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.

Fig and goat cheese tart

Can somebody loves so much a combination of some ingredients that is craving for them at least once a week?. Well, the answer is yes:). Every time I ask R what he would like to have for lunch at the weekend I hear ''ensalada de higos''. This has been happening since the first time I made the salad with figs, arugula and goat cheese, and believe me or not, it was precisely in September 2012. During almost half a year, I've been answering that the season for figs is from June until September, and without this main ingredient preparing the salad is just impossible:). The fig tree is somewhat unique, because it produces two crops of fruit every year. The first one, which ripens in June and July is called breva (these are the fruits, which spend the winter on the branches of the tree) and the second one is called higo and ripens in September. So, last week when I saw brevas at a local market I knew that I wouldn't escape from preparing so desired, during the last months, salad. This time, however, I've added some calories, serving the salad on puff pastry.

Strawberry-banana and orange juice smoothie

Since the beginning of strawberry season, which starts here in March, I've been preparing banana and strawberry smoothie with milk (often replaced by oat or rice milk) more then twice a week. Last week, however, I came up with the idea of replacing milk with orange juice and this is how today's strawberry-banana-orange smoothie was created. If you haven't already tried to combine these three fruits into a refreshing drink, I encourage you to give it a try, because it's really worth it:) - on a very hot days you may want to add a few ice cubes to make the smoothie more cool and refreshing.

Cream cheese flan with strawberry sauce

Flan is one of the most popular Spanish desserts. It is smooth, rich, creamy, sweet and not particularly low in fat. The classic one is a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar which is poured into the molds with caramel and then baked in water bath.  Milk, which is used to prepare a flan, is often flavored with vanilla, cinnamon and lemon zest. There are, of course, many mouthwatering variations of flan: with almonds, fruits, chocolate, coffee, cheese, yogurt, turrón or dulce de leche. There are also savory ones, which may contain fish, seafood, vegetables and so on. Today, however, being in a season for strawberries, I decided to prepare flan with cream cheese, covered with strawberry sauce with a hint of vanilla; instead of traditional liquid caramel.

Toasts with sobrasada, goat cheese and pear

Have you ever heard of sobrasada?. It's Spanish raw, cured sausage made with ground pork, smoked paprika, salt, black pepper and other spices. Thanks to its soft consistency, sobrasada can be easily spread on a piece of bread. Just like chorizo sausage it's seasoned not only with salt and pepper, but also with smoked paprika which gives it very characteristic reddish colour. It's a traditional product of Balearic Islands, where it's consumed both fry and raw. In many traditional recipes a little bit of honey is added to sobrasada, so as to alleviate its very intense flavor.

Beet salad with red beans, arugula and kiwi

Guapo and guapa, two Spanish words - actually one word meaning nice, handsome (first masculine, second feminine) - which, while being in Spain, is hard not to hear. All children, girls and boys are called this way in different everyday situations, but not only them...A few days ago, while shopping at a nearby supermarket, I heard a young shop assistant working at a fish stand asking a client: ''¿que te pongo, guapo?'', which loosely translated  means: ''what can I do for you, handsome?''. Hearing this, I turned to look at this guapo and when I saw hunched, almost bald old man I smiled to myself and thought: this is so Spanish. It's very funny and enjoyable at the same time that such a completely unconscious, spontaneous, often mechanically used word can cause satisfaction,  encourage positive state of mind, and put a smile on our faces - I'm sure that not only it caused smile in my face but also put this older gentlemen into a good mood:).

Today's salad was created very spontaneously - as the Spanish word guapo is used - while checking the content of my fridge and cupboards, but fortunately it turned out to be a complete success, stimulating and fully satisfying my taste buds.

Chicken with dried plums, raisins and pine nuts

Chicken with dried plums also known as chicken in the Catalan way (pollastre a la catalana), is a Catalan dish - as the name suggests - most often prepared for special occasions and holidays. Traditionally the whole chicken stuffed with meat, botifarra sausage, dried plums and pine nuts was roasted; but it was in old times when normally there was only one dish on a table which was supposed to fill up all members of the family. Nowadays, however, the tables are full of countless different dishes and the traditional chicken would be simply too much, so it's often replaced by pieces of chicken with dried plums and pine nuts. To prepare this dish you will need liqueur wine, called in Spanish vino rancio and known colloquially enhanced wine, due to the fact that it has more alcohol than a regular wine. If you do not have this kind of wine you can replace it with Spanish Sherry wine (Jerez), with Port, Madeira, Marsala wine or with rum or cognac.