Feasts and Flamenco in Jerez
The picturesque town of Jerez de la Frontera hosts its famous Flamenco Festival with tapas, sherry, vermouth, and the best Flamenco artists from all over the world. This week's recipe - sherry sauces!
Think of Spanish music and I bet Flamenco is one of the first things that pops into your brain. Think of Jerez de la Frontera and no doubt sherry comes to mind. Add these two quintessentially Andalusian elements and you get the Jerez Flamenco Festival celebrated the end of every February.
Almost everywhere in Andalusia you are reminded of Spain’s most iconic images. The country’s southernmost region deservedly boasts 7 UNESCO world heritage sites, including the Alhambra in Granada, the historic centre and Mezquita of Cordoba, and the Alcazar of Seville.
Even Flamenco has made it onto another of UNESCO’s lists – the Intangible Cultural Heritage list – along with Mediterranean Food for which Andalusia is also king. The influence of so many cultures that conquered its coastline has resulted in some of the most interesting, diverse, and sumptuous dishes in all of Spain.
So, there are few better places on earth to be this week than in the historic and picturesque town of Jerez de la Frontera.
Eight hundred years of Moorish influence in Andalusia made an indelible mark on the region and influenced the culture, architecture, cuisine, art, and music, most notably Flamenco. This region was where the early Flamenco cantaores and Gitano families created the artform we recognise today, with Jerez de la Frontera being the town with the first known written account of it.
The festival
Over two weeks the Jerez Flamenco Festival hosts 50 shows with dancers as the main protagonists. The stamping, clapping, the lamenting duende or enthusiastic shouts of olé! accompany the distinctive Flamenco chords of the Andalusian guitar with some of the best dancers, singers, and guitarists performing in theatres, museums, bars, and bodegas around the town.
The world-renowned Flamenco dancer Sara Baras heads the program for the 28th Flamenco Festival of Jerez at the Villamarta Theatre on the 23rd February 2024, with Manuela Carrasco closing it on March 9th. Besides established performers, the festival also highlights younger talent and emerging artists, with classic and avant-garde Flamenco styles showcasing both tradition and creativity. Competitions, courses, and workshops will be held throughout the fortnight, as well as talks and exhibitions.
Some of the best places to catch a show are in one of the many bars and restaurants that offer their sherries, vermouths, and of course their signature dishes and tapas. The Fino sherry that Jerez is famous for occupies centre stage as always with vermouth also playing an important part this year (2024) to highlight the growing vermouth industry in the area. Tapas and seafood have a long tradition in Andalusia and are the perfect accompaniment to these delicious, fortified wines.
Sherry
This is not the sickly-sweet stuff grandma sipped at Christmas. The sherries of Jerez are aromatic, pale, and as dry as the Sahara. In order to receive the Protected Designation of Origin status, the sherries must hail from the Jerez Triangle which includes San Lucar de Barrameda, Jerez de la Frontera, and Puerto de Santa Maria, in the southwest of Andalusia.
The palomino grapes grow out of the absorbent chalky limestone, called albariza - ideal for an area that receives little rain. The most popular of the sherries is Manzanilla from San Lucar, north of Cadiz where the mighty Guadalquivir River empties into the Atlantic. The cool ocean breezes help give the sherry its light, fruity, and slightly salty aromas making it a perfect accompaniment to seafood.
Fino sherry from Jerez grows inland where it is hotter, producing stronger flavours often described as nutty, yeasty, toasty, less subtle than Manzanillo, and goes well with meats and cheeses.
Both Manzanillo and Fino sherries are pungent, sophisticated, and full-flavoured and can be an acquired taste for some. But it’s well worth the effort to get to know the complexities and unique flavours because they clean the palate and excite the tastebuds, making them the best thing to sip while enjoying a variety of tapas.
Wines have been grown in Jerez for millennia and no doubt the first wine makers wondered what the thick layer of fungus that settled on the top of the liquid was. It didn’t seem to be harming the product, it even contributed to its flavour and colour, so they decided to keep it. It wasn’t until relatively recently that the yeast was identified as “flor” – a layer of yeast that gives sherry its characteristic bready aromas and pale yellow colour.
The flor keeps air out of the barrels, protecting the wine from oxidization during its long aging process, and adding extra flavour and goodness. However, the wines that have the flor reduced or removed produce a darker and fruitier sherry and are used in a process called the Solera Method which involves different scales of aging and blending.
Amontillado sherries have less flor, which means darker colours. It is more complex, more hazelnutty, with tones of dried herbs and wet wood.
Oloroso is also a woody, rich and darker wine which matures with no flor due to the higher alcohol content introduced at a younger age.
Styles of sherry:
Pale: Dry Finos and Manzanillas
Dark: Amontillados and Olorosos
Sweet: Pedro Jimenez grapes blended with Oloroso
Other grape varieties from the region include Pedro Jimenez and Muscatel which produce sweeter sherries.
2 Scrummy Sherry Sauces
A good sherry in Spain is well-priced. Here in the UK however…not so much. I found a 500ml bottle of Jerez-Xeres Fino sherry for £9 at Sainsburys. A little pricy for my budget, but I thought I’d see how it fared in the sherry sauces Jerez is famous for.
* You’ll have to excuse my awful photos though. The sauces came out much better than they look. 🫤
NOTE: Fino sherries have a high alcohol content of 15%, but the cooking process removes the alcohol while keeping the flavours.
Creamy Sherry Sauce
This sauce goes well with fish or other white meat. Recipe makes 2 servings.
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 tbsp butter
Good drizzle of olive oil
100ml single cream
100ml Fino sherry
Rind of one lemon, finely chopped or grated.
1 tbsp capers, chopped
1 tsp dried tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley (for garnish)
In a frying pan, heat the butter and oil and add the onion slices and garlic.
Cook gently to soften the onion before adding the carrot slices.
Pour in the sherry and reduce a little before adding the cream.
Add the lemon rind, capers, tarragon and leave to simmer and reduce till the carrot is cooked.
Season to taste.
Rich Sherry Sauce
This is a great sauce to serve with meats and/or vegetables. You can choose to blend all the ingredients together to make a smoother sauce or serve as is.
1 tsp butter
A generous chug of olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
3 cloves of garlic
Half tsp of smoked paprika
100ml Fino sherry
150ml seasoned chicken stock (or stock of choice)
1 ripened tomato, chopped (or 2 dessert-spoons of pureed tomato)
1 rounded tsp of sugar
Parsley (for garnish)
If you plan to cook meat to go with the sauce, I recommend you brown the meat first in a frying pan before removing it and cooking the sauce in the meat juices. Then you can continue cooking the meat in the finished sauce.
In a frying pan, heat the butter and oil and add the chopped onion, carrot, and garlic.
Leave to simmer and soften before adding the tomato and sherry.
After about 10 minutes, add the seasoned stock, sugar, and paprika.
Let simmer slowly to cook the carrot thoroughly and to reduce the liquid.
Once the carrot is soft, pour all in a blender and whizz to a smooth sauce.
Return the sauce to the pan and add the meat or vegetables you wish to cook in the sauce.