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!

Got some General Tao Chicken?

This one goes out for my Dad and sister. They are also big fans of this, as we thought it, Chinese recipe. Turns out: it was actually invented in New York, so it's an American Chinese dish. It doesn't exist in Spain and David keeps on asking for it at Chinese restaurants! Poor him! Well, to his surprise, I made some homemade and he LOVED it! I sure made his day :)

General Tao Chicken is a very popular dish in Montreal. You can basically find it at any Chinese restaurant. It is pretty simple. Fried chicken covered in sauce. Obviously, the trick to the dish is the sauce :)

General Tao Chicken

1 kg chicken breast
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
salt
oil
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp minced ginger
4 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp mirin sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 guindillas
sesame seeds

Slice or dice your chicken. My poultry guy had already butterfly cut my chicken so slices it was for me.

In a bowl, add the chicken and the egg.

Mix well.

In a wok, heat some oil for frying.

While it heats, pass the chicken pieces through the flour to coat them.

Fry the chicken as you make it.

And here is the golden brown chicken.

Mix the chicken broth, sugar, vinegar, hoisin, soya, sesame oil and cornstarch together.  (Truth is, I really just eyeballed the quantities here)

Remove the frying oil from the wok.

Add about 1tbsp back and fry the minced ginger and garlic.

Add the sauce.

When it starts bubbling, it will thicken quickly. Keep on stirring. (This is when I added my guindillas. David is not a fan of spicy food. This way, the sauce was not really spicy).

Add the chicken back to the wok and mix well to cover all the pieces.

And completely covered.

Plate.

Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and there you have it. Some AWESOME General Tao without stepping out of your home :)

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

Ok. I know I am getting pretty bad at keeping track with my blog. This week has been pretty hectic as we have a friend in the hospital and we didn't get much "home" time. I really didn't want this post to take such a long time to actually get posted, so today it has to get published! :)

A bit of North American culture to my fellow Spanish readers. Yes, Canada has its own Thanksgiving. Yes, I swear. And No, it's not the same day as the American one :) Sorry if it sounds stupid for most of you but you would be surprised by the amount of people that do not know this bit of information. The American Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November as the Canadian one is on the 2nd Monday of October. The logical explanation behind the different dates is the location; the USA being south, their harvesting season finishes later on, which brings on the later date. The Americans usually celebrate it "a lo grande" a lot more than us Canadians. Yet, I prefer our date in order to have more time in between holidays. To each their own :)

Back to the kitchen. The main menu for both is usually the same: Roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie... I skipped the cranberry sauce as neither of us eat it and you can't really find that fruit here. I had invited friends over that were pretty curious about this famous North American tradition. Let's just say they left amazed :)

First of, the turkey. I never really liked turkey as I am not a fan of dry white meat. My Mom would always give me part of the leg. Thanks Mom! I was reading 2 years ago preparing myself to make my turkey and read that brining makes a huge difference. I decided to give it a try. Well, I am never going back! Brining is the key to a moist and juicy turkey. No doubt about it!

I have bought turkeys at my poultry store at the market before and everytime I get the surprised look. You are seriously buying a whole turkey and not having it chopped up? You will roast it whole? How do you cook it? Ahhh, it's like in the American movies?? Haha! The people that work there know me well and always laugh when people give me the "look" and start questionning me. Last Christmas, I had the whole lineup listening to the cooking methods of a turkey! It was pretty funny, the employees were waiting for the customers to keep ordering but they were all so absorbed in my explanation! It sure makes for good stories to tell :)

So here goes my roasted stuffed turkey recipe:

Brined, Stuffed & Roasted Turkey

Ingredients:

Brine:
8 liters of water
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups salt
rosemary
thyme
2 oranges quartered
2 lemons quartered

Stuffing:
500grs ground beef
3 celeries
1 green onion
4 bread slices
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 nuts (if desired)
cumin
salt
pepper
parley
oil

6kg turkey
butter

In a large bowl or bucket, mix the brine ingredients. Add the turkey and brine for about 24 hours.

Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse well under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

Preheat your oven at 180C.

Right when you are about to start cooking the turkey, prepare the stuffing. My Mom always told me to start cooking it before stuffing just to make sure you have no cross contamination.

Dice the green onion and celery.

Add oil to a pan and heat. When ready, add the veggies.

Sweat for a few minutes and add the meat.

Cook until it is still a bit pink.

Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Add parmesan cheese, parsley, cumin, salt and pepper.

Roughly break apart the bread and add to the mixture.

Mix well.

Add the eggs.

Mix well.

Using a spoon (or your hand), fill the cavity of the turkey with the stuffing.

Sew the opening shut.

Now, your turkey is ready for some basting!

Melt some butter in the microwave and brush the turkey completely with it.

Place the turkey in the roasting pan breast down to make sure it stays moist.

Add a bit of water to the bottom of the roasting pan and pop in the oven.

Instead of adding water and basting the turkey with it, I grabbed a bit of turkey fat and meat and heated it in water. It make a broth and I used that to roast it in. If you don't have any, use some chicken stock and it works great as well.

Baste the turkey every 30 minutes with about 1 cup of broth and always make sure that it has liquid at the bottom of the pan.

Cook breast down for about 2 hours.

Flip the turkey over to get a nice roast on the breast side.

Cook for about 2 more hours breast side up. You know it's cooked by the skin at the legs. If not, you can use a meat thermometer to check it.

Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes while covered.

Cut the turkey open and remove the stuffing from inside.

And there you have it!

Make some mashed potatoes and some greens (I made green beans).

Use the pan juices to make the gravy (make a roux and add the pan juices slowly). Result:

Serve at the table and carve the turkey there as well. Makes for a nice show. David is the carving expert at our house, like my Nonno is at our family gatherings :)

And a few pictures of the table (turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, brie with wild fruit sauce and stuffing).

Close up of the dishes.

And the crowd patiently awaiting to get served! And a proud host on the right :) Me!

and a typical thanksgiving plate (minus the cranberry sauce):

And now, even though your stomach and eyes are full, dessert time!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

1 can of pumpkin puree
1 cup of evaporated milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp grounded cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
55grs frozen butter
pinch of salt
3 tbsp cold water


In your mixer, add the flour and salt.

Cut your frozen butter into cubes. Add to the flour.

Mix until it forms a breadcrumb texture.

While mixing, add the water slowly until it unifies. Stop mixing. You really have to be careful to not overstir it because the butter will get softer and it won't be a crispy crust.

Remove from the mixer and cover with saran wrap.

Let rest in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Place your dough on a floured surface and roll it out until you form a nice pie shape.

(As you can see, I had made double the recipe to have some extra dough, turned out, I did well... I needed that dough for this one... you'll see why later on!)

Place in your pie dish.

Ok, here is the important note. If you cook a pie blind before adding the fillings... leave the pie overlapping on the sides. Otherwise, it will shrink and will look horrible. I learned quicky. Lucky me, I had made an extra batch of dough and I did not cut the crust before blind cooking it.

Blind cook for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the filling.

In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, eggs and evaporated milk.

Pour into the precooked pie shell.

Cook at 180C for about 40 minutes (checking with a toothpick to see if the middle is cooked). Cut off the excess pie crust :)

Here is my friend Chus being a pro pie cutter.

And there you have it! A perfect Thanksgiving Dinner kilometers away :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!