Txoko para Todos: A Food Blog for All

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the ninth in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients

- Cantabrian Anchovies in Olive Oil
- Guindilla Peppers
- Manzanilla Olives (Pitted)

Directions

A traditional pintxo mentioned on this blog previously, but popular enough to merit another post. Thought to be named for Rita Hayworth's character in the eponymous film, it's been found in pintxo bars throughout San Sebastián since 1946. A jar of anchovies will give you about 18 pieces.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the seventh in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients

- Cantabrian Anchovies in Olive Oil
- fresh ricotta cheese
- Piment d'Espelette
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- bread

Directions

Another pintxo that simply calls for putting one ingredient atop another. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over each piece when you've finished constructing them and you'll be done. If you'd prefer to use a Spanish cheese, a mató cheese (if you can find or create one), is a good choice. Each jar of anchovies will give you about 18 fillets; one or two fillets per piece is entirely up to you.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the sixth in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients

- Marinated Grilled Artichoke Halves
- Octopus in Olive Oil
- Piment d'Espelette
- bread

Directions

Drizzle a little olive oil over your pintxos once you've skewered the bread, artichoke, and octopus. Then sprinkle with piment d'Espelette and you're ready to serve. Each jar of artichokes will give you about 10 pieces.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the fifth in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients 

- Bonito del Norte Tuna in Olive Oil
- Piquillo Peppers D.O. Lodosa
- Manzanilla Olives (Pitted)
- aioli
- bread

Directions

As with a previous pintxo, all the work here is aioli whisking-related. Once that's accomplished, it's just more of opening jars and putting one ingredient on top of another, with delicious, crowd-pleasing results. You should be able to get about a dozen pintxos from a jar of the Bonito, which is of course dependent on how much tuna you feel like awarding your guests. A naughty or nice joke could go here, something about the correlation between goodness over the course of the previous year and the resulting division and distribution of exquisite Bonito del Norte tuna amongst Christmas party guests. That joke will be withheld.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the fourth in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients 

- Cantabrian Anchovy Fillets
- manchego cheese
- apricot jam
- bread

Directions

Here, the most work you'll have to do is probably slicing the cheese, but that's not difficult at all, particularly if you have one of those little cheese boards with the slicer built in. Job done. If you want to get wild, perhaps try lightly toasting the bread and melting the cheese. It's not what we did, but the theory that melted cheese makes things better has withstood the test of time. Each jar of anchovies will give you about 18 fillets.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the third in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients

- Octopus in Olive Oil
- aioli
- chives
- bread

Directions

This pintxo takes a bit of whisking. For the aioli we used (directions for which can be found by clicking the link found at the beginning of this sentence), we kept it simple with just egg yolk, olive oil, garlic, and fresh lemon juice. As you whisk the aioli into being, perhaps you'll be inspired to add piment d'Espelette (or any number of other spices we do not sell). You should try it. At worst, if you're imagination runs amok, it will only add a few more minutes of whisking to return you to the right path.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the second in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. Some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients

- Mussels in Escabeche (Pickled Sauce)
- fresh ricotta cheese
- bread

Directions

All you have to do for this pintxo is open a tin of mussels in escabeche, have some fresh ricotta cheese ready to be spread, and slice appropriately-sized slices of bread. Put the cheese on the bread, the mussels on the cheese, and you're ready to serve. If you want to use a cheese that maintains the Spanish origins of the pintxo, try using a mató cheese, an unsalted Catalan fresh cheese made from cows' or goats' milk. It's difficult to find, though, in the US, and fresh ricotta worked well, according to our tastes. You'll get about 12 pintxos from one tin of mussels.

Pintxos and eggnog? Why not. This is the first in our series of pintxos to be posted this holiday season. We'll share some simple combinations of ingredients you can put together in a very little amount of your time, so you can spend most of it partaking in the revelry of the season. 

Ingredients

- Sardines in Olive Oil
- cherry tomatoes
- chives
- bread

Directions

The roasting of the tomatoes will take a few minutes, but you can put everything else together while you wait for the oven to heat up. Which is nice. You can roast the tomatoes with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, for about 15-20 minutes, or until soft. Place them atop the sardines, which themselves sit atop a small slice of bread, and skewer with a toothpick or similar wooden spear. Sprinkle with some fresh chives and you're done. Each tin of sardines will be enough for about 6 servings, depending on how generous you are.

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We use aioli with several of the pintxos you'll find amongst the collections of recipes and serving suggestions. So, here's how to make aioli, saffron style.

Saffron Aioli

Total Time: 10 minutes or so.

Ingredients

• a pinch of Antonio Sotos Saffron Threads (about 1/8 of a teaspoon)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Donostia Foods Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

1. Place saffron threads in hot water to steep for about 10 minutes.

2. Mince and mash the garlic to a paste.

3. Whisk together yolk and lemon juice in a bowl.

4. Add olive oil, a few drops at a time, to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly until the whole thing is emulsified, then whisk in the garlic paste. Whisk wildly. Whisk with abandon. The importance of the whisking cannot be overstated.

5. Chill, covered, until ready to use.

For additional recipes and serving suggestions for Spanish conservas, please see our aptly named Recipes & Serving Suggestions page.

A variation of a recipe from Chef Jody Adams from Gourmet Magazine, September 2002.

We recently put together a variety of pintxos. We photographed them, then ate them. Over the course of this holiday season we'll share what we put together, with Donostia Foods products and a few things from the grocery store, to perhaps provide a few new ideas for what to serve along with the eggnog. Check back here, on this very blog, all month for an abundance of food photographs and related words.

Espelette chili peppers hang from the facade of a building in the village of Espelette in French Basque Country.

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What is Piment d’Espelette? Red chili pepper from the Basque region of France, just across the border from Spain, in the Nive Valley. The powdered form of Espelette pepper provides a subtle heat, and can be used as a colorful substitute for ground black pepper, cayenne, or hot paprika.

Only Piment d’Espelette grown and packed in one of just ten villages nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees is given AOP certification, a protected designation of origin that assures quality and authenticity. From one description I read, that had been (somewhat) translated from the French, this seal “implies a close link between this specific land, the product and the talent of men.” So, there you have it.

The chili pepper’s name comes from the village of Espelette (Ezpeleta in Basque), one of the aforementioned ten quaint villages. The winding streets are closely lined with small, old houses and boutiques maintaining the tradition of drying the eponymous peppers from their facades.

The pepper first arrived in the village in 1650, when a Basque sailor returned from the New World with the vibrant pepper. Over time, the pepper because a cornerstone of Basque cuisine, a ubiquitous ingredient even deemed worthy of its own festival, celebrated annually on the last weekend of October with traditional dances, concerts, parades. As good an excuse for a party as anything.
 
Visit the links below to learn more about Piment d’Espelette and the village which provides its name.
Espelette Tourism Guide from Eusk Guide. If you're considering a trip to Basque Country, this is a good place to start.
Luke Nguyen’s France. Luke visits the village of Espelette, sees some peppers, has a great time.
 

If you want selected ingredients for authentic pintxos and tapas in addition to pumpkin pie, now's the time to order to make sure it gets there in time. 

Please place your order by Monday, November 17.

Otherwise, you may only get to enjoy it alongside leftovers.