- Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by Sunsweet and by - Cooking is the first kind of love you know, we were starting when I was child and with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now I transmit it to all the guests is something we can make specially for them.

- Oceana Cruises, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- Zwilling, makers of Fresh and Save, the vacuum food storage system.

One of the ways Zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years.

The Zwilling family of cookware is proud to support Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(Spanish music) - Today on Sara's Weeknight Meals, we're taking a munchies tour of the globe, starting at the world capital of snacks for dinner, Spain, home of tapas and some very fancy ham.

How much does it cost?

- Approximately $1000 - For how much?

- For one kilo.

- Whoa, That's like $500 a pound.

My host Jaume Vidal, showed me two easy tapas.

The famous small bites of Spain.

- It's very very simple - First a potato omelet you'll flip for Oh wow.

And it doesn't get any simpler than this local favorite tomato and bread.

That's it?

- Back in my kitchen we'll go to the Alsatian region of France for a caramelized onion pie.

There's only three ingredients in this orderve.

It is onion, bacon and cheese.

- Then on Ask Sarah.

One of our viewers is drowning in spices.

- It's bad.

- Kathy, you are out of control.

That's quite clear.

We have to do a little intervention here.

- Did someone say spices?

Snacking my way across the globe, I got a crash course in Turkish cheeses at Istanbul's famous spice bazaar.

- It's sheep's milk cheese preserved in goatskin.

- Wow.

- Then a Turkish TV chef used one of those cheeses in a dip to cheer for.

(applause) Exhausted?

Me too.

And here's the perfect solution.

Have a snack for dinner.

Today, on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(Spanish music) - Tourists might come to Catalonia, Spain for Barcelona's mind-bending architecture or the drama of the coast of Brava, but if you're like me, you come for the food.

Three of the top 10 restaurants in the world are here.

And even home cooks like Jaume Vidal, take pride in Catalonia's fine food and fresh ingredients.

What a beautiful garden.

I'm so impressed, and what are we getting now?

- Now the peace - Jaume lives in the fairy tale village of Madremanya, where we sat down for a very Spanish snack of wine and jamon.

So you got some of your own wine here, You make your own wine.

- Yes - Well, you've got to tell me about it.

So it's special, huh?

- Yes, this is my wine is a vintage 2011 is made with a 60% Merlot, 40% carignan.

- I've heard of merlot, but carignan is from here?

- From here, all of Spain and made carignan and tempranillo, its very very old grapes.

- Those are the two main grapes?

- Yes.

- But this area in particular is good for this kind of wine?

- Yes because the field need these grapes - The soil, - The soil need these grapes When you test, you have a violet color, a red color, very, very intense and when you taste - Oh, it smells wonderful.

Wow, That is delicious.

- Thank you, thank you - Okay, now the perfect thing to have it with, I understand, is ham.

- Yeah, for these wine, these red wines.

It's very important with the meat - Okay - And dry meat or cooked meat.

- Here in Spain, cured meats, reign supreme, and none is more important than jamon, the preserved ham proudly displayed in any bar or restaurant.

We tasted the less salty Catalonian version.

That looks sort of like prosciutto.

Serrano ham from the mountains and the king of them all.

- And this is iberi pork.

- Oh iberico.

- Yeah, this is iberico, this is the pork of the Black pork live in the fields.

And live is very, very expensive this ham.

- How much does it cost?

- Approximately $1000 - For how much?

- For one kilo.

- Whoa.

That's like $500 a pound, Yikes for us.

And what makes it so special?

- It's special because she lives free in the fields.

- Oh, they run free, okay.

- Yes and she eats only.

- Oh, acorns I remember that, from oak trees.

Well, I think this wine is going to be just perfect - It's perfect with it.

Salud.

- Our next tapa is a Spanish classic, Tortilla Espanola, a potato omelet made with eggs from Java's farm.

- Everybody in Spain love's tapas.

And we're making one of the most popular today, It's called Tortilla Espanola.

But I want to start with, what have you been doing with the onions?

I put the onions with oil, - Olive oil of course - Then I cook it just to brown it, but I add white wine - You add wine?

- Yes and water, different times, I cook just its tender.

- Oh, till it's very tender.

- Yes, very very tender, I think 5 minutes more.

- Okay.

Well you're going to cut up the potatoes.

Go ahead and tell me, you say, tell me about the Tortilla Espanola.

- The Tortilla Espanola original version.

Everyone has their own version.

- Has their own version.

So depending on where you are.

- Depending on where - I made the Tortilla Espanola with boiled potatos.

- Okay, and I should say Tortilla Espanola is actually sort of an omelet with a lot of potatoes in it.

So it's eggs and potatoes and onions.

- Yes.

- Yes.

It's very very simple.

(sizzling pan) - Now we have boiling water with salt.

- So you've got boiling salted water.

- Yes.

Now cook it five minutes approximately.

- Five minutes?

- Yes - Okay.

- Should we make the other tapa?

The tomato bread while we're waiting?

- Yeah, Pan Tomata.

- Pan Tomata - Yes.

- Okay.

I have a very big bread.

- Oh, bring it on over here.

Oh, that's beautiful, that bread - It's made with an oven wood fire.

- Oh, you mean a wood-burning oven.

That's what we call it.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

- And now I cut the bread, normally this red is possible to make Pan Tomata and toast it or no toast it.

- Okay.

- I like it no toasted.

- Okay, and then I understand you have a very special kind of tomato.

- Yes, this tomato - Oh, show me.

So this is a totally different kind of tomato.

- This tomato - Wow.

- Is tomata de penjar.

- Which means?

- Hold on tomato, - Hold on tomato?

- Yes.

- Because it's holding on for dear life, is that it?

- Because this tomato is - Plucked or harvested.

- Yeah.

In August, September.

And just, just the next year it's possible to eat.

- So these are fresh tomatoes, but they don't go bad and they keep for months.

Wow.

- I put, here.

And then I put in the bread.

- Oh, you just rub it on?

- Yeah.

- That's it?

- It's very, very easy that.

- That is easy.

- And it's very very good - Okay.

- Then I take salt, a little salt - Olive oil, I don't think we've had enough today.

Wow.

- I cut.

- That's it?

- Pan Tomata it's okay, taste.

- Should I taste it?

- Yes.

- Oh, I can't wait.

Wow.

Oh my God.

That is so good.

- It's very, very simple.

But it's better with tapas.

- Wow, I gotta have another bite.

Do you think our potatoes are ready?

- Yes - So here are your beautiful eggs.

- Yes, that here.

- Okay.

Is that good?

All right, so - I need another pan - Okay oh, is that because this is your omelet pan, for eggs.

So it doesn't stick?

- Only for eggs.

- Only for eggs?

Okay.

- If you like put - Just put the eggs in?

- Yes, inside.

- Okay.

Oh look at that yoke, wow.

- Oil Now I add the potatoes - Oh wow, you don't even beat up the eggs first.

- No, I beat up once all is inside.

- And it doesn't matter that the potatoes are hot?

They will not cook the eggs?

- No, no - That's not a problem?

- Because it's very very quickly and salt.

- Is that good?

- The pan is very very hot.

- Jaume has a unique way of cooking the omelet evenly - Oh wow.

- See?

- Amazing.

So pretty.

And how do you know when it's ready?

- When it's dry inside.

- Okay.

That's beautiful.

That is beautiful.

We'll make it perfect.

Wow.

Wow.

- Voila - The ancient Catalonian town of Madremanya is pretty spectacular.

The view, the food, the wisteria, could there be a more beautiful place to enjoy our all tapas meal?

This is very good.

The Spanish say, eat a big breakfast, a light lunch and a lighter dinner.

And you will live a long life.

As long as I can have these delicious tapas for dinner I'll live forever.

- Salud - Salud So you know I have to ask you, do you really sit here with.. - This next dish is really going to impress you.

I had it the first time, several years ago when I was on a French riverboat cruise and the chef happened to be a German chef and he made it one night, oh, it's sunset to go with some wine.

I was so blown away because there's only three ingredients in this orderve it is onion, bacon and cheese served on a very thin crust.

So I've got about 6 ounces of bacon here that I'm cutting into 1/4 inch slices.

I've got a medium, medium-low pan preheated, and I'm going to add them to the pan and cook them until they're just barely golden.

Everything in this recipe is ultimately going to go into a 500 degree oven.

So we want to make sure to slightly under cook it because it's going to brown in that oven later on.

I'm going to transfer this bacon now that it's perfect to paper towels to drain a bit.

I'm just going to let them drain.

Now I'm going to pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat.

Okay, let me get the onions in.

Here we go.

4 cups of onions and you want them paper thin.

Now you are going to be absolutely astonished when we are done about how far they go down.

We're going to cook these onions covered for about 10 minutes.

Time for the topping.

Let me start with my egg.

I just want to the yolk.

Okay that's going to go in there.

Boom.

Let me just break it up a tiny bit.

It's amazing how simple this recipe is.

We're using a whole 8 ounces of creme fraiche use creme fraiche.

Don't use our cream.

Don't use yogurt.

I'll tell you why.

Neither one of those items, dairy items, has a high enough butterfat content to hold up in a 500 degree oven.

And now we're going to add a little bit of nutmeg, a little bit of salt and pepper.

That is it, for this topping.

Now everything I'm making is good for 3 pizzas.

We're just going to make 1 cause it's snacks.

Let me check my onions.

Yes, those look wonderful.

They're translucent.

Meaning they look clear and I'm just going to keep cooking them on medium, medium-low, really medium-low for about another 20, 30 minutes.

We're looking for a golden color.

And if you don't cook them low and slow, you aren't going to get that flavor.

Okay, so while these are getting brown.

I'm going to go over and look at book.

(lively music) I think those onions are ready.

Cause they got very quiet.

Whenever you're cooking, you should use all your senses.

And one of them is sound.

Look at those, my God.

That is absolutely perfect.

Next for the pizza dough, I'm going to do this trick that I learned from my Sicilian makeup lady many years ago, oil the board oil the rolling pin.

And that way the dough will stick to the board and you won't have to chase it around as you do when you do it with flour.

You can either make your own pizza dough or you can buy store-bought.

So you'll need about a 1/2 pound per pizza.

I want this pizza to be about 1/8 of an inch thick and vaguely a rectangle, the shape really doesn't matter.

So one last round, and then I'm going to transfer to parchment and then we're going to need to roll it out again because it's going to shrink as I transfer it.

So then I'm going to roll it out again.

All right, I'm going to move this over and top it.

I'm going to spread about 1/3 of this creme fraiche mixture.

Next we're going to put on 1/3 of our gorgeous caramelized onions.

Let's get our onions down here, the star of the show.

So I'm going to just sort of drop this as I can.

Isn't that beautiful?

It's like, it looks like golden hair, all those thin strands.

You just want to make sure that every bite has some onion in it.

Just like anytime I eat, I want everything to be in that bite that I have.

I'm going to spread about 1/3 of the bacon.

I've got 4 ounces of gruyère cheese.

I've preheated my oven to 500 degrees, which takes about 1/2 an hour.

We're going to pop this in the oven.

Oh yes.

Oh my goodness, wow.

I'm going to check one thing.

That's very important.

How the crust looks underneath, let me see.

Yep.

Looks it looks nice and brown.

Now I'm going to cut it.

Oh, wonderful crispy crust.

Oh, fun times yes Of course I would love this with a really lovely chilled wine, but I could see this with beer.

And that was really pretty simple.

Don't you think this would be the most delicious snack for dinner?

Woof, my Alsatian onion pie.

A segment we call Ask Sarah, gives me an opportunity to answer your questions, which I really love doing.

So today we have a wonderful person, Kathy Rowe from Fayetteville, New York, Kathy, I understand you have quite a spice collection.

What's your question?

- I do.

I have a lot of spices.

I have big ones, bags.

Some that aren't labeled.

I'm not even sure what's going on anymore, in jars.

So my question to you is what is the shelf life?

Where should I store them basically?

And how long can I keep them for?

- Well Kathy, you are out of control.

That's quite clear.

We have to do a little intervention here.

I've got quite a few tips that will help you, but let's start with how you buy them.

Buy less, buy smaller amounts, both, so you go through the more quickly, but also those large jars tend to be sort of stale to begin with.

They're just too large.

Dried spices will keep for a year.

Whole spices will keep for two years.

Now, It's not like they're going to kill you after that.

You're not going to keel over, but you're just going to need to use more.

Ground versus whole, ground spices are great in a pinch.

But if you have the option like cumin, which you can get both whole and ground, there's a few things you can do to make it even more exciting.

If you have the time and you sound like a serious cook.

So, this one's for you Here I've got some cumin that I put in a dry pan, no oil.

And I just toasted it over say medium heat until the color changed.

And it started to smell and even better is to then grind it up.

So then you grind it up in a spice grinder and you won't believe, oh, it really it's so aromatic.

So wonderful.

So now let's talk about storing.

I see all your bags and you have them all over the place, right?

- It's all over.

It's bad.

- Okay, so I would go with glass.

Also try to get the same size jars, if you can.

Cool dark place and ready for this dorky, hint?

And this really is going to change your life.

Alphabetize them.

- That's a really great idea.

- It was so much fun to talk to you.

- Thank you I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

- And I hope you all will reach out to me via the website for Ask Sarah and who knows, maybe you, like Kathy here, will come on and talk with me on the show.

(mediterranean music) - The Istanbul spice Bazaar is so much more than spices.

It's overwhelming.

Luckily I had local food writer, Aylin Oney Tan, to show me around, starting at a Turkish cheese store.

- You have to taste this.

This is something very interesting it's sheep's milk cheese preserved in goatskin.

It has a very satisfying mouthfeel.

It's tangy, but it's still buttery and creamy So it's very satisfying, I find.

- Wow, that's amazing.

It looks like butter.

- This is the quintessential Turkish cheese in, you know, every table.

This is beyaz peynir, which means white cheese.

- White cheese, that makes sense.

These are all so flavorful.

- It's all over the Balkans.

The Greek Feta is the same.

The Balkan white cheese is the same.

So we are talking about the cheese of the Balkans.

This string cheese is really, - That's a good one?

- Yeah, you have to taste it this very dolce, you know, the very sweet compared to the other one.

- I should say so.

- I was happy to bring that string cheese across the river.

When I visited Istanbul TV chef, Refika Birgul.

We used it in an easy mushroom and cheese dip.

Part of a magical rooftop dinner party.

- Now we're going to make a string cheese with mushrooms to dip - Okay.

- And here you can taste it.

- You have strings chase in the United States, somehow I'm feeling that it's not quite the same.

- It's more milky and it's very nice.

It can be - Mmm, mmm - Ours is rubbery compared to this.

- I think this cheese should be as popular as mozzarella in the world.

- Yeah, it should.

- It's tangy.

- Yeah - Your version.

So this just directly goes on.

And we're going to mix it with 10 mushrooms.

I've cut them like this.

- By the way, I'm going to add the thyme, couple of sprigs of thyme to this too.

- Shall we do it together?

- Yeah, we should do it together.

Wow that is so neat, that is wow.

- Thank you very much.

This is garlic with a bit of salt.

- Okay.

- I'm going to put 3 tablespoons of olive oil so that the taste of the garlic goes to the Olive Oil and I'm going to spread it around with my hands and I'm going to make it pepper and I'm going to mix it with my hands.

- Okay.

- This looks like nothing, but you know, it's going to be adorable.

- It looks like noodles, - And we're going to directly put it in the oven.

- Mushrooms and cheese dip for a traditional Turkish piece.

But what's a feast without friends?

- Hey Good news we've got that too.

(cheering) - This is the Sara size.

- What do I look big?

- What is our drink today?

- This is tangenade.

It's like lemonade but from tangerines.

Okay, what's the toast.?

- Serefe - [All] Serefe - From Istanbul to Spain and France.

There's a world of snacks out there.

Why not have them for dinner?

Even mom would approve.

I'm Sarah Moulton.

Thanks for joining me.

For recipes, videos, and more go to our website.

Saramoulton.com Sara's weeknight meals is made possible by Sunsweet and by - Cooking is the first kind of love you know, we were starting when I was child and with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now I transmit it to all the guests is something we can make specially for them.

- Oceana Cruises, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- Zwilling, makers of Fresh and Save, the vacuum food storage system.

One of the ways Zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years.

The Zwilling family of cookware is proud to support Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(piano music)