A Salad to recover from any excess...

In the northern hemisphere, January is incredibly similar to the late spring months. Despite the different reasons almost everyone is willing for more light meals or even diets...

The recipe this week is a typical example of what I've just wrote . Although we are in the middle of winter in Spain a salad was the perfect way to start recovering from the festive season that just ended and, not least important, to take a few ingredients that were about to go off...

Despite being very similar to a recipe I shared with you before, this week I bring you this salad because this is an example that salads should not be boring, totally the opposite a salad is a perfect way to work your creativity and have fun in the kitchen. Do not forget that sometimes just a small detail may transform your plate and give it a totally different personality. In this case the anchovy brougt that taste of the sea adding more rock & roll than on the previous version .

You will need ( 2 pax ) :

2 diced avocados 

2 diced tomatoes

10 diced anchovy fillets 

a bit of red onion, finely chopped

Shredded Parmesan cheese

salt and extra virgin olive oil

lemon juice

basil

In a cup make a basil vinaigrette with olive oil, lemon juice (3:1), salt and some basil leaves, and set aside.

With the help of a mould, place the diced avocado in the bottom , followed by tomatoes, finally the anchovy fillets and roughly chopped onion. Top it with the grated parmesan , season , and after little more than 5 minutes is ready !

Tomato, avocado and edible crab Salad

Today I bring you another recipe from Chef José Avillez: a great salad for hot summer days, light and fresh, to keep yourself in good shape!

You will need:

400 gr of good quality tomatoes

200 gr avocado

300 gr of cooked edible crab pincers

Basil 

salt 

pepper

salt qs

lime juice

extra virgin olive oil

With the aid of an appropriate tool remove the interior  of the edible crab pincers. Season with extra virgin olive oil, lime juice, sea salt and pepper and reserve.

Cut the tomatoes in tiny half moons, peel the avocado and cut it also into half moons.

In a dish alternate the slices of tomato with the avocado and season it with lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper. Add the edible crab and cover with some basil leaves. 

Serve it immediately!

Octopus Salad

The summer is almost around the corner. By this season of the year salads get a special place on the Iberian diets due to the bikini operation or due to the fact that with the hot weather the best you can have is a fresh salad...

Today I bring you a typical spring or summer starter, an Octopus salad:

you will need:

- Octopus

- Tomato

- Shallot

- parsley or coriander

- onion

- clove

- Laurel

- Extra virgin olive oil

- vinegar or lime juice

- salt

You can use pre-cooked octopus, but if you look real flavour you should boil it by yourself. For an 1,5 kg Octopus: In a pan add 9 glasses of water and one of red wine. Add an onion cut in two halves, in each half put two cloves and a laurel leaf and a little bit of salt , and let it cook for about 40 minutes and let it cool

Chop the tomatoes, the shallot, the octopus and finely chop the parsley. mix everything and season with vinaigrette, (3 parts of extra virgin olive oil and 1 of vinegar or lime juice)

Enjoy it!

Do you prepare it differently leave us your comment!

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...

5 minutes avocado Salad

If you are one of those who doesn´t cook because you have no time, this is the ideal recipe for you...

Every Fridays I leave the office at 15.00H and I am so hungry that I must eat something immediately .. So yes, it is true, today I took a bit less than 5 minutes to prepare this simple but tasty salad, (a small variation of the one you can find also here in the blog in tataki recipe)

You will need:

1 avocado

2 tomatoes 

oregano

parmesan

salt

extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice or balsamic vinegar

Cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the seeds and then chop into small cubes, chop the avocado into cubes, add the oregano and season with salt vinegar or lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

Finish with grated Parmesan cheese on top and enjoy ...

Grilled squid with potatoes salad

In the middle of one of my Saturday morning's ritual, going to the market to buy some fresh fish or meat, yesterday I was looking for a fish to cook in the oven when I stood completely frozen watching the freshness and size of squids that were being put one by one on the stand. There was no doubt, the fish would have to wait for a next time...

And because of a great quality raw material, just a few of seasoning to allow the flavours of this meal to explode...

Ingredients:
squids
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
parsley
potatoes

Clean the squid, separating the body from the tentacles, wash and drain the water. Brush with extra virgin olive oil, dredge with salt and pepper and grill  the "body"separately from the tentacles. 
At the same time bake the potatoes to steam or boiling water.
Prepare the sauce of olive oil and lemon, placing in a glass 3 parts of extra virgin olive oil, 1 of lemon juice, salt and pepper and mix well.

To serve put the tentacles inside the body, add the potatoes and, season with the olive oil and lemon sauce and dredge the whole dish with chopped parsley.

Tomato in the oven salad with pesto

After the last post dedicated to meat lovers, today I bring you another recipe from the Chef José Avillez, this time a salad...

As always I use the ingredients I have at home, this time although I had to do some last minute changes it worked pretty well as the salad disapeared in a few minutes and the pesto gave a very interesting to the john dory fillets.
Nevertheless I'll tell you the original recipe and let it up to you to adapt it to your own preferences...


Ingredients (4 pax):

500g of cherry tomatoes
basil leaves (aprox. 60 gr)
120 gr of parmesan cheese, (half for the pesto and the rest to grate)
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled removing the germ (the center of the garlic clove)
60 ml to 120 ml of extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Wash the tomatoes and place in a baking dish and pierce it with a fork, add a bit of salt and a splash of extra virgin olive oil and take it to the pre-heated oven at 160 º C for 10-15 minutes.

For the pesto, place in a blender jar, the basil leaves washed and dried, the pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese and a bit of salt and mash. If you prefer you can go adding the oil little by little until you get the consistency of a sauce, I prefer to do this step in a mortar and correcting the seasoning and tasting till I get the flavour and consistency I am looking for... Put the pesto to a bowl.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven, add a couple tablespoons of pesto and mix it. Serve with grated Parmesan and you can add some basil leaves to enhance the flavor...

Beef Tataki... for meat lovers!

we decided to come back writing today with a recipe of one of my favourite Chefs Jose Avillez, Beef tataki, a recipe specially dedicated to the addicted & lovers of the good meat...

Specially on this dish one of the major secrets of success is the quality of the meat you are able to find... ask the butcher for the best sirloin he can get!

Especially in this dish one of the greatest secrets of success is greater than the quality of the meat, the butcher clean empty piece of meat or sirloin, summarizing an early there ...

Cut the meat in parallelepiped pieces and season with salt. In a frying pan with a splash of extra virgin olive oil slightly fry it leaving it cooked in the outside and completely raw inside

Serve with the following salad:

Start by cutting 2 tomatoes into small cubes, (first cut into quarters to remove the seeds), add some chopped red onion, chopped chive, approximately 60g Roquefort smashed (like I didn't have Roquefort at home I grated some Parmesan cheese that matched perfectly), a grated boiled egg, two avocados cut in cubes, lemon juice, olive oil, pepper and correct the seasoning with a bit of salt. Mix everything well.

Cut of Beef Tataki into slices approximately 1 cm and finish with a bit of salt  on top of the meat and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately with the salad...

Grilled Avocado Salad

Since we discovered the how to prepare home-made pesto, it became significantly easier to prepare a salad in days that you have lack of ingredients! Today we opened the fridge and there was: avocado, dry tomato, Parmesan & cucumber...

We prepare the pesto with: basil, nuts, garlic and parmesan (this time we added a bit of butter but it is completely dispensable...)! put it into a crusher and adjust it to your taste adding lemon juice, salt & black pepper.

Squeeze the lemon to a dish, add salt & black pepper. Cut the avocado in slices and dive it in the lemon. pass the slices of the avocado by extra virgin olive oil and grill it for a couple of minutes and let it cool.

You can use both mixed salad or hedge mustard, cucumber & dried tomato! Add the avocado & the pesto and enjoy it!

Recipe & post powered by Vanna

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

A different ingredient for your salads….

Salads are usually related with diets but I prefer to relate it with freshness, summer & creativity. During Madrid's hot summer I almost have anything else than salads for lunch...
Salads is a world of imagination! most of the times you just need to go to your fridge and look for what you have to create different one from the day before.  Today I’ tell you a tip of a different ingredient, at least I think it is…

Grilled Aubergine in vinaigrette

To prepare it peel the Aubergine and cut it in slices, grill it and put it in a Tupperware to conserve it covered by vinaigrette sauce. And it is ready to be used during the following days. I  prepare the vinaigrette sauce with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar in a 3:1 proportion, salt & black pepper and in this case I use oregano.

Try it!

Summer is back!

Summer is just around the corner and to demonstrate it the high temperatures this week, which forced me to begin using the air conditioning at home ...

Today's recommendation could not be other than salad, the only thing I can have for lunch when I come home and outside the temperature is again above 30ºC... 

Today, I just went to the fridge and mixed what I've found and the result is what you have in the picture, which pretty tasty: 

Ingredients:
Chickpea
tomato
Pimiento del piquillo
sweet corn
dried tomatoes
Chives, Cilantro, and Oregano
Extra virgin olive oil and vinegar (in the ratio 3:1)
salt