Shrimps "al ajillo"

A perfect starter or, in this case Sunday dinner...

I was already imagining myself looking for an open supermarket to find something for dinner when I found a "lost" box of shrimps in the freezer, 

Ingredients:

Shrimps

Extra virgin olive oil

butter

Garlic

pepper

chilli

Whiskey

salt & pepper  

First peel the shrimps leaving only the caudal fin. Then take out chilli seeds and chop it together with the garlic. In order to get it more tasty I season the shrimps with this mix, and add the salt & pepper. 

And it is almost ready... now you just need to sauté the shrimps in a short and wide pan adding whiskey as you wish :)

A High-calorie Starter

I´ve found this spectacular starter in a book of Jose Avillez, a Portuguese Chef.

If you've never done it the most difficult part may be to fry the quail eggs.. and unless you go to Portugal you may not be able to find the Alheira.

Depending on your taste you may want to use Alheira de Mirandela or try the hunting one, to prepare just remove the "skin" of the Alheira and cut it into small pieces, put it in the oven till it is soften.

Then just enjoy the spectacular taste of it...

If you are obsessed with diets the secret isn't to avoid this fabulous starter but to have a healthy life and practice sport often... :)

The Key: The Best Raw Material

A trivial, but essential tip, when it comes to food or drink is: get the BEST quality raw material you can find, this will make all the difference in your cooking or cocktail...

This frozen Strawberry Daiquiri would be a completely normal daiquiri if it wasn't the quality of the best strawberries I've found this year in Madrid...

Quick and Delicious Pea Soup

I must confess I love the receipts of Jamie Oliver, as they are simple & easy to prepare and have a great result. It is the example of this pea soup...

Ingredients:

500g Peas

2 large Potatoes

1 Large onion

1L Vegetable Stock

2 springs Fresh mint

a sticks Celery

1 knob of butter

150gr ciabatta

100ml doubble cream 

feta cheese

salt, black pepper & extra virgin olive oil

In a pan add a splash of olive oil, and the butter and leave to melt. Stir the chopped onion and celery into the pan and add a splash of water, cover and cook till the vegetables start to soften. 

Fill a medium pan with vegetable stock (I confess I've cheated and used a biological supermarket stock) and bring it to simmer over a medium heat, add the roughly grate potato and then half of the mint leaves 

Add the peas to the pan of the vegetables, cook for 1 minute and then carefully pour the stock mixture into the pan and bring everything to boil. stir the cream into the soup and cook it for about 5 minutes. whiz until smooth. 

mix the remaining mint leaves and the toasted croutons, the feta, and a little bit of extra olive oil and then serve and taste it...