"Fixed Meat" and Fish Empanada

[Joyanne]

Crazy as it sounds I never knew this dish by any other name than fixed meat. My grandmother made it regularly and it consisted of braised beef (usually a tough cut), tomatoes, onions, garlic, peas, potatoes and sometimes turnips, green beans or garbanzos in a broth.
She also made large fish (or veal) empanadas which she baked in a large roasting pan, with two crusts. Besides the protein, vegetables were swimming in a sumptuous gravy which comprised the filling.
Her tortillas were spectacular too, filled with shrimp or asparagus besides the normal ingredients (but I know how to make those!).

Any help with recipes would be appreciated.
Joyanne

[Bob]

Leave out the tomatoes and all the greens, use dried and soaked chickpeas, and add saffron and a little ham and you would have garbanzos like my grandmother made and I continue to make. You serve the broth first, made into a wonderfully tasty soup by the addition of this egg noodles or fideus. Then the chickpeas and meats and onions. Everyone puts what they want into the now-empty soup bowl. Add some fresh crusty bread and unsalted butter on the side.

There are many variations on the recipe.

[is]

I overheard a conversation at Trader Joe's in Bethesda yesterday on saffron nationalism.

As you know, Spaniards say their saffron is the best in the world. Funnily, in Iran, Persians say saffron from Mazandaran and Gilan provinces (Caspian Sea) is the best in the world. Anything from Spain is of lesser quality.

Well, last night, a customer in Bethesda was telling a Trader Joe's employee that the best saffron in the world was Kashmiri saffron. It had to do with the purity of the air, the water and the soil. He said Spain's was overrated.

I thought it was funny to gain some relativism on the saffron question. I once brought back Iranian saffron for my Mom and she said it was not as good as the one from southern Spain (La Mancha region).

Bob, in your opinion, what is the best and why? Should I get my Mom some Kashmiri samples now?

[Bob]

I don't have personal experience comparing saffron from different localities. My family and I have been buying our saffron from Vanilla Saffron Imports for decades. They are located at 980 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. (415) 648-8990. www.saffron.com

The owner, Juan San Mamés, speaks both Spanish and English. The source of his saffron varies from time to time so he can buy the best he can get for retail sales. Ask him where his is from and he will tell you. He usually gets pure red saffron from Afghanistan, or Iran. His prices are excellent, currently $79.95 an ounce, which is a LOT of saffron. One tin lasts me for years, and I use saffron often.

[is]

Very interesting website, Bob. Their consumer guide debunks the myth about Spanish saffron being the best. It looks like the best stigmas do indeed come from northern Iran, which is behind 95% of world output.

I guess trade sanctions against Iran do not include saffron, which is great. The other items allowed into the US are pistachios and carpets.

Here's an excerpt on world production, from the website:

Buying pure saffron has everything to do with BREAKING DOWN MYTHS. This is why I want you to know the latest figures on world saffron production: Iran 150/170 Mt., Greece 5/7 Mt., Morocco 2/3 Mt., Kashmir 2/3., Spain 1Mt. or less, Italy 100 kilos or less. No, Spain is NOT the biggest producer. Iran is the biggest producer in the world in terms of volume and quality. The truth is that the saffron "market" is in the hands of packers, not farmers. As a rule, packers buy all the saffron they are offered and then have to sell it quickly so that they can claim that it is from the most current crop year. So saffron comes into the market as a MIXTURE of different qualities from different countries. LOWEST price is the rule - QUALITY is of little concern to the packer. You can easily observe this when you open a sample of inferior saffron and notice the mixture of red, yellow and white material still left attached to the stigma or just yellow material added. You may also notice a musty smell and spongy texture due to excess moisture. You will only find stigma (threads) in our saffron.

[Joniwrite1]

I innocently asked my sweet aunt if it mattered which country saffron came from...I learned not to ask again! It appears that "asaffron de espana" may be better because it was always either mailed or hand carried by relatives. That kind of love just made it taste better!

The look on my Abuela's face was priceless as she unfolded her latest stash of gold. There was always a canning jar filled with packets in her cupboard.

Thanks Bob for sending me me to Vanilla Imports! Juan is delightful. If you are in San Francisco and miss him, you can buy his products in small quantities at his ice cream shop across the street. I later found that he has delivered to the Basque restaurants in Nevada for years.

As long as there are children and grandchildren, the debate will go on. I, for one, will swear Spanish is better!

[Bob]

When I was a kid in the late 40s and early 50s, my grandmother always got her saffron from relatives in Asturias. They sent it in little metal aspirin containers, a little bigger than a matchbook. She always toasted it and crumbled it into powder just before using it. This extracted maximum color and flavor.

[Louis Alvarez]

It is called cocido in our families, my wife's and mine...Barbaos and Alvarezs.
It is made with a variety of vegetables, but always with morcilla, churizo' jamon and/or a ham hock. My wife and I were raised on it in our households and as were our children and our grandchildren. We love it.

[Art]

I realize that this thread is really dated, but I'm interested in a message by Bob about his grandmom's use of saffron.

How did your grandmother toast the saffron? Do you notice a big difference between toasted and untoasted saffron?

When someone gives my mom a soup, she'll usually tell me, "It didn't have much flavor. I had to to add some saffron!"

Are you still cooking a lot, Bob?

[Bob]

I think the reason she toasted the saffron was to dry it out so she could rub it between her hands to powder it. I can't remember any difference in the tastes of toasted and untoasted saffron threads. She toasted it in the oven on a creased piece of foil.

I usually grind untoasted saffron threads in a ceramic mortar and pestle with a little coarse salt.

[Art]

Thanks for that tip, Bob. I like using a mortar and pestle, but mine is wooden and wonder if something moist, like saffron, would be largely absorbed by the wood? Maybe after sufficient use, the wood is compressed so much that that's not an issue?