Spain

 

STARTERS AND  DRINKS


MUSSELS IN THE WHITE SAUCE

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 2kg mussels
- 1 small onion
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 ½ glasses water
- ½ glass white wine
- 25g butter
- 4 leeks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 heaped tablespoon flour
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
- Lemon juice
- Salt and pepper

 

METHOD:


Clean and cook the mussels in the water mixed with the wine. Once they are open (throw away the ones that stay closed), remove the shells and keep them hot. Drain the juice that has come from them through a small colander with gauze in the middle. Clean the leeks and cut the green part into strips (julienne style). Remove the string from the celery and cut it into strips. Peel the onion and cut it into thin strips. Put the oil and the butter onto heat, and when the butter begins to melt lightly fry the vegetables in it. Add the flour, stir it a few times with a wooden spoon and add a wine glass full of the stock from the mussels and leave it to cook until half the stock has evaporated. Add the mussels to this, add pepper to taste, cover and leave it to cook for a few minutes on a strong heat. Put the egg yolks with the lemon juice in a bowl, gradually add a few spoonfuls of the sauce and then add all of it to the mussels. Add the salt and chopped parsley. Serve everything together in a deep dish.

 

TIME: 40 minutes

 

ALMOND SOUP

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 200g ground almonds
- 100g sugar
- 1litre milk
- 150ml single cream
- 8 small slices toasted wholemeal bread
- 1 vanilla pod

 

METHOD:


Heat the vanilla pod and milk in a pan. When it is just about to boil add the sugar and the ground almonds. Stir well, cook for 5 minutes and then add the single cream and slices bread. Boil all together for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool. Share the soup out, either warm or cold, between 4 individual plates or bowls.

 

TIME: 15 minutes

 

 

GAZPACHO

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 6 green peppers
- 6 onions
- 10 tomatoes
- 6 cucumbers
- Tinned sweet peppers
- Tinned blended or chopped tomatoes
- Small batch of crusty bread
- Salt
- Ground white pepper
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 1 clove of garlic
- 5 spoonfuls of mayonnaise
- 100ml of wine vinegar
- Water

 

METHOD:


Chop and mix all the ingredients in a saucepan. Cover with a tea cloth and also add some ice cubes. Leave everything to infuse overnight in the refrigerator. When coming to prepare the Gazpacho the next day put everything the blender and whizz everything until you get a fine soup. Season with salt and serve cold.

 

TIME: 1 day + 10 minutes

 

RICE WITH SHRIMPS

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 16 entire shrimps
- 250gr of chopped shrimps
- 400gr of rice
- 100gr of olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves

 

METHOD:


In a saucepan fry the chopped prawns with the garlic, finely chopped. Add the rice and toss a little and then add the fumet (adding double the amount of water than of rice) and let it cook for 20 minutes. The rice should be made into a circle shape. The king prawns should be fried separately, only the tail pealed and then put around the edges of the rice. This dish is normally accompanied by ´all i oli´ (garlic) sauce.

 

 

SANGRIA

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 litre of rosé wine
- 2 peaches
- 2 oranges
- One apple
- A stick of cinnamon
- 80 gr sugar

 

METHOD:


Wash all the fruit apart from the oranges and cut into little cube pieces. In a jug pour the rosé wine. Add the fruit, and squeeze the juice of the two oranges in there and add the 80 gr sugar and the cinnamon stick. Mix everything together well and leave to cool in the refridgerator to cool for a few hours.

 

TIME: 10 minutes

 

MAIn COURSES

 

 

CALAMARI IN THE INK

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 1kg baby squid and their ink
- 1kg onion
- 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ glass white wine
- 2 parsley leaves
- 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs
- 1 glass olive oil
- Salt

 

METHOD:


Clean the calamari and keep the little bags of juice in a bowl. Heat the oil and chopped onions into a saucepan (preferably a clay one), then leave them to cool slightly on a low heat for 10 minutes so that they do not turn brown. Then add the calamari, which should be chopped into pieces (or left whole If they are very small), and leave them for 15 minutes, using a wooden spoon to mix them every now and again. Meanwhile grind the parsley and add it to the ink. Add this to the pan, along with the tomato sauce and the white wine, and leave it to cook for 10 minutes. If the sauce looks too thin, you can thicken it with the breadcrumbs. Taste it and then add salt if you think it is necessary. Serve in the same clay dish and accompany with white rice.

 

TIME: 40 minutes

 

FRIED BREAD WITH VARIOUS FRIED FISH

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- a litre of oilve oil
- 250gr anchovies
- 250gr squid en slices
- 250gr hake
- 250gr whitebait fish
- 250gr squid rings
- Half a kilogram of wheat flour
- salt

 

METHOD:


Wash the fish (everything, heads, body, insides), season them with the salt, pass them through the flour and shake off the excess flour. Let the flour and seasoning settle for some minutes and then fry the fish in the olive oil (after having let it heat up to boiling point). As a general rule the fish will be ready when it floats in the olive oil. Once all the fish is done serve on a plate on top of a large piece of home-made flat bread.

 

TIME: 25 minutes

 

 

Spanish Assorted Croquettes


INGREDIENTS:


3 slices of cheese
9 oz of ham
3 tbsp of flour
1 medium onion
Parsley
1 egg
1 hardboiled egg
2 cups of milk
Crushed crackers
1 tbsp of butter

PREPARATION:

Sauted  the onion, ham, parsley, hardboiled egg and season them with salt and pepper. Make a thick bechamel.

Join everything and allow cooling. Then make the croquettes and place a piece of cheese at the center of the croquettes that will make a nice surprise after frying them.

Then pass it through egg and minced crackers. Fry and drain over paper towels and serve.

 

DESSERTS

 

POLVORONES

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 1kg flour
- 500g pork lard
- 500g icing sugar
- 20g ground cinnamon
- Grated lemon rind
- 1 clove

 

METHOD:


Heat the flour out in an oven dish for a few minutes so that it dries out, without toasting. Cream the lard so that it goes soft and add the sugar, the cinnamon, a little of the grated lemon rind and the clove. Mix together. Add the flour little by little until it has mixed into the dough. Stretch the dough over a flat surface, so that it is about 1cm thick. Cut it with a pastry cutter, or with the edge of the mouth of a wine glass, so that it is roughly 5cm across. Put it in a tray in the oven on a medium heat for 30 minutes. Take out the pastries and dust them with icing sugar or sesame seeds.

 

TIME: 1 hour 15 minutes

 

FLOWERS OF FRYING PAN

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 250gr of flour
- 2 eggs
- 75gr of sugar
- 50gr of butter
- Grated lemon
- Oil to fry

 

METHOD:


First of all melt the butter and then beat together the butter, eggs, sugar and lemon and beat everything well. Then, mix the mixture with the flour and mix together trying not to work the mixture too much but making sure everything is mix well. Then take a tea towel and wrap the dough in the tea towel and leave it around two hours to stand. Then after the dough has had time to stand the dough needs to be stretched and flattened with a rolling pin and then folded twice (the sheets have to be 5mm of thickness)then they are cut with different cutters and then fried in lots of oil for 2 or 3 minutes. Then they are taken out, drained of the oil and sprinkled with sugar.

 

FRIED MILK

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 500ml milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon cornflour
- 750ml oil
- 1 lemon rind
- Pinch ground cinnamon

 

METHOD:


Mix all the ingredients in a pan, and put them on to boil. Stir constantly so that no lumps form. Then put the mixture in a square dish, trying to make the dough about 1cm thick and leave it to cool. Then cut it into the shape and size that you want (normally into squares). Then coat it in flour and egg and fry it in a large amount of hot oil. Dust the serving dish with sugar and cinnamon.
 

TIME: 35 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREE KING’S SWEET BREAD

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

- 3 eggs
- 675g flour
- 20g bread yeast
- 100g butter
- 200g sugar
- 1 orange
- 100ml milk
- 100ml orange blossom water
- 50ml rum
- To decorate:
- 50g almonds, candied fruits

 

METHOD:


Put 75g flour in a bowl so that you leave a hole in the middle for the yeast. Heat half the milk and pour it over the yeast so that it dissolves well and then mix it slowly into the flour so that it makes dough, which should be shaped into the bowl. Then put it in a bowl full of warm water for 20 minutes so that it ferments. Meanwhile, put the remaining flour in a bowl, making a circle; add 2 whole eggs and the yolk of the third, the rest of the yeast, the grated rind of the orange, the orange blossom water and the rum. Knead it until you have smooth and light dough, then add the bowl of prepared dough and mix them together well, adding a little softened butter. Leave the dough to rest covered with a tea towel in a warm place, for about 6 hours, until it has doubled in size. Knead it again and then leave it to rest for another 2 hours. Make it into a round shape in a dish and put it in an oven tray, leaving it to rise for 1 hour. Beat the remaining egg white with a spoonful of water and paint it onto the cake. Decorate with the pieces of candied fruit and the chopped almonds. Put it in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes at 180º.