Sunday, February 26, 2012

Strawberry Jam


I love making jam. It seems magical to be able to put in a jar that spare fruit to enjoy it during the coming months. Even more comforting if you've grown the fruit yourself. Unfortunately, that is not the case this time. I bought the strawberries at the market, taking advantage of the price.

Normally, jam recipes state the same weight of sugar as of fruit, but with half the sugar it is sweet enough and healthier.



STRAWBERRY JAM

1 kg of strawberries
½ kg sugar
1 lemon

Wash thoroughly and cut the strawberries into slices. Place them in a bowl alternating layers of strawberries and sugar. Sprinkle with lemon juice and leave in the fridge overnight.

After this time, put them to cook in a pot, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. After about 20-30 minutes, the jam should be ready. To check this, you can drop a teaspoon of jam on a plate that will have been in the fridge for a while. This way you can see the consistency that reaches the jam when cooled.

To store, distribute it while still hot (hey, not boiling!) in previously sterilized glass jars (I use a baby bottle sterilizer). You must completely fill the jars, place lids and put them upside down. This way we get the jars vacuum sealed and the jam will keep longer.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Chocolate chip cookies


Last Friday my sister came to visit me. We took the opportunity to make cookies. She gave me this recipe years ago. She got it from an American girl she met when she was studying at university, and although I guess I can not compete with Americans at making cookies, the result was great. If anything, next time I will take them out of the oven a little bit earlier because when they cooled completely they were a little bit too crispy.




CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

112 g unsalted butter
110 g brown sugar
55 g white sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
205 g flour
½ teaspoon of baking soda
¼ teaspoon of salt
180 g of chocolate chips (I put 130g of black chocolate and 50 g of milk chocolate)

Mix well butter at room temperature with the two sugars. Add the egg and vanilla extract and re-mix.

Aside mix the flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips and add to other mixture.

Place the mixture in the freezer for a while until it gets a bit solid so that you can roll little balls with it. Put them on parchment paper, leaving enough separation between them, and bake at 190 degrees C until they begin to brown at the edges.

With these quantities I got two trays full of cookies.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Gazpachuelo


Today I bring a traditional dish, one of those cooked by our mothers and grandmothers.

The gazpachuelo soup is typical in Málaga and is made with mayonnaise. The full version has fish or seafood in it, but I prefer the basic version, made with just potatoes and rice.
Some people make the mayonnaise in a blender, but I think the result is much better if you make the mayonnaise by hand. It may seem a bit complicated, but you only really need some patience and a strong arm to stir. :-)

This soup is very economical and is made with ingredients that everyone has at home.



GAZPACHUELO (for 2)

1 small potato
1 handful of round rice
1 egg
Olive oil
Salt
Lemon

Cook in a pot the potatoes (peeled and cut into pieces not too thick) and the rice with some water. In the meantime, we will make the mayonnaise.

Open the egg, reserve the white and place the yolk in a bowl. Put at hand some salt, half a lemon and an oilcan. With a spoon (I use metal) break the yolk on one side and mix a few drops of oil. Keep adding more oil and taking more yolk until you see that they have combined. Always stir in the same direction, to avoid oil and yolk separating and better start adding the oil as a trickle. If you see that the mixtured does not thicken, add a pinch of salt in one corner of the plate and start mixing only that part of the egg, and as you see it thickens, keep including more yolk in the mixing.



When you get a mayonnaise with a consistency similar to the one in the photo it is time to add the lemon juice, in the same way as you did with the oil, adding drops of lemon and mixing. You will see that the mayonnaise gets lighter in color.

Return to the pot. Potatoes and rice should be ready. It's time to add the egg white and let cook until solid, for about 2 minutes. After this, switch off the cooker.

With a ladle slowly add some water from the pot to thin the mayonnaise (this step is important because if we add the mayonnaise as it is in the soup, it would curdle). Pour the diluted mayonnaise in the pot slowly while stirring.

It only remains to add salt and lemon to taste (I like with lots of lemon) and serve!
Note: If the soup is cold and you have to heat it up, do it over low heat and preventing it from boiling, because if this occurs, the soup would curdle.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil


Sun-dried tomatoes have been my latest discovery. Yeah, I guess many of you already knew them already. In fact, I had them in restaurants before. Even bought them a couple of times, but I always missed a key step, to REHYDRATE them! And how do they change!

I have been gathering some information on the net and after reading several methods I chose the one I am telling you here. The result is great and gives a lot of possibilities. One example is the toast with feta cheese and tomatoes that are in the photo. Try them also with pasta or in your favourite salad...



SUN-DRIED TOMATOES IN OLIVE OIL

1 package of sun-dried tomatoes
Several cloves of garlic
White wine vinegar
Oregano
Ground black pepper
Virgin olive oil

In a saucepan, boil some water with a splash of vinegar. Add the tomatoes and let them boil for a few minutes. Drain all the water and place all the tomatoes on absorbent kitchen paper and cover them with another paper. The idea is to remove any excess water.

Place the tomatoes, sliced ​​garlic, oregano, black pepper and oil in a jar alternating the layers and making sure that all tomatoes are covered with oil. If you are going to store them for a long time, better use a sterilized jar.

And that’s it, there you have your tomatoes (and your flavored oil) to enjoy at any time.