Patatas arrugadas

First of all I love Canarias, I try to go at least 1 week every year in Gran Canarias to spend some time under the sun and to the beach.

Then I love patatas arrugadas o papas arrugadas as they would say there.

Very easy, delicious and quick

INGREDIENTS

• 300g of small potatoes/papas
• About 3 handfuls of big salt
• water

RECIPE

• Clean carefully the skin of the potatoes, don’t peal them
• In a large pan, put the potatoes and water until it covers the potatoes, not more
• add about 2 big handful of big salt, don’t be scared. The potatoes won’t be salty inside
• Cook for arround 18mn until the potatoes are cooked and water evaporated. If the potatoes are already cooked but some water is left, remove it.
• Bring back the potatoes on the fire, add 1 handful of salt and keep moving the potatoes by moving/shaking the pan with your hands every minute until the potatoes goes white
• Eat with mojo that you can find in shops or do it yourself, it’s easy.

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Beetroot curry

I inspired myself from an Indian food cookbook I have but had to change a few ingredients as I didn’t have everything. The issue with these type of cuisine is that you need many different spices and if you didn’t check before starting, you end up missing quite a few 😊

It was actually very nice and surprising flavor for the beetroot that I don’t use often in my dishes. It’s a perfect dish for food photography as the colors have a lot of contrast and are very strong.

It’s the dish I presented for a contest at work about food photography. Let’s see if my picture get prized.

Ingredients:

• 250g of beetroot (raw or cooked)
• 2cm of fresh ginger root
• ½ onion
• 1 tomate
• ½ tea spoon of curry powder
• 1 tea spoon of mustard seeds
• Chilli powder
• ½ tea spoon of curcuma
• ½ tea spoon of cumin
• ½ tea spoon of cinnamon
• ½ tea spoon of paprika
• Olive oil
• 15g of dry coconut
• Salt, black pepper
• 120ml of yogurt or ricotta cheese (I used Ricotta cheese)
• A bit of water

Recipe:

If you purchased raw beetroot, you need to boil it in water with salt for approximately 20mn, until it’s soft.

Meanwhile, in a mixer, mix together the tomato, coco, ginger, canella, curry and chili powder until obtaining a smooth paste.

Cut the beetroot in small pieces and chop the onions thinly.

Heat up some oil in a frying pan, add the mustards seeds and when they start to pop up, add immediately the chopped onions and beetroot, paprika, the cumin, salt and black pepper. Cook for 8mn. Make sure to stir often.

Add the mixture of coco and cook for another 5mn.

Add a bit of water to ensure it doesn’t stay too dry and cook for another 5mn.

Before serving, add the yogurt or ricotta cheese and mix slightly.

Stuffed cabbage leaves

Stuffed cabbage or ‘Choux farcis’ inx French are just a delicious way of eating cabbage. This can be adapted in many ways with the stuffing that you prepare.

Ingredients:

1 green cabbage

250g of minced meat (beef & pork) – It can be replaced with chicken, I’ve done actually both filling that day

2 carrots

1 onion

2 garlic clove

1 glass of white wine

1 egg

1 rusk bread

1 tomato

2 spoon of olive oil

Salt, black pepper, herbs

Start by boiling a large amount of water to soften the cabbage leaves for around 5mn. Then rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking.

Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing. Mix together the minced meat with a the onion, 1 garlic clove & carrot previously finely chopped.

Add the seasoning, egg. Finally crush the rusk bread and add it to the preparation.

Take 1 leave, put some stuffing in the middle and close the leave from the side and tight it with cooking string so that it doesn’t open.

Repeat the same with the rest of the leaves & stuffing.

Heat up some olive oil, add the garlic clove  and the tomato cut in 4 pieces and the cabbages stuffed leaves. After 5 to 7mn, add the glass of white wine and cover.

Cook for around 30mn at low heat and add a bit of water to ensure it doesn’t stay dry.

You can also make a tomato sauce and cook it in tomato sauce, it goes well with it.

Lentils & ceps butifarra

If there is one dish that is easy to prepare, pretty quick and that I love is lentils.

As I’m the only one at home liking them, I tend to make them when I’m alone for dinner or lunch.

This time, the only change I did was to replace the carrots that I usually puts for red pepper bell.

What you need:

• Lentils (1 glass for 2 people)
• 1 small onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 400ml of water
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 tomato
• Salt, black pepper, parsley

Start by frying a small onions with a garlic clove and red bell pepper.

Once the onion is half cooked, add a tomato cut in 4

Then add the sausage, here it was a ceps mushroom falvoured butifarra

Once the sausage is well colored, add a glass of white wine and once it has well evaporated, add cold water (about 400ml)

Finally I’m throw the lentils that you can wash with cold water beforehand.

Add a bit of salt, black pepper and any spices that you find appropriate.

Cook for around 20mn or a bit less to ensure that the lentils don’t end up in purée.

Voilà!

Delicious

Purée de pomme de terre – Joël Robuchon

Hace demasiado tiempo que no he participado al concurso de Cooking The Chef. Cuando vi la newsletter que este mes tocaba este chef Frances, sabia que tenia que hacer algo. Aunque no he tenido tiempo de enviar mi receta a tiempo.

Me ha encantado la receta de la purée porque como buen France que soy me encanta la mantequilla. Me acuerdo de mi madre que ponía cantidades grandes de mantequilla en todas partes así que no me he asustado con los 250g de mantequilla. De pequeño mi madre iba a Andorra para comprar kilos de mantequilla porque era mas barato que en Francia.

En general hago mi purée siempre con mucha mantequilla, pero es verdad no tanto. Pongo siempre también una cuchara de crème fraiche (esta crema espesa) o de Philadelphia.

La receta a la manera de Joël Robuchon:

• 1kg de patatas, si puede ser de variedad “Ratte” mejor por el sabor
• 250g de mantequilla
• 25cl de leche entera
• Sal, pimienta negra

1. Limpiar las patates con la piel y hervir en 2 litros de agua con sal durante 25/30 minutos (empezar con agua fría)
2. Mientras, se puede cortar la mantequilla en trozos pequeños y guardarlos en la nevera
3. Quitar la piel de las patatas y pasar las patatas por el pasapuré. Yo he usado la Thermomix para obtener una textura mas suave.
4. En la thermomix, pongo temperatura a 80° para secar las patatas y velocidad 4,5 para hacer la purée.
5. Poco a poco anadir la mantequilla, si si todo 🙂 y bajo la temperatura a 45°
6. Finalmente anadir la leche caliente para obtener una textura lissa.
7. Anadir sal y pimienta negra a gusto
8. Et voilà

Es ideal para comer con una buena butifarra por ejemplo.

No dudes en dar un vistazo a la página de Cooking The Chef donde una comunidad de bloggers se meten cada mes entre fogones para cocinar las recetas que las chicas de CTC nos proponen a través de un chef nacional o internacional.

Oven vegetables provencal

It’s Monday. It’s a public holiday and I didn’t have much in the fridge. So I made some potatoes and courgettes in the oven with some provence herbs and a quick tomatoes sauce to eat with so that it isn’t too dry.

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What do you need?

• 3 potatoes
• 1 courgette
• 8 garlic cloves
• 3 tomatoes
• 2 dry tomato slices
• 50g of gorgonzola cheese
• 3 big spoon of philadelphia cheese
• 2 shallots
• 10cl of vermuth or any other white wine if you don’t have
• 1 spoon of butter
• Olive oil
• Salt, black pepper, provence herbs, estrago, parsley

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Steps:

• Pre heat the oven at 220°C
• On a baking tray, lay some baking paper
• Clean well the potatoes and courgettes
• Cut the courgettes in the length, in half and then each half in 2 again
• Cut the potatoes in big chunk
• Put the courgettes slices on the baking paper, brush with oil, add salt, black pepper, estrago and parsley
• In a big bowl, put the potatoes, the melted butter, salt, black pepper, parsley, estrago, provence herbs and cut 2 cloves of garlic in big pieces
• Mix well and then add on the baking tray, round side down
• Spread around the courgettes the garlic cloves (without removing the skin)
• Cook in the oven for about 30mn, try the potatoes to ensure they are fully cooked
• Meanwhile, in a saucepan heat up some olive oil, add the finely shopped shallots and after 5mn, add the vermouth or white wine
• Cook a few minutes, add the 3 tomates sliced in small cubes and the dried tomatoes finely cut
• Stir for about 15mn until the tomatoes are cooked. Add the philadelphia cheese and gorgonzola cheese and cook for an other 5mn until the cheese is fully melted

Serve the vegetables with the tomatoes sauce on side. Ideally, the sauce made 2hrs before and set in the fridge could be probably nicer but I had no time for that 🙂

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Purple carrots hummus

I’ve been talking about the purple carrots with my friend at work Ikker for a long time, and one day on my desk I found a bag with these beauties 🙂 He finds them in his local market and was kind enough to get them for me. It’s not that easy to find them in Barcelona actually.

So I wonder what I could do with them. I initially I wanted to do some roasted carrots but as there were white inside, i thought i would boil them and do something with it.

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What do you need?

• 2 purple carrots (about 160g)
• 200g of chickpeas
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tsp of tahini
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt, black pepper, comino

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Steps:

• Boil the carrots until they are well cooked
• In a mixer, put together the chickpeas, lemon, aceite, tahini, garlic and spices

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Veggie Millefeuille

Coming back from the gym I wanted to cook something with vegetables that I had in the fridge, and wanted to use the brick pastry that I had bought recently.

It’s a mix of flavours but I liked it and thought it was different for a nice lunch.

This can be prepared for your Valentine’s dinner next week.

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What do you need?

Serves: 2

• Brick pastry: 2 circle (if yours comes square, you’ll need 6 square, around 10x10cm)
• 2 small aubergines
• 3 carrots
• 2 medium potatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 shallot
• 1/2 mango (optional, but I had it in the fridge so I tried it out)
• 2 tbsp of creme fraiche
• 50g of gorgonzola cheese
• 20ml of milk
• 1/2 small lemon
• 1 tsp of tahini
• Olive oil
• 25g of butter
• Comino, salt, black pepper, nutmeg,

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Steps:

• Start by pre heating the oven at 240°C for the aubergines.
• We want to grill the skin of the aubergines. Cut the aubergines in half in the length, make some cross with a sharp knife on the inside and spread a bit of salt
• Put the aubergines upside down on a rack in an oven dish
• Cook for 15mn at 240°C, then put the grill on and let it burn around 15mn. Watch carefully, the skin should start to burn slightly to give the special taste.
• Peal the potatoes and boil them in a large pot of water, add some salt
• Meanwhile, peal the carrots to remove the skin and then continue to peal it to make some thin slices.
• Heat up some olive oil, stir in the garlic clove, slices shallots and the mango that you have previously pealed.
• Stir in the carrots a few minutes. Time varies if you prefer them a bit crunchy or well cooked. Add salt, black pepper and comino
• Once the potatoes are cooked, remove the water, mashed the potatoes, add the butter, creme fraiche, nutmeg, salt and black paper. Stir in the gorgonzola cheese until melted
• Finally, remove the aubergines from the oven, remove the pulp and mix it with the lemon, tahini, garlic, salt, black pepper, 1tbsp of oil and comino until your obtain a purée.
• Take your 2 circles of brick pastry, fold in 3, then cut the 4 edges to make squares
• Put the square on an oven tray and bake for 10mn at 190°C. Once it starts to get brown, remove
• Mount your veggie millefeuille: with a square form, start with the mashed potatoes, add a square of brick pastry, add on top some carrots, then a square of brick pastry, then the aubergines purée and finish by a last layer of brick pastry.
• Take what is left and smash it in your hands to decorate the plate.
• Enjoy!

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Falafel

It would have not won the beauty price but it was lovely and we still enjoyed it a lot 🙂

And as I didn’t take note of the recipe then I have nothing to share just than impressions and photos. I think I didn’t dry off the chickpeas sufficiently as it didn’t keep the shape and just went completely soft while frying. So, I’ll make an other test soon and hopefully this time they will stick together and I’ll share then the recipe and tips of do’s & don’t.

And it was also the perfect occasion to display this new dish that I bought in a shop on Avenida Diagonal de Barcelona. Thought it’s perfect for falafel or other croquettes presentation.

'Mariscada' and veg a la plancha

An alternative to the Sunday Paella when we go down to Valencia was this delicious, sort-of-Mariscada. It normally is more seafood but we preferred to add fish with the muscles, shrimps & gambas.

The vegetables cooked a la plancha are also delicious.

Vegetables flans

An other quick side dish to eat with your meat or fish for example, but also something that you can have for an evening dinner on its own: vegetables flan. Really easy and very moisten.

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For around 20 small or 12 medium size flans.

What do you need?

• 2 tomatoes
• 2 courgettes
• 3 carrots
• 1 big onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 400ml of cream (not light please!)
• 3 eggs
• 100g of cheese
• Salt,  black pepper, cumin

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Steps:

There’s two schools for these kind of dishes. To cook the vegetables before or after. If you cook them before, it leaves you more options to bring a specific flavour to your vegetables.

This time I baked it with uncooked vegetables

• Start peeling the vegetables and cutting them in small pieces all together
• In a large bowl, mix the eggs and cream together
• Add the salt, pepper and cumin
• finally mix the vegetables together
• Spread the mixture in small or medium individual cakes baking forms
• Cook at 200°C for around 30mn.
• It should start rising after 15mn and get a nice shape.

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Verrine: tomatoes, basil, ricotta and parmesan

We were invited to a friend’s house for watching a movie outside on the terrace and a barbecue. So I thought that I had to bring something and why not some “verrine” (small glasses), fresh and light!

I brought a few other things of course but that will be published later.

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What do you need?

• 2 tomatoes
• 100g of ricotta
• 10 basil leaves
• 40g of parmesan cheese
• Salt, black pepper

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Steps:

• In your blender mix the tomatoes that you clean and cut in 4 pieces first with the basil leaves
• Add the ricotta and parmesan with the spices
• Mix all together and put in small places.

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