Recipe of the week: Pumpkin Soup

If you are looking for a quick, simple and tasty soup this is a very interesting option. 

You will need:
400 gr of pumpkin
200 gr of potatoes 
2 carrots 
1 leek 
Salt & Pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Peel the pumpkin, the carrots and the potatoes and cut it into small cubes, Chop the white part of the leek, put everything in a small pan and add just the water needed to cover it. Season it with a pinch of salt and a splash of olive oil and let it cook for aprox. 25 minutes. Grind it and that's it! 
Serve it with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and freshly grounded black pepper.

Tip: this is a great option for a cocktail starter or amuse bouche... 

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!

Fresh Melon Soup!

Today it was a typical summer morning, with more than 30ºC outside what better than cold and easy soup to bring the temperature down?

Even if cooking it's not your type you have no excuse to avoid this soup as this could not be easier...

You will need (for two persons)

1/2 melon

ham

salt

Grind the melon , adding a bit of salt and reserve it in the fridge. Serve it cold with small pieces of ham!

Tip: You can also serve it in small shot glasses as an appetizer...

Gazpacho!

It may seem incredible but it took me five years living in Spain to prepare my first Gazpacho... Perhaps because it is almost 11 o'clock in the evening and there are still 30 degrees outside...

You will need (for 4 people):

6 ripe tomatoes

40 g of peeled cucumber

50 g red pepper clean

1/2 slice of bread

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

70 ml of olive oil

2 tablespoons vinegar

1/2 peeled onion

2 cloves of garlic

Crouton

salt and pepper to taste

100 ml water

Peel the garlic, removing the germ (inner part) and clarify three times starting always with cold water. Mince the onion, cucumber, red pepper, tomatoes, bread, garlic and water. Add olive oil, vinegar and mayonnaise. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix well and store in refrigerator.

Serve as a cold soup with croutons, or as starter in a shot glass...

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!

Fried goat cheese with nuts and Raspberry vinaigrette

To close up the weekend, I prepared a menu with one common element: Raspberries ...

Starting with a bitter taste, fried goat cheese with nuts and raspberry vinaigrette as starter and as a main dish duck magret with mashed sweet potatoes and basil, accompanied by raspberry sauce, this time sweet ...

Specially in this menu preparation, I must highlight the importance of mise en place and organization in the kitchen in order to control the times and avoid serving any of the two dishes out of the ideal cooking point of temperature, since processing times are fairly short ...

This time I decided to start in reverse order, and then on Sunday to share the recipe magret, today I leave you the recipe entry!

You will need:

Dried fruits (can use hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts ...)

100 gr. raspberries

Goat cheese chèvre

100 ml extra virgin olive oil

20 ml red wine vinegar

sugar

salt

pepper

Mince the raspberries and pass through a colander in order to obtain a smooth cream without seeds. Add the sugar, salt and vinegar, emulsify the extra virgin olive oil and let it rest. With a knife finely chop the nuts until a coarse sand, (avoid using a shredder because it will be powder ...). Remove the skin of the cheese and, on a hot pan with a splash of extra virgin olive oil, sauté on both sides.

Serve it with the raspberry vinaigrette and chopped nuts ...

For Anchovies Lovers...

Anchovies are usually one of those "victims" of love or hate relations, honestly  I do not know anyone who likes more or less ... simply loves or hates the taste...

For lovers, I leave you three very quick and easy starters that I love:

 As I always say, the success of your meal will always depend on the quality of raw material used, this time I used a magnificent Extra Virgin Olive oil Arbequino, La Almazara Canjáyar of the region of Almería, Spain, and the excellent Cantabrian anchovies ...

To serve, cover the un anchovies with olive oil and serve it with crushed tomatoes with bit of extra virgin olive oil and toasted bread.

The other two starters are two variants of the attached photo:

- Pour a bit of honey on the bread, put the anchovies and a little cheese on top, take a few seconds to grill and serve immediately.

Finally I think that the most surprising:

- Pour a strand of condensed milk over the bread, put the anchovies and a little olive oil on top, take a few seconds to grill and serve immediately ...

Portuguese Typical Starter - Donax Clams

If you ever went to Portugal you must have read in the restaurants menus Ameijoas à Bulhão Pato. Despite it is originally done with clams I use domax clams, my favourites!

As many traditional Portuguese cuisine dishes it is easy to cook and delicious to taste!

You will need:

Domax Clams or clams

Extra virgin Olive Oil

Garlic

Coriander

Salt, black pepper and lemon juice

In a pan with extra virgin Olive oil, add the grossly chopped garlic and let it cook a bit. Add the coriander, then the domax clams and cover the pan. wait till all the domax open shaking the pan from time to time. 

Finally add lemon juice and depending on your taste season with salt & pepper. Serve it immediately. 

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

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... :)