Broccoli and feta cheese salad

Broccoli is not a vegetable which appears frequently in traditional Spanish dishes, but due to its high nutritional value is increasingly appreciated also in this part of Europe. Broccoli is often served here as a side dish for meat, seafood or fish, or is added to stews or salads. Today's salad inspired by a recipe I've found on a Peruvian kitchen website: www.yanuq.com, contains broccoli florets (cooked or steamed al dente), feta cheese, pine nuts and raisins. The sauce, which I used for the salad is basically mayonnaise mixed with natural yogurt; however, if you prefer less caloric version, I suggest  replacing it with just the yogurt or simply drizzle the salad with extra virgin olive oil mixed with a bit of vinegar.

Courgettes stuffed with chanterelles and serrano ham

I like wandering around the Boquería food market and look for vegetables or fruits, which I simply can not find in other places. Without doubt, this is where you can buy all sorts of weird edible things. I don't know if you realise that many Spaniards do not know what rhubarb or gooseberry look like, have no idea about the existence of redcurrants and do not distinguish blackcurrants from blueberries. Buying these fruits is practically impossible here, but sometimes at Boquería, there are such ''unusual things'' - last year, for example, I found there rhubarb; unfortunately its price: 10 euros per 1 kg, totally scared me off. During my last stroll through Boquería,  I found neither the currants nor the berries, but I noticed round courgettes, which are not common here at all. As soon as I saw them, I thought of stuffing them with chanterelles and serrano ham. So, with purchased courgettes I went straight to the stand with mushrooms. Finally, I returned home with neither currants nor blueberries, but with excellent idea for delicious dinner:).

Rice with chard, white beans and snails

I hope that the snails in the title haven't scared you off:), but if you don't feel like eating snails, I assure you that this dish tastes just as well without them. However, one thing is certain: snails add the character to this rice dish:). So, the choice is yours:). I've always associated snails with French cuisine and I was quite surprised to see that also Spaniards appreciate their taste and that snails is a key ingredient in many traditional Spanish dishes. They are often added to dishes with rice, combined with rabbit, tuna, cod or a quail meat. Snails are also served with a variety of sauces, often with a spicy tomato sauce; or can be simply stuffed with a garlic-parsley butter. The most delicious snails I've ever tried, however, are those from Seville, where - in almost every tapas bar - snails are served with a little bit of delicious broth - during my 3-day stay there, I ate them 3 times and they had always been delicious:). Apart from the land snails, in Spain also sea snails are eaten, e.g. the Galician small, gray-black ones called caramuxos or Mediterranean cañaillas, larger than the land ones.

Monkfish with clams

The magical San Juan night was three days ago and, as usual, I did not manage to prepare the traditional Catalan, sweet coca; being prepared specially for the night of June 23rd - la noche de San Juan (I hope to share this recipe with you the next year:)). Coca de Sant Joan (in Catalan) or coca de San Juan (in Spanish) is nothing else than an oval cake similar to a sweet bread topped with candied fruits and pine nuts or with custard. More original is - also popular in this day - coca de chicharrones (coca de llardons in Catalan), a puff pastry with crackling, pine nuts and sugar.

Traditionally, the San Juan night is celebrated on the beach with roaring bonfires, drink, food, and friends. According to tradition, if people jump over bonfire three times on San Juan's night, they will be cleansed and purified, and their problems burned away. Barcelona's beaches, however, do not resemble the very pleasant tradition, because here the voices and thoughts are drowned out by the noise and roar of firecrackers; and this is why instead of the beach I normally chose the street. In many parts of the city the streets are alive with parties (in my neighbourhood at the intersection of two streets).  People gather together and create large bonfires from any kind of wood, such as old furniture and other non-usable wooden objects. They also put out the tables on the street and they have a lot of fun drinking, eating, listening to the music and even dancing.

And now the recipe:). Not the traditional ''coca'', but monkfish with clams:).

Tomato salad on salmorejo bedding

Recently I have been having an irresistible craving for tomatoes, and although I still have to wait for the ''truly'' red ones with a mouth-watering flavor, I could not resist the temptation of making this delicious salad:). Salmorejo is a Spanish creamy, cold tomato soup, which is a bit like gazpacho, but without peppers, onions or cucumber, and with more olive oil and bread - this is why it has more calories then gazpacho and is more creamy. In this salad, salmorejo is a kind of bedding for the remaining ingredients: tomatoes, goat cheese, basil and avocado, which mixed together form a real tomato festival:).

Gazpacho with cherries

As every year, during the next four months I'm going to eat gazpacho over and over again, because only this ice-cold soup can help me to survive the unbearably hot and humid days in our apartment without air conditioning:). When almost ten years ago I tried for the first time the traditional gazpacho, and it was in aforementioned on the blog Andalusian village Laujar de Andarax, not even for a moment did it cross my mind that there were so many variants of this delicious cold soup. So far, you can find on my Polish blog not only the recipe for traditional gazpacho, but also for one with beet, pumpkin or watermelon. Today, however, it's time for gazpacho with cherries based on the recipe, which I found on the website of a popular Spanish chef Martin Berasategui.

Tapa called banderilla

One of the popular tapas served in bars and taverns of northern Spain is Banderilla. These easy treats got their name from spears (one end has the spear and the other ruffled paper of different colours) used during bullfight by banderilleros, who attempt to plant them into the bull's shoulders. Banderilla as cold spicy-sour tapa is made from green olives, spicy pickled green peppers (guindillas), anchovy or tuna preserved in olive oil and pickled cucumbers; skewered together. Sometimes other pickled ingredients as onions, red pepper or carrots are added.