Sunday, May 26, 2013

Today's Picnic menu

To welcome the good weather today we decided to go for a picnic with some friends in the surroundings of Madrid... 

After 15 kms walk we enjoyed home-made Iberian gastronomy, the spanish prepared two typical Spanish dishes: Gaspacho and Tortilla and we prepared octopus salad and a kind of "meat cake", which recipe you can find here today...

You will need:
4 eggs
3 cups of flour
1 cup of milk
1 cup of oil
3 teaspoons baking powder
ham, smoked pork sausage and pepperoni 
salt

In a bowl mix all ingredients (flour, milk, baking powder, oil and eggs). Grease the vessel (I use a silicone one so I skip this step), place the dough and the filling in layers and bake it in preheated oven at 200 º C.

Enjoy!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Wine of the Week

And this week:


And this week an habitué in my glass that goes perfectly with traditional Portuguese cuisine. This time with an excellent Cozido à Portuguesa...

Monday, May 20, 2013

My first Steak Tartare...

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you will certainly know that I am completely addicted to Steak Tartar .. So this Saturday as I didn't found the piece of sirloin that was looking to make a beef tataki I bought a couple of pieces of sirloin to prepare my first steak tartar...

You will need:
Beef sirloin or striploin
Gherkin
Capers
dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper
chilli
shallot
Egg yolk
parsley

Start by chopping the Gherkins, shallots and capers and let it rest. Then, with a sharp knife chop the beef patiently, resist the temptation of putting it into a grinder... In the end, you will see that the texture and taste of meat has absolutely nothing to do with what you've tasted before ...
In a bowl mix all ingredients, (the proportions may vary according to your personal taste): Gherkins, capers, shallots, dijon mustard salt and pepper, finely chopped chillies and finally the chopped meat. To finish mix one egg yolk and a bit of finely chopped parsley ...

I served it with a mix of vegetables (onion, carrot and courgette): I started by grilling separately due to different cooking times, and then just cook in preheated oven at 150 ºC with a drizzle of olive oil for 10 minutes.

Note: You may also serve it with fries

Enjoy!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Strawberries frozen Daiquiri


If you asked me what comes to my mind when I speak about strawberries the answer would surely be Variety because of the multiple ways we can use it: Simple, in a fruit salad, in a desert, ice cream, juice, smoothie, or... a cocktail!
Yesterday morning when I went to the market, It was not a lie when I was told I wouldn't regret if I bought these high quality strawberries. They were really good so I used it to prepare a strawberry Ice cream which recipe you can find here on the blog, and a wonderful strawberry daiquiri...

You will need:
rum
lime juice
strawberries
ice
Sugar Syrup

In a blender add strawberries, 50 ml of rum, juice of half a lime, ice and adjust the flavour to your taste with sugar syrup. Easy, quick and delicious ...

Enjoy it!

Bikini Operation...

This year, spring is particularly shy... either hides behind a typical summer day or immediately calls the winter again. Nevertheless we are now in the middle of  bikini operation season, so if you ran out of ingredients dor your salad just go to your kitchen garden and grab some...



Saturday, May 18, 2013

Wine of the week

And the wine of this week is:

Quinta das Bageiras
An excellent discovery to celebrate the equator of the thirties of a very special person... Quinta das Bágeiras 2004 is undoubtedly one of the best Portuguese sparkling wines I've tasted till today, a great choice marriage with a salad, piglet or even with a cheese as an appetiser...

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Wine of the Week

And the wine of this week is...
Agnus dei

This week a white wine from D.O Rias Baixas, a Spanish Denominated region, located almost on its fronteer with the north of Portugal with a very interesting value for money.

Friday, May 3, 2013

World flavour's dinner...

I may be repeating myself but don't  change your plans just because you don't have a couple of ingredients required to prepare what you wanted to... Take advantage of this opportunity to create and try something new... It was what happened us yesterday when we were planning a typical Tex-Mex dish: fajitas and we ended up in a world flavours' dinner...
The Arabian touch given by the lamb, the oriental touch of the curry, a German beer and The mexican touch given by the guacamole, the pancakes and the home-made hot sauce...

You will need:

For the pancakes
225 gr Wheat flour
35 gr butter
150 ml water
Salt & freshly ground pepper

For the sauce
Cherry tomatoes
A hand full of coriander
Chillies
Juice of 1 lime

For the fajitas
Sliced beef or ​​chicken, I used a small lamb's meat
Sliced ​​red pepper and green (in this case just used red pepper, which was at home)
Half an onion sliced
Half lime juice
Salt & Pepper
Cumin
Curry

To prepare the pancakes: At the same time that the butter melts in the warm water, place the dry ingredients in a bowl: the flour, freshly ground pepper and salt and make a hole in the middle where you will pour 2/3 of the water, knead adding the rest of the water and let it rest.

In a bowl mix the meat, with the lime juice, the sliced red and green pepper, the lime juice, the onion, cumin, curry. Mix everything well and let it marinate while you prepare the rest.

To prepare the sauce, put in a small bowl: roughly chop the cherry tomatoes, a chilli, (if you do not like or tolerate hot sauce, skip this step, or take the chilli seeds out to reduce the spicy taste), lime juice and finelly chopped coriander, mix it all and it's ready.

To prepare the guacamole I usually use my hands as we prefer a rougher texture to a creamy one, but you can use the grinder to obtain it! So start by squashing the avocado, add some drops of lime juice, a bit of finely chopped onion and tomato, a bit of salt, a bit of chopped chilli and mix it. Despite we already added lemon, in order to avoid the oxidation of the avocado till you serve it, I recommend you to cover it with aluminium foil, for instance.

To finish cook the meat mixture in a wok, frying pan or griddle pan the meat mixture and cook and meanwhile heat a frying pan without adding any fat. Prepare the pancakes with the palm of your hand or with the help of a rolling pin, put it in the pan and turn it when the dough is cooked in the lower side. store in a plastic container, which will allow it to stay soft and flexible when you eat your fajitas...

Serve it and enjoy, it's perfect for a dinner with friends or, in our case to see a football match!...

You usually prepare mexican food at home? share your recipes with us!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Moratín, an hymn to Gastronomy!

Last week, I watched a video of a Chef Andoni Aduriz lesson where he spoke about cooking with love ... "What is it to cook with love? I

n practice, attention, care, to put all our effort in what we are preparing." We could use these words to describe and say that in this restaurant everything but everything is made with love ... We also felt this love in on how the eyes of the chef were shining and in the passion of his words when he was describing his recommendations from the menu.

Last friday, I was looking for a place I could make a last minute reservation for dinner, when without any recommendation, I found this restaurant and I was lucky to get the last available table in this intimate atmosphere illuminated by candlelight restaurant...
The two main reasons of our visit were to discover new wines, and to taste its Steak tartar, (if you read the previous posts will understand why ...). So in the rest we've just followed the recommendations: we started with started by a confit leeks with romesco sauce, after a marinated salmon in the house with vinaigrette and finally a delicious steak tartar. Regarding the wine, please visit wine of this week post where I talk about it.
One of the highlights of the meal was the explanation of the difference between the effect of tabasco and red pepper ... The red pepper has a retro effect which prevents the loss of sensitivity and  flavour, so you can enjoy all the condiments of your meal with a hot touch, without loosing anything!. Finally we had a half plank of cheeses to finish this wonderful gastronomic experience.

I think the best way to describe our experience was when we left saying goodbye to a friend that you don't see frequently: We have to see us more often


How Much?
Aprox. 20-30€

Where?
Calle Moratín 36 Madrid,
Spain 
Metro: Antón Martín 1