Culture Through Cookery: Spanish Sunshine!

Al freir de los huevos lo verá
The proof of the pudding is in the tasting (literally translated: It will be seen in the frying of the eggs)

We made some Spanish classics - gazpacho and tortilla de patata. Both of these are simple dishes which maximise on flavour. Gazpacho is a brilliant summer soup - make it when it is warm and tomatoes are cheap! Tortilla de patata is a wonderful dish- a cheap crowd pleaser whether served as a main course, as we ate it, with a salad, or at a party cut into small cubes as a tapa or nibble.

We finished with the alarmingly more-ish and wow-ishly simple crema de limon. Three ingredients, and around three minutes work make this into a most delicious pudding. Serve in ramekins as individual portions and your guests will never guess how easy it was!

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Gazpacho
Like many classic recipes, each family will have a slightly different version. This recipe made plenty for 6, with most of us having second (and third) bowlfuls and more leftover.

Time: 20 minutes (+ time to cool- it is best if made the night before and cooled overnight, when the flavours can also intensify)

Around 1kg beef tomatoes (you can substitute for others) the riper the more flavoursome.
70g (6 slices) of baguette or similar
50ml white wine vinegar
1 large green pepper
2 small cloves of garlic, peeled
1l cold water
1/4 cucumber
pinch of salt

To serve:
1 small onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
chopped jamon
croutons

To make:

Put 1l of water into a large bowl with the vinegar and the slices of bread.
Chop the cucumber, tomatoes and pepper.
Put the vegetables and garlic into a large bowl and blend with a stick blender (or put into a blender).
Add the bread when it is soft as well and blend.
Blend as finely as possible.
Add salt to taste.
Refridgerate

When you serve, put the chopped onion, pepper, croutons and jamon into small bowls (separately). People can then add them onto their soup as desired.  

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Tortilla de Patatas

Ingredients:
(serves 6)
6 eggs
1.5 kg potatos
4 onions
salt
olive oil
Time: about 1 hour

To make:
Peel the onions, cut them in half and slice them in thin slices.

Put some olive oil in a large frying pan which is on a low heat. and when it is warm put the onion in.  Cover the pan with a lid.
While the onion is cooking (or before if you are well organised!) peel the potatoes and slice them into thin slices (about 2-4 mm thick).
After about 10 minutes the onion should be translucent and cooked. Remove the onion from the pan and place it aside in a large bowl.

Place the frying pan back on the low heat and add a generous quantity of olive oil to the pan. When the oil is warm add the sliced potatoes, once again covering the pan with a lid. Leave the potatoe in the pan at low heat for 30 minutes approx. They should not brown.
After 30 minutes they should be cooked. Remove them from the pan and place them with the onion in the bowl.
In another large bowl break the eggs and beat with a whisk until they have a uniform consistency.

Pour the mixture into the bowl with the potato and onion and stir and add salt (at your discretion).
Put more olive oil back into the frying pan and when warm, pour in the mixture, covering the pan with the lid. Leave to cook for 10 minutes, then turn the frying pan over using the lid (or a large plate) to flip the tortilla over (this can be tricky as the tortilla at this point weighs a bit...)
Place the tortilla back into the pan  and leave to cook for another 5-10 min.
Put on a plate and it will be ready or eating....Buen provecho :)

This can also be served cold - equally delicious!

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Crema de Limon
I lied. We actually used limes. Both are great and you could even (gasp!) use both together. Not healthy. At all. But delicious in moderation (and probably no less healthy than icecream!)
This makes enough for 6 (with leftovers!)

You need:
1 tin (400g) condensed milk
400ml double cream
4 limes (or 2 large lemons)

To make:
Pour the milk and cream into a large bowl.

Zest the limes and set the zest aside.
Juice the fruit.
Whisk until the mixture thickens.
Pour into the bowl that you will present it in at table and add zest to the top (as much as you like, or as little).
Cover the bowl with clingfilm.
Refrigerate for 2-3 hours (or put in the freezer for 20 minutes).

Culture Through Cookery: Italian food with a Sardinian flare

Non bisogna fare le cose a metà. 
If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Italy only became a united country 1871 and perhaps because of that the country still has very different regional cuisines.

These recipes are nutritious and delicious, simple and use ingredients that are easily available in the UK. Our chef hailed from Cagliari in Sardinia, but sadly some of their most special specialities contain ingredients not easily available in London or only available at great cost, or are very time consuming to make. So we learned some simpler but delicious dishes.

What may be interesting is that in Italy pasta is a primo platti- something to fill you up before the main course arrives. It tends to be much less 'saucy' that British takes on pasta because they are served as main courses.

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Tagliatelle with peas and porcini

Takes about 45 minutes to make (because you need to soak the porcini)

Serves 6 as a primo platti or 3 as a main course.

Ingredients

·         5 tbsp Italian olive oil

·         1 large onion, finely chopped

·         100 gr of porcini mushrooms

·         2 handfuls frozen peas, defrosted

·         1000 ml hot water

·         black pepper

·         300 g tagliatte all'uovo (egg tagliatelle)

·         300 gr double cream

1. Soak the Porcini in water for about 30 minutes.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Add the onion and fry, stirring often, until golden, around 5 minutes.

Sauteeing the onion

3. Add the peas and the water from the porcini and let the water evaporate while boiling and the sauce thicken.

Adding the water from the soaked porcini into the peas

Cooking the peas

4. Once boiling season with salt and freshly ground pepper and cook for 10 minutes.

5. At this stage, add the tagliatelle all'uovo and the porcini and cook briskly until the pasta is al dente (topping up with boiling water if required).

Adding the porcini

6. Once the pasta is al-dente, add the double cream to the pasta along with the pea/porcini mixture

Mixing the Porcini/ Pea mixture with the Tagliatelle

7. Serve at once with freshly grated Parmesan.

Ready to serve

Ready to eat!

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Involtini (Aubergine wrapped around cheese)

serves 4 as a vegetarian maincourse or 8-12 as an accompaniment

Ingredients

·         4 aubergines, washed

·         1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

·         1 smoked cheese (we used smoked cheddar)

·         parsley, garlic, red pepper (according to taste)

·         1 Pinch sea salt

1.      Pre heat the oven to 220c/gas mark 7.

2.      Slice the aubergines lengthways into 5-6 thin slices, discard the very outside strips as they won't roll

3.      Brush both sides of the aubergine slices with olive oil, garlic, red pepper, salt parsley and place under a hot grill for 2-3 minutes per side until they just start to brown at the edges. Leave to cool slightly. We had to do this in two goes.

4.      Slice the smoked cheese (slices about 3cm by 1 cm by 1cm) and place it on one end of the aubergine slice. 

5.      Roll up and place on a baking tray and  repeat with the rest of the slices. You may want to hold them together with cocktail sticks. 

6.      Bake for 10 minutes until golden. Serve hot or cold on their own,

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Pollo all'Arancia (Chicken with Orange)

Takes about an hour to make

Serves 6 

Ingredients

• 6 chicken legs, consisting of a drumstick and thigh, wright 3 pounds total
• 4 large, juicy oranges
• 250g carrots, diced
• Half a lemon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Flour (1 heaped table spoon)
• 3 cloves garlice (crushed)
• Two red onions, diced
• Salt (to taste)

To make:

1) Heat the oil in a thick bottomed frying pan saute the onion until transparent, with the carrot.

2) In the same pan place the chicken, seasoning it lightly with salt. 

3) Add the garlic

4) Squeeze the oranges and lemon, getting the flesh as well as the juice, and pour  into the pan with the chicken. 

5) Wait for the mixture to reduce. When the chicken is cooked (check that it is not pink inside) the dish is ready. 

N.B. If the sauce is reducing too quickly as the chicken is not cooked enough, put a lid on the pan and add some water to the pan. 

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Classic Tiramisu

Whilst many recipes for Tiramisu include alcohol, a classic tiramisu doesn’t. This version is very tasty, you will not miss the alcohol, and consequently it is also family-friendly and cheaper than the

·         250g mascarpone

·         3 eggs

·         150ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled to room temperature. We made it in a mocha.

·         150ml single cream

·         4 tbsp icing sugar

·         16 sponge fingers (savoiardi)

·         Frozen bar of 70% chocolate.

·         Cocoa powder to dust

METHOD

1.      Whisk the mascarpone with the eggs, until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold in the mascarpone mix

2.      Pour the coffee into a bowl (sweeten with more icing sugar if you like). Take one sponge finger at a time and dip it into the coffee.

3.      After dipping, place into a large dish in layers (see the pictures), layering with the mascarpone mixture before finally dusting with cocoa powder. 

4.      Refrigerate for 20 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

5.      Remove the tiramisu from the fridge. Take the frozen chocolate bar and grate a little chocolate over the top of each tiramisu.