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Recipes
Ensaladilla Rusa (Russian Salad) Recipe
Ensaladilla Rusa is a wonderfully indulgent Spanish dish - indulgent because of the wonderfully rich alioli used to make it. It’s also available absolutely everywhere you go in Spain, including prepared in supermarkets.
You can substitute crabmeat for the fresh prawns, fresh or tinned.
Serves 6-8 as a side dish
Ingredients
- 6 large waxy potatoes, unpeeled
- 4 eggs
- 3 large carrots, unpeeled
- 2 red capsicums, roasted, peeled and seeds removed
- 200g cooked baby peas
- 300g alioli (see separate Recipe)
- 500g cooked prawns, peeled and deveined, heads removed
Method
- Place the potatoes, eggs and carrots in a large saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil.
- Remove the eggs after they have boiled for 3 minutes.
- Cook the potatoes and carrots until tender, about 35-40 minutes.
- Once cool, peel the potatoes and carrots and shell the eggs.
- Dice the potato, carrot and eggs into small cubes, place in a bowl and season with salt.
- Slice the roasted red capsicum into 1cm strips. Reserve 5-6 strips for decoration, and dice the remaining strips.
- Cut the prawns into small bite sized pieces, about 2cm.
- Add the peas, capsicum and alioli (leave a little in reserve to decorate) to the potato, carrot and eggs, mixing gently. The idea is for each ingredient to remain intact, coated with the alioli.
- Gently mix in the red capsicum and prawns.
- Place in a serving bowl, smooth over the top with the back of a spoon and add a layer of alioli on top. Decorate with the capsicum strips.
Alioli (Garlic Mayonnaise) Recipe
Used to make Ensaladilla Rusa can be stored for a couple of days in a jar in the fridge. You can use a whisk and bowl for this, but a food processor works just fine.
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves (you can use 1 if you prefer a more subtle garlic flavour)
- 2 pinches of sea salt flakes
- 2 egg yolks
- 250ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Method
- Chop the garlic on a wooden chopping board and sprinkle with the sea salt.
- Using the flat part of your knife, crush the garlic and salt into a smooth paste. This takes a little time, but it’s essential that the paste is absolutely smooth with no chunks of garlic remaining before moving onto the next step.
- Place the garlic paste and egg yolks in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until blended.
- While processing, add the oil a few drops at a time, making sure that it is emulsified into the mixture before continuing with more oil.
- Keep adding the oil until the mixture becomes a thick, creamy mayonnaise.
- Season with the lemon juice. (If you need more salt, make sure to dissolve it into the lemon juice otherwise you will get white spots in the mayonnaise.)
Spanish Tortilla Recipe
Not to be confused with the Mexican Tortilla, Spanish Tortilla is a wonderful tapas dish you can get absolutely everywhere in Spain. Made with potatoes and egg, it’s great with olives, chorizo, some crusty bread and a Cerveza! It takes a little time as you need to confit the potatoes, but the effort is worth it.
Makes 1kg Tortilla
Ingredients
- 600g Nicola potatoes, peeled and sliced to 5mm thickness
- 300g thinly sliced brown onions
- 6 large eggs
- 2 tsp salt
- 750ml olive oil
Method
- Heat olive oil in a medium sized non-stick saucepan until bubbling lightly and consistently.
- Add potatoes and stir to ensure potato slices are separated.
- Cover and cook for 15 minutes, ensuring that oil is consistently bubbling at a low-medium heat.
- Add sliced onion to saucepan with potato and olive oil.
- Cover and cook for a further 10 minutes or until onion is soft.
- Remove potato and onion from heat and drain, reserving olive oil.* Set aside to cool.
- Beat eggs and add salt. Add to cooled potato and onion mixture, gently mixing through to ensure all potato slices are coated with egg.
- Transfer mixture to a 20cm non-stick fry pan over a low - medium heat.
- Use a fork to gently press down on potato and onions, creating a smooth, even surface and cook for approx. 10 minutes on one side.
- Flip the tortilla using a plate and cook on the other side for 10 minutes.
- Again, use a fork to gently press down on the top and sides of the tortilla to ensure a smooth surface on top and a rounded edge. You need to keep shaping the tortilla around the edges of the pan to make that traditional rounded edge all around.
- Flip the tortilla again using a plate and ensure it is golden brown on both sides.
Sangria Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 litre sparkling shiraz
- 5 tablespoons caster sugar
- Juice of 2 oranges
- 4 peaches, peeled and diced (can use apples when peaches are not in season)
- Grated rind of 2 lemons
- Cinnamon quill
Method
- In a serving jug, dissolve the caster sugar in the sparkling Shiraz.
- Add the orange juice and stir.
- Add the peaches or apples, lemon rind and cinnamon quill.
- Refrigerate and serve very cold with ice cubes and lemon peel. Enjoy!
Pollo al Ajillo (Garlic Marinated Chicken) Recipe
This dish is easy to prepare, just set and forget. You can also substitute rabbit with this recipe, it works just as well.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 12 pieces chicken
- 150ml ajo y perejil (see Note)
- 150ml olive oil
- 4 large brown onions, finely diced
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 litre hot chicken stock
- 500ml fino sherry
Method
- Place the chicken in a bowl, season with salt and rub all over with the ajo y perejil. Refrigerate for about 2 hours.
- Heat about 3/4 of the oil in a heavy based pan and sear the chicken on high heat until browned all over. Remove the chicken and set aside.
- Discard the oil, scrape the pan clean and add the remaining oil. Gently sauté the onion, bay leaves and garlic for about 15-20 minutes until the onion just starts to brown.
- Increase the heat to high and return the chicken to the pan. Add the sherry and after a minute, add the stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover the pan. Simmer for 1 hour or until the chicken is just tender and almost ready to fall off the bone. You can thicken the sauce a little if required.
Note: To make the ajo y perejil, take 2 large handfuls of sprigged parsley, 5 garlic cloves and 100ml extra virgin olive oil. Process to a medium puree.
Tarta de Santiago Recipe
Tarta de Santiago is a rich almond tart originating from Santiago de Compestela in Galicia, home of the breathtaking medieval cathedral and destination of the pilgrimage route - Camino de Santiago, or Walk of St James, the patron Saint of Spain.
Serves 8-12 depending on size of slices
Ingredients
Filling:
- 250g almond meal (best to do your own and ensure there is some texture to it)
- 250g white sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- Rind of 1 medium lemon, finely grated
- Icing sugar to dust
Pastry:
- 200g plain flour
- 100g cold butter, chopped
- 1 egg
- 75g white sugar
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C
- To make pastry, pulse the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor, making sure it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg and a little cold water, and pulse until the pastry comes together. Form into a flat disc, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
- To make the filling, whisk the eggs and sugar until the mixture becomes glossy pale and frothy. It should just about double in size. Fold in the almond meal, lemon rind and cinnamon.
- Grease a 24cm loose-bottomed fluted tart pan. Roll out the pastry and use it to line the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Line the pastry with baking paper, fill with rice or pastry weights and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and weights, and bake for 5 minutes or until crisp. Cool slightly.
- Spoon almond mixture into tart tin and smooth the top. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until golden. Cool tart in pan, then remove from pan and serve dusted with icing sugar.
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