Cookbook Club – The New Spanish Table

For our August Cookbook Club, we used The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen. I was at first irritated by the formatting of the book, but after an amazing meal all layout woes were forgiven. To come along on our culinary journey through all the regions of Spain, go to my Cookbook Club site – for now, my dish!

You had me at “Fried Garlic Chips”. And while usually I’m one to be quite pleased by a recipe with only a handful of ingredients, I have to admit I was a bit concerned by the very minimal amount of seasoning in this dish. But the fried garlic chips were enough of a sell, so I went for it.

I cut 6 green bell peppers in half, cored and seeded them, then roasted them until tender and blistered. I removed them from the oven, wrapped them up, and let them stand until cooled. Then I peeled the skins off.

I heated olive oil and thinly sliced garlic on low for about 2 minutes, then increased the heat to medium and cooked, stirring, until the garlic just began to brown and crisp. I removed the garlic chips and set the garlic oil aside.

I arranged the roasted peppers on a platter, drizzled with red wine vinegar and garlic oil, then scattered the garlic chips on top.

That was it… not even any salt! But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the peppers were delicious. The roasting brought out all the natural sweetness of the peppers, with the acid and fat from the small amount of vinegar and garlic oil just enough to bring some depth to the dish. My only issue was that I should have waited to add the garlic chips until right before serving. I sprinkled them on before heading to the party, so by the time we ate they’d gotten a bit soggy.