Aubergine filled with vegetables

Aubergine is a very good friend to avoid having to throwing away your food, as you can cook it for several ways and combine it with thousands of ingredients... 

Today I suggest Aubergine filled with vegetables:

Ingredients 

(you may use different ones, I just used what I had in the fridge...)

Aubergine

Onion

Red/green pepper

courgette

tomato

sweet pepper

Salt and pepper

white wine 

Extra virgin Olive oil

salt & pepper

cheese 

Start by cutting the aubergine on two halfs, make a couple of cuts in the middle in order to let it cook better, put it in a tray, add a splash of extra virgin olive oil and a bit of salt and take it to the oven, (200ºC), for aprox. 20 minutes. When it is cooked separate the meat and the skin.

At the same time, chop all the other vegetables. In a pan, add a splash of extra virgin olive oil and start to cook the onion till it gets blond. Add the red/green pepper, then the courgette, the meat of the aubergine, add a bit of white whine and sweet pepper and mix it. Season with salt & pepper and finally add the tomatoes and let it cook.

Fill the aubergine skin with previously cooked vegetables, cover it with a slice of grated cheese and take it to the oven till the cheese melts.

A cool drink to start the weekend

I've just prepared this Vodka espresso after my friday's siesta...

If you are very classical with the ritual of drinking a coffee, as I am, or if you think you don't like Vodka, this is still your cocktail! 

It is so easy to prepare that I recommend you to have it in days like today when there are 31ºC outside...

Start to fill the glass with Ice to cool it. Mix it well in a shaker 1 part of espresso (50 ml) and 1 part of Vodka, and the Ice that you used to cool the glass.

Depending if you usually drink coffee with or without sugar you may add a drop of sugar syrup.

Dry Tomato Pesto Salad

Salads are always an excellent option when you have 30ºC outside like today, and to run away from the typical recipes I found a different one on the book experimental cuisine - Tavern 2870.


Ingredients
Mixed salad
Dry tomatoes
Parmesan cheese
Garden Rocket 
Garlic
Mushrooms
Salt, thyme & Black pepper

Extra virgin Olive Oil


After cleaning the fresh mushrooms, add a splash of olive oil, chopped garlic and thyme and take it to the oven, (preheated at 160ºC), till it get soft. Take it out and let it cool.


There is no doubt than the star of this recipe is the dry tomato pesto: mix the dry tomato, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan, garden rocket, a splash of vinegar, salt & pepper. Grind it and and season the mushrooms with it.
Mix it all adding some parmesan slices and taste this experimental salad...
A very nice surprise with a very interesting mix of flavours!

Cooked and posted by Vanna

My first Pizza!

Yesterday I finally prepared my first pizza! 

I must thank my friend Martina Piso, for the tips and the recipe of the dough. 

First basic tip,(mainly for ME...), for this recipe or any other one: Start to see what you have at home, before going to the supermarket again!...

Yesterday when I started to list in my mind if I had everything I needed I discovered that I didn't have yeast, so I went to the city centre to buy it and only when I was starting to weigh the flour, I saw it was a self-raising flour... So no yeast was needed!

Pizza Dough:

500 g of wheat flour (as in this case it was self-raising flour, I didn't use yeast, I've bought one kind of flour special prepared for pizzas...)

Salt 

a bit of sugar 

water

2 soup spoons of olive oil

After preparing the dough, I let it rest for about 1h.

After Shaping and flatten the dough it was finally ready to prepare the pizza:

I Started by adding the tomato sauce, (to see the recipe just follow the link), then the mozzarella cheese and the bacon and on the top the mushrooms.

The last step, put it on the pre-heated oven, (250ºC) and let it cook, for about 10-12 minutes.

 For the first time it was really good, the next time I must improve the dough that was a bit thick for my particular taste...

Basic Tomato Sauce

We use this Jamie's Oliver sauce  for several different recipes. We started to use it for the Spaghetti alla bolognese sauce and today it went perfectly on my first pizza...

Ingredients:

1 small clove of garlic

Extra virgin olive oil

1/2 of dry red pepper

400 g of Tomato

vinegar (a bit less than 1/2 of a soup spoon)

Basil

Oregano (a bit less than a soup spoon)

Salt & black pepper

In a pan add the chopped garlic with a bit of olive oil and cook it till it gets blond. Add the red pepper, the oreganos and the tomato, (you may grind the tomato before and take the seeds out, to avoid a bitter flavour on the sauce). Mix and let it cook for about 1 hour. Add the vinegar, the basil, season it with salt & black pepper and finish adding about 1 soup spoon of extra virgin olive oil. Mix it and is ready to use.

Tinto de Verano, A Refreshing drink for summer

Tinto de Verano is a Spanish wine based cocktail very similar to Sangria. 
As the literal translation: summer red wine, Tinto de Verano is a very refreshing drink to have during these hot days...
To prepare it mix in a wine glass: ice and a slice of lemon, one part of red wine and one part of Gaseosa (a mild flavored low sugar carbonated lemonade,of which La Casera is the best known brand). Add a little bit of vermouth and enjoy it...

Quick and easy to prepare and very refreshing... 

The Best Toasts in Madrid

El Enfriador is like our second home in Madrid. There are two places, both in Chamartin, one in Plaza de Perú and a larger one in Calle Alberto Alcocer.

It is a very nice place to meet your friends with a nice glass of wine or now in summer to have a beer or a “Tinto de verano”. As you should never drink without eating J, I suggest you to try very nice toasts like Iberian ham, guacamole with salmon... or also try some portions to share like Tuna with soya sauce or vinagrette

The last but not the least the service, that like Spanish usually say is “inmejorable”.

Where?
Calle del Príncipe de Vergara 291
Pio XII
Metro Colombia / Pio XII 9
Alberto Alcocer,47
Madrid
Metro Colombia 8 9

How Much?
Toasts - 5€

Onion soup, will you try it?

After a week pause for vacations we're back with a recipe that usually divides the opinions: the ones who never tasted and don't even think in trying it and the ones who love it...

Ingredients

25 g of butter

5 tiny sliced onions 

1  tea spoon of wheat flour 

1/4 de white wine cup

750 ml de meat stock

Salt & pepper 

mini toasts

Grated cheese

In a large pan, melt the butter in low heat. Add the onion and cook it, stirring it, till it gets blonde, (about 15-20 minutes). add the flour and mix it. Add the meat stock and let it cook about 20 minutes and season it with salt and pepper.

Divide the soup in bowls that can go to the oven and cover it with mini toasts and finally with cheese. Take it to the oven, pre-heated to 180ºC till the cheese melts, (I usually connect the grill for a little bit).