Wish I Were in Spain Crackers

I think my posts on this blog make it clear that I am sometimes overly enthusiastic when it comes to kitchen projects. (See: making my own almond flour. See also: buying 8 pounds of strawberries at once.) Being ambitious, a fairly good daughter, a fairly broke graduate/law student, AND, in particular, the daughter of a woman turning 60 this past week, I find myself in the middle of a big project. Again.

I've offered—and been taken up on said offer—to cook for my mother's birthday party this Saturday, which maybe 25 people will attend? That's more than a few people. And, while I've cooked for TONS of people before when I was in the Asia House/Pyle Inn co-op at Oberlin, I always did it with a partner or, even better, an entire group of friends. This is me, all on my own, very, very lonesome. (My mom did offer to help, but that seemed to go against the point of me offering to do the work.)

I'm not too worried, and actually feel like I should be a little bit more worried, especially since I've never cooked anything that I'll be serving (this sounds a bit like your typical problem, Katie)—but I've got a good shopping list, an excellent schedule, and lots of motivation (like: I don't want to humiliate myself in front of my mother's friends). The menu is:

• Olive, anchovy, manchego crackers, to be served as appetizers with store-bought dip and vegetables
• Zucchini boats filled with ricotta-basil mousse
• Wild rice pilaf
• Roasted beet salad with tarragon vinaigrette
• Lager and lemon-grilled chicken and tofu
• Rosemary and kalamata bread
• Tres leches cake with strawberry coulis

Sounds good, right? I'll tell you how it goes. The crackers, at least, are a success. They are salty and rich and taste like southern Spain in your mouth. I used Manchego, but you can also use other strong cheeses, maybe a sharp cheddar, but that's not quite so espanish.


Wish I Were in Spain Crackers
Adapted from Party Food, a book which my aunt was going to throw away and I dragged to Tucson from Belgium. Totally worth it for these crackers.

2 oz can of anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
1/2 c. canned black olives, also drained
1 c. Manchego cheese, finely grated
1 c. flour
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp water

Using a food processor, throw everything in. (If you live somewhere damper than a desert, you might not need that tablespoon of water. Try it without and if the doughball doesn't form, throw it in.) Pulse until it forms a ball. Flatten ball of dough into a thick disc and let chill in the refrigerator, at least 30 minutes.

Turn oven to 400º. Have baking sheets ready, but they don't need to be greased. There's a STICK of butter in the crackers.

Divide dough in two, keeping one half in the fridge until you're ready for it.

Roll out half the dough—this is going to take a surprising amount of flour. The dough is smooth and easy to roll, but also easy to stick to any surface, so you'll need a lot of flour to be able to lift it from that surface onto a baking sheet intact. Roll it out thin, remembering that the crackers are going to puff up a bit during baking. They won't, however, spread out, so you can put them fairly close together.

Cut rolled-out dough into whatever shape you feel confident in creating. I started with triangles and switched to squares.

Sprinkle crackers with cayenne pepper, if desired. It might be helpful to know if you're going to be spreading anything on these crackers or eating them straight. If eating them alone, you might want to go a little easy on the cayenne.

Bake 10 minutes. Let cool. Homemade crackers!