Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Rueda Verdejo wine, from 2018
Last week, as it was so hot, I got this bottle of young fresh white wine from the Rueda region in Spain. It's from last year, 2018, a vintage considered as a very good one, the former, 2017 being excellent. And it was really good indeed. The color is greenish yellow (just like the vinho verde from Portugal, thus their names). On the nose, aromas of white fruit like peach, minerals and fresh herbs like fennel. On the mouth: acidic lemon, fresh, well structured. Aftertaste: pleasingly long and bitter almond. I served chilled and drank it to accompany a rice dish with cod and shrimp; for dessert I had tetilla cheese and quince paste. I have to say all the flavors were enhanced to take the dinner to a whole new level. 
Rioja red wine, Crianza from 2015
A couple of weeks ago I bought this fairly priced Rioja at Central Market. From Bodegas Montecillo, the third oldes Rioja winery, it is a prestigious, consistent brand from Rioja Alta, one of the 3 sub-regions of Rioja in Spain, famous for producing wines with great structure and high acidity. These are wines that usually taste better after aging for a long time. Crianza means it has been aged for 1 year in American oak casks and for 1 year in the bottle. Its color is cherry red with purple glitter, very elegant. Elaborated with mainly Tempranillo grapes, plus a little bit Garnacha and Graciano, to make a more complex and powerful blend without losing the main grape losing in protagonism. The aroma on the nose brings a bouquet of dark fruits like blackberry, currant and raspberry. The taste is silky and you can tell it has a harmonic and balanced body. The 2015 vintage is very good, which is optimal, since the latest excellent vintages date from 2010 and 2011. I paired it with chorizo from Córdoba (Andalucía, Spain) which I bought at Central Market, and a hearty lentil soup. It helped wet my appetite and really enhanced the flavors of the cured meat and the solid lentil soup, taking them to a nother level. The glorious aftertaste notes made me want to take a peaceful siesta, which I did take right after lunch for a good hour and a half. I woke up restored, reenergized and happy with life :)
Monday, August 19, 2019
Rhum and Raisins Ice Cream
Last week I felt nostalgic for some ice cream flavors of the 80s, when I got to recall in a Proustian moment the delicious rhum and raisins ice cream I used to enjoy long ago. After a careful research of suitable recipes online I chose this solid one:
https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Rum-Raisin-Ice-Cream/
This is how I prepared it: in a measure bowl I put 1 cup of raisins and I poured 1 cup of Nicaraguan dark rhum Flor de Caña, and left them covered to soak overnight and absorb all the liqueur.
The next morning in a big bowl I whisked together 3/4 of sugar and 6 egg yolks; then added 2 cups of whole milk and stirred it and boiled the mix in a saucepan for 10 minutes. I strained the mix, added the raisins previously strained, 2 tablespoons of the remaining rhum, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. I refrigerated the mix for 2 hours and then I put it all rolling in the ice cream maker for 30 minutes until it thickened a little. And then I refrigerated it for 4 hours in the freezer this time. The result was nothing short of spectacular. At first I was not sure if it was thick enough, but the perfect texture had been achieved: the following days, by the effect of the alcohol over the dairy mixture it did not need to thaw any time I would take it out of the fridge to serve because if had the ideal thickness and you could start savoring the heavenly cream immediately with your silver spoon after adding a couple of crumbled Spanish Gullón Digestive cookies from Central Market. Thanks saveur.com for helping me bring back a yummy food from the paradise lost of decades past. Et voilà:
https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Rum-Raisin-Ice-Cream/
This is how I prepared it: in a measure bowl I put 1 cup of raisins and I poured 1 cup of Nicaraguan dark rhum Flor de Caña, and left them covered to soak overnight and absorb all the liqueur.
The next morning in a big bowl I whisked together 3/4 of sugar and 6 egg yolks; then added 2 cups of whole milk and stirred it and boiled the mix in a saucepan for 10 minutes. I strained the mix, added the raisins previously strained, 2 tablespoons of the remaining rhum, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. I refrigerated the mix for 2 hours and then I put it all rolling in the ice cream maker for 30 minutes until it thickened a little. And then I refrigerated it for 4 hours in the freezer this time. The result was nothing short of spectacular. At first I was not sure if it was thick enough, but the perfect texture had been achieved: the following days, by the effect of the alcohol over the dairy mixture it did not need to thaw any time I would take it out of the fridge to serve because if had the ideal thickness and you could start savoring the heavenly cream immediately with your silver spoon after adding a couple of crumbled Spanish Gullón Digestive cookies from Central Market. Thanks saveur.com for helping me bring back a yummy food from the paradise lost of decades past. Et voilà:
Friday, August 9, 2019
Pesto Quiche with Eggplant and Ham
I always wanted to try and cook a French quiche, so when I found this recipe on the Spanish public TV website I decided to go ahead:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/cocina-con-sergio/cocina-sergio-quiche-berenjenas-pesto/2830278/
Sergio Fernández is one of my favorite cooks, he does simple recipes and he is so nice and clear, that I choose him often as the source of inspiration for a lot of my cooking.
So yesterday for early dinnerI got started: I chopped 2 small white onions and started frying them on a pan with Spanish extra virgin olive oil, ading some salt. After a while I added 85 grams of chopped Spanish serrano ham and a spoonful of sugar to caramelize the mixture and compensate the saltiness. I also chopped 2 small eggplants and set them aside in a bowl with salted water to make them smoother; later I rinsed them and added them to the pan. I an glass bowl I whisked 4 eggs, salt, pepper and a big glass of heavy whipping cream, and poured the mixture on the pan. In a separate buttered tin foil container I put 2 sheets of pastry dough and poured the whole contents of the pan in it, and right away I baked it in the oven previously heated to 350 degrees Farenheit (about 180 Celsius approximately) for 45 minutes. When it started to look golden I took it out to serve sprinkled with Central Market pesto sauce. It was so delicious that we had to eat second servings.
Overall it was a successful, yummy quiche dish, delicately crunchy, moist, with balanced sweetness-saltiness. I will definitely try something similar again, since it has been a good addition to my recipe list :)
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/cocina-con-sergio/cocina-sergio-quiche-berenjenas-pesto/2830278/
Sergio Fernández is one of my favorite cooks, he does simple recipes and he is so nice and clear, that I choose him often as the source of inspiration for a lot of my cooking.
So yesterday for early dinnerI got started: I chopped 2 small white onions and started frying them on a pan with Spanish extra virgin olive oil, ading some salt. After a while I added 85 grams of chopped Spanish serrano ham and a spoonful of sugar to caramelize the mixture and compensate the saltiness. I also chopped 2 small eggplants and set them aside in a bowl with salted water to make them smoother; later I rinsed them and added them to the pan. I an glass bowl I whisked 4 eggs, salt, pepper and a big glass of heavy whipping cream, and poured the mixture on the pan. In a separate buttered tin foil container I put 2 sheets of pastry dough and poured the whole contents of the pan in it, and right away I baked it in the oven previously heated to 350 degrees Farenheit (about 180 Celsius approximately) for 45 minutes. When it started to look golden I took it out to serve sprinkled with Central Market pesto sauce. It was so delicious that we had to eat second servings.
Overall it was a successful, yummy quiche dish, delicately crunchy, moist, with balanced sweetness-saltiness. I will definitely try something similar again, since it has been a good addition to my recipe list :)
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