Carpe Diem Trasañejo

First thing to be said about this wine is that this is not a common sweet wine, with a smooth, toasted and caramel taste, balanced and high roast. Maybe because it’s aged in barrels, maybe because it’s from down South of Spain (Málaga) makes it perfect match with any traditional Spanish dish. Coloured with a beautiful coaba tone and amber borders will delight everyone who tastes it.

Something you should know about us is that we love to take risks when tasting and pairing wine. Every tasting moment it’s a wonderful experience and with Carpe Diem Trasañejo was not any different. Sweet Spanish wine with cold cured meat: salami, crackling, chorizo, cheese… and our own recipe of pizza, Spanish pizza as we call it. It’s basically made of salami, sausage, chorizo, emmental cheese, grated cheese…

Homemade Spanish Pizza

The result of this pairing was spectacular such like the wine’s acidity desappears, the toasted notes evaporated and smooth and sweet notes shows instead, mixing with cold cured meat making our dinner a pure delicious thing.

This wine’s name should be remembered: Carpe Diem Trasañejo. Recently awarded with a gold medal at Bacchus 2013. You shouldn’t miss the chance and try it any time you can. I’m sure you will enjoy the experience.

First of all, chop some onion and put that in the pan, fry that with olive oil (always use olive oil) and add a few slices of red or green pepper, whatever you have at hand.

While that gets done a bit, slice some chorizo and then add it to the pan.

Chop some potatoes into medium sized chunks and add them to the pan.

Mix and stir

Add some salt and some parsley, I used fresh parsley but you can use the supermarket stuff.

Then you add the precooked white beans from the jar  (you can skip this step if you’d like to just stick to the original recipe)

Add some water to cover it all-

See??

In my case I closed my pan and left it there for 8 minutes.  If you don’t have a magic pan like mine, then half cover it and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Ready to eat:

Some people like it really chorizy, I just like it slightly flavored so I don’t put much chorizo in this dish, just enough to give it some color and some taste.  I just love potatoes!

Oh! and one more thing.. they’re no called Patatas a la Riojana just for fun, Rioja is a place in Spain.  You might not know the place or where it is exactly but I bet you’ve had some Rioja wine at some point in your life and if you  haven’t, then.. What are you waiting for?  Get some of that before you start making this dish.

Go on…. off you go to the shops…

As is evident, “I” has been the only one breathing life into this blog from time to time (law school and a wee fraction of her attention goes to helping rehabilitate my mangled writing ego). Yes, years have passed and that self-limitation still holds me by the collar. I try to shake loose, you see; so I go around, see and try things thinking that by putting myself out there, I might regain what was lost to me. But one crucial act that I have not been keen to commit to is to sit down with self-discipline.

With small steps, I clamber out of the abyss, yet again endeavoring to woo the muse that has eluded me for my laziness and complacence.

I am eyeing Marikina as an inspiration to an idea that I intend to birth in time. Since my boyfriend “J” (ahermn. . . “I” hinted on this in the last entry) and I were meeting last Saturday with no clear destination, I suggested that we explore the city’s food haunts and take an insight or two. After an exemplary display of my direction noob-ility that took a good half of our day, we managed to find the J.P. Rizal Street of Marikina.

Tucked in a small street across the Our Lady of the Abandoned Church (which locals refer to as “OLA”), CAFE KAPITAN is a two-story heritage house that consists of adobe walls, capis windows, glass-paneled doors, wooden frame and furniture. The ceiling of the main dining room is adorned with orbs of light cupped by paelleras or pans used to cook the famed Spanish dish, paella. I am a sucker for old houses and this, without a fail, popped my eyes with utter wonder.

Bar in front of the kitchen entrance and beside the door to the Music Room

We sneaked around while waiting for the food to arrive and saw a closed room which a female attendant graciously opened for us to poke our noses into. The small room, called Museo ng Musika, is reserved for special functions and meetings. Dangling from its ceiling are decades-old wind instruments used by students of the first public elementary school in Marikina housed in the same building, which was first the residence of Don Laureano Guevara (father of the Marikina shoe industry). According to Mr. John Lim, a third-generation Chinese restaurateur, the local government of Marikina gave him the opportunity to develop the Spanish structure into a melting pot of culture and cuisine. Since Cafe Kapitan’s opening in 1995, Mr. Lim has been hands-on; even incorporating family recipes in the menu.

On the suggestion of the attendant with a pleasant smile, we ordered BLUE MARLIN A LA POBRE (P179), slices of blue marlin fillet in thin soy-based sauce generously topped with mushrooms, with corn and carrots as side dish; The marlin was a little on the tough chew but the succulent mushrooms and the well-seasoned sauce made for the dish. While the picture does not do justice, the CRAB OMELETTE (P135) was soft and fluffy and palatable enough without condiment. We paired these viands with GARLIC RICE (P31) and downed with LEMON ICED TEA (P45) and FRESH CALAMANSI JUICE (P48).

When we arrived and started snooping around instead of securing a table, a baptismal reception was being prepared upstairs. The second level is a spacious room for special occasions and in-house catering. Mr. Lim explained that they do not venture into outdoor catering for fear of food contamination and to assure safety of personnel and facilities.

The travel time (with all the loops and turns) was a fiasco, good thing the man behind the wheels urged me that we do not just leave Marikina without finding what we went there for. With the ambiance, service, price, and dedication of the owner in preserving and communicating his hometown’s history, I can say that the whole trip was worthwhile.

Wishing well at the corner of the main dining room :)

K’s RATINGS: 
:O (gasp! that’s just horrible!)
:( (sappy and crappy)
:| (meh. next please!)
:) (yay! on your way to awesomeness!)
:D (expect more of me soon!)

• FOOD – :)
• SERVICE – :)
• AMBIANCE - :D

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In the search for the original empanada, the mom of all empanadas!, I turned to this Galician dish, something I had when i was like 5 and I can still remember the experience, yes, an awesome one i meant. It’s like this baked steak sandwich (or tuna or chicken or just bell peppers, in either case, awesomeness), the real deal uses a french bread dough, more classical bread than what i ended up trying here, and I’ve had this variation in many bakeries around venezuela, in which the brioche dough has earned it’s place and it’s used pretty much every time we want to stuff something in bread, or cover bread with sugar. So this variant is a bit different, but in a good way i hope, at least i find it a perfect combination of brioche bread and pressured cooked flank steak stew:

Filling:

400g carne asada (I happened to have pre-seasoned steak at hand)
400g red bell pepper
200g yellow onion
200g green pasilla chilli pepper
15g garlic
400g chicken stock
250g water
80g tomato paste
1/4 tbs baking soda

olive oil for roasting and browning as needed.

Dough:

see Pan de Jamon

I did cut down the butter amount to 2 Tbsp. I figured if I was gonna stuff a pie with a meat stew, it had to be strong enough to hold a wet filling and not too pastry like.

Also, check out these tips on http://www.dianasdesserts.com, super helpful!

Anyways, here are some instructions to make the stuffing:

toss veggies with olive oil to coat, roast veggies in the oven, except for garlic (garlic is more delicate and will burn before veggies roast)

brown meat in pressure cooker pot with some olive oil at medium high, work in a batch at a time, probably 2 batches total.

add tomato paste and let caramelize in the pot on medium heat.

add rest of the ingredients and pressure cook for 15 mins.

at medium low, reduce until most of the liquid is gone. be careful not to burn the bottom, requires continuous stirring.

add salt and pepper to taste.

refrigerate overnight.

To make the dough, again, reference the Pan de Jamon recipe.

Once dough is ready, roll it out into 2 round sheets to a diameter slightly larger than 12″ so you can dress a quiche dish this size.

I could have par baked the bottom sheet to dry it out a bit so the stuffing wouldnt make it too soggy (which isnt a bad thing when stuffing pies with meat.. so i didnt)

Cover the quick dish with the second sheet and seal it along the edges, basically press the edges together and then fold over to create the crusty pie trim, Im sure there is a much better name for this.

done!

My in-laws hosted today’s event and on the menu… Paella!

My father-in-law lived in Spain until he was in his early twenties and then relocated to the US. One of the traditions that he has proudly passed down, is the making of this spectacular dish. My husband has become quite a pro!

For those of you who might not be familiar with paella, it is a traditional Spanish dish that tastes absolutely marvelous! If you are interested in learning more about paella, Alton Brown does a fantastic job explaining the history and the method in THIS short episode of Good Eats.

As always, the paella was stupendous and the company wonderful. It was a lovely, relaxing afternoon.

I love my in-laws very much! I am so glad that they were able to enjoy this special weekend, surrounded by people who love them.

Does your family have a traditional meal that is taught to each generation?

The Marbella sunset was gorgeous. Due to the high altitude, the clouds were so low that at times it felt foggy outside.

This way to Old Town!

The Old Town of Marbella- white walls, traditional brick and lovely gardens.

Little squares such as this one could be found all over Old Town, with various restaurants and shops lining the sides.

These potted flowers lined the white walls all over the city.

Local artisans made these decorative hangings in preparation for one of the summer festivals of Marbella.

Alright, last picture of Old Town- it was just so cute!

A traditional Spanish dish, paella. Big enough to serve six people, we finished the plate with only two…

A statue in the main square of Marbella. In the background, you can see the incredible beach.

Enjoying wine and appetizers at sunset during the last night in Marbella.

Some of the photos shown in this post were taken by Megan Price. Check out her Cool Sass bio here. 

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1. Tortilla Espanola

Traditional Spanish dish. Basically omelette with potato in with an occasional appearance from an onion. I am addicted. They have it in baguettes here as a snack. Carbalicious, yes, but also remarkably good. I love how the very first item in this list of 50 is food related. In truth, for the first few days I was here I barely ate. It must just come with the territory of arriving in a brand new place on your own. I just completely lost my appetite. A few of my English Language Assistant friends here have said the same thing happened to them. If this does happen, just make sure you keep drinking plenty of water, especially in hot places.

2. Ikea (eee-kay-ah)

So apparently British people say Ikea weirdly. The one I went to southern Madrid is actually part of a shopping centre, called La Gavia. A bit odd considering they’re normally just on their own in England. I walked the whole way around with a random Bolivian lady who was buying things for her 8 month old grandson. True story. I bought the essential things like bed clothes, towels, mirror (full length, which I definitely carried home on the metro), coat hangers and a duvet for winter because it does get cold in Madrid. I say cold, I mean not as cold as the UK. I say a duvet, it’s as thin as a sheet when compared to British ones!

3. A flat

I FOUND ONE! I’ve been living in it since Friday 14th September. I actually saw my flat on the first night I arrived. I decided to arrange one viewing before I flew out to make sure I didn’t chicken out of getting on the flat hunt straight away. When viewing that flat the landlady said she had rooms in another flat and I agreed to see it. I loved the second flat! It’s ‘un lujo’ – a luxury. They definitely wouldn’t let students live here if it was in the UK. 3 year old building, two swimming pools (indoor/outdoor), a gym, a massive bedroom, new kitchen, under floor heating, dishwasher, 5 bedrooms in total, a balcony and a beautiful lift. That’s right, a really nice lift. This is a reconstruction of my first few times in it:

4. Cien Montaditos

Two food based items in the first 5 of this collection of things-to-do-with-my-first-two-weeks, but I promise this is a good’un. The concept is 100 little baguettes all with different fillings on the menu between €1 – €2 euros each. Plus beers, coffees and soft drinks for the same €1 – €2 euro price tag. It’s a chain but it’s amazing. Ate there several times during the first week or so of being here. This may or may not have been Jack Kenny’s fault for introducing me to it on my first night.

5. Euro sign on the keyboard

With a new currency comes a new keyboard shortcut to learn. I’ve already got ¿ and ¡ down but I just had to work out how to do a euro sign on my keyboard for that Cien Montaditos entry. On a mac I can tell you it’s alt+2. €€€€ €€ € € €€€€ €  …and so on.

6. Food sweats

I’m not talking as a result of loads of meaty or spicy food here, I mean as a result of ALL food with a warm-to-hot temperature. It’s still 25-30 degrees here in Madrid in mid-September and even a cup of tea can bring out the beads on your forehead.

7. Greeting

One kiss on each cheek. A surprise on the first few occasions for some Brits but you soon get used to it. Even if you literally spend 30 seconds talking to/being introduced to a friend of a friend in a large group it’s a kiss on each cheek to say goodbye. I think it’s nice.

NB there is a very fine line between kisses on the cheek and a hug so be careful to judge correctly on the approach or it could be a bit awkward.

8. Think in Sterling

If you’re in a place where the currency is weaker than at home, think in sterling. The euro at the moment is roughly 1.20 to the £1. This imbalance comes in handy when justifying shopping decisions. 40 euros is about £32, you can practically save £8 in your head in an instant. This tactic helped me greatly when I decided to impulsively splurge on my favourite perfume.

9. Spanish people are noisier

They simply just talk LOUDER than us brits. Especially when together, bring your earplugs if you’re in a town or city centre and want a quiet night’s sleep.

10. ‘Why can I hear birds singing?’

Pedestrian crossings here in Madrid sound almost like very repetitive birdsong. I have one on the street below my window. Luckily I also have soundproof windows.

11. Get your legs out

Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many legs out just chilling on tables or on stands or hanging off a hook. Pigs legs, I mean. The Spanish are cray for ham. But what I remain focused on is the challenge of sourcing a place that serves a proper bacon sandwich as we know it in England, for those Sunday morning emergencies.

12. Stationary shops

WHERE ARE YOU? I really need to buy some whiteboard pens, blu tack and a few notepads. In England you can get some in any of the three or four big stationary chains or even in any supermarket. Spaniards must have the same stationarical (yes I made that up) needs as us?!

UPDATE: My Mexican housemate tells me stationary shops are called Papelería’s here …and that there’s actually one directly beneath our flat, one that I have been completely oblivious to for my whole two weeks of living here. Oops.

13. Ovens

Look at this photo of my kitchen. What’s missing?

THAT’S RIGHT. There isn’t an oven in my flat. I told my Spanish housemate that I thought it was weird the Spanish don’t have ovens. She told me it’s not Spaniards in general, just this flat. I can’t cook pizza, pasta bakes or bake. It’s killing me.

14. NIE

Numero de Identidad Extranjero. It’s the equivalent of a National Insurance number in the UK. You have to get one if you’re staying in Spain for more than 3 months. You use it to get a citizen bank account, which all of us British Council Language Assistants/Auxiliares de Conversacion need to get paid. You can also buy boats, vehicles and property, if your Erasmus grant stretches that far…

15. ‘Eres muy blanco’

As hard as you try to blend in you can’t help but stand out. Especially my pastey self, that quote being from my landlady when showing me the pool, saying I’m ‘very pale’ and ‘do I have suncream with me?’. Like I need reminding in a country of uber-tanned olive skinned Spaniards that I’m practically ghost like in comparison. Thaaaanks Marisol!

15.5. Vulnerability

There’s a point that leads on from 15 that is actually quite serious. Being a foreigner abroad makes you automatically more vulnerable than you’d like. You’re different. You stand out without meaning to and often when you really don’t want to. It can be uncomfortable but generally people are just curious about you in a passive and tolerable way. I get stared at a lot on the Metro for being pale and blonde, thus obviously not Spanish and therefore people think a valid object of analysis/discussion. This is fine though, nothing comes of it and you do expect it to happen.

But it’s when you carry your housemate into A&E at 5:30am on a Saturday morning that things don’t seem so passive as far as the speculation of your nationality goes. The whole flat of 5 girls went out together on our first Friday night. We stuck together, had money, keys, phones, and an extra 20 euros stashed in our bras (you know how it is ladies) just in case we lost everything so we could still get home and before any accusations of recklessness, we definitely didn’t drink beyond our limits. We kept out wits about us and were having a really good time dancing and joking and laughing together. This was until I found myself holding the hair back of one of our group, then another, then another. Three out of the five of us were throwing up and passing out.

Now it’s not uncommon on a night out for somebody to get too excited and drink too much, but not three falling ill at around the same time. It got to the point where we couldn’t get anything out of our Spanish housemate and it was worrying. She was out cold, unresponsive and limp, almost like a doll. We had to get security to carry her out of the club, get in a taxi and go to hospital.

No thanks to the Spanish police here. One female officer kept slapping her on the face and shouting ‘wake up’ and telling us to ‘go home, go home, go home’. In much less eloquent terms and very broken Spanish I said words to the following extent: ‘MATE! She’s not sleeping, she’s obviously not being carried out of a club for having a cheeky nap in the corner, she’s unconscious and unable to support her own neck, let alone have enough control of her body to regain consciousness, hold her own weight and walk home’. She (a representative of the police force) was very obtrusive and rude to us when we needed help the most. Maybe she thought our housemate was English and just drank too much, she’s probably heard of the binge culture, but at the same time surely she has a duty of care as a public safety authority and shouldn’t assume it’s that when we now believe that drinks were spiked.

It was all quite scary and the only member of our group who actually spoke fluent Spanish (because she IS Spanish) was a bit busy being unconscious to help us out with the whole hospital scenario. I had no idea how it all works over here. She was whisked off as soon as we crossed the threshold and myself and other unaffected housemate sat in the waiting area, waiting.

Five hours (two hours sleep on a plastic bench) later and we’re on the Metro home in our going out clothes at 11am on a Saturday morning. Ok, obviously the staring we got for being in going-out clothes and last night’s make up was asked for, it would totally happen in England lol. We are all absolutely fine now. My spanish housemate was ok to be let home by 10.30am, if not still a bit delicate, her body/liver/stomach had obviously been through a lot in the previous 12 hours!

The club we went to was called Faena and it’s on Calle Atocha next to Kapital. I’m never setting foot in there again and I advise you to be cautious too.

17. El Tigre

A famous tapas bar, there are two of them in Madrid situated very close together, one on Calle Horteleza (off Gran Via) and the other near Chueca metro on Calle Infantas (off Calle Horteleza off Gran Via). It is insanely good and very Spanish in essence. You order a caña (roughly half a pint of beer) for €2.50 and get a lot of really nice food, a selection of whatever they have going that evening is piled onto plates for you and your group. I would happily alternate between here and Cerverceria 100 Montaditos for dinner everyday, though that might result in having to buy an extra seat on the easyjet home.

18. Cochina

Quick Spanish lesson. Cocina means kitchen. Cochina means dirty, as in a dirty person, a slut, basically. I’d advise not getting the two mixed up, it can be a bit embarrassing.

19. ‘Only supported sims from supported carriers may be used in this phone’

Get your phone unlocked before you leave the UK. Your network carrier should be able to do it for free.

20. ‘Entiendo todo’ ‘no me mentiras’ ‘no te creo’

I say this to Spanish people, like those offering you deals at bars/clubs and the door staff, to make them think I’m fluent in Spanish and will know if they’re lying to me or trying to scam us, I’m quite good at it. Use a poker face. They always believe me and I’ve actually got better deals because of my good old British cynicism.

21. Pillows

They seem to be a different shape here. Look, neither of these are standard UK size:

22. Pepinos

Cucumbers over here are prickly and look a bit like short courgettes. So much so that I had to go home and look up the words for each vegetable before knowing for sure what they were.

23. Pimientos

Red peppers. The size of heads. For about 40p each. This must be why people move to Spain. No putting up with the awkward green pepper in a packet of three ping pong ball sized vegetables for me this year! See also: melons bigger than head size…

24. Chinos

Shops packed to the rafters with stuff. Random stuff. Just full of STUFF. From lightbulbs to underwear (think more Poundland rather than La Senza though) to food to whiteboard pens, trinket boxes, paint canvases, toys, decorative ornaments and all the rest of it. They’re called chinos because they’re run by chinos, literally Chinese people. They’re quite cheap and good to have a mooch in. After a two week search I eventually hunted down some blutack for my photos in a chino. It was a great day.

25. ‘Digame’

The thought of calling people up in Spanish still terrifies me. Luckily I got a flat with just the one phone call to somebody who I’d already emailed. Don’t be afraid though, just try your best to understand and ask them to speak ‘mas despacio’

26. Rain

It does exist here. It rained lightly the other morning and I saw people in WELLIES on the metro. Oh, Spaniards xx

27. Madrid Metro

Quick, efficient, not too expensive and a bit newer and nicer than the tube. I’ve been topping up my vocabulary on metro journeys: ‘Atencion! Estacion en curva. Tengan cuidado a no introducir el pie entre coche y anden’ means ‘Mind the gap’, basically.

28. Auxiliar de Conversacion training/induction day

I wouldn’t recommend going to it on three hours sleep. Also on this day they tell you which day and time your appointment to go and get your NIE is, do not miss the appointment whatever you do! It can take 6 months to get another one. No exaggeration. There’s a lot of bureaucracy in Spain.

29. Cleanse, tone, moisturise

Bring your cleanser with you. They can be a bit pricey here. Same goes for heat protection spray for your hair.

30. Opening a bank account

Haven’t done that yet. You can open one at the Santander on Calle Arenal (just off Puerta del Sol) ***without*** an NIE number (see number #14) but I’m waiting until I have my NIE before I get a bank account. This is only because I’m getting it in a few days time and there’s no reason or rush to get one in my circumstances

31. Chinese takeaways

Miss you already.

32. iPl-yay-er!

Ok, so you can’t watch telly on it from abroad (without a VPN connection, anyway) but for me still being able to scoot around BBC radio stations as I please is GREAT. It makes me feel still connected to home in a nice way.

33. Sorry

Politeness is such a British thing. In my short time in Spain I’ve realised we say sorry a lot more. Lo Siento is used if you’ve done something wrong. Perdon is the more commonly used word for cases of ‘excuse me’ which more or less means sorry. Perdona is a less formal Perdon.

34. Customer Service

Spaniards don’t really do it like we do. People in shops/banks can be quite rude to you, so keep a brave face and don’t take it personally.

35. Dwarf rooms

Some other British Council ELAs/Auxiliares have been to view seemingly normal rooms and found them to be a mere 1 metre in height. Oh. Is this just Madrid?

36. Sure fire way to out yourself as a foreigner…

Just get your ticket out before you try to exit the Metro station. It took me a while to get into the habit of *not* getting my ticket out on approaching the exit barriers.

37. Spanish voice over guy

Every advert voice over I hear DEFINITELY sounds like the same man. He must be loaded.

38. Boots

Missing that beautiful beacon of a blue oval. No meal deals, advantage points or quick toiletry/make up/medicine fix here. Nuh uh.

39. Clean streets

The streets are generally much cleaner and they literally wash them every night with a pressure washer. But this may be necessary for more than just the dust caused by lack of rain because I am lead to believe some Spanish people whip it out and go for a whizz in the street a fair bit. Niiiiice.

40. Opening times

Still no idea how this works. I think things close for lunch/siesta at 2 and re-open about 4-5ish. Bank’s definitely close at 2pm or 230pm. Some things tend to open at 10am. That’s as much as I know at the moment.

41. Mental fatigue

It’s hard work constantly listening and translating and thinking of what to respond with all at the same time and all day long. That siesta comes in handy for precious brain-filing-cabinet time.

41. Sightseeing

Haven’t done a lot of that so far. I’ll get around to it because I’ve made a list of the places to go to tick off throughout the year. Going to start with the bus tour (lol) and then the free stuff. I am still a student!

42. Botellon

Went to one of those at an Egyptian temple monument given to Spain by Egypt. Random but quintessentially young Spanish.

43. Boys

Que guapo. But can be a bit slimy (in my opinion)

44. Calle Montera, Puerta del Sol

A road that leads towards Gran Via from Puerta del Sol. Also known as Calle Puta. Prostitute Street. For good reason. FYI. Also around Sol generally take extra care of your bags and belongings because pickpockets are so quick and tend to target tourist hotspots.

45. Protests and strikes

I’ve seen a lot of protests and strikes already. The Spanish seem to love to take to the streets in their hundreds/thousands for a good ‘manifestation’. Protests about Francoism, strikes on the Metro about pay and one that are generally about EVERYTHING as there is a lot of unrest here at the moment about the economic crisis Spain and its banks are in.  Here’s a photo from one in Puerta del Sol:

46. Dejame en paz

Say this to anybody who accosts you in the street for one reason or another along with a hand gesture reminiscent of the ‘talk to the hand’ era. You may also want to use ‘que te vayas’ and ‘vete’ meaning ‘get lost/go away’.

47. Saying yes to things

There can be a pressure to say yes to everything on your year abroad, and saying yes is great because it can present you with experiences and people that you had never considered before, but don’t push the fatigue too far or you could make yourself ill. Being worn out isn’t a great look. From experience, it’s ok to say no to spend a evening having a bath and watching Great British Bake Off if you feel tired and unsociable. You’ll feel much better for it the day after too.

48. LOOK RIGHT!

I’m still looking the wrong way to cross the road. Immediately outing myself as a Brit. Great.

49. VPN connections from abroad

Google that. This one comes under ‘home comforts’.

50. In at the deep end

There will be moments, especially very early on, where you feel incredibly disorientated and alone amongst all of the getting set up in an unusual place and you may start questioning why you’re doing this. Stick at it and try to get to know others in the same boat as you, whether Erasmus students or Language Assistants or Spanish groups, activities or organisations that interest you. Shared knowledge and a small support network goes a long way. Especially when arriving in red-taped Spain.

So I set myself up for slicing the potatoes with the help of the KitchenAid mixer:

Slicing up the potatoes was SOOOOOOOOOO easy thanks to the KitchenAid!

Potatoes sliced & onions diced!

My dad helped me fry all the potatoes… we had a great production line going on!

My first KitchenAid utensil (and most recent new kitchen “toy”) came in handy when frying the potatoes in the hot oil.

This is just one of four tortillas cooking!

I think it took around 4 or 5 hours to make them all for the family party that day!

But it was time well spent!

Everyone loved them!!!!

Easy Shrimp Paella

This is my 90th post!  So I made it a very special recipe that reminds me of my childhood!

Growing up in Florida you can find a lot of Cuban and Spanish cuisine.  Every time my family would visit relatives in Tampa Bay my dad had to get a Cuban sandwich from his favorite shop, and I have many memories of eating yellow rice for dinner.  It was a staple in our home and I absolutely love the flavor of it.  I seriously could live off of yellow rice and pasta for the rest of my life.  Anytime I scan through recipes, my eye is always caught by dishes with yellow rice and the most popular dish would be paella.  I’ve never made paella before, but it seemed easy and I knew Rex and I would love it.  So last night I made my first paella.  I made an easy version by using a box of yellow rice.  It didn’t take long to throw together as shrimp takes only a couple of minutes to cook and the flavors were amazing!  We liked it so much, I am going to make it again next week. 

Easy Shrimp Paella

Easy Shrimp Paella

What you need:

• 1 box of yellow rice, cooked
• 3/4 lb. shrimp, deveined and peeled
• 2 T butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

In a small bowl combine raw shrimp, juice of 1 lemon and salt and pepper.  Mix well and set aside.

In a large pan heat 2 Tablespoons of butter on medium high heat.  Saute onion and bell pepper until soft and translucent.  Add tomato and salt and pepper and continue to cook for about 4 minutes.  Then shrimp, turmeric, and garlic powder.  Mix and cook until shrimp start to turn pink.  Add white wine and let cook for about more minutes.  Serve shrimp mixture on top of yellow rice and enjoy! 

Happy Chewing!

Stupid deadlines

Family gatherings

All combine and result in me not doing too much interesting cooking really

So here is another dish from the dinner party from a while ago.

My friend Tania (http://thebadjogger.com/) was here for the dinner party and she is Portuguese – so obviously we made the classic Spanish dish of patatas bravas. The interwebz is awash with recipes for this tapas dish, but this happens to be the one we used. They differ somewhat, but apparently in Spain each place has a slightly different version anyway. So you can’t actually be wrong.

The recipe makes more sauce than you need and trust me, you will be glad. We ate it on pretty much everything for two days and were sad when it was finished.

So – you need:

500g potatoes, unpeeled and chopped into chunks or wedges

I big onion, sliced. I thought they meant chopped but they meant sliced – the slices are delicious

2 gloves or garlic, or, if you are like me and think 2 cloves of garlic are not worth getting garlicky fingers for, four cloves

1 or 2 chillis chopped small. Pips in or out depending on how butch your taste buds are. Mine are big girls so 1 small chill with no pips was enough.

2 bay leaves

4 tomatoes, unpeeled and chopped. The ones we used were big table tomatoes, but not those monster beef ones. You could peel them if you wanted but the skins were completely inoffensive once everything was cooked.

Tomato puree – if I had a jar or that squeezey tube you get I’d have used about a tablespoon. I had a small tin and I never remember to use the left overs so I put it all in

1 glass white wine. This is for the food – drink the rest of the bottle

Soya sauce – according to taste really. We probably used about a tot.

2 heaped tablespoons of sugar

1 heaped tablespoon of mayo

Olive oil for cooking

Parsley to make pretty

You do:

Par boil the potatoes. I read somewhere that to get even cooked potatoes you should put them in cold water and then allow the water to heat around them. We did that and then let them boil for about 6 minutes or so. You don’t want them cooked through. Drain them, put them on a baking tray, sprinkle with olive oil and put in a 180-ish oven for about 40 minutes.

Fry the sliced onions, garlic and bay leaf til the onion is soft. Then add the soya sauce, sugar, wine, tomato puree and chill and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the tomatoes and let it simmer over a low heat for about 20 minutes.

When the potatoes are ready and the sauce is bubbling away, season the sauce with a little salt and pepper if needed – do taste it first cos of the soya sauce. Dish the potatoes up, pour the sauce over the top and add a dollop of mayo and a sprinkle of parsley.

Serve with napkins

What can be easier or more delicious than featuring this traditional Spanish dish with seafood, rice, turkey sausages, veggies and chicken at your next dinner party!

Package details: Delicious seafood paella for eight, packaged for pick-up at the Echevarria-Mester home on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Please give Diego at least a week’s notice and use by the end of the school year.  Value: $150

My mother-in-law actually put me on to these YUMMY home fries.  She made them for me a few years back & I’ve added them to my breakfast repertoire.  They are easy peasy & are great for when you have a multitude of mouths to feed, like I did this past weekend.

Ingredients needed:  Serves 8

• Goya Sazón
• Goya Adobo
• Garlic Powder
• Olive Oil
• 8 potatoes
• ½ onion
• ½ green pepper
• 3 garlic cloves
• Butter (optional)

I peeled half of the potatoes & left the majority of the peel on the other half.  I find that this gives the home fries additional texture.  I nuked them for 7 minutes in a microwave safe bowl.

While the potatoes were softening in the microwave, I chopped up the green pepper, onion and garlic cloves.  I usually throw in red and yellow pepper as well.  But because I am me, I forgot to grab them at the market.

Next I combined both the potatoes and veggies on a hot skillet, which was prepped with a bit of olive oil.  I used my spatula to break up the potatoes into smaller pieces & mix the ingredients around.  Now, here comes the yummy goodness.  I added 2 packets of Sazón and was generous with both the Adobo & garlic powder.  On a side note, I’ve noticed that whenever I’m making a Spanish dish, I never measure my ingredients.  Everything is done according to taste.  I hope that this doesn’t throw you off.

I stirred the papas around until they seemed equally sprinkled with the seasonings, then covered them to allow to soften and cook further.  Before covering them, I added just about a tablespoon of butter under each top.  Yes, I know!  So unhealthy.  But I tell you they are sooooooooo yummy.  And we’re all entitled to be gluttonous every once in awhile.

And there you have it, a good 15 minutes later the home fries were done and ready to be served.  All while, I was making these heavenly potatoes, I was baking eggs.  You heard me right, baking eggs, along with bacon and toast.  Check out this tasty recipe from Martha Stewart.   My guests loved the egg cups, but fell head over heels for my home fries.  Go ME!!

Well my friends, I hope you give my little recipe a try.  Buen Provecho!

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