Spinach with garbanzo beans

This is an old traditional recipe by my grandmother Frasquita. It is very common in tapas bars in Sevilla. With a similar recipe I won last year the first prize of the tapas contest of the Association of Spanish in Michigan.
I boiled 2 packages of frozen spinach. I opened a can of garbanzo beans, also known as chick peas I believe, and rinsed them with tap water. I set apart just half of it. Then in a pan with olive oil I fried 8 cloves of peeled and chopped garlic, set them in a bowl, then I fried 5 bits of bread and set them in the same bowl and crushed them all, adding later, right before pouring it in the end, a little bit of apple vinegar and a teaspoon of cumin. I lowered a little the temperature in the pan, poured a teaspoon of pepper powder de la Vera and poured the garbanzo beans and the spinach immediately, stirring it for some minutes. Then I poured the mixture of garlic, bread, with the vinegar and cumin just added, and some salt. I stirred it for some minutes, added half a glass of water and kept simmering it for 4 minutes. And it was done, Ready to serve with a fried egg on the side.

Yummy and simple, a delicacy filling and nuanced: very balanced.

Hazelnut ice cream

Upping the ante on the ice cream making I made this fabulous hazelnut ice cream with a recipe I found from excellent chef Emeril Lagasse:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/hazelnut-ice-cream-recipe/index.html
On parchment paper I set 1 and a 1/2 cups of hazelnuts and roasted in a preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 minutes. I let them cool off and chopped them roughly. In a saucepan I put 4 cups of half-and-half and 1 cup of granulated sugar. I put it on medium heat and brought it to a simmer. In a separate bowl I whisked 6 egg yolks and incorporated them into the saucepan mix, simmering for 4 more minutes. The mixture I pured in a glass bowl which I covered with a plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Then, out it went, I added the chopped hazelnuts and poured the whole thing in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes. Then to the refrigerator again for another 3 hours. The result is amazing, really rich and nutty. The next time I will chop the hazelnuts even more roughly for a better texture. I think we're raising the bar here but we better take a little break from this ice cream diet if we want to avoid getting a little more chubby.

Served with a couple of whole hazelnuts it even looked beautiful. It tastes like eating a subtly sweet dark wood milky bar ; )

Cold soup shrimp garnishing

One evening last week I made this interesting garnishing for my ajoblanco (almond cold soup, to which I added this time macadamia nuts). I took it from this recipe of salmorejo which is accompanied by these greens and shrimp:
http://blogs.canalsur.es/cometelo/2011/06/01/salmorejo/
Frist I made the almond soup. Then I sauteed a chopped red onion in a pan with very little olive oil. I added to the pan a chopped red bell pepper, 100 grams of shrimp peeled and chopped, kept frying and I poured in a small glass of amontillado wine, making some smoke evaporate with heavenly scents. In a separate bowl I layed a boiled egg, peeled and chopped with fresh parsley, mixing it all and poured the sautee of the pan inside the bowl. I sprinkled olive oil, salt and pepper and whiked it all. I served some inside the soup, some in a separate plate. The contrast of cold soup and hot garnish was delicious, but even more so the next day the garnishing when it turned cold. An astonishing achievement of mixed flavours.

Very Andalusian!

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...