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Croquettes
Hello,
Croquettes are very typical in Spain as a tapa in bars or as an appetizer. There are several ways to prepare them around the world, but my approach will be a very spanish one 🙂
Ingredients ( ~ 16 croquettes)
- 2 eggs
- 100 gr breadcrumbs
- 200 gr flour
- 200 gr ham
- Ground nutmeg
- 100 gr unsalted butter
- ½ litre of milk
Start cutting ham in very small pieces. I used about 200 gr of ham, but you have to use less amount if your ham is too salty. Also you can add other ingredients as for example chicken or tuna.
On a pot add 100 gr of unsalted butter, when butter is almost molten add cut ham, stir it until butter is totally molten. Then add 100 gr of flour, stir while cooking it for about 1 minute until flour is cooked. Then add ½ litre of milk at ambient temperature and a bit of ground nutmeg. Move constantly with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps and it will be ready in a couple of minutes when you can see the bottom of your pot when moving with the spoon.
Empty the pot in a recipient and level the surface. Cover with a transparent film stick to the surface to avoid crust in the surface. Let cold and maintain in the fridge until next day.
Next day with a spoon take portions of the dough and give them a cylindrical shape with your hands. Try to get always a similar amount of dough so each croquettes result in a very similar size. Â Once you have all your croquettes shaped, pass each of them first in flour, then in whisked egg and finally in breadcrumbs.
In a pot heat oil, adding enough to immerse the croquettes. When you insert a wooden spoon in the oil and bubbles appear the temperature of oil is right to fry. Now immerse the croquettes in small batches cooking them about 40 to 50 seconds. Retire them over a paper towel to absorb the excess of oil, and let the oil heat again between each batches of croquettes.
Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.
Quesada pasiega
Hello,
Quesada pasiega is a very typical dessert in Cantabria, a region in North Spain, it’s quite similar to a cheesecake but this recipe does not use cheese at all, instead it uses Cuajada, if you cannot find cuajada, perhaps you can replace it with ricotta. This dessert is really easy to prepare and it’s really nice, I bring it to work so colleagues could taste it, and it was really a success.
Ingredients:
Add 3 eggs in a bowl, 200 gr of sugar, grate the skin of one lemon, 80 gr of butter (melted or out of fridge for some hours) and a bit of ground cinnamon. Whisk well. Then add 150 gr of flour and whisk well again. Finally add 1 kg of cuajada and give it a last good whisk.
Finally fill molds with the mix, with a maximum height of 3-4 centimeters and cook in the oven at 350ºF (180º F) for 50 minutes, or perhaps more, until the surface gets slightly toasted. Don’t worry if you see it grow too much in the oven, it will reduce its size while cooling.
As you can see a really easy recipe, perhaps the only non easy part could be find the cuajada 🙂
Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.
Salmon massala
Hello,
Somedays ago I’ve tested a recipe for a quick supper, just spreading some lemon juice and massala sauce over salmon loins. The result was pretty good so I did one step forward and also prepare the massala sauce (or something close to it); so you can use this recipe as a quick way to prepare a nice salmon if you have massala sauce in your storeroom or you can use it to prepare your personal homemade massala sauce to use with some other ingredients, like a steamed rice, grilled chicken, grilled vegetables …
Ingredients (for 2 people):
- 350-450 gr salmon loins
- ½ kg tomatoes
- 200 ml cream
- 4 garlic cloves
- Ginger
- 1 chili
- 1 onion
- ½ lemon
- Coriander
- Ground cumin
Start chopping one onion. Chop a bunch of coriander. Use half kilo of tomatoes, chop one of them and grate the other ones.
Add olive oil in a pan and when it’s hot add chopped onion, salt and ground pepper. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add grated ginger (like about 1 thumb) and 4 crushed garlic cloves; stir and cook for 1 minute. Then add the grated and chopped tomatoes, the coriander, ground cumin and one chili. Stir and cook it for about 8-10 minutes.
Finally add 200 ml of cream, stir and cook it about 10 to 12 minutes until it becomes a dense sauce.
On a oven tray put a bit of olive oil, place the salmon loins with the skin down, spread over them the juice of half lemon and the massala souce. Cook in oven at 350ºF for 40 minutes.
Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.
Recipes from Spain 