need to grab that.

So here are the olives and I need about a third a cup of chopped olives.

(subtle Spanish music) Let me get my sherry in there.

So it's about a quarter cup of Sherry.

Anytime you add alcohol to a hot pan, pull the pan off the fire so that it doesn't catch.

Woo, did I get a hit of sherry there?

That was my little cocktail.

I'm gonna let this reduce till it's almost done and then we're gonna add our olives and our chicken broth.

Here we go, you can see how dry that is.

In go the olives and about one cup of chicken broth.

Alright, so now I'm gonna add the meat back to the sauce and the flour that's on the meat is gonna thicken the sauce.

If we were using your own homemade chicken broth, I'm gonna get these guys back out, as you reduced the stock down, it would get thicker because there's gelatin in there, so we have to make up the difference here with the flour and then I'm gonna add just a little bit of butter.

This is a French thing.

The French call this (speaking French) so you just swirl it around and try not to make a lot of noise.

You could put two tablespoons of butter in there, that would be even better.

I'm gonna put the meat back in.

I'm gonna just coat it a little bit.

Now I cooked one pound of cutlets for four people and it's plenty of meat, particularly when you pound it like this.

It's the psychology of serving, these seem like big pieces.

Okay so, we're gonna put one piece on, delicious and some chopped fresh herbs always are a nice way to end.

Particularly when you have something brown, it's nice to add something green just to brighten it up and I've got some baby roasted potatoes here and this would be great for a weeknight.

You saw I made the whole thing while you watched me make it and there you go.

For recipes, videos, and more, go to our website saramoulton.com.

Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Aboard Oceania Cruises, our guests embrace a passion for travel and our chefs are inspired by the flavors of the world and committed to providing fine dining at sea.

That's Oceania Cruises.

Oceania Cruises, your world your way.

- [Narrator] Since 1921, Season has brought you skinless and boneless sardine filets.

Our sardines are wild caught and rich in omega threes for all your everyday meals.

Season Sardines, great taste is always in season.

♪ And it feels good - [Narrator] Sunsweet Amazin' prunes and prune juice.

- [Sara] And by Mutti tomatoes of Parma, the Republic of Tea, and USA Rice.

(subtle piano music) (informative music) (sparkling music)