STEAK WITH FRENCH FRIES AND FRIED GREEN PEPPERS

Another extremely easy recipe, but just seeing the picture it makes my mouth water!

Ingredients per person: one 8oz beef steak (I have used for this recipe rum steak, but it can be rib eye, sirloin, etc), one large potato or two smaller ones, one or two peppers, olive oil and salt.

Peel the potatoes  and cut them with the typical french fries shape and we salt them. In a big frying pan put a couple of fingers depth of olive oil, enough to cover the potatoes. If needed we can do a couple of batches.

As I have explained in previous posts, the secret for the perfect french fries is to add the potatoes when the oil is still cold.

Once the potatoes are fried, we use the same oil to fry the peppers. We will need to cut them in slices or at least to pierce the peppers so they won’t explode. The peppers will be ready when you see they are soft, but be careful as they can turn brown and therefore overcooked quite quickly. We will add the salt after we fry them.

While the peppers are being fried we will grill the stakes in a different pan. I like my one very very rare. Once the steaks are ready salt them, if possible with coarse salt.

Bon appétit!

COCIDO

First thing that I need to say is that I can’t translate the name of this dish. With Cocido it happens like with Chorizo, there is no word in the English language equivalent to it.

Literally Cocido means boiled, but something boiled it is definitely not a Cocido.

Second, once I tell you that this dish takes about 4 h to be ready you are going to think that I have lost it completely and that there is no way you are going to spend that amount of time in the kitchen. Don’t you worry, actually it doesn’t work like that.

This is another recipe from my mother, and she passed to me as the traditional way that this dish is cooked in Madrid, where we are from. However I have adapted it, bearing in mind that I currently live in the UK and it is very difficult to come across certain ingredients.

Ingredientes: chickpeas, beef, bone (special for Cocido), fat bacon, chicken, chorizo, black pudding, carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and salt. But you can add whatever you fancy for example garlic, peppers, cabbage, green beans … And you can as well take out whatever you don’t like or you can’t find.

Regarding the amount of each ingredient, I always play by ear, as it depends how big the potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, etc are. For example, we are 5 in my home, so I use 500 gr of chickpeas, 1 or 2 potatoes per person, 3-4 carrots, 3-4 tomatoes, 1 onion, as much chorizo as you would like, 750 gr of gamon ...

Here in the UK I only use chorizo and gamon as meat, and black pudding if I can find it.

If you live in Spain in big supermarkets such as Mercadona you can normally find already prepare packages with the required meat and the required veggies in the relevant sections of the market. Which will make your life a lot easier.

If you are using dry chickpeas you need to put them in water the day before. But you can as well use can or bottled already cooked chickpeas.

Chickpeas the day before

Chickpeas after the night submerged in water

In a big pot we add the chickpeas and all the meat that we are going to use, except the chorizo and the black pudding. Then we cover it with water and we leave it to boil. You don’t really have to worry about it for an hour or so I would say.

When meat is boiled it normally releases some kind of white foam that needs to be removed before we add any other ingredient.

When the chickpeas and the meat start to be tender  we add everything else: veggies, chorizo and black pudding. If needed remove some of the water and save it for later.

And then we leave it again to cook for about 3 more hours. The stove needs to be at minimum heat. The water will evaporate continuously, therefore we will have to add water all the time, starting for the water that we saved earlier when we added all the ingredients.

Any water that you add must always be HOT, because if you add cold water can make the chickpeas hard.

If you use can/bottled chickpeas it might be easier as you will be sure that chickpeas are soft. In this case you can cooked the meat as explained, but you will add the chickpeas with the rest of the veggies.

Regarding salt, be careful. If you use gamon you don’t really need to add any, as gamon it a very salty meat. If you are adding salt is best to do it each time that you add an ingredient or some water, but always try it first so you don’t over salt the dish.

Once the dish is ready we separate the stock from the meat and veggies, so will have soup as starter and the rest as main. However you can eat altogether if you like.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, as there are few dishes more traditional and typical Spanish than this one.

QUICK LENTILS

Sometimes you cant just be bothered to wait for over an hour to have your food ready, you want now and there!

Well, there is an easy way to cook you lentils in a fraction of the time that will be take to cook them from scratch, and the taste it’s pretty similar.

Ingredients: couple of cans of already cooked lentils, 2 potatoes, 2 carrots, some chorizo, a handful of rice and some salt.

We open the cans of lentils and put them in a pot. Add a couple of glasses of water and on to the stove.

We peel the potatoes and the carrots, cut them in chunks and we add them to the pot. We add as well some slices of chorizo, together with the salt and the handful of rice.

The lentils will be ready as soon as the potatoes are ready, about 15-20 minutes.

Then you can enjoy this very warm and cosy winter meal.

GRANDMA'S POTATOES WITH CHORIZO AND FRIED EGGS

This recipe was considered poor's people food in the past, as it is really cheap. However, today it is quite the delicatessen, mainly for those of us who live far away from Spain.

And it is an incredible simple recipe.

Ingredients: potatoes, (two or three per person, depending on how big they are), one or two onions, chorizo (the more the merrier), olive oil and salt.

Peel the potatoes an cut them in chunks, and chop the onions in small dices. We put a base of olive oil in a large pan, about a finger or finger an a half. Add the potatoes and onions when the oil is still cold. We salt the potatoes to your taste. If you have one of those glass lids use it as the potatoes will cook quickly. You will need to moved the potatoes quite often so they would cook evenly

Cut the chorizo in slices about half a finger thick.

When the potates are half cooked add the chorizo and finish fying everything up.

In the meantime we fry the eggs.

We put altogether in the plate and voilá! Yummy, yummy, yummy

CUBAN RICE

This dish is INCREDIBLY easy! And  tasty and yummy and ideal for kids and adults both.

Ingredients: rice, eggs, bananas, fried tomato and olive oil.

First you need to cook the rice as previously explained in another recipe.

Secondly we need to fry the eggs. In a small plan put a generous quantity of olive oil and let get really hot. Then you can fry the eggs, as many per person as you wish.

We cut the bananas in slices about a finger thick. In another pan we put just a base of olive oil, or in the same one but taken out the majority of the oil. It is important you don’t fry the bananas in too much oil or the dish will end up being too greasy.

With regards to the fried tomato, you can cook it yourself, and I will put the recipe in due course. If you are not filling adventurous you can just heat up some fried tomato from the supermarket, such as passata (if you live in UK) or Orlando (if you live in Spain).

And that’s about it.

If you don’t fancy fried bananas that much you can use Frankfurt sausages instead.