Coconut balls

Oh, my God! Christmas is here and I have had no time to publish anything…

Before everything is over, here are some coconut balls that I made for Christmas Eve. They are really good and very easy to make.

I take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

COCONUT BALLS

200 g of condensed milk

125 g of grated coconut

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate cover

Mix the coconut, condensed milk and vanilla. Put the mixture to cool in the fridge. When the mixture has more consistency form little balls and cover them with melted chocolate. Leave to cool until the chocolate hardens.

Russian salad

There are thousands of versions of this recipe, and all are delicious. A salad suitable for both summer and winter. In fact, I usually prepare more often in winter. I am a little apprehensive with the combination of heat and mayonnaise, and as I like homemade mayonnaise ...

Here is my version.

RUSSIAN SALAD (serves 4)

4 medium potatoes

2 carrots

1 handful of frozen peas

1 egg

1 small tin of tuna

1 slice of onion

1 slice of green pepper

Several lettuce leaves

White wine vinegar

Salt

And for the mayonnaise:

1 egg

Sunflower oil

Lemon juice

Salt

Peel potatoes and cut into medium size pieces. Peel carrots and cut into small pieces.

Put them in a pot to boil in salted water with the washed egg (making sure it has no cracks in the shell) and peas.

Meanwhile in a bowl finely chop the onion and pepper. Add the tuna, drained and flaked.

When the potatoes are tender, put the egg aside and drain the water. Pour the potatoes, carrots and peas in the bowl with the onions. When the egg has cooled slightly, peel it and chop it. Mix everything together with a splash of vinegar. Add more salt if needed. Now prepare the mayonnaise.

Wash well the raw egg (I use soap and a cloth) and put it into the blender receptacle. Add some salt and begin to beat on high speed with ascending and descending movements. Then, start adding the oil slowly without stopping the blender. Check that the oil is incorporated into the mayonnaise before adding more. Stop adding oil when the mayonnaise has acquired the desired consistency. At this point add the lemon juice and salt to taste.

Wash and chop the lettuce and add to the potato mix that would have now lost most of the heat.

It only remains to add several tablespoons of mayonnaise to the salad and toss well to make it homogeneous. I prefer not to mash the potato too much.

Potato and chorizo casserole

I don’t know about you, but at this time of the year I crave a lot for soups and stews in general. Winter is almost here! So to be prepared, today I bring you this dish that is really easy to prepare.

POTATO AND CHORIZO CASSEROLE (serves 2)

2 medium potatoes

1 onion

1 small green pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon of paprika

½ chorizo

1 bay leaf

Olive oil

Salt

Finely chop the onion, pepper and garlic, and sauté everthing in a pot with a splash of olive oil and the bay leaf.

Meanwhile peel the potatoes and crack them with the knife into pieces. This way, we get a thicker consistency.

Add the chopped chorizo​​, potato and paprika and cook for a couple of minutes. Then cover with water and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add salt to taste and serve.

Notes:

- The cooking time depends on the type of potato. If you see that the potatoes are tender but the dish has become very "watery" you can smash several pieces of potato to thicken the sauce.

- This dish is also very good if you add a bit of cayenne pepper.

Squid in sauce

A quick and tasty recipe. I made it the other day just for myself. I didn’t what to cook anything complicated but didn’t want the typical fried egg and chips.

In the freezer, I always have frozen squid that I normally use for paella. This time I gave them a different use.

SQUID IN SAUCE (for 1)

3 small squids

½ onion

1 clove of garlic

1 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of tomato sauce

Olive oil

White wine

Chopped parsley

Salt

Clean the squid and cut them into rings. In a pot with a splash of oil (I did in the pressure cooker to save time, but can be cooked in any other pot), fry the onion and garlic finely chopped, being careful not to burn them. 


Add the squid and cook for a couple of minutes then add paprika, tomato sauce and a splash of white wine and close the pressure cooker for 5 minutes. If you use a normal pot, add also some water and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the squids are tender. 


Add salt to taste and chopped parsley and serve with white rice.

Tomato soup with mint

This soup is typical of the village of Alora (Malaga). I'm not very fond of putting cream or chicken stock in soups, so to me the special flavour of the mint makes this recipe very good.

TOMATO SOUP WITH MINT (for 2)

½ red pepper (or green, but red gives better color)

3 ripe tomatoes

½ onion

2 cloves of garlic

Virgin olive oil

A good branch of fresh mint

Salt

Day-old bread

In a saucepan fry the onion, garlic and pepper with a good splash of olive oil. When they have softened, add the peeled and chopped tomatoes. Fry for 10-15 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent sticking. When the sauce is done, add water and liquidise with a blender. Incorporate the mint and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste. If tomatoes are very acidic you can also add some sugar.

At serving time, place thin slices of bread on plates and serve the soup over them. It can also be accompanied with diced fries.

Roasted pepper salad

My husband is an expert on finding deals. In one of our occasional visits to Lidl, where we went to buy puff pastry, he saw red peppers at a very good price. So we bought a few to make roasted pepper salad.

This salad is made with roasted peppers and tomatoes. I normally roast several at the same time and freeze them in individual bags (one pepper and one tomato per bag) so that in other occasions I can make pepper salads in almost no time.

This salad is ideal to accompany fish and is very popular in southern Spain.

ROASTED PEPPER SALAD (for 2)

1 large red pepper

1 tomato

Fresh onion

Virgin olive oil

White wine vinegar

Salt

Place the peppers and tomatoes on a baking tray and smeared them with some olive oil. Roast in the oven at 240 degrees C until tender. If you intend to freeze them, don’t roast them too much because the cold will soften them even more.

Once they have cooled down, peel the tomato, peel and remove seeds from the pepper. In a bowl or dish, chop the ​​tomato and crush lightly with a fork. Add the pepper cut into strips and some onion finely chopped. Season with a small splash of vinegar, a large splash of olive oil and salt.