Spanish Mushrooms with Jamón Serrano and Rosemary

 I barely do spanish recipes of tapas and pinchos. Most of them require all these really hard ingredients (That is why they taste so good!). 

But this recipe is pretty simple, and no oven is required!

INGREDIENTS:
-8 big mushrooms.
-100 grams of jamon serrano in bits.
-some fresh rosemary.
-1 tsp of minced garlic.

STEPS:
1. Sautee the garlic and the jamon bits in a frying pan until it is all golden and darker, for 5 minutes in low fire. Now add the rosemary to the mix and stir too. 
2. Reserve this mix and in the same pan, now place the mushrooms (without stem obviously) upside down and cook them for about 3 minutes in medium fire. Place lid over them so that they soften.
3. Now flip the mushrooms and fill the inside with the mix of ham, garlic and ham and now cook for another 10 minutes or 12 until they are done. Cover on and off, so that they soften. This wonderful juice begins to come to the surface, mixing with the ham and garlic and rosemary, and whoah it is so good. Make sure you don't burn them. 

That's it. So good, so spanish and not hard. 

Arroz con leche y cardamon

Tel Aviv, Israel 

Ingredientes: 

-1 litro de agua

-1 vaso de arroz.

-Una  rodaja de limón

-1 stick de canela.

-10 semillas de cardammon!!!! Sooo good

- 6 cucharadas de azúcar  (3 cucharadas grandes al principio y otras 3 al final).

1. Poner un litro de agua a hervir con una rodaja de limón y un stick de canela y echarle dos o tres cucharadas de azucar para que el agua este dulce.

2. Cuando el agua empiece a hervir hay que echar un vaso de arroz y remover mientras hierve. (Esto hay que hacerlo por 15 minutos). Y hay que probar que el arroz está blando.

3. Luego hay que sacarlo y escurrir el arroz y luego lo vuelves a echar en la olla donde lo has hervido y ahí  le echas un litro de leche.



4.Y ahora lo hierves de nuevo otra vez para que coja todo el sabor la leche y se mezcle bien y en cuanto hierva lo quitas del fuego y le echas luego el azúcar que quieras (2 o 3 cucharadas).

  

5. Y ya está,lo guardas en un tupperware y ya está. C'est fini.

Me lo tomé de cena y la verdad es que me gustó mucho caliente. 

Delicious baked cinammon apples

I have about 10 recipes I want to post but cannot find the time for these days.

Still, I didn't want this fall to leave me and not post an apple recipe...I did these last night..so simple, and yet so good!  Dont let November go without trying a recipe like this one. HIGHLY RECOMMEND it for the dessert.

• 4 Apples ((you need acidic-like cooking apples, reinetas or granny smith)
• Brown sugar. (4 spoonfuls, 1 for every apple)
• Ground cinammon. (1/2 teaspoon)
• Nutmeg. (1/5 teaspoon)
• Butter (Like 2 spoonfuls)
• A tiny bit of hot water.

1. Core the apples with a knife. Only half way, you dont want to empty them out completey or the sugar will "come out" while its baking.

2. Mix sugar, with cinammon and nutmet or fall spices.

3. Fill up the cored apples with the mix. Then dab, a teaspoon of butter in each apple to top it off and close it.

4. Put a little water in the baking container so that the apples dont try out when you bake them.

5. Stick them in the oven for about 1 hour. 200 grades for the first half hour and then turn up the grill full blast for about 20 min, but make sure you dont burn them.

DONE! so fast, easy and good...honestly...they were so good...my flatmates agreed wholeheartedly, so hey, it is not a "biased" recipe. :)

steamed mussles

A superfun day today with Stacy, my cooking friend. Stacey also has a cooking blog and seeks adventures in the markets of Madrid :)

So I followed her example and got mussles! M-E-J-I-L-L-O-N-E-S  en español.

So Stacy and I ventured ourselves in the market of Anton Martín, near Atocha. Fun place! A mix of spanish, indian and chinese shops.  I bought a few fun things, indian bread, sushi seaweed "paper" for Maki Rolls, but Im proud to say I also got mejillones.

I cooked them the most normal way. Al vapor or steamed. Here it goes:

• 500 gr. of mussles.
• 1 lemon,
• Half glass of water and salt

1. Clean the mussles. You have to clean them quite well. Mussles come with all sorts of things stuck to the shell and you really need to get rid of most of it. Otherwise the water will taste like that and it is just not very hygienic overall. I scrubbed with a knife. I did a first round of scrabing and then realized that I probably had to do a second one. Really, this is what took the majority of the time. About 15 min.
2. Put the muscles in a pot with half a glass of water and salt. Put a lid on it and let it cook for 5 min, or until the mussles start opening. 
3. That's it! Pick them up and place them on a plate. Squeeze a lemon over them and let them cool a bit.
4. That's it. Delicious! and totally worth the mess you'll have in the kitchen. Not bad for 1 euro and for 40 cents. I had it with some empanada Maria made and with tinto de verano. So good. Be brave and try it.

berenjenas de mi abuela Carmen

viejecito sentado al lado de Central Park, NY, Agosto 2009

Esta receta es de mi abuela Carmen, que era de Cordoba. La pongo aqui para que no se pierda la receta. Tenia mucho cariño a mi abuelo y ademas me parezco a ella mucho. He copiado la receta igual que la escribió mi abuelita.
Las berenjenas son de las pequeñas, o sea como esta de la foto y no de las grandes de color morado!!

• Berenjenas
• Tomates
• Ajo
• Cominos
• Sal
• Pimiento morrón
• Vinagre

1. Primero pones las berenjenas a cocer con tomate y ya que las tienes cocidas las quitas del fuego y las pones a escurrir y las echas agua fria para que se pongan mas duras. 
2. Se frie el ajo y el tomate
3. Se le echa cominos y sal y una lata de pimientos morron
4. Se le echa una cucharada de vinagre y las dejas que tomen sabor un poquito en el fuego.

lacón con patatas, otro aperitivo

Otra receta de aperitivo o cena rapida que está muy bien y comleta es hacer lacón con patatas.

Es muy fácil. Sólo necesitas

• Tres patatas
• Trozos de lacón. como 300gr.
• Pimentón dulce.
• Aceite de oliva.

1. Hervir las patatas y cortarlas en rodajas, como de 1 cm de grosor.
2. Ponerlas en un plato bonito para servir. 
3. Poner un chorro de aceite de oliva por encima
4. Poner sobre cada patata un trozo de lacón.
5. Espolvorear pimentón dulce sobre las patatas y lacón.
6. Echar un poquito de sal.

Muy rico y completo. Es un buen plato, perfecto para una cena rapida, con un poco de pan.

macarrones con chorizo

Tio Pepe, Sol, Madrid

Otra receta típica de aquí y muy facil:

• Macarrones
• 2 chorizos
• Tomate frito.

1. Freir el chorizo en rodajas.
2. Echar el tomate frito y freirlo un rato y echarlo a la pasta blanca.
3. Ponter matequilla si estan secos.

voila, superfacil y superrico....en serio!