Iberian Acorn Ham

Last month, just in time for Christmas, my dear friend Nuria of Spanish Recipes sent me a package containing vacuum-sealed Iberian Acorn Ham. For those not in the know, Iberian Acorn Ham is a cured ham which is only produced in Spain the meat comes from free-range hogs that feed on only what's in the wild, including acorns.

Most of you are familiar with prosciutto but I urge to look for and try a few slices of Iberian ham. It's flavour can be described as buttery, a slight tang to the taste and a warm, brown finish as it melts in your mouth.

Iberian ham is best served when brought to room temperature and little accoutrement is needed with this fine product.

Here, I cut up some small logs of Greek Manouri cheese, wrapped the ham around it, added some greens for colour and contrast and served this with a pickled cherry pepper from our family's cellar.

No olive oil is needed here (as the ham is quite oily) but I dressed this appetizer with some lemon zest and freshly cracked black pepper. Don't forget that in the background stands oneof my mom's homemade and delicious bread rolls.

Nuria, thank you so much for your generosity, your warm friendship and always delicious food on your blog. I urge all of you to pay a visit to Nuria's site, tell her "Peter sent ya" and only visit her site on a full stomach, otherwise you'll be instantly hungry.



If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.blogspot.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author. © 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

Greek Gazpacho

I've had this Ina Garten riff on the Spanish cold soup known as Gazpacho, on my mind for ages and the time is NOW, to enjoy this refreshing first course.

It's hot, it's humid, it's Toronto in the summer. Nothing beats the heat like jumping through the sprinkler, having an ice cream or having a cold, refreshing soup to start your backyard meal.

I've added my own twists to this Greek Gazpacho. I opted to roast the peppers in the soup for some added sweetness and smokyness and I've added a garnish of an olive oil ice cube.

Serve this cold soup on a hot day, plop the olive oil ice cube just before serving and relish the summer, the outdoors, this hearty cold soup.

Greek Gazpacho

2 slices of day old crusty Italian bread
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped Greek oregano 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley
5 Tbsp. good red wine vinegar
1/4 cup of good olive oil
1 roasted red bell pepper, skins peeled and seeds removed
1 roasted green bell pepper, skins peeled and seeds removed
2 red onions, roughly chopped
1 seedless cucumber (unpeeled, seeded & chopped)
4 large, ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
3/4 cup sun-dried black olives (Throumpes)
2 tsp. ground black pepper
8 oz. Greek feta, small dice
approx. 46 oz. of V-8 or other vegetable cocktail
(depends on how thin or thick you like your soup)
salt to taste

Garnish
extra-virgin olive oil
ice cube tray or shot glasses

1. Using shot glasses or an ice cube tray, fill the ice cube tray to the top with olive oil or the shot glasses half-way up. Place in the freezer to harden.
2. In a food processor, place the bread, garlic, oregano, parsley and process everything until it becomes a wet paste. Now add the olive oil and wine vinegar and pulse until mixed in. Remove and reserve in a large bowl
   
3. In the same food processor, add the cucumber, onions, tomatoes and olives and whiz until coarsely chopped. Add to the reserved bread/herb mixture in the large bowl and add the vegetable cocktail, black pepper and stir well. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt (if any) and pepper.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for alt least 3 hours.
5. For serving, ladle soup into each bowl with some cubes of feta. Take your olive oil ice cubes out of the freezer and pop one into the middle of each soup. If you used shot glasses, place them in warm water to free up the frozen olive oil. Serve cold.
   

A Salad That Makes You Go...WHOA!!!!!!

A common theme that seems to repeat itself over the past few days is the demise of Tastespotting and many of you have already lamented of the void it left when it shut down.

In a healthy, free-enterprise and spirited punch of creativity, many of you have offered up to replace, emulate or substitute a site like Tastespotting, where we will be able to lick the screens of our computer screens again.

Dhanngit of Dhanngit's Kitchen contacted me this morning and invited me to join her new site called Recipe Muncher. I've joined the collective and I must say that enrolling was easy and painless.

I know there will be some other entitities that will pop-up in wake of the Tastespotting demise but for now, I've chosen Recipe Muncher, why don't you?

Isn't it also fitting that a salad like this would even make Granny wet and make Gramps dump all his Viagra?

Look at this beauty! In the Pantheon of foodporn, this salad dilates the eyes and if that weren't enough, it's mighty F-ing fantastic.

This salad is the work of Jose Andres and I recently caught one of his episodes in Made in Spain.

Unfortunately for most of us, Jose's site is stingy with dishing out recipes but after Googling the recipe, I smirked, smiled and then grinned as I found the recipe, as created by Amy and Jonny of We Are Never Full.

I made a few departures from the original salad but relax...I stayed true to the salad's approach: I left the apple peel on, added a squirt of Dijon to emulsify my dressing and garnished with some Chive flowers.

Once again, the star of this dish is the Spanish blue cheese called Cabrales. If you can't find it where you live, any other quality bleu should do.

Here, I've presented the salad in a one plate serving for two. Got a date coming up? Wanna WOW your S.O? Feeling a little frisky?

Break out a bottle of crisp Moscato wine, share this salad and see if you can finish the evening without licking each other in the process.

Salad of Green Apple and Cabrales
(for 2)

1 large Green apple
Approx. 2 oz. of Cabrales (or other) blue cheese
3 hazelnuts
3 Tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil
a dash of Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. of good cider or red wine vinegar
chopped fresh chives
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Rinse and then core your apple. Now using a mandoline, thinly slice your apple (from top to bottom) and if making ahead of time, squirt some lemon juice to slow down the browning of the apple.
2. Arrange your apple slices on a plate, overlapping each other and crumble your Cabrales cheese over the apples.
3. In a small jar, add your vinegar, olive oil and Dijon with a pinch of salt and pepper. Shake well to emulsify and spoon over your salad.
4. Now using your microplane, grate the 3 hazlenuts over the entire salad. This is your "hazlel nut" salt and in my opinion...this simple little attention to detail is brilliant.
5. Finish the salad with a topping of fresh snipped chives.
6. Uncork a crisp, chilled bottle of Moscato and share the plate of salad.
   

Solomillo With Cabrales Sauce

Today was a glorious day. I had nothing to do but relax all day, enjoy the hot weather and reward my week's hard work with a nice BBQ. WRONG.

Just as I lit my grill did it start to get really dark and overcast...rain. SHIT!

Onto to Plan B.

My craving for steak would not be denied. I employed the use of my trusty indoor grill pan and I seared some rib-eyes to near perfection.

To spruce up my steaks and keep up with ever fleeting appetite, I tried out the combo of beef with blue cheese.

Today's particular blue cheese is called Cabrales. It's a cheese from Spain's northern mountains in the Asturias region. Cabrales is aged from two to six months in the limestone mountains of the area. The relative humidity is 90% and a cool 7-13 C - ideal for the development of a mouldy cheese.

For the record, I was iffy on the combo of blue cheese with beef but this sauce has changed my opinion on the matter...the pairing is as natural as Sid Vicious with Nancy Spungen (yes I was listening to the Sex Pistols today).

If you're a fan of blue cheeses, next time ask for Cabrales. It's a sharp blue but wonderful in flavour and it made for a complex sauce that was blended and mellowed with the magic of Spanish sherry.


Solomillo With Cabrales Sauce
(for 4)

2 Tbsp. butter
1 swirl of olive oil
4 Rib-eye or
fillets of beef
coarse sea salt
fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup Spanish sherry
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 oz. of Cabrales (blue cheese), crumbled
chopped fresh chives for garnish

1. Heat the butter and oil together in a heavy frying pan over high heat. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and fry them for 3-4 minutes a side, for rare to medium-rare. Remove steaks and keep warm in a pre-heated oven.
2. In the same fry pan, reduce the heat and add the sherry and stir with a wooden spoon to pick up the brown bits.
   
3. Add the crumbled Cabrales and mash it into the sauce with your spoon and then add your cream and simmer to heat through and thicken. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.
   
4. Serve steak with some sauce and a garnish of chives and with a side of some grilled or roasted potatoes and a seasonal salad.
   

OH NO YOU DIDN'T JUST DO THAT?

OH yes I did! I combined shrimp with Chorizo sausage. I saw a photograph of this combo recently and I knew I had to try it.

This has to be one of the best non-recipes. How do I instruct you, what instructions are there to follow or is there any technique involved?

First of all, go find some Chorizo. In this instance, I used the dried, cured Chorizo sausage. It comes in a mild or spicy version and for this treat, I went with spicy.

The only advice I can give you here is to seek shrimp that big enough to fit the arc of the chorizo when skewering the shrimp to it.

The other tip is slice the sausage to the same thickness as the shrimp and last but not least, grill on high heat and please...do not overcook your shrimp. Shrimp is cooked when in turns pink.

If you want to learn more about Chorizo sausage, visit my friend Nuria's blog where she lays down the basics of Chorizo.

Playing With Romesco

Don't confuse Romesco with that freaky broccoli-like vegetable - that's romanesco.

Romesco is a Spanish sauce used for dipping or an accompaniment to a meal.

When fasting for Greek Lent, I never held the the belief that I had stay within the realm of Greek food to fast. One's choices are limited by ingredients so, why not delve into other cuisines for some variety?

España came to the rescue the other day. I have a very good Spanish cookbook which gives one an introduction to the basics of Spanish cuisine like the the ingredients, regions, seasonal dishes and of course recipes.

I've had Romesco sauce on my mind for awhile but I've held back as there are so many varieties, takes and twists on Romesco sauce.

I settled for a simple version and I like it, alot. My first thoughts on the taste were, "this reminds me of a tomato-like tzatziki sauce!

A sauce is nothing unless you have something to dip it in right? In keeping with the Lent theme, I marinated some shrimp, pan-grilled them and served them on a warm bruschetta. What do you think of the Greek dude's take on Tapas?

Prawn Souvlaki With Romesco Sauce
(for 4)

24 medium-sized prawna, peeled and de-veined
4 wooden skewers
Vegeta seasoning
1 large clove of garlic, minced
ground black pepper
smoked paprika lemon wedges

1. In a large bowl, combine the seasoning, minced garlic, pepper, smoked paprika and shrimp in a bowl and toss to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Place your shrimp on the skewers.
   
2. Get a grill pan or BBQ grill to heat to smoking hot. Brush the surface with vegetable oil.
3. Grill your shrimp for 1-2 minutes a side or until pink.
4. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice and serve with a side of Romesco Sauce
   

Romesco Sauce

1 small roasted red pepper, peeled and seeded
(about 1/4 cup chopped)
1 small hot chilli
1/4 cup roasted almonds
3 cloves of garlic, shopped
Approx. 2/3 cup olive oil
1 slice of stale bread
3 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
salt and ground pepper

1. In a food processor, add all of the above ingredients (except the olive oil) and puree to a paste. Slowly add your olive oil until you achieve your desired consistency.
2. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
3. Serve at room temperature.
   

Catalan Potatoes

I'm always a sucker for trying out new potato dishes. My blog chica, Nuria lives near Barcelona and and I'm sure she's seen something like this in a tapas bar or she's even made it at home.

There's nothing really new with ingredients but I was curious to try this pan-method with the slices of potatoes.

The starches from the potatoes get released and meld with the caramelizing onions and tomatoes, a smack of garlic and the black pepper to give this rustic dish some heat.

I had this with a late dinner omelet and a sausage (NO, not a hot dog) and it was a satiating dinner after a long day's work.

Credit for these Catalan Potatoes goes to a Bob Kinkead (thanks Bob) and if you feel like cooking something but you don't want to make it a big kitchen event, try out these potatoes...they are as tasty as they look.

I'm submitting these potatoes as my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Erin of the Skinny Gourmet. Watch for Erin's roundup of the array of dishes early next week.

Catalan Potatoes
(for 6)

1/2 cup olive oil (1/3 cup for nonstick pans) 3 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 large red onion, diced
2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat an 8- or 9-inch skillet over medium heat. Pour in the olive oil and add the whole garlic cloves. Cook the garlic until browned, about 8 min. Discard the cloves.
2. Add the diced onion to the pan. Sauté in the oil until light brown, about 12 min. Remove the onions from the pan with a slotted spoon.
3. Add half of the potato slices to the oil. Top them with an even layer of the onions, chopped garlic, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Top with the remaining potato slices.
   
4. Cook the potatoes until browned, about 15 min., and then turn the potatoes over onto a plate and then flip back on the skillet, pressing down on them with a spatula.
   
5. Continue cooking until the underside is brown and the potatoes are tender throughout, about another 15 min. Slide from the pan onto a serving platter and serve immediately.