A Spanish-Flavoured Feast for the Festive Season by Chef Katie Button

My holiday menu used to be much more complicated before my life became fully integrated with Spain and Spanish cooking. Months before the holiday season, my mother and I would put our heads together and start planning the menu—from appetizers to dessert. Everything was made from scratch, and then we would divide and conquer the various tasks. One year, I even started cooking two weeks ahead of time, figuring out which items I could prepare partially and freeze to make the whole process more manageable. On the big day, my mom and I would be in the kitchen the ENTIRE time, putting together the finishing touches on everything. We would rush to make the gravy as soon as the turkey came out of the oven, and then the whole family would sit down to this incredible spread. It would be done in 30 minutes or less, and then the kitchen needed to be cleaned. The best part of Thanksgiving for me was always AFTER the meal when the kitchen was cleaned. We would gather once again in the living room over an after-dinner drink. My mom and I would sink deeply into the sofa, finally fully relaxing. It wasn’t until I went to Spain for the holidays with my husband, Félix Meana, and was introduced to how they enjoy their time together that I realized we had it entirely wrong, and I could change the way we do holiday meals.

A great selection 

In Spain, it's all about sourcing the best products; it isn’t about the best recipes. When you start with incredible ingredients like Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, tinned cockles, hand-packed sardines, head-on prawns, or melt-in-your-mouth tinned white asparagus, the truth is you don’t have to do much else to create an incredible meal. Seeing the spread of incredible Spanish cheeses and charcuterie versus homemade gougeres or stuffed mushrooms put my mind at ease. Félix’s family could sit, gather, and enjoy time with one another. No one was rushing around the kitchen because the next course was a beautiful green salad and some incredible huge head of prawns that were just going to be seared simply in a little olive oil. There was a whole leg of Jamón at the end of the table, which Félix’s uncle would occasionally get up and carve a plate of, passing it around for all of us to savor. After dinner, we stayed at the dining table, and out came a tray of incredible, delicious delicacies—mazapanes, turrones (traditional almond candy), and polvorones (crumbly delicate cookies). No one had made any of these sweet delicacies; they had just sourced the very best ones they could and left the pastry cooking to the experts. It was such a contrast to my childhood memories of my mother and grandmother competing to see who could bake more holiday cookies than the other, putting in weeks and weeks of work ahead of the big day.

My Spanish holiday experience has helped me see the real purpose behind the holidays is about gathering with friends and family. It's about slowing down, savoring, and connecting. The very best way that I have found to do that is to bring more Spanish ingredients into our holiday setting.

In our home, we start every party or gathering with a cheese and charcuterie board. I love to select one harder aged cheese, like Manchego or Roncal, one softer goat cheese like Monte Enebro or Leonora, and then one delicious blue cheese like La Peral or Valdeón. I typically add a jam to the board to pair with the blue, like a fig jam or cherry jam, and I love honey with goat cheese. Some skin-on salted Marcona almonds, chorizo, and salchichón for the charcuterie, and sobrasada is incredible because it's like spreadable chorizo butter. To finish off the board, I add some crackers or toast points and take some Spanish olives—I love a mix of Manzanilla, Arbequina, and Gordal olives. I heat them up with some olive oil, lemon zest, and pimentón to add a little extra flavor and punch to the olives.

Creative, Easy to Make Recipes

This spread easily takes care of all of the appetizers for dinner; it’s delicious and a crowd-pleaser. It pairs perfectly with a glass of Fino or Cava. If I’m feeling more creative, I will create some bites on toast points or skewers to pass around. Some of my favorite combinations for the appetizer moment are toast points with piquillo peppers and sardines, or spread with sobrasada and topped with creamy goat cheese, honey, and toasted pecans. My favorite pintxo from Spain is the classic, the Gilda—an anchovy, olive, and pickled piparra pepper on a skewer. I marinate them in olive oil for an hour or so before serving them; it mellows out the sharpness. I also love to get creative with skewers. You can combine those three ingredients I mentioned and then mix in a cube of Manchego cheese, or piquillo peppers. It’s fun to try out different combinations and see what works best. We almost always have deviled eggs at any holiday, and I love to fold premium tinned tuna belly into the whipped yolks and then top them with olives, pickled piparra peppers, or boquerones—something with some acidity. And then towards the New Year, it's all about raw oysters topped with a little sliver of pickled piparra pepper.

Mouth-watering Ideas for the Main Dishes

For the main course, I add thin slices of Jamón Ibérico on top of any vegetable side dish, and even better is if you just slice off some of the pure white fat portion of the Jamón and let it melt on top. Whenever we have a whole Jamón for the holidays, there are always bits and pieces of delicious edges and things that don’t make it to the fully sliced plate. Chop those up and toss them with crispy Brussels sprouts and drizzle everything with a little bit of Pedro Ximénez vinegar, which has a subtle sweetness to it. I also love to serve tinned white asparagus for the holidays; I dress them in a lemon and tarragon vinaigrette and a light and airy version of mayonnaise. Another tapa that pairs perfectly with the main protein of a holiday meal is stuffed piquillo peppers. To keep it really simple, I stuff them with a soft goat cheese like Capricho de Cabra, and then very lightly sear them in a pan so the peppers cook just a little bit and the cheese inside melts. It's the dish that is one of the easiest to make and the one that brings a smile to everyone's face.

And then at the end of the meal, like with Félix’s family, we all get comfortable in the living room around a fire, nibbling on a splatter of mazapanes, turrones, and polvorones while sipping Pedro Ximénez or a glass of Brandy de Jerez.