Cheesy pancakes with smoked salmon and avocado

I've got no idea if you like pancakes, but I have to confess that I love all sort of them: both sweets and savoury ones, with cheese, pumpkin, potatoes, spinach and other vegetables - all of them, for me, are absolutely delicious. My attraction to the pancakes has undoubtedly something to do with my origins. Where, if not in Poland and other Eastern Europe countries, this delicacy is playing one of the main roles in everyday meals.  

Spain is definitely not a pancakes country, well maybe sometimes they eat the sweet ones - It has just come to my mind that on Gran Canaria they prepare tortitas de carnaval with anise and raisins -  and for sure you can find more of this regional examples, but one  thing is certain: pancake is not a meal of this place. 

A little bit against the Spanish tradition, today I suggest smoked salmon, avocado and tomato salad with fresh coriander, served on very cheesy pancakes with chives.

Octopus in red wine

It took quite a long time before I decided to prepare octopus by myself:). I had it many times eating out or visiting family or friends,  but I couldn't just encourage myself to buy a fresh one and prepare it myself at home, until one day I broke my shyness toward octopus end I cooked pulpo a la gallega. It was delicious:).

Pulpo a la gallega, which means octopus with olive oil, powdered red pepper (pimentón), salt and often served with potatoes, is probably the easiest and the most popular way of preparing octopus in Spain, but fortunately not the only one:) 

Today I propose octopus with onion, stewed in red wine and tomato sauce with oregano or rosemary - or with oregano and rosemary, as you prefer:)

Barraquito coffee

Almost ten years ago, when I came to Spain, I couldn't just imagine a day without coffee - in a large mug with hot milk and sugar - now, I prefer tea, especially the green one - without milk and sugar:). At the beginning of my Spanish adventure, I lived in a small mountainous village in Almeria province, where I learnt a traditional way of preparing and serving coffee. From the beginning  I used to drink café con leche - coffee with hot milk (more or less half and half) served in a teacup. I learnt there that café solo is a shot of coffee without milk - served also in a teacup, but smaller - that café cortado is a shot of coffee with a little bit of hot milk - served in a small transparent glass - and that café bombón is also a shot of coffee, but with condensed milk. I have to admit that at the beginning I was quite surprised seeing men sitting at a bar in the morning and drinking - also traditional - carajillo - coffee with a little bit of alcohol mostly rum, brandy or orujo.

In my next Spanish stop, in Canary Islands, I drank for the first time barraquito - coffee served in a transparent glass (taller then that in which café cortado is used to served) - which include a shot of coffee, hot milk, condensed milk, cinnamon, lemon zest and 43 or Tía María liquor. Simpler version of this coffee is called café leche leche - coffee with hot milk and condensed milk.

Duck confit, orange and pomegranate salad

After Christmas and New Year culinary excess, 12 grapes eaten in 12 seconds (this year I managed to do it thanks to a very easy trick: peeling the grapes:)), long rest among family and friends, which lasted till 6 of January, plus one week more:), with still full belly, few additional kilos and head full of new ideas, today I officially come back to my culinary blogging wishing all visitors Happy New Year!:).

I'm starting this year with an old, because it's from the past year, recipe for a salad with duck confit, orange and pomegranate, which I made just before my Christmas holidays. To prepare the meat I used an old French way of preserving food called confit. It's basically a slow poaching of a duck in its own fat which, after it gets cold, preserves the meat during a long time. First, a duck is marinated in salt and spices and later it's cooked in its own juices and fat. This kind of cooking makes meat of duck juicy and tender.

Bravas potatoes

Fried potatoes with brava sauce (salsa brava), is probably one of the most popular Spanish tapas served frequently to wine or beer. Bravo in Spanish means wild, angry, and so is the traditional sauce served with this dish - very spicy. This dish consists of potatoes, cut into large cubes, fried until golden brown in oil and then topped with the sauce. Sometimes the potatoes are first cooked and then diced and fried. Different are also the methods of preparing the sauce. The classic one coming from Madrid and patented there in 1960, is a sauce based basically on tomato sauce and cayenne pepper. In Catalonia and Valencia, however, the sauce is often prepared with olive oil, smoked paprika, vinegar and chili called guindilla and is usually accompanied by alioli sauce made of garlic and olive oil (in Catalan all means garlic and oli means oil). Sometimes fried potatoes are topped with a pink sauce which is a mixture of spicy tomato sauce and mayonnaise.

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.

Spanish tortilla

Spanish tortilla (tortilla española) called as well potato tortilla (tortilla de patatas), is a variation of an omlette with eggs and fried potatoes, to which sometimes onion is added. A typical one is prepared for several people and such a tortilla contains about 10 eggs and nearly 1 kg of potatoes, hence its dimensions, radius and thickness, are a little different than in the case of tortilla made by me. Regardless of the size, the taste remains the same:).