(bright music) - [Sara] "Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Aboard Oceania Cruises, our guests embrace a passion for travel, and our chefs are inspired by the flavors of the world and committed to providing fine dining at sea.

That's Oceania Cruises.

Oceania Cruises, your world, your way.

Since 1921, Season has brought you skinless and boneless sardine filets.

Our sardines are wild caught and contain essential vitamins and minerals for everyday meals.

Season sardines, rich in omega threes and protein.

♪ And it feels good Sunsweet amazing prunes and prune juice.

- [Sara] And by Mutti tomatoes of Parma, The Republic of Tea, and USA Rice.

(peaceful music) The Spanish island of Mallorca is our destination today, and we're heading to somewhere better than the beach.

- Many of them that are up to 1,000 years old.

- [Sara] A forest of ancient olive trees, and its magical inhabitants at the SONMO Olive Grove.

- They're like our secret weapon.

- [Sara] Plus which they're just so ridiculously cute.

- [Joe] They are, aren't they, yeah.

(sheep bleat) - [Sarq] On "Ask Sara."

- We use a lot of lemons in my cooking, and I was wondering how to get the most juice out of 'em.

- And for more flavors of Spain, this seafood gazpacho is a cheating recipe.

It doesn't involve much cooking.

It's perfect for summertime.

Back at the olive grove, it's live fire cooking with a traditional pepper and eggplant appetizer and a gigantic arroz brut.

- Okay.

(diners cheering) - A Mallorcan olive grove, a wood-fired feast.

To you.

Today on "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(peaceful music) Beyond the sunny glitz of Mallorca, Spain and its fabulous beaches lies a wild and rugged land, a UNESCO Heritage Site with some of the oldest olive trees in the world.

In Valldemossa, I learned about them with Joe Holles, head of sustainability at SONMO Olive Groves.

- Well, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the agriculture, so the trees that were grafted over the centuries, the terraces.

It's defined by literally thousands of years of heritage.

- How old are these trees?

- There are many of them that are up to 1,000 years old.

- No.

- So yeah, yeah.

- Really?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

It's the cornerstone of this land, of this agriculture.

It all started here.

I mean, Homer mentions them in the "Odyssey."

That could be 3,000 years ago.

It's almost human, right?

- Oh my God, yes.

I feel like somebody's watching over me right now, in a good way.

(sheep bells clinking) But my favorite part of the olive grove, the sheep.

These guys are amazing.

- Yeah, they're the key here.

They're like our secret weapon.

They keep the trees healthy because of course, they eat the wild shoots around the base of the trees, so that keeps the productive tree happy.

And then of course they fertilize the land.

So yeah, it's like a virtual cycle of life that was crafted here over the centuries.

- [Sara] Plus which they're just so ridiculously cute.

- [Joe] They are, aren't they, yeah.

(sheep bells clinking) The terraces, of course, are what's allowed people to tame this environment because they were able to access the trees better to harvest the olives.

It was thanks to the knowledge of the Moors from the north of Africa who brought their knowledge of building dry stone walls, terraces, water management.

- [Sara] So it's sort of like steps?

- Yeah, literally, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, they say there are actually more kilometers of dry stone terraces here than there are in the Great Wall of China.

- No.

(peaceful music) (sheep bleating) (peaceful music continues) - So you couldn't come to an olive grove and not taste some oil.

- No, I know, but in a wine glass?

Isn't that weird?

- Yes.

I hate to say to taste oil, you have to drink it.

A good oil always has a green smell, so the earlier you pick the olives, and we pick them very early in the season so there's more green than black.

- [Sara] Right, okay.

- [Joe] You have to drink it.

Wait for the sting in the back of the throat.

(peaceful music) - Oh my goodness, wow, yikes.

You know, it's like arugula on steroids.

(Joe chuckling) Yeah.

(peaceful music) Delicious.

I have a date with your friend Joan to go make arroz brut, and I was hoping you might join us for lunch.

- I would never say no to arroz brut.

(peaceful music) - Wow.

I'm here with Joan Abrams, and we're at the Son Moragues Olive Grove, and I'm so hungry.

We're gonna start cooking, right?

What do you do here at the Olive?

- I'm a neighbor from another farm just down below, and we share experiences, and I'm here to cook today.

- Wonderful, so what are we making here?

- This is called the escalivada, and what we use is red peppers and eggplants.

And the only thing we do is put a little oil.

- Olive oil, of course.

- Olive oil, and put 'em in the oven half an hour on each side in a hot oven.

- Okay.

- So the skin burns a little bit and it's easy to peel.

And now we'll do what we call arroz brut.

Translated into English would be dirty rice.

- Okay, fine.

- But it's rice with vegetables and meat, a typical Mallorcan dish.

- Okay, well, let's get started.

- So the first thing would be to put the pot on the- - Yes, make the fire.

- On the fire.

- Step one, make the fire.

- Step one, get the fire going.

- Okay.

(peaceful music) - Okay, now we've turned up the heat.

- [Sara] Okay.

- Okay, now first step is to put the- - Olive oil, of course.

- [Joan] Olive oil.

- Yes.

- That's the reason.

- Yes, and how much are you gonna put in there?

- [Joan] So half a cup of olive oil, little bit more.

- [Sara] Always more - A little touch.

- Okay, and now the meat goes in.

- Now the meat, very simple.

- So that looks like about three and a half pounds of combined chicken thighs and pork ribs, and a couple of chicken livers.

- And chicken livers.

- Okay, so you're gonna season everything.

- So we season everything.

- And this too, we season this?

- It's not necessary because it will absorb the- - Flavors from everything else.

- Flavor, yeah.

- [Sara] Okay.

- [Joan] Ready.

- Go ahead and put that on.

You want me to start with the onions?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Small, chopped up small.

- You need this too, right?

- I need this.

- Okay, chopped up fine, okay, I will do that.

- Watch out with your fingers.

- I will try.

- [Joan] Okay.

(peaceful music) (pot sizzling) - So what else do we need to chop while I do the onions?

- We can chop two tomatoes.

- Okay.

Tell me more about the dish.

What kind of meat and such do you- - Well, usually we use pork, chicken would be the base.

Then we could add rabbit or also partridge, quail.

- Oh yeah, this is a one size fits all dish.

- [Joan] Okay.

- So onions next?

- Next.

- Okay.

- I'll put the onions in.

(peaceful music) These are the chicken livers we've removed.

- Uh-huh.

- And we'll grind them with salt, saffron, a little bit of turmeric, and garlic.

- Okay, and what are we gonna use to do that?

Oh my goodness.

- We'll use, we don't have electricity here, so.

- Oh my goodness.

We have a 500 pound mortar and pestle.

And you've already got, looks like one clove.

- I put a little garlic in.

- Okay, and then a hefty pinch of salt?

- [Joan] A pinch of salt.

- Okay, I'm gonna with start with this.

- [Joan] Okay.

- [Sara] I'm gonna add the livers now.

- [Joan] We'll put a little bit of saffron in.

- And if you don't wanna splurge on saffron, what do you use?

- [Joan] Turmeric.

- Oh, nice, I like saffron.

- A little turmeric.

- Or you're gonna do both?

- Both.

- We're doing both and, okay, perfect.

- [Joan] Not much, a little like this.

- [Sara] Okay.

- So now this we'll put aside.

- Okay, perfect.

- Time for the tomatoes or tomatoes?

- Tomatoes.

- [Joan] Tomatoes.

- Yes, okay.

- [Joan] Okay, there we go.

(peaceful music) Time for mushrooms.

- [Sara] All right, now what kind of, what do you call those?

- [Joan] These are (speaking foreign language).

- We call those chanterelle, and two cups of mushrooms.

So while the mushrooms are cooking, what can we do?

- We can get the green beans ready.

- [Sara] Okay.

- Chop off the ends and cut 'em up in pieces.

- Mm-hmm.

Oh, you're gonna do them all at once, I will do the same.

Do these have a funny name too?

(Joan speaking foreign language) - What's that mean?

- Green beans.

(chuckles) - Oh, okay, you wise guy, you.

These are nice looking beans.

These are local also?

- Yeah, local.

- [Sara] I think that's about two cups.

- If a bean falls on the ground, don't worry, the sheep will will eat 'em.

- Those sheep are little vacuum cleaners.

- [Joan] Okay.

- [Sara] So now ready for the beans?

- [Joan] Ready for the beans.

- Okay, do it.

(peaceful music) So how long are the green beans in there?

- Two, three minutes.

- And then what?

- And then we'll add the red wine.

- How much?

- Two cups, two or three.

Two for the pot and one for me.

- Aha, I like the way you say it.

- [Joan] Go round in a circle, two circles.

(peaceful music) - So how long do we cook the wine?

- Wine, two or three minutes so it starts to evaporate.

- Okay.

- And it will be the right moment to put in the livers.

- Oh, the mash that we make.

- [Joan] The mash.

- Liver mash, okay.

(peaceful music) - [Joan] Okay, all mixed in, so now the water, we have to put in the water.

- [Sara] Okay, and the point of the water is we're gonna make sort of a stock now?

- [Joan] Yeah.

I measured about 14 cups.

- [Sara] Okay.

(peaceful music) - [Joan] So now we're gonna cover the pot so it boils up faster.

- That's beautiful.

- Okay, nice roasted red peppers and eggplant.

I'll do the peeling.

- Okay.

- You can do the chopping.

- Okay, it goes right in there?

- [Joan] This is a little messy.

- [Sara] That's okay.

- [Joan] But it's easy.

- So while you're peeling, what is escalivada?

- Escalivada comes from (speaking foreign language) that means to roast on fire, and it's a traditional Mediterranean dish.

And every region of the Mediterranean do it in a little different way.

Here in Mallorca, for example, we don't put in any other vegetables, just eggplant and the peppers.

- And the peppers, yeah.

- [Joan] Usually it's a dish we would eat more in autumn when the red peppers are in vegetable gardens.

- [Sara] Mm-hmm.

- Like a big pinch of salt.

- Okay.

- Big pinch.

A little bit of garlic, not too much.

- [Sara] Okay.

- And olive oil.

- Of course.

- A nice, maybe half a cup.

- [Sara] Oh really?

- [Joan] Half a cup.

- It reminds me a little bit of the Italians who tend to add olive oil in the beginning, the middle, and the end.

- [Joan] Oh yeah.

(peaceful music) Very simple.

- [Sara] Yummy.

- [Joan] And very good.

- Oh, I'm sure.

Okay, so how's things going back there?

- Back there, must be time for the artichokes.

- Oh, okay, can we just pause and look at them a tiny bit?

- We already had 'em chopped up.

- So what you did is you- - Quarters.

- Quartered them, you removed the choke, and you put them in acidulated water so they didn't turn a lot of color.

I mean, they got a little bit of color, okay.

(lid clunking) (utensil clinking) (lid clunking) - Okay, time for (speaking foreign language).

- Oh, I like that.

Let's head on over there.

(peaceful music) Okay.

Wow Joe, I'm so glad you joined us.

- I am too.

- [Sara] What have you got there?

- This is sobrasada, this is our local sausage.

Scoop it out, and just spread it on the bread.

- [Sara] And what's in it?

- [Joan] Pork meat, pork fat, salt, black pepper, just a little bit, and sweet paprika and hot paprika.

- That's how it gets its beautiful day glow orange.

- Paprika, because the string is red.

- That would be my choice every time is the spicy.

And then we put the- - Escalivada.

- Escalivada.

- Esalivada.

- [Sara] Onto the toast also?

- Onto the toast.

- Okay.

So good.

(Joe chuckling) Mm, so good.

You're spoiled here.

- [Joan] I'm gonna have a special one.

- It's so good.

- It's the moment to get the rice going.

- Okay.

- Shall we go and have a look?

- Let's go have a look, I'm ready.

- I'll set the table.

- [Sara] We start with the cauliflower?

- [Joan] Start with the cauliflower.

- [Sara] Okay.

- [Joan] Give it, stir it up a little bit.

Now we'll put the rice in.

(peaceful music) - [Sara] All right, so 10 minutes to yummy time.

- [Joan] Have a look, and then take it off the fire.

- [Sara] Got it.

(peaceful music) - Oh my God, wow.

You you you you you you.

Wow, you're spoiled, you're used to this.

Hang on, oh, it's still bubbling.

- [Joan] Are you ready?

- What do you mean, I'm past ready.

Don't do that to me.

So exciting.

I think I need to start eating.

Do I have to wait for you?

- You can wait.

- Oh, okay.

- You can wait.

(Sara laughing) - He's a character.

Okay, oh, that's so beautiful.

Spoon, fork, knife, what?

- [Joan] A spoon is good.

- Mm, mm.

You, you, you, you.

This is it, my god.

- You can taste the smoke, the fire, the fresh vegetables, wild mushrooms, all the flavors.

- Nothing like a wild mushroom.

- Mm, all right, so again, a toast for you making us a wonderful meal, right, amen.

- [Joan] Belly's full?

- Yes.

- And just in time for a siesta.

(glasses clinking) - Oh okay, I like that.

- Do you know what that means, siesta?

- A nappy poo.

(Joan chuckling) (peaceful music) (upbeat music) I get so many great questions on my website.

I just love answering them.

And I have one today for "Ask Sara" from Dave in Littleton, Colorado.

Hey Dave, I understand you- - Hey, Sara.

- [Sara] You have some interest in lemons?

- Yeah, I do, we use a lot of lemons in my cooking, and I was wondering how to get the most juice out of them 'cause we just go through a lot of lemons.

- Right, right, and that's a good point.

You really wanna get the most juice.

So for starts, when you go pick a lemon when you go to the store, you should feel them.

And what you're looking for is a lemon that has good give, meaning when you press it, your fingers go in.

If your fingers don't go in, that means it has a thicker outside and less of an inside, which is where all the juice is.

So for starts, get the right lemon.

So then another trick I like to do is, and this is true whether it's a lemon or a lime, is to take the citrus and lean on it with both of your hands, bruise it a bit.

That helps to soften up the inside.

But I wanna show you how juicy this is when I cut it open.

Use a serrated knife for, I don't know if you can see how wet it is.

See, there's even some on the counter already.

- Oh yeah.

- And this is, this is especially, I knew these had a big outside a big pith when I felt them.

You want the thinner skinned lemons if you can get 'em.

- Okay.

- Then I have several favorite tools.

This is one, it's a good old fashioned Mexican reamer.

They've got different sizes for the lemon and for the lime, and this works very nicely.

I'm just gonna put this little guy in here.

You put it cut side down, not curve side down, cut side down, and that's because all the holes where the juice come out are right there.

It's sort of counterintuitive 'cause you wanna put it the other way, but this is the way it goes.

- Oh, I always put em in upside down.

- Yeah, isn't that interesting?

So now we go, and I like this because you can get both hands involved and just squish it.

Okay, now- - That makes so much more sense, - Doesn't it?

Now here's another trick I learned from Jasper White, told to me by Ming Tsai, now I'm dropping names, which is use your tongs as a lemon juicer.

So what you do is you just put them right in there, and then just squeeze.

Isn't that fantastic?

Now here's the- - Never thought of that.

- Yeah, I really, I love this tool.

It's good for so many things.

Then what you can use the leftover lemon for is to clean your cutting board, clean your hands.

Actually, I don't know if you have any copper, but if you did, like a copper bowl or copper, you take lemon and salt.

You can just put some salt on it, kosher salt, rub it on the copper, it will clean it beautifully.

And finally, if you have a disposal, you can put these down the disposal and they'll make it smell nice and fresh.

- Oh yeah.

- So.

All right, well, so I hope you do some of these little things I've shown you.

- I just learned how to use a squeezer.

(laughs) - There you go.

I know, I know, put it in the right way.

Thank you so much for your question, and I hope you keep on cooking.

I'm glad you cook for your wife, we need more of that.

- Yeah.

- If you wanna send me a question, please do to saramoulton.com.

We'd love to take your questions, and I will answer them on "Ask Sara."

(upbeat music) This seafood gazpacho is a cheating recipe.

It doesn't involve much cooking.

It's perfect for summertime.

So I'm starting by getting all the vegetables ready.

And here we have some seedless cucumber.

It's also known as an English cucumber or a hydroponic cucumber.

So I coarsely chopped half a cup for the base.

It's what we're gonna put in the blender, and I finely chopped a cup for the garnish.

(upbeat music) And this is gonna go in the blender.

Blender's the best place to puree a soup if you want it to be really smooth.

Now our pepper, one large green bell pepper.

(upbeat music) All right, so there's our peppers and our cucumbers, which will provide crunch in the soup.

And I'm gonna add the rest of my pepper.

You could use red bell pepper too if you wanted to.

That would be nice.

Now, where does gazpacho originally come from?

It comes from Spain, and supposedly, I'm gonna try to do this with a Spanish accent, the Andalusia region, where I've been, it's beautiful.

It's wonderful, refreshing soup, you know, just says summer, and originally, well oftentimes, you'll find that a gazpacho has bread in it, and the word gazpacho I guess comes from the Arabic, which has something to do with soaked bread.

All right, so I'm gonna put a little bit of garlic in there.

We just put it in whole.

Smash it, it's the easiest way to peel it is just to whack it with a knife.

(upbeat music) In it goes.

Okay, a little bit of lemon juice.

Now, what I did, one of my tricks, I've got a microwave down here, is to nuke it for 30 seconds, and then what happens is the juice just comes streaming out.

I'm gonna cut off that so it's a little bit easier to ream.

This is particularly useful when you're working with limes 'cause they really hate to give up their juice.

But you can see already how juicy that is.

And then we're gonna just use one of these.

I love these little Mexican citrus reamers.

You need about three tablespoons of lemon juice, and this gives it a nice, bright, sunny flavor.

But we're also gonna add another acid, and that is our sherry vinegar.

Sherry vinegar is Spanish, and it's got a wonderful depth of flavor, and a nice sort of light sherry taste.

I'm gonna use a tablespoon of this.

I need now two tablespoons of olive oil.

(upbeat music) So there we go, and a little bit of sugar because this is quite acid from everything, about a teaspoon.

Hot sauce, I like hot sauce.

This about a half a teaspoon.

I really like it, so just don't look, okay?

(chuckles) This recipe actually was based on a recipe that ran in "Gourmet" magazine, and it starts with a tomato clam juice, which gives it a really nice, I don't know, extra flavor, plus which because it's a seafood gazpacho, it just makes complete sense.

I'm only adding some of the clam juice because we're gonna puree it in here, and then the remainder is gonna go in with the rest of the soup.

But if we added all three cups here, this wouldn't puree well.

We want these vegetables to get very smooth.

They're our thickener.

A hefty pinch of salt.

(upbeat music) We don't need a lot, 'cause the tomato clam juice does have salt in it anyway, and then we're just gonna hit the puree button.

(blender whirring) In this goes.

I'm gonna add my other two cups of tomato clam juice.

All right, now for the seafood, we're gonna use shrimp and crab, and a little goes a long way.

It's a very, very refreshing soup.

We're using jumbo lump, but you could use any kind of crab meat that you like.

And I'm just gonna barely break this up in here.

I mean, the whole point of jumbo lump is to have big lumps, so you don't wanna break it up too much.

And what you're looking for with crab meat, fresh crab meat in particular, is just that it smell like faintly like the sea, not like fish.

You can buy shrimp these days already cooked, you know, boiled, ready to go for you know, shrimp cocktail, but if you wanted to do your own, that's a great idea.

I'm just gonna cut this.

You see we already have this boiled, so I'm gonna cut it into fours so you can get a bite.

(upbeat music) All right, in goes our shrimp.

This is the fastest way to chill anything.

I learned this when I was in cooking school about how to fast chill champagne or white wine.

You put it into a bucket filled with ice, but ice and water, and you just keep stirring it.

And you can quick chill something, a bottle of champagne or a big bowl of soup like this in about 10 minutes.

It's a wonderful trick to know.

Okay, now here we have some croutons.

You can use store bought croutons, but I like to make my own.

And what we did, I took some bread just, it could be any leftover loaf of bread, whether it be french bread or just white bread or whatever or whole wheat bread, cut it into cubes, tossed it with garlic, and olive oil and paprika.

And then we just toasted it off in the oven and let it cool, and now we're ready to go.

You need a substantial portion because this is gonna be your dinner, a wonderful summertime dinner.

You could have just a nice tossed salad on the side.

See, we got all those wonderful vegetables that we put in there from before.

And just put your croutons in.

(upbeat music) There we go, seafood gazpacho, a light and easy change of pace for a weeknight meal.

(upbeat music) For recipes, videos, and more, go to our website, saramoulton.com.

"Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Aboard Oceana Cruises, our guests embrace a passion for travel, and our chefs are inspired by the flavors of the world and committed to providing fine dining at sea.

That's Oceania Cruises.

Oceania Cruises, your world your way Since 1921 season has brought you skinless and boneless sardine filets.

Our sardines are wild caught and contain essential vitamins and minerals for everyday meals.

Season sardines, rich in omega threes and protein.

♪ And it feels good Sunsweet amazing prunes and prune juice.

- [Sara] And by Mutti tomatoes of Parma, the Republic of Tea, and USA rice.

(bright music)