Brussels sprout salad

I have to admit that I definitely exaggerated with the amount of Brussels sprouts purchased few days ago at the market. As a result, last week I had them in almost every possible way: baked, boiled, steamed and fried. It's a shame I haven't hit before on an idea to prepare them in its simplest form - just raw:). After all, Brussels sprout is nothing else but a little cabbage, which I eat very often without cooking or frying:). This salad is based on ''what's in my refrigerator and kitchen cabinets'' and also on this recipe. I liked it so much that I've made it few more times since the first one. In addition to the Brussels sprouts I added to it some chopped walnuts and Spanish Manchego sheep cheese, which can be replaced by other firm ripened cheese. I served the salad with orange slices, which added juiciness and contrasted fabulously with distinctive and well developed flavour of the cheese (I love the combination of cheeses with fruits:)). I also sprinkled the salad with some dried cranberries and pour it over with the sauce made out of olive oil, lemon juice, honey and mustard. It's really delicious!!!.

Grilled vegetables with romesco sauce

You will probably agree with me that there are people who have really good ideas for enjoying their free time?. For example, there is this guy - Edu - who tries patatas braves in Barcelona and then rates them on his website: http://www.bravasbcn.com. He gives its price and the name and address of the bar or restaurant in which he has eaten them,  he evaluates the potatoes (their size, how they were prepared, whether they had a crispy crust, and were soft inside, if they were bathed in oil etc.) and also the sauces: alioli and tomato sauce (if were spicy, their texture, proportion between alioli and tomato sauce etc.). What intrigues me the most, however, is the list of 15 best patatas bravas in Barcelona, which is periodically updated. I must admit that I tried only few places from his list, but all of them were really delicious:). There are obviously many similar sites which evaluate restaurants, places with good coffee, with good carrot cake (recently very popular here in Barcelona), and also with spots for weekend brunch. Maybe I should think about this kind of site as well:). I could start with romesco sauce, very popular now when calçots are in season, which in many restaurants is also served with grilled or raw vegetables. I will definitely think about it:). Meanwhile, today I have for you this easy recipe for grilled vegetables with romesco sauce.

Pumpkin and chestnut cream soup

Feliz año 2015, my dear friends!.

I know, I know that Christmas holidays are long gone, but I'm just now starting slowly to adjust to my daily rituals. Any break in the routine is undoubtedly very positive, indicated, welcomed and eagerly awaited, but then I need some days or even weeks to stick to the rhythm of a normal day...

Today's recipe for the soup has been waiting quite a few weeks for the publication... More than 3 weeks ago winter started and this soup is truly autumn one; but I hope that even though the season changed it won't be a problem to find pumpkin and chestnuts in your local markets or grocery shops. In any case, you can always keep the recipe until the next year, because it's really worth it:).

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.

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:).

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.

Eggplant in vinegar with garlic, parsley and olive oil

These are the eggplants that I ate for the first time about 10 years ago while leaving in picturesque Andalusian village called Laujar de Andarax. I lived there with Spanish family, owners of quite small but cosy hotel and restaurant, which serves delicious traditional dishes. It was my first contact with a truly Spanish family, with Spanish cuisine and with Spanish language in situ. One of my favourite dishes there were berenjenas mediterráneas - Mediterranean eggplants - cooked in water with wine vinegar, then drizzled abundantly with olive oil and sprinkled with finely chopped garlic and parsley. Eggplant prepared in this way can be eaten alone or can be put on a slice of toast or fresh bread and drizzled additionally with high quality olive oil.

Omelette with asparagus, tomatoes and goat cheese

May has started with quite busy, but relaxing, two short trips. First one to Catalan la Garrotxa (I strongly recommend this part of Catalonia to everyone who likes long walks in nature and to lovers of sausages and dishes with white beans - a pork tripe sausage (butifarra) and Santa Pau beans are the must-try dishes in this part of Catalonia), and then there was a short trip to Poland (lots of Michałki chocolates, chocolate covered dried plums, pork sausages called Kabanosy, sweets with rhubarb and of course Polish dumplings:). After such a binge, now is the time for something lighter. Today's dish is an omelet, called in Spanish tortilla francesa with grilled asparagus, cherry tomatoes and goat cheese - in Spain there are 2 basic omelets (tortillas): Spanish tortilla (tortilla española) - with beaten eggs and potatoes - and French tortilla (tortilla francesa) - made just from beaten eggs.

Green asparagus and cucumber salad

I have a feeling that far too soon all spring vegetables are appearing on grocery store shelves this year:). So far, my appetite has not filled with artichokes and suddenly broad beans and peas has appeared, which are now slowly fall into oblivion giving way to green and white asparagus. First recipe I've made this year using this delicious vegetable is a very simple salad with green asparagus, cucumber and romaine lettuce, with plenty of fresh coriander, chives and dried tarragon, with sweet and sour sauce made by mixing wholegrain French mustard, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and honey.

Rice with octopus, broad beans and artichokes

Everyone knows Spanish paella, but probably only few people know that apart from this traditional rice based dish there are many others called simply arroz, which means rice. Depending on the ingredients added to it there is: rice with chicken, with cod, with rabbit, with mushrooms, with a variety of vegetables, etc. Besides, rice dishes may vary depending on their consistency: paella is called dry rice (arroz seco), apart from this there is also arroz caldoso which has the consistency of soup and arroz meloso which is something between the two previous ones. Generally speaking, if you want the rice dish to absorb fully the broth during cooking you should add double the volume of broth in relation to the volume of rice - if you are using a typical paella rice called bomba. So, if you want the rice to be dry you need to add 2 cups of hot broth for every one cup of rice, but if you want the rice to be watery you should simply add more liquid.

Shrimp stuffed hake with artichokes and potatoes

Today I recommend one-pot meal with white fish. It's, unfortunately, a little difficult and time-consuming, but isn't it worth to make an effort to prepare such a dish, from time to time, just to experience new tastes and make our taste buds happy?:). Apart from hake stuffed with shrimp and sauce - or rather spread - made from parsley, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of chili flakes, I've added to the pot sliced potatoes and artichokes, and finally I pour in a fish broth with white wine. If you don't have or do not like artichokes, you can replace them with green beans, broad beans, green peas or cauliflower florets.

Pisto with fried egg

Pisto manchego or simply pisto is a traditional Spanish dish. Nowadays, vegetables added to a pisto varies depending on the season, region or a personal taste, but the authentic pisto, coming from La Mancha, contained only red and green peppers and tomatoes. Very often onion, garlic, zucchini and eggplant are added to this dish, although some believe that with an eggplant, pisto is no longer a pisto, but French ratatouille. It's served cold or warm, often with fried egg or sausage and sometimes as a snack with bits of serrano ham.

Spanish Russian potato salad (ensaladilla rusa)

Ensaladilla/ensalada rusa (Russian salad) or ensaladilla/ensalada Olivier is the most popular Spanish vegetable salad, which was probably created in 1860 by Belgian Lucien Oliver, chef of Hermitage restaurant in Moscow. Except for the name, Spanish Russian salad has little in common with the original recipe invented by Olivier, who depending on the season was adding to it grouse, veal tongue, caviar, capers, crayfish or smoked duck. Spanish ensalada rusa is similar to Polish vegetable salad, but apart from potatoes, carrots, peas and eggs contains also tuna, green olives, and grilled red pepper. Some add to it crab sticks and/or pickled cucumbers called in Spanish pepinillos. 

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.

Dumplings with calçots and romesco sauce

Some time ago a colleague gave me an idea: Polish and Spanish fusion cuisine. I must admit that this idea sank very quickly into oblivion, because at that moment any specific recipe came to my mind. Last weekend, however, when preparing calçots I came up with the idea for Polish dumplings - pierogi - with Catalan inseparable duo green onions and romesco sauce. So, yesterday I made them, and I must - subjectively - admit that they were tasty:). Therefore, from now on, a new category called fusion will appear on the blog. I'm going to add to it recipes combining Polish and Spanish cuisine - today's is the first one:). Last year I had written about popular in Catalonia green onions called calçots served with romesco o salvitxada sauce - link here, today I suggest the recipe for dumplings stuffed with grilled calçots (you can replace them with leeks or green onions), romesco sauce and quark. The recipe for a dough is from gotujebolubi.pl blog. His author, Monika ensures that this is a great recipe for her mom's dumplings, and she is not wrong, because the dough is just as it should be: very soft and light.

Clams with garlic and parsley and artichokes

Yesterday I had a plan to prepare razor shells, but unfortunately I picked the wrong day!. Why?. Let me start from the beginning: last Friday, looking for culinary inspiration for the coming week, I went to the nearby market Sant Antoni - I like going there from time to time just to wander around and see what fish, seafood, vegetables and fruits are in season. In almost every fish stall I noticed razor shells, snails, all kinds and sizes of clams, and on some of them even goose barnacles. I immediately decided that on Tuesday (not Monday, because on that day nobody buys fish, seafood or meat, because they are not fresh) I will prepare razor clams. So, yesterday morning I went to the market. To my surprise I did not find them in any stall, and when I asked what was going on and why on Friday all had them, but that day no one did (actually it's a little strange that their season has ended so abruptly, I thought), a nice gentlemen explained that on Tuesday it did not pay to bring them because almost nobody wants to buy them, and those are one of the seafood that cannot be eaten the next day. Perhaps there is some logic in it...anyway, I will come back to buy them on Friday. For this reason, today there is no razor shell, but there are clams, and with clams there are artichokes.

Artichokes stuffed with mushrooms

Being in a middle of the season for artichokes, it's quite difficult to pass by the stalls sagging under, as beautiful as any flower, artichokes. This is one of the reasons they have appeared on my table today. This versatile vegetable can be served in many ways: raw, boiled, fried, breaded, grilled, etc., but for me, the best ones are these baked with a little bit of olive oil and salt. Eating artichokes prepared in this way is, kind of entertaining, because it involves peeling the outer leaves - which are too hard to eat them -, to finally get to their delicate and melting in your mouth centre, called the heart (in Spanish corazón).

Today, however, I suggest the recipe for artichokes stuffed with fried mushrooms and onion, topped with grated cheese and then grilled in the oven. But before starting to prepare them, I have some practical tips for you:

• Artichokes will keep fresh longer if you store them wrapped in a plastic bag, in refrigerator.
• It's better to wear rubber gloves when preparing them to prevent dark spots on your hands.
• After peeling, artichokes turn black very quickly, so it's advisable to put them in water with lemon juice.

Grilled calçots with salvitxada sauce

Calçots, one of the typical Catalan cuisine ingredient, is a vegetable similar to a young green onions, but larger and milder. It's a variety of scallion from Lleida. The calçot from Valls, Tarragona is registered as a protected geographical indication by the European Union. In January, when the season for calçots starts throughout Catalonia fiestas called calçotada are organized, during which people get together with friends and family to spend time eating grilled calçots dipped in salvitxada or romesco sauce. The sauce is prepared with roasted tomatoes and garlic, dried peppers called ñora in Spanish, almonds, hazelnuts, olive oil and sometimes bread soaked in vinegar. 

Calçots are grilled over a flaming barbecue, or - if they are prepared at home - in the oven. Before eating, the outer charred layer is removed and then the tender bulbs are dipped in the sauce. The way of eating calçots is quite peculiar: they are raised above head holding the green part. In some restaurants the customers are given bibs to avoid staining with dripping sauce.