Huevos Rotos

Broken eggs. Well, the Spaniard are quite simple when they name a dish. This is one of David's favorite. Truth be told, which guy wouldn't like fries with spanish ham and eggs? This is such a simple meal yet it can be found on almost any menu in any variation. Anything can be added to this and it would still taste great :)

When I bought my turkey, the poultry lady gave me quail eggs. I had never actually cooked quail eggs but figured it would be the same as regular ones. I was right; only difference, when you break them, watch out, the shell is quite fragile.

So, since I wasn't sure how to use my quail eggs, I decided to make David happy and have some Huevos Rotos. For those like me that don't like the liquid egg yolk, just keep your eggs cooking longer.

Huevos de Codorniz Rotos

Ingredients (for one portion):

4 quail eggs
2 potatoes
2 slices jamon serrano

Peel, wash and slice the potatoes.

In the meatime, eat your oil for frying. When ready, fry the potatoes.

At the same time, cook your 4 eggs. The good thing about quail eggs: they all fit in one small pan!

Now let's assemble.

First layer: fries.

Second layer: jamon serrano

Third layer: eggs.

Now, the name of this dish comes from breaking the eggs with your fork and knife and mixing it all together. It doesn't make for a very appetizing plate, but, trust me, it is!

Enjoy :)

Leftover Turkey

I love cooking poultry. It is such an economical way of budgeting your meal plan for the week. You always end up with a least 2 meals. The main one and then you can follow up with a soup using the bones and some of the leftover meat as well as some amazing turkey salad. It works perfect for a week where you don't have much time to prep and cook. On the sunday, cook the bird. After supper, remove the meat from the bones and reserve. Throw the bones in some water with carrots, celery and onions and make a wonderful broth. Add some meat that was removed from before and your soup is set for the next day. When you want to eat it, heat it up, add some noodles and there you have it. Another recipe I always end up making is a cold salad. You can make a sandwich, wrap or simply eat it by itself.

So here is my easy turkey salad from my leftover thanksgiving turkey meat. I find that turkey has a great taste cold compared to other meats.

Turkey Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups of turkey meat
1 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 onion
1 celery
1 garlic clove
parsley
thyme
salt and pepper

Cut the celery, garlic, onion and meat into chunky pieces.

In a bowl, mix the ingredients together.

Serve cold in a sandwich or by itself.

Enjoy :)!

Madrid's Famous Dish

Cocido Madrileño. Madrid's slow cooked pot. This dish goes back ages in history and is still super common nowadays. Most families will serve this on Sunday meals. There are many variants in Spain of the Cocido. Some eat the soup with all of the ingredients in, or only the chick peas, other eat it separately, which is the Madrid way.

I really like this dish and every chance I have a making it, it's on my menu. David is not too much of a fan due to the chick peas. Thank god, they serve it at work usually every 2 weeks :)

Cocido is a cooked pot of everything! Chorizo, morcilla, chicken, beef, chick peas, potatoes, carrots... Super easy to make as well. Just let it cook :)

Cocido Madrileño

Ingredients:

200gr morcillo (shin part of the beef)
2 chorizos
1 or 2 morcillas (blood sausages)
200gr dried chick peas
1/2 hen (I used chicken thighs)
4 potatoes
3 carrots
100gr lard (tocino)
1 or 2 beff bones
1 spanish dried ham bone
1/2 cabbage
soup noodles
water

Let the chick peas soak overnight.

In a large pot, add some water. Drop in the beef bones, jamon bones and lard.

Bring to a boil. When boiling, add the mocillo and the chick peas.

Here you might need to remove the mousse that forms on top.

After half an hour of cooking, add the chicken.

The chorizo.

After about another hour of cooking, add the carrots.

Half an another later, add the potatoes.

In a separate pot, cook the cabbage and morcilla with some water.

When the chickpeas are cooked and after about 3 hours, 3 1/2 hours of cooking, remove the meat and chickpeas (apart) from the stew.

Left soup.

Bring the broth to a boil. When boiling, add some soup noodles.

In the meatime, remove the chicken meat from the bones, slice the carrots, morcilla, chorizo, morcillo, lard...

Plate together the meats and chickpeas separately.

Serve the soup to each person with the rest of the cocido in the middle. This way, people can eat it the way they prefer. (I like adding chickpeas to the soup).

Enjoy this traditional Madrid dish!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Halloween has always been a HUGE festivity at my house. My dad has always used the excuse that since it is my Mom's birhtday, we need to celebrate it a lo grande! I found it really cute when he wrote this year on facebook, another birthday where 350 kids will come knocking on our door to wish you Happy Birthday. :) Happy birthday Mom!!

In order to keep with this tradition, I decided that, this year, I was pulling a Halloween Party a lo grande as well. Halloween has been getting more and more common here and I know of some people that live in little suburbs that do the trick or treating (ok, nothing like in Canada or USA but still. It's a start!). In Madrid, it's kind of hard because of all the apartment building but, I tell you, if you go downtown, a lot of people go out and dress up! Makes me all giddy inside :)

The 1st of November is the Day of all the Saints here so no work. Perfect excuse to throw my party on the 31st of October, Halloween to its fullest. David bought some awesome decorations this year and I worked my magic. But, the most important part: the food, was still going through my mind!

I wanted to go full Halloween on the food as well and my brain (helped by Mr. Google) came up with some pretty awesome ideas. Here was my final menu:

Ants Paté
Earth Worm Stew
Exorcist Girl's vomit
Brain Purée
Mini Cockroach Pies
Human Slices
Dinosaur's Teeth
Fried Human Skin
Blood Sauce
Mimi Mommies
Devil's eyes

Here are a few of the recipes:

Ants Paté (Black Olive Paté)

Ingredients:
2 cups black pitted olives
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients with a blender. Rectify by adding more oil if it is too thick.

Exorcist Girl's Vomit (Hummus)

Ingredients:
1 can of cooked chick peas
1 tbsp of chick pea juice from the can
2 tbsps tahini
3 tbps lemon juice
1 or 2 garlic cloves (to taste)
2 tbsps olive oil
salt

Mix all of the ingredients together and blend. Rectify by adding more olive oil if it is too thick.

Earth Worm Stew

Ingredients:
1 kg mushrooms
salt and pepper

In a large pan, add some oil and heat. When ready, cook with sliced mushrooms until tender. Using a hand blender, rougly grind them until you reach the desired texture. I added my mixture to mini pies.

Brain Purée

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen spinach thawed and dried
1 cup mayonaise
2 cups of sour cream
1 veggie soup mix (leek soup works best)
1 pumplenickel bread (or a round bread)
salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients together and refrigerate 2 hours. Place into a round bread that has been carved before and serve.

Mini Cockroach Pies (Maple Syrup and Peacan Pies)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
1/2 cup water
2 tbsps butter
2 tbsps corn starch
mini pies
peacans

In a pan, heat the butter. When melted, add the corn starch. Mix well. Add the maple syrup and hot water. Mix well. After it starts bubbleing, keep on stirring for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Pour into the mini pies where you already added the nuts. Let cool.

Human Slices (Spanish Ham, Chorizo and Lomo cold cuts)
Dinosaur Teeth (Cheese slices)
Fried Human Skin (Chips)

Blood Sauce (Salsa)

Ingredients:
6 red tomatoes
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
tabasco

Roughly slice the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Add the the blender and slightly mix them.

Mini Mommies (Hot Dog Sausages Wrapped in Pastry)

Ingredients:
Mini hot dog sausages
pastry (I used puff pastry)

Slice the pastry into individual pieces (to almost cover a sausage). Wrap them around each sausage leaving the top part out and covering the bottom. Looks like mommies. Cook in the oven until golden.

Devil's Eyes (Cooked Eggs with Green Pea Purée and Olive)

Ingredients:
eggs
green peas
black olives
oil
salt and pepper
paprika

Hard boil the eggs. Peel and cut in half. Remove the yolk and reserve the whites. In a blender, mix the cooked green peas, a few egg yolks, oil, salt and pepper until you reach the desired texture. Using a spoon, fill the egg whites with the green purée and top off with an olive. Sprinkle some paprika on top to make the red veins.

________

I had also made some roasted pumpkin seeds from my wonderful pumpkin that I carved to place outside of our door. People loved that touch :) Just like in America, when a pumpkin is lit outside of your door, it means there is candy inside :) And there sure was a bunch of candy inside!

Here are a few pictures of the crew (we were over 30 people) and some of the disguises. We had a BLAST!

The Canadian Family Clan (aka David's cousin.. most of them at least):

My awesome coworkers!

And our themed costume. I think we were representing well!

We had an awesome time and people really went all out with their costumes. :) Next year, if we are still here, we will be repeating for sure!

Sorry for the lack of pictures of the food. I tend to forget to take some after taking the main table one. People were to eager to eat :)

Happy belated Halloween All!