La Española Meats

This year we’re sitting down to a feast of dishes from Spain.   And we will toast to all of it with a Spanish Rioja and a Temperanillo – Already our favorites.  Why?   Archaeologists at Florida’s Museum of Natural History recently  revealed that the first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida over 50 years earlier in 1565.  This is much earlier than the 1621 date used for the more Anglicized Thanksgiving that features turkey and pumpkin pie.

Garcia de la Cruz premium olive oil inspired all of this research and since we love all things España, so we are especially “thankful” to them.

Their extra virgin olive oil will enhance our tart, and “planned over dishes.” This includes a marvelous Spanish potato salad with peas, capers and pimento; fat, long sardines from the coast; a chestnut flan with hazelnut nutella. We’ll use the Cubbison classic cornbread for the tart crust on Thanksgiving, and the new artisan version will be used ”do-it-yourself” topping bar for tartlets made from it. 

The early harvest olive oil is so refined and pure, it will only be used in a dish for dipping and tasting.

On the menu are: a chestnut soup, Tortilla La Espańola with potato and onion, flavored with wild black garlic.  A cheeseboard filled with specialty items from Spain will be offered so guests can choose from savory Salamanca dry-cured Iberico de cebo pork salchichón;  Idiazabal do (Craw Sheep milk smoked basque, aged 60 days); Spanish green and black olives; quince paste  and a roasted garlic tomato to spread onto barra (like a French baguette), and tomatohazelnuts from Galacia. To choose from on the sweeter side:  a dense fig almond cake; almendra garrapiñada (sugar coated almonds), black dried raisins and fresh grapes.

History books document that Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and 800 soldiers, sailors and settlers created the first Thanksgiving feast.  This was long before English pilgrims who had arrived in America on the Mayflower to celebrate in 1621. 

The group attended a special thanksgiving mass before sitting down together with local Native Americans for a thanksgiving feast, according to Kathleen Deagan, research curator emerita of historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  Salted pork and typical Spanish products, such as red wine, olives and chickpeas were served.

Typical Caribbean foods that Menéndez picked up in Puerto Rico before his Florida landing were also on the table.  The local Timucuan people may have brought corn, fresh fish, berries or beans.

Potatoes we are serving, common to American Thanksgiving meals, also have a Spanish influence. True, the Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. But it was Spanish Conquistadors after conquering Peru in 1536, who discovered the flavors of the potato, and carried them to Europe.  

The theory is that the celebration probably took place along the banks of the Matanzas River, the site of the first Spanish colony in the United States.  Menéndez de Avilés had lost half his fleet on the voyage from Spain, and one of the first things he did on reaching the “New World” was to organize a mass of thanksgiving, followed by a feast.  “So he invited all the local native people who were so curious about them,” said Deagan.

I was delighted to find this history of Spanish Thanksgiving, so obscure it was in only one article on a discontinued blog.  Theories of why this vital part of history has been diminished center on our heavily anglicized past and official origins. Yet facts show that even the first colony was a melting pot and the cultural interactions of the many groups of people in the colony were much more like the US is today than the British colonies ever were,” Gifford Waters, historical archaeology collection manager at the Florida Museum. 

St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States. Founded by  Menédez de Avilés, it celebrated its 450th anniversary on September 8th 2015. 

Garcia de la Cruz represents a history of 5 generations working in the cultivation and elaboration of a great extra virgin olive oil.   The oil itself is a product of centuries-old olive trees on the lands of Castile.  The first day of the harvest brings together all the essence and knowledge of so many years of work and dedication.  Even its bright green color reflects the beauty and fullness of the fruit at the time of its harvest, and its aromas and flavor, perfection in the elaboration.  This is not for  cooking, but a separate and special  tasting oil on its own plate

The extraordinary Premium quality extra virgin olive oil, made from the first olives that harvested while still green makes for enriched organoleptic properties,  rich in natural antioxidants and vitamins. This oil with body, fragrant and aromatic with clear tones of freshly cut grass, slightly bitter and but well balanced. After taste of tomato, freshly cut grass and almond.

I represented Mrs. Cubbison stuffing for 22 years on television during the Thanksgiving and easter holidays and still respect and honor this healthy melba-toasted west coast mainstay originally created by Sofie Cubbison. 

By this time in November, I had spent months planning, cooking and going out on my annual west coast tour so I would have been so pleased to have an alternative to turkey. But one thing remains the same and that is wishing a Happy thanksgiving to you!