“I think peppers are so nice and versatile. For me, roasting definitely gets the best flavour.” But to get tasty peppers for Spanish cuisine year-round, he suggests sourcing piquillo peppers in jars.“They are really good for many things, salads, stews.”
rice, for me, is the stock.” So buy good ones, or make your own – a vegetable one is very versatile. “You can do a very strong vegetable stock where I burn my onions, it gives a very good balance of bitterness to the stock. I burn the onions first, and then I caramelise the rest of the ingredients for a very long time.The balance of the caramelised vegetables with the burnt onions is really yummy.”
Method:
FOOD Recipe
1. Put the ribs in a dish with the white wine, lemon zest, oregano and pimentón and marinate for one to two hours, or overnight. 2. Preheat the oven to 140°C fan (160°C/320°F/gas 2-3). Put the ribs in an ovenproof dish and cover with kitchen foil. Bake for two hours, or until tender. 3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a paella pan or ovenproof dish. Fry the onion and peppers for 10 minutes until really softened, then add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for five more minutes.
José Pizarro’s arroz al hor- no with pork ribs recipe By PA “Ribs have a special place in my heart – they’re just irresistible, no matter how they’re cooked!” says José Pizarro.“In this recipe, while rice serves as the foundational ingredient, the ribs are the star of the show. Marinated to perfection, the ribs release their rich, savoury juices into the rice as they cook, infusing every grain with a depth of flavour that is mouth-watering and satisfying. “The marinade is a bold mix of aromatics and spices, including the zest of lemon and sprigs of fresh oregano, enhanced by a good pinch of pimentón. Marinating not only tenderises the ribs but deepens the flavours.As the ribs slow-cook to tender perfection, their flavours combine with the lemon’s acidity, cutting through the richness and balancing the fatty succulence of the pork. This harmonious blend of tender meat, aromatic seasoning and refreshing citrus results in a dish in which the flavours dance together in unison. Paired with the soft, flavourful rice that captures all the essences of the marinade, this dish is both hearty and refined.”
Don’t rush caramelised onions
Sofrito is a classic base made by slowly caramelising onions with garlic, tomatoes and olive oil, but slow cooking onions is an art form – and should take time, says Pizarro. “I do white onion, always Spanish onion, sliced very, very thin. Plenty in a big pan, just a little bit of salt and extra virgin olive oil and cook on a very low heat for a very long time – more than an hour. “What we are looking for is to bring the sugars out.You will have the natural sugar from the onion coming out in the water, and we are cooking those onions with that liquid, [that’s] when you see the onion really melt down. “I just take off the lid and put the heat up.When you put the heat up, what we are doing is evaporating the liquid and caramelising the sugar.” It may take a long time but the results are worth it, he says, and they can be kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks or more.“I normally have my caramelised onions at home on a canape or on toast with cheese, melted down and it’s absolutely delicious. “My mum always says that food needs time – you cannot accelerate food.We really cannot.”
Don’t overcook your tortilla
“For me, the Spanish omelette has to be with onions, because I grew up with the tortilla with onion,” he says. “Good eggs – people need to spend good money on eggs. The base with olive oil, and then you just put in a hot pan, if you want to have to have a runny one then turn over very quick. It will take a minute and a half and it’s going to be nice and caramelised outside, and beautiful and runny inside.” His own mother always cooked tortilla a little more though.“All my life, because my mum cooks [her’s] perfectly moist inside – nothing wrong with that.” The Spanish Pantry by José Pizarro is published by Quadrille, priced £28. Photography by Emma Lee, available now.
Increase the oven temperature to 170°C fan (190°C/375°F/gas 5).
4.Add the rice to the pan, then nestle the ribs into the rice, pouring in any of their juices. Pour over the stock, season well with salt and pepper and return to the oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the rice is tender and the ribs are browned, then serve
Arroz al horno with pork ribs
Pack flavour into rice
Ingredients: (Serves 6, takes 3 hours plus marinating)
Arguably the most famous of Spanish dishes, paella has become a symbol of the country’s cuisine around the world. “For me, rice is one of my favourite things – I get lost in my house in Spain, sometimes people are looking for me, they say,‘What have you been doing for three hours?’ I say, ‘Look, I have just been cooking our lunch – a simple rice.” Whether it’s paella, or another rice dish (sobrasada rice with crispy artichokes is a top seller across the José Pizarro restaurants), the most important thing is the stock. “The stock is what makes or breaks it, it brings everything to the rice.You need to take your time and you need to make your stock absolutely delicious, because rice just absorbs all the flavour.When I do my stocks, I use the same spices in the stock that I’m going to use in my dish. “That is how I spend my time and I have to say, it’s very therapeutic,” he says.“The rice is going to take only maybe 20 minutes to cook, but the time that you do your stock, your garnish, it takes more than two hours easily.” Buy a good rice – “that is principle, all the rice the same size and not too many broken grains, but what makes the
6 chunky pork belly ribs
200ml white wine
Pared zest of 1 lemon
4 sprigs of oregano
Good pinch of pimentón
75ml olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 red peppers, deseeded and sliced
3 large tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
300g bomba or other medium-grain paella rice
700ml fresh chicken stock
Photo: arroz al horno with pork ribs
Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
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