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Important potatoes
Hello!
This time I come again with a vegetarian recipe, but a really good one for winter cold days. It’s a typical spanish recipe original from Palencia, and very economic.
Ingredients (for 1 person):
- 2 potatoes
- 1 onion
- Saffron
- 3 garlic cloves
- A bunch of parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- Paprika
- 1 egg
- Flour
- White wine
- About ½ litre of oil to fry
Let’s start peeling the potatoes and then slicing them, having slices about half centimetre thick. Pass each potato slices first through flour and then through a whisked egg.
Add oil in a pan or pot and wait for it to be hot, fry the potatoes in several batches for about 3 minutes. Then reserve them over paper towels in order to remove oil excess.
Chop an onion and put a bit of olive oil in a pot, then add the onion a bit of salt and 2 bay leaves. Stir from time to time and cook about 6-7 minutes. While cooking the onion put in a mortar 3 garlic cloves, a bit of saffron, a bit of salt and a bunch of parsly grinding them until well mixed.
Add a bit of white wine in the pot, the content of the mortar, one teaspoon of paprika and the already fried potatoes. Add enough water to cover the potatoes passing above like 2 fingers and cook for 20 minutes. Instead of stiring it, just shake the pot in order to avoid break the potatoes.
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.
King Cake (Roscón de Reyes)
Hi,
Someweeks ago Ibán Yarza, which is a bread enthusiast and translator into spanish of Dan Lepard’s books about bread, give a training session about Christmas breads, focusing on panettone and King Cake (Roscón de Reyes in Spanish); cooking a panettone is a way complicated but the King Cake is more affordable, even it has a considerable amount of work behind. You need patience and time to prepare it, and on this recipe I will show you how to cook 2 King Cakes.
This cake is very typical in Spain on Epiphany day. Sometime some surprises are hidden in the dough: a king and a bean, the one finding the king is crowned and the one finding the bean must pay the cake 🙂
Ingredients (for 2 king bakes):
- 250 ml milk
- Skin of a lemon and an orage
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 440 gr flour
- 80 gr sugar
- 5 gr dry baker’s yeast (or 15-20 if it is fresh)
- 3 eggs
- 60 g unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons of orange blossom water
- 4 teaspoons of rum
- Candied fruit (for decoration)
- Sliced almonds (for decoration)
First day we will prepare a preferment, to prepare it add about 250 ml of milk in a pot, adding also the skin of a lemon and an orange and a cinnamon stick. Let the milk boil for 2 or 3 minutes taking care it does not overflood the pot. Wait for the milk to reach ambient temperature and add on a bowl 100gr of flour, half teaspoon of dry baker’s yeast and 60 gr of previously boiled milk, knead it in the same bowl, form a ball and cover with transparent film, let rest for at least a night.
Next day remove the film and add 340gr of flour, 80 gr of sugar, about 4 gr of dry baker’s yeast, half teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of orange blossom water, 4 teaspoons of rum, 2 eggs and 120 gr of milk boiled the day before. Mix well all ingredients helping you first with a spoon or spatula and then use your hands. When everything is well mixed it’s time to knead on the table, so put the content of bowl in the table and help you with a spatula to get the most part of dough which will be stick to the walls of the bowl.
And now it’s time to knead, use your hands as showels with all your 4 fingers stuck on each other (the less surface you offer to the dough the less will get stuck to your hands), pass your hands under the dough touching your fingers, hold (without pressing) the dough with your thumbs in the middle of dough, lift the dough, drop it to the table, drag it to you and with a wrist move fold the dough and separate your hands, now you need to repeat the move placing your hands on 90 degrees. Hope it is more clear watching the video 🙂
It will take you some time to knead it, about 10 to 15 minutes, you can take some rests collecting the dough stuck on the table with the help of a spatula, let the dough rest for 2-3 minutes and it will be more easy to handle. No stress no hurry up, just take your time, and take as rests as you need. After kneading, kneading and kneading the dough will be less sticky, and each time you lift it there will be almost no dough on the table, when the dough is in this state help you with a spatula to give the dough a round form as you can see in the video. Cover with a dishcloth and let ferment for about 1 hour.
You will see how the dough increased it’s volume, this is always amazing to see. Extend with your hands the dough and place over it 60 gr of unsalted butter, take the butter out of fridge some hours before. Integrate the butter on the dough and knead again as before, until you get a shiny and soft silky dough, again give it a round form with a spatula and cover with a dishcloth and let ferment for about an hour.
Divide the dough in 2 parts. With each part we will knead it for just one minute or two and help again with the spatula to give int a round form. Insert a finger in the middle and then with some skill form a kind of bagel. When formed put each part over an oven paper and brush them with a whisked egg, taking care to brush all the dough. Let rest for some hours.
After resting we can brush it again the the whisked egg, and decorate them with candied fruit (I used oranges and cherries) sliced almods, even you can place bands of sugar.
Cook in the oven at 400ºF (200º C) for 14-17 minutes, until it gets a nice colour. Let cold and enjoy! You can also cut it in half and stuff with cream, custard, chocolate …
Here you can take a look on how it is cooked in the oven on a high speed camera 🙂
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.
Cocido montañés
Hello,
Recently on the video explaining quesada pasiega recipe a youtube user (digbychick) suggested me to show how to prepare another typical dish from Cantabria, and based on the description done by him I supposed it was cocido montañés. Fortunately I bring an apron from my holidays last summer in Cantabria on which is printed the recipe. It’s a really nice recipe for cold days, it’s really easy to prepare, perhaps it’s only difficulty will be bring to home all ingredients, so better write down the list before going to market 🙂
Ingredients (4 people):
- 200 gr white beans
- 200 gr fresh bacon
- 1 pig’s trotter
- 1 pig’s ear
- 250 gr pork chop
- 4 blood sausages
- 1 piece of ham bone
- 1 potato
- 1 turnip
- ½ cabbage
- 2 garlic cloves
- Sweet paprika
On a bit pot add one pig’s trotter, one pig’s ear, 200 gr of fresh bacon, a piece of ham bone, 250 gr of pork chop. And 200 gr of white beans, these beans must be in water all the night before, taking in mind they would double their size. Add also some salt and cover all ingredients with cold water. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 2 hours, take a look from time to time, and if it’s getting short of water add more water, but heat it first otherwise you will break the cook process.
After 2 hours cooking add ½ cabbage, 1 turnip and 1 potato all them cut in small pieces and cook them for 20 minutes, add also the blood sausages.
While vegetables are cooking add a bit of oil in a pan, and add 2 laminated garlic cloves when the oil is still cold. When garlic becomes golden turn off the heat and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sweet paprika, then mix them. Put the garlic and paprika in a mortar and grind them. Then add this mix to the pot, you can help with the water to get the most of the mix. Now just wait the 20 minutes from vegetables aggregation and your cocido montañés is ready.
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.
Fried milk
Hello,
Fried milk is a very typical dessert in north Spain, it’s tricky to cook until you don’t get the right measures, once you got them it’s quite easy, but it requires some time to prepare.
Ingredients:
- 1 litre milk
- 100 gr corn flour
- 150 gr sugar
- 1 lemon
- Ground cinnamon
- 1 stick cinnamon
- Flour
- 1 egg
- Vegetable oil
Start boiling 850 ml of milk, with a stick of cinnamon and 100 gr of sugar. Move it to dissolve the sugar. Add also some skin of lemon, cut really thin to avoid the white part which is bitter.
While the milk heats up, in a bowl mix 100 gr of corn flour with 150 ml of milk.
Once the milk is boiling be careful to avoid flood over the pot, shut down the fire and remove cinnamon stick and lemon skin. Add the milk mixed with corn flour and move with a wooden spoon for some minutes until it’s well mixed and without grumes.
Turn over a rectangular or square recipient, I’ve used silicon mold for easy unmold. Let rest for 1 hour and half, and 1 hour in the fridge. On a silicon mold the unmold process will be very easy, cut the solidified milk in cubes.
Before frying you will pass them on egg and flour, so beat an egg and pass each cube first on the egg then on flour.
Add vegetable oil in a pot, enough to cover the cubes. When inserting a wooden spoon in the oil bubbles appear the oil temperature is right to fry. Add the cubes and remove in a short time (perhaps little less than a minute), put them on a towel paper and add over a mix of sugar and ground cinnamon (like 50 gr of sugar and 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon). Let cold and it is ready to eat.
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.
Vinaigrette mussels
Hello,
This is a very typical tapa in Spain (in Spanish, mejillones en vinagreta) and it’s a really nice recipe for sumer because you can eat them at a lower temperature and they’re still delicious, furthermore mussels are one of the cheapest seafood you can find (at least in Spain) making this recipe really a winner: rich, healthy, fresh, cheap. What else do you need? Of course it is also easy to prepare.
Ingredients:
- Mussels
- Sherry vinegar
- Spring onion
- Red pepper
- Green pepper
- Olive oil
Let’s start preparing the mussels, we will steam it. If you don’t have a tool to steam you can use just a pot, boil water and put the mussels in a metallic colander on top, cover the pot with a lid and maintain cooking for about 15 minutes. Use a tall pot in order to avoid water get off the pot, and be careful there’s always water in the pot otherwise you will burn it, and it’s not good to burn a pot on each recipe.
While the mussels steam we will prepare the vinaigrette, you need to chop more or less the same amount of spring onion, red pepper and green pepper, obtaining very smalll pieces. Then put all together in a bowl and add salt, sherry vinegar and olive oil (using 2 times more olive oil than vinegar). Mix well, if there is too much oil and vinegar you can reuse them later to dress a salad.
Discard those mussels not opened, remove half of shell, let cold and just add a coffespoon of vinaigrette over each mussel.
Music used in the video (Airport Lounge) and it’s rights belong to Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) who distributes it under CC-BY license.
Gazpacho
Hello!
Perhaps Gazpacho is most representative recipe of Andalucia, it is a kind of soup with tomato as star ingredient. It’s fresh, it’s healthy and it’s absolutely delicious, what else can you expect from a recipe? Ok, and I forgot, it’s easy to prepare!
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of tomatoes
- 1-2 green pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 cucumber
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- White vinegar
- Olive oil
We will start cutting the ingredients, even we will process them on a blender if you cut them they will fit in the blender cup. Cut an onion in 6 to 8 pieces. Remove the seeds of 2 green peppers, and cut them in small pieces. Remove the ends of a cucumber and peel it, left some skin as it will prevent its repetition. Finally cut 1 kg of tomatoes in about 8 pieces, you’d better choose mature tomatoes because they will be more tasty. You can reserve a bit of those ingredients and chop them in order to serve together with gazpacho, it’s usually served this way so people can choose which vegetable they would like to add.
Add all the ingredients in the blender cup. Furthermore add 2 o 3 garlic cloves, but first cut them in half and remove the central part which will prevent from repeating. Add also 1 coffee spoon of salt, a quarter of glass of white vinegar. Mix with the blender for some minutes until it becomes liquid, after mixing taste it to check if you need more salt, or if it is too dense add water and mix again for a while. You can also add some ground pepper or ice in the blender.
Normally is served with picatostes (toasted bread cut in small cubes) and a bit of vegetables chopped.
Music in the video (Airport Lounge) is composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com)
Torrijas
- Bread
- Milk
- Red Winde
- Egg
- Sugar
- Ground cinnamon
Tuna escabeche
Hello!
On our Spanish blog a reader suggested us to publish some recipe using escabeche. Escabeche is a technique to cook food in order to preserve them, it is very typical to find canned sea food or fish preserved in escabeche, in Spain perhaps the most easy to find are the muscles. I liked very much the result of this recipe, it is really superb on a sandwich bit some cheese.
Ingredients:
- 1 Kg tuna without skin and without spines
- ½ lt olive oil
- ¼ lt white vinegar
- ¼ lt white wine
- 3 garlic cloves
- 20 peppercorns
- Some bay leaves
- 1 sweet paprika tablespoon
Add in a pot ½ litre of olive oil, ¼ litre of white vinegar, ¼ litre of white wine, about 20 peppercorns, some bay leaves, 3 garlic cloves and a tablespoon of sweet paprika, mix it until well combined. Add the tuna without skin and with out spines, and make sure it is well submerged.
Set the fire on at minimum level, and cook for 20 minutes. In 20 minutes it will be cooked rare, cook about 30 minutes if you prefer more done. Let rest for some hours until getting ambient temperature, then put in the fridge like one night. Take off the fridge 15 minutes before eating, it is really great in a sandwich with cheese. You can have it in the fridge for some days, the escabeche sauce will preserve the tuna.
Music on the video (Airport Lounge) is composed by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Cider chorizos
Hello!
This is a a very typical recipe from Asturias (north Spain) , it is really easy todo, perhaps the hardest part will be getting the ingredients. It is normally served as a tapa, something you should taste if ever visit Asturias 🙂
Ingredients
- Tender chorizos
- Natural cider
You must choose tender chorizos and natural cider (no gas). Add the chorizos in a pot and make little punctures with a knive. Cover them with cider and turn on the fire. Once starts to boil cook for 15-20 minutes and the recipe is ready. Enjoy them with a good bread just after cooked.
Recipes from Spain 