Sesame Asparagus and Broccoli

I would have never imagined I was going to cook Chinese food, which I love to eat, but being a little different from Spanish cooking, I doubt I would have ever given it a try, because I would be too nervous about doing a bad job. But I had some asparagus, ginger, shallots, and other leftover ingredients I wanted to use, so I googled the word recipe by those words and here it came up this one recipe among other results:
http://www.asparagusrecipes.net/print/sesame-asparagus.pdf
It seemed easy to cook and I only lacked the lime juice, which I substituted with lemon juice, the sesame oil, instead of which I used sunflower oil and an extra tablespoon of sesame seeds, and bean sprouts, which I replaced with broccoli. For a start I set all the ingredients around in small cups. In a a big flat skillet I heated 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil over high heat, added 1/2 cup of white asparagus (previously boiled and sliced), 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon of crystalized ginger root, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of minced shallot, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic. Then I cooked them for a minute or two, with lots of smoke coming out. Then I added the chopped broccolis (1 cup) and 1/2 cup of red bell pepper, stirring it all for another minute, added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, letting the juices and spices come together. And I served it immediately to fully savor it.

The result was nothing short of spectacular. Next time I'll add shrimp or something, it was simply fantastic, what a delicious Chinese treat.

Strawberry ice cream

Following the recipe of the ice cream machine (http://www.cuisinart.com/share/pdf/manuals/ice-21_recipe.pdf) I put into a bowl 1 and 1/2 cups of hulled strawberries and I lightly chopped them in a blender. Then I whisked in a medium bowl 2/3 of a cup of whole milk, 1/3 of a cup of granulated sugar and a pinch of sea salt, until the sugar was dissolved. Then I stirred in it 1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of imitation vanilla. Then I stirred in the aforementioned strawberries and refrigerated the mix for 2 hours. I took it out and poured the mix in the ice cream maker turning it on for 20 minutes until it thickened. I refrigerated it for 3 hours and took it out 15 minutes before eating. It turned out as one of the most delicious strawberry ice creams I've ever tasted in my life. I could only compare it to the strawberry milkshakes my mother made us when we were kids, or to the Alicante or Valencia ice creams or to the El Raya ice creams from Seville or slightly similar to the Cold Stone ice creams of the USA. I adorned it with strawberries. Smooth and gorgeous, definitely the best ice cream I've made so far.

Salmorejo and pine nut-raisin salad

Yesterday for dinner I made this typical dish from Co'rdoba, the salmorejo. It's like the gazpacho a tomato soup for summer, but, without bell peppers, water or cucumber, it's more a sort of cream. I put in the blender a peeled and chopped garlic clove, a tiny pinch of sugar, a spoon of vinegar (Sherry or cider), a big piece of bread previously soaked in water, 250 ml of Spanish olive oil, a can of crushed tomatoes, and mix it for 10 minutes. For the garnish I use pieces of boiled eggs and crispy fried bacon.

I accompanied it with a salad of pine nut-raisin salad: lettuce, raisins, pine nuts and a sweet vinagrette dressing of olive oil, vinegar and honey. It was scrumptious.

Leftover paella

For dinner one day I made a whacky paella with spicy chorizo and several leftover vegetables (spinach, white asparagus, onion, green peas, carrots, pepper, cherry tomatoes, etc) and the magic saffron. I lightly fried in olive all these ingredients in a sautee' and added the saffron, 1 cup of Calasparra rice and water (about 4 cups). The last 15 minutes of boiling I covered the paella pan with tin foil to forter the formation of the socarrat, the little burnt bottom and side rice. I like this paella dishes because they're a little bit like the Mexican tacos, that you can use all the leftovers from the previous day's meals and yummify the final result. So, to wrap the wrap and amplify both techniques I made paella tacos with corn and flour tortillas (the paella encompassing the leftovers and the tortillas wrapping the paella, mirroring the flavour mirrors).

I served some tacos with a mayonnaise mixed with Tabasco sauce and some others with guacamole to make them more moist and delicious. These "food recycling" techniques are great because there's so much food that goes bad and you have to throw to the garbage because either you buy too much or you follow every recipe in every single detail, which leaves lage amounts of food waiting to be cooked and eaten. As the great Canal Sur chef Enrique Sa'nchez says, you have to keep the trash been hungry. I enjoy mostly how subtle the saffroned rice taste is, how flowery and full of late spring and early summer.

For dessert I served the last of the dulce de leche ice cream with a piece of 

piñonate, a wonderful honey Andalusian cake:

Heaven on earth...

Dulce de leche Ice Cream

For dessert I made this ice cream as a tribute to this national Argertinian treasure. I mixed in a pot about 400 grams of dulce de leche "La Salamandra" with about half a litre of whole milk and took it almost to a boil while mixing it all with a wooden spoon. I whipped in a large bowl about 250 ml of heavy cream and when the content of the pot cooled off, I poured the cream in it and mixed it all together for a while. I set it in the refrigerator for 2 hours well covered and then poured it in the ice cream maker, which I switched on and let it go round and round for about 45 minutes. Finally I let sit the ice cream in the freezer for another couple of hours, taking it out 15 minutes before indulging in the decadence of closing our eyes and imagining us bohemianly walking through the romantic streets and neighborhoodds of Buenos Aires, sitting in a literary cafe with inspiring pictures or daydreaming with the very sweetness of love raining from the flowered balconies...

Tortilla de tortilla and mozzarella-tomato salad

A classic of ours for dinner tonight: the tortilla de tortilla. A Spanish tortilla (omelette) wrapped in a Mexican tortilla (corn, or flour bread in this case)> so I took the other evening's rainbow omelette leftovers and wrapped them with Nacho Camacho flour tortillas with a little bit of Clint Texas salsa. Well, Michelle did it, it is one of her classic brilliant inventions.

Before that we had a little mozzarella, lettuce and tomato salad with a vinagrette dressing of olive oil, Sherry vinegar and basil.

So an explosion of colours and tasty flavours ensued, predominantly red, white and green, with touches of yellow, combining the hues of the national flags of Mexico, Spain and Italy, next time I'll cook something blue as well, like adding blueberries to the salad to honour the great State of Texas as well ; )

Rainbow omelette

This four colored omelette recipe I made tonight for dinner is also from the excellent book of tapas by Esperanza Luca de Tena (The best 100 tapas, sounds cheese but it's superb, you should buy it!). It's an omelette in 4 floors: gray, green, white and red, each of the 4 omelettes made with 3 spoons of olive oil and 3 eggs: the first with a can of tuna in olive oil, the second with flat greeen beans and spinach+sea salt, the third with white asparagus (which I previously boiled)+salt and the fourth and last on the top with piquillo peppers+salt. I served it with mayonnaise mixed with Spanish paprika (pimentón de la Vera) and accompanied it with toasts sprinkled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic and tomato. The multilayered wedges combine the flavors in an exquisite fashion.

Welcome to Yummiland.

Dark chocolate ice cream

Rummaging around the house I found a wedding present from 6 years ago: a Cuisinart ice cream maker whose existence had almost fallen into oblivion. So I pulled this recipe from the website of the brand and tried to make ice cream for the first time. The ingredients I mixed and whisked in a medium size bowl were: 1 cup of special dark Hersheys cocoa powder, 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, a pinch of sea salt, 1 cup whole milk, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1 cup of granulated sugar and a tablespoon of imitation vanilla. I stirred everything together, covered the bowl and set it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. I assembled the ice cream maker and poured in it the content of the bowl, switching it on. I let it mix for 45 minutes until the ice cream gained air and consistency and then I put the container of the maker inside the freezer for 2 hours. And that was it, I only had to take it out 15 minutes before serving. Being a little bit of a guilty pleasure I tried to healthify it with half banana and seven green grapes per serving, ha, ha. Pure dark yumminess.

PS: It was funny how gothic we looked while eating it, how hilariously spooky with our dark lips from the extra dark chocolate, we looked like vampires drooling bloody ink from the corner of our mouths.

Tuna and cucumber sandwich

Last weekend I made this simple sandwich which turned out pretty good: First I toasted the yummy sesame seed bread ($1/loaf) from the Cottage Inn restaurant in A2. Then I mixed a can of tuna in olive oil, mayonnaise, chopped cucumber and white onion in a bowl, pressing and whisking it all together. Then I spread the mix in one of the toasts and on the other I sprinkled Spanish olive oil and I put a slice of tomato. I put both halves together and served the sandwich with sweet potato fries (fried in sunflower oil) with sea salt. It was crunchy and surprisingly well balanced, a tasty simple dinner for nightly enjoyment.

My eater number one (my wife Mishi) and eater number two (my visiting niece Willow) loved them "bocadillos" ; )

Eggplant-tomato ships with Camembert cargo

Tonight for dinner I cooked this tasty tapa for my niece Willow and, of course, for Michelle and myself. I took it from the excellent book The Best 100 Tapas, by Esperanza Luca de Tena, which features easy to make little dishes with a clear Southern Spanish colour.
I took a medium size eggplant, peeled it and sliced it quite thin. Then I soaked the slices in salty water for ten minutes. I heated in a pot a can of tomato sauce. Then I rinsed the slices, battered them in flour and fried them in a pan with very hot olive oil from Córdoba. After that I put them in a plate, set the tomato sauce on top with a spoon, then slices of finely cut Camembert cheese over it and I sprinkled on top the delicately aromatic oregano leaves. It gets cold quite fast, so either you eat them quickly or nuke it in the microwave before eating for about 17 seconds. It just melts in your mouth, it has full taste and it's rather light to enjoy for dinner. With ships like these it's a pleasure to sail!

Triumphant pepper bacon sandwich

Who would have thought that a couple of pieces of bacon could end up frying in its own grease in a round iron skillet, jet black as the feathers of a raven? Who on the face of this earth would have guessed that the big green pepper would have fried in olive oil in another pan? The bread had to be toasted and the guacamole spread on it like green mayonnaise as a softly bed for the royal guests: the crispy bacon and the tender pepper. Before, the avocado was crushed in a battle bowl with a fork and with it went the chopped bloody tomatoes, the scallion or white onion, sea salt, lima or lemon juice, olive oil drops and cilantro and of course the Tabasco sauce with its spicy piercing punch. Accompanying the wedding party sweet potato fries fried in a pool of sunflower oil came to pay homage. The result: a most delicious pepper bacon sandwich crowned with orange fries.  Who would have thought, that, like the music of Camela, something so tacky and “hortera” could at the same time rightfully be called sublime…?  

Cheese pie

For dessert I made an easy cheese pie with the help of a recipe from a nice lady from Cercedilla, Madrid which I heard on Spanish National Radio (http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/comer-y-cantar/comer-cantar-judiones-salsa-marinera-gambones-21-05-11/1107843/). It’s the classic cheese pie with a touch of lemon.

On a blender you put: 4 eggs, 8 tablespoons of sugar, 4 tablespoons of flour, a package of Philadelphia cheese, a little envelope of yeast (I should’ve put just half, but I wanted them puffy), 2 lemon yogurts. You pour the well-blended mix in an earthenware pot and set it in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius (around 295 degrees Fahrenheit) until it turns golden brown. Then you take it out and wait for it to cool off. You wrap the pot/s in tin foil and set it in the refrigerator for about 5 hours. Then you eat it with a teaspoon and experience an explosion of sweet pleasure in your mouth. And that’s it.

Ajoblanco (almond gazpacho)

As an entree for tonight’s dinner I made a quite interesting Andalusian recipe: the ajoblanco (literally whitegarlic) or almond gazpacho. It’s funny how late in life I even got to try this dish for the first time and the reason is that it’s really an Eastern Andalusian dish, like from Malaga, when I lived all my life in Seville (in Western Andalusia).  Distances are perceived from a totally different perspective in Europe, or at least they used to be, and customs, recipes, picturesque nuances change a lot from place to place, even if they’re physically quite close.

I took the old blender from the closet and put in it: a peeled and chopped clove of garlic, a pinch of sea salt, a piece of bread soaked in water, 250 ml of olive oil from Córdoba, about 600 ml of water, a spoon of Sherry vinegar, an egg, ¾ of a cup of raw almonds and ¼ of a cup of Spanish pine nuts (a little expensive but of superior quality). Then I blended all together very well and put the mix in the refrigerator for about 5 hours. For the presentation in bowls I garnished it with raisins (I wish I had from Malaga here) and green grapes (a pity you can hardly find them seeded anymore). 

The result in your mouth is refreshing and earthy, very cool feeling in early summer, and transports you to Al-Andalus times. This is probably an earlier version of the tomato gazpacho, since we didn’t have tomatoes until we discovered America and brought them with us to old Europe. The magic formula of gazpacho still works with all the power of garlic, olive oil and vinegar in your palate, while I dream of a white almond tree sunny valley.