365 Tuesdays

The Secreto in Narru

With this dish, Iñigo Peña got famous. We'll never know if his mention in the Wall Street Journal was due to this cut of Iberian pork or not, but we do know that it's not going anywhere.  It's a constant on the menu of Narru, a restaurant totally dedicated to seasonal products. Don't miss it. 

pintxo astearteak (tapa tuesdays)

Let's start the new year off right on Tapa Tuesday.

narru:::tempura de langostina con romescu (fried shrimp with romesco sauce and sauteed vegetables)

Calle Zubieta, 56 ::Donostia-San Sebastián.

pintxo astearteak (tapa tuesdays)

narru:::arroz de crustáceo con soccarat (crustacean rice with a crispy bottom-of-the-pan layer)

Calle Zubieta, 56 ::Donostia-San Sebastián

narru's back!

Last year, I reported on the closing of Narru, one of San Sebastián's most celebrated pintxo bar/restaurants. Located a few blocks from my apartment, in the neighborhood of Gros, it was a place for locals, for "adventurous" food-loving tourists, and a place for pure eating.

Chef Iñigo Pena was chosen as one of the top 10 best young chefs in Europe by the Wall Street Journal. It was obvious that he wouldn't be stopped by high rent, inconvenient location, or whatever else it was that put an end to Narru:Gros.  But what wasn't obvious was where he would resurface.

Well...he and his crew have. This week, the new Narru opened, right on the promenade of our largest beach, La Concha. The curious? It's not near anything...not nestled in the old part, not waiting to be discovered in Gros, it's just sitting in the middle of nowhere, on the bottom floor of Hotel Niza, right in front of the town's cheesiest disco. Will people make the "trek" to the new Narru? All signs point to...maybe. It's a beautiful (and short) walk, after all. I would make two bets: 1)the makeup of the clientele will shift (from the heart of Gros to a stone's throw from Hotel Londres is quite a change) and 2)the food will be JUST AS DELICIOUS.

Stay tuned...I'll be checking out the state of things pronto.

sun dried tomatoes

I was developing a recipe recently for a very special upcoming cookbook, and I had the good fortune to stumble across a fact that has been quietly evading me for years: how to most deliciously reconstitute sun-dried tomatoes  It came to a head this fall when I had the most delicious salad at the now-defunct (but soon to re-open!) Narru . A salad of gratineed goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and an amazing honey-sesame dressing. But how to replicate it at home without buying those expensive oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes?

There's just some really bad information out there, given as gospel, much of which makes me laugh. (Julienne your tomatoes? Boil a large pot of water? WHY?)  But seriously, even when Bittman hopped on the sun-dried tomato boat he evaded the question.

How do you make sun-dried tomatoes taste AMAZING?

My answer came on the back of an unsuspecting bag of the stuff, bought in a little grocery store here in San Sebastián. And it was simple and surprising. A 2 to 1 ratio of water to VINEGAR. Skeptical, I tried it, and it was incredible. It produced that delicious tang tomatoes have in the bars and on the pintxos  that I was trying to replicate.

And the most curious thing? The instructions were in several languages on this package of tomatoes: italian, spanish, portuguese and english, among others. In almost every language they instructed the 2 to 1 ratio of water to vinegar. But the english instructions read: Hydrate in warm water. Only.

It's a conspiracy.

sun-dried tomatoes

• 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 or more cup of extra-virgin olive oil

Heat vinegar and water to a simmer. Pour over tomatoes, making sure all are submerged. Allow to sit for at least 15 minutes. Drain, drizzle with olive oil. Use in recipe, or just eat.