Wild garlicky mushrooms with sherry—and Salamanca part II

Natacha Sanz Caballero Vegetables, Tapas, Events & Travel autumn cooking, cocina de otoño, Salamanca, setas, tapas, verduras

This is in a way a continuation of the last post, where I talked about the centers of knowledge in the Spanish city of Salamanca, the University of Salamanca and the Pontifical University of Salamanca (you can check this post here). The recipe I’m sharing with it, setas al ajillo con jerez, wild garlicky  mushrooms with sherry, seems to go very well with it, not only because we are in the season of fall (and it finally feels and looks like it) but because they are somewhat color complimentary (I will explain).

Apart from its universities, Salamanca has an extraordinary collection of historical buildings that not only makes it a popular destination for visitors, but also granted it to be a World Heritage Site. It would be impossible to name them all, but there are a few buildings and sites that you cannot miss if you ever visit the city. The famous Plaza Mayor, Casa de las Conchas, Casa Lis and the Convent of San Esteban and, with them, a collection of churches, bridges, museums and streets make Salamanca one of Spain’s most beautiful historical cities.

Most of Salamanca’s historical buildings are built with the Villamayor stone, which gives the city and its monuments a characteristic orange and golden glow, depending on the time of day.  Salamanca is for that reason also called the Golden City, and that’s what I think when I make wild garlicky mushrooms with sherry. I love the golden glow that make them look like jewels.

Salamanca Cathedral

Reliefs on one of Salamanca’s Cathedral doors

On the terrace of Salamanca’s Cathedral

Plaza Juan XXIII, Salamanca

Can you find the astronaut?

On the terraces of Salamanca’s Cathedral

Salamanca’s cathedral

The largest and most monumental of all Salamanca buildings, apart from the University, is the Cathedral —or its two cathedrals, to be precise. Salamanca is one of the few Spanish cities that has kept its two cathedrals, the old one and the new one, or the Catedral Nueva and Catedral Vieja. 

Salamanca‘s old cathedral was built between the 12th and 13th centuries in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. It was on the verge of being destroyed in the early 16th century, as the new cathedral was being planned. The idea of a new cathedral arose from the need to accommodate Salamanca’s growing population due to the attraction of the University. A decision was made to preserve the old cathedral while the new cathedral was being built, so the population could worship, but eventually the old cathedral was preserved, and in fact, both cathedrals now share a wall that, due to the characteristics of the new cathedral, had to be reinforced.

The bell tower

The clock on the bell tower as seen from the Cathedral’s terrace

On the Cathedral’s terrace

The effects of the Lisboa earthquake of 1755

View of Salamanca from the cathedral’s terrace

Salamanca‘s new cathedral was commissioned by king Ferdinand of Castile and built between 1533 and 1733 mixing late gothic, plateresque and baroque styles. It is one of the largest cathedrals in Spain in size and its bell tower, at 90 meters high, also the tallest.

The works were stopped during most of the 17th century and resumed in the 18th century until its completion in 1733. The cathedral suffered the devastating effects of the Lisbon earthquake, which occurred on November 1, 1755, leaving visible signs of damage in the structure, (see some of the cracks on the wall). After the earthquake, the dome had to be rebuilt, and the bell  tower had to be reinforced, making it more slender.

The Roman bridge 

The Roman bridge was the entrance to the city over the Tormes river. It is part of the Vía de la Plata (the Silver Road), the Roman road that linked the cities of Emérita Augusta (Mérida) with Astorga. Its date of construction is thought to fall somewhere between 27 BC and 79 A.D., within the reigns of Augustus and Vespasian. A popular myth claims that it was later rebuilt by emperor Trajan. 

Salamanca’s Roman Bridge over the Tormes river

View of the Tormes river and the city of Salamanca from the Roman bridge

The bridge is 176 m long and 3.70 m wide, and even though it had 26 arches originally, only 15 of the original roman arches remain today. Since the Tormes, like the Tagus river, is considered among the most dangerous rivers in Spain for its chronic flooding, major repairs were needed in 1627 and in 1767, which involved adding 11 new arches to the 15 remaining ones. In 1881, a new parallel bridge was built.

Today, the pedestrian bridge offers a gorgeous panoramic view of both the city of Salamanca and the Tormes River below.

La casa de las Conchas

It is one of Salamanca‘s most popular palaces, and one of the best examples of civil gothic architecture in Spain.

Part of the façade at Casa de las Conchas

Inside the patio at Casa de las Conchas

Casa de las Conchas is located right across from the Pontifical University

It was made build by Rodrigo Arias Maldonado at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. Maldonado was a member of the Order of Saint James and loyal to Fernando and Isabel, the Catholic king and queen. The shell is the emblem in his wife’s code of arms and a symbol of love. It is also the symbol of the order of Saint James, and both motivations could have justified using the large number of them on the palace’s façade. 

Nowadays, the palace houses Salamanca’s public library.

El convento de San Esteban

The present Convento de San Esteban is a Dominican monastery in the plateresque style founded by cardinal Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the son of the second Duke of Alba. Construction of the convent started in 1524 and lasted until 1610, on the site of the previous primitive convent, where the Dominicans had settled between 1255 and 1256. 

The Convent of San Esteban is famous for having housed such personalities as Christopher Columbus, Saint Teresa of Avila (founder of the Discalced Carmelites and a Doctor of the Church), Saint Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits), missionary Bartolomé de las Casas and philosophers and theologians Domingo de Soto and Francisco de Vitoria (creator, in the 16th century, of the concepts of just war and international law, whose statue stands on a pedestal in front of the convent). 

The Convent of San Esteban

The statue of Francisco de Vitoria at convent San Esteban square

According to tradition, Christopher Columbus stayed in this convent when he went to Salamanca to defend the possibility of reaching the Indies by sailing west in front of the geographers of the University. His famous interview with king Fernando and queen Isabel happened inside the convent.

The convent is still inhabited by the Order of the Dominicans, and it includes a temple of great dimensions and the gorgeous Cloister of the Kings. 

La Plaza Mayor

It is the real heart of the city, where salmantinos and foreigners meet to stroll, to eat, to socialize and to play. Since its construction in 1755 by Alberto de Churriguera, Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor  has housed the City Hall, has been a market, a bullfighting ring, a concert hall and a theater stage, aside from being a witness to political, socioeconomical and religious changes in Spain and in Salamanca in particular. 

The golden glow in the late afternoon at Plaza Mayor

Tapeando in Plaza Mayor

In front of City Hall at Plaza Mayor

Artichoque confit with jamón de guijuelo at La Marquesa Brava restaurant

A small section of Plaza Mayor at night

Construction of the plaza began in 1729 by order of King Philip V and was completed in 1755. The plaza is an irregular square, three stories high on all its sides except for the City Hall side, accesible through 6 entrances. Shops and restaurants line the square gallery under the 88 arches that form the balustrade, topped by 247 balconies that belong to private residences. 

Plaza Mayor is like a community living room, a multigenerational place to meet, and to see and be seen. In olden times, the men circulated in one direction, while the women circled the square in the opposite direction so everyone would have a chance to check everyone out.

Any time of day is a good time to visit Plaza Mayor, but if you get there in the early evening, sit down at one of its terraces to enjoy some tapas and a glass of wine, you’ll be lucky enough to experience the lighting of the square. I promise you’ll feel like you are in a jewelry box.

La casa Lis

It is also known as Museo Art Nouveau and Art Deco and, as its name indicates, it is a museum of the collective arts with exhibits dating from the last decades of the 19th century to World War II. It includes porcelains, enamels, glass, paintings, furniture, toys and all sorts of other elements dating from that era. 

Stained glass window gallery at Casa Lis, the Art Deco and Art Nouveau Museum

The gallery at Casa Lis as seen from the Tormes river

The enchanting Juan XXIII square, where our hotel was located

The museum was originally a mansion built by architect Joaquín de Vargas for its owner, entrepreneur Miguel de Lis. Both owner and architect traveled extensively throughout Europe in the early 20th century and got in touch with a new artistic movement called art nouveau, or modernismo in Spain, which they brought to the building.

The building’s north façade, its patio and fence, are of clear art nouveau style. The south façade, overlooking the Tormes river, is a spectacular combination of classicism and modernity, with a stained glass window wall that runs the length of the mansion.

Salamanca is a city worth visiting again and again, and I am sure I will be back to discover more of its treasures and revisit the ones I already did this time. In the Golden City you will also fall in love with its gastronomy, delicious and surprisingly affordable, in part due to the fact that Salamanca is a University city. If you go, don’t miss the jamón de guijuelo, the star of its ingredients.

Which brings me to the wild garlicky mushrooms with sherry, which are the perfect accompaniment to many meats, fish, or egg dishes for a sublime side. I prepared the recipe that accompanies this post with a variety of mushrooms, but even simply one or two varieties will make for a superb dish. A chunk of crusty bread will be delicious with it.

Stay tuned for next block post! This one will be the starting point.

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WILD GARLICKY MUSHROOMNS WITH SHERRY

Setas al ajillo y vino de jerez

Author: Natacha Sanz Caballero, Mama Ía blog

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb trumpet royale mushrooms
• 1/2 lb hen of the woods mushrooms
• 1/2 lb maitake mushrooms
• 1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 head of garlic
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 2 Tbs flat leave parsley
• Flakes of sea salt to taste

Instructions

• Prepare the mushrooms: separate the maitake and shiitake mushrooms into individual ones. With your fingers, tear the hen of the woods mushrooms into smaller pieces, about 1 inch. Slice the stems of the trumpet royale mushrooms transversally, then slice the caps.
• Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
• In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil on medium heat. Sauté the garlic until soft. Remove the garlic and most of the oil from the pan and set aside.
• In the same pan, sauté the slices of trumpet mushrooms in one layer. After one minute, turn them over to sauté them on other side.
• Add the remaining mushrooms and the reserved garlic and olive oil to the pan. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms acquire a golden color. Season with sea salt and add the sherry. Stir to combine. Raise the heat to medium high. Let the wine cook and evaporate slightly, then add the parsley. Remove the pan from the stove and serve.