Hard Boiled Eggs filled with tuna ( Spain) Huevos rellenos de atun

Spain has a love for tuna in its dishes.  I know many dishes that contain tuna fish as one of the main ingredients.  In fact, you can always find cans of tuna in my pantry because there are so many different ways you can use it.  Many tourist traveling for first time to Spain are surprised when they order their salad ( a house salad) and it comes accompanied of tuna and some olives.  Yes, tuna, I would say is one of the most common ingredients in Spanish cooking.

INGREDIENTS

One large can of tuna

One dozen eggs

Mayonnaise

Spanish tomato sauce

One small onion

This is really a very simple recipe with a lot of flavor an easy to prepare.  Start by cutting in half the boiled eggs.  Do not over cook them or the egg yolk will turn green.

Prepare a mixture of tuna, chopped onion and mayonnaise.  Fill each half egg white with the tuna mixture.  Prepare the tomato sauce or you can buy a already prepared Spanish style fried tomato sauce.  Apply a spoonful of the Tomato sauce to each egg and finally spread on top the egg yolks all crumbled with a pinch of salt all over the eggs.  Chill and serve.

Fried Tomato Sauce

To make this sauce you will need some ripe tomatoes ( 6-10)

3-4 garlic cloves

olive oil

beef flavor bouillon ( one large)

Let the tomatoes cook till all  the water has reduce and the tomatoes acquire a dark rich red color.

Once done, you will have to use a puree strainer to get a smooth mixture with no tomatoes skins.

Russian Potato Salad ( Ensaladilla Rusa) Russia, Spain, Italy, France

Russian Potato Salad  was created by a young French chef who travelled to Moscow and set up a restaurant called The Emitage where this salad became the signature dish by young Lucien Olivier and called Olivier Salad.  The salad consisted of potatoes and varied vegetables mixed with chicken, shrimp, Lobster and then mixed all together with a secret mayonnaise  elaborated by chef Olivier.  Olivier died young and never revealed his recipe but another chef colleague tried to copy Olivier recipe in a moment of carelessness.  The salad was then imitated through Russia and its popularity travelled to other European countries becoming extremely popular in Spain. You may find this recipe being served in every cafe, bar, restaurant in Spain as an appetizer or "Tapa".  It has become an established known Spanish appetizer through the entire Spanish country.
INGREDIENTS ( Ingredients may vary, here one of my personal variations)

 Two or three potatoes ( medium to large)
Two or three boiled eggs
One can of tuna
One small  can of tuna
Two to three large carrot boiled and diced
One small package of frozen peas
One can of asparagus
One can of artichoke  hearts
One small can of red bell peppers roasted
One small can of olives ( green manzanilla or pearl black)
If desired you may add cooked shrimp

For the mayonnaise
One pasteurized egg
two cups of olive oil
one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice
one tsp of salt

METHOD
You will boil the potatoes in large portions with the carrots and peas.  Do not allow these to get too tender and fall apart. Cool in cold water.
In a large bowl mix together the cut up potatoes, carrots, chopped onion, boiled eggs, tuna, artichoke hearts, asparagus , olives and peas.  Add to this a little olive oil for moisture.  Then add the home-made mayonnaise and  decorate with the peppers, extra egg, olives and shape to make it attractive.
Let cool in the fridge and serve with  fresh French baguette.

Ham Croquettes ( Croquetas de Jamón) Spain

Ham Croquettes or "Croquetas de jamón"

Croquettes exist in every country in varied forms.  Many are made from potato, others are made of bechamel sauce and then filled with fish, chicken, ham or almost anything that might make the filling flavorful.  Today, these croquettes are a typical favorite of all times in Spain and are also considered a " tapa" which if you travel to Spain you will see that all the bars, cafes and restaurants have a selection of varied 'Tapas" which traditionally are light appetizers  to keep you going before your main meal.
INGREDIENTS
Two hard boiled eggs
 1 cup of Serrano jam cut up in small pieces ( use cheap cuts of this jam)
Flour  (as needed)
Milk   ( as needed)
Butter (one stick or 1/2 cup)
Salt  to taste
1 or 2 eggs
Bread crumbs
Oil to fry
METHOD

Bechamel sauce

Final paste with pieces of ham

Place in a large frying pan one stick of butter to melt.  You will then add one tablespoon at a time  flour so that you make a consistent paste.  Next you slowly add milk stirring continuously so that yo always have a nice smooth paste that as you add milk and stir and it cooks it will become  a nice thick and smooth  cream.  Once you have achieve the consistency you need to form the shapes of the croquettes,  you will then add the chopped jam and the chopped hard boiled eggs.  Place then on a large plate to cool for at least one hour.
Once the paste has cooled, beat a couple of eggs in a small bowl.  On a plate put one cup of bread crumb, then take small portions of the paste with two teaspoons and make the shapes then, drop in the egg mixture and coat well. From the egg you transfer to the bread crumbs and coat well.  Then fry in a small frying pan with sufficient oil or you can use a fryer.  Drain well from excess oil and enjoy!!!!

Kanelsnegle ( Danish Cinnamon Roll)

Kanelsnegle (Danish Cinnamon Rolls)

I am thinking Christmas. I am thinking sweet yummy gifts. Nothing better comes to my mind this week that some wonderful, soft, warm, delicate, full of butter and cinnamon Kanelsnegle. Kanelsnegles in Danish, Kanelbulle in Swedish, Skillingsboller in Norwegian, are all the original Cinnamon roll that have come to us in the United States through our ancestors. The difference between one and another is not much. The Swedish recipe does not call for an icing or glace on top, rather sprinkles of pearl sugar. Pearl sugar is hard to find in the US. You may have to order it online, although I know IKEA used to carry it. The Danish version is topped with a shrill of icing. All these Scandinavian recipes have some cardamon, which comes from the family of the ginger.  I have made Cinnamon rolls for many, many years, especially on Sundays when my kids were little and we would eat them for dinner. 

Bertha Marie Jensen

Today, 15 days left till Christmas, I will honor my great-grandmother, Bertha Marie Jensen, whom of course I have not met but have been told much about.  She came from Aarhus, Denmark to the United States with her parents around the age of 10 or 11.  Since my grandmother was then half Danish, I know that many of my childhood eating habits must have been Danish.

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons of  dry active yeast (if used a rapid rise yeast, the time for rising will be reduced to half the time)
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1- 1/4 cup of warm milk
Place all these ingredients together in a bowl.  Cover with a cloth a place to rise in a warm place for 15min.( quick rise yeast) 30 minutes for a regular yeast.
I a large bowl mix
5- 1/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
teaspoon of cardamon
After the yeast mixture has fermented and doubled its size mix in this mixture
2 beaten eggs

Then add to the flour and knead for about 5 to 10 minutes

If you have used the rapid rise yeast you can roll out into a rectangular shape the dough.  If you have used the regular rise yeast you will have to let rise in a bowl for 30 minutes till it has double its size and then roll out the dough.

Once you have the dough rolled out into a rectangular shape you will add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of soft butter, spreading it all over the dough and then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Following you will roll together into a long tube shape and cute into equal sizes.
Place on a cookie sheet and let rise again covered with a cloth in a warm place till the rolls have double in size.

Remove cloth and with one beaten egg brush the tops of the rolls. Bake till golden for about 10 minute in an oven of 425 degrees F.

Once done cover with a glaze made with confectioners sugar, butter, vanilla extract and  milk to an almost liquid consistency.  Best when served warm.

Salted Cod with Garlic and Tomatoes ( Bacalao al Ajo Arriero)

BACALAO AL AJO ARRIERO

Salted Cod with Garlic and tomatoes

This recipe originated when mule carriers would transport seafood from the province of Vizcaya in northern Spain, in the Basque country to inner provinces away from the ocean through mountains and country side.  They would bring with them salted cod as this was a way to preserve fish and they would desalted in the rivers and mince into a frying pan and cooked with olive oil, plenty of garlic, tomatoes and bell peppers with a touch of red pepper.

INGREDIENTS

Five to six pieces of Cod

One head of Garlic

Olive oil

Red bell peppers

One small glass of white wine

One small can of tomato sauce

( or) 4- 6 ripe tomatoes

Salt  to taste

Red pepper

You may garnish with one hard boiled egg

 

You will boil the cod in salted water.  Once cooked you drain well the water and you break up the Cod in small pieces.  In a large frying pan you saute a small head of fresh garlic in olive oil. Then you add the tomatoes and the bell peppers chopped in small pieces.  Add wine and red pepper and salt if needed.  Once it has started to boil add the broken pieces of Cod.  Let all cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.  Serve with bread and garnish with hard boil eggs.

English Trifle

English Trifle

BRITISH FOOD

Flapjacks, caramel chocolate squares, ginger malt bread, Christmas pudding,

minced meat pies and gooseberry ones in hot custard are just a few of Britain’s favorites. 

But I must not forget the wonderful trifles prepared each Sunday by lovely families that would have us for dinner.

Food, I adore food, but only the exquisite, well done.Yes, you must let yourself be a little hungry to get the full effect.
                                                                                                        Lily Ann Graff


Another English recipe, Trifle.  This is as popular in England as Apple Pie is in the US.  English love this dessert made of custard, sponge cake, jelly and cream.  The first time in history that we know about this dessert is in 1596 in a book published "The good huswife's Jewell" by Thomas Dawson.  This one consisted of a thick custard with Rose water,ginger and sugar.  Sixty years later milk was added and liquor  to the sponge cake.  This later recipe is the one that has come to us in these days with added modifications like layers of gelatin and fruit.  The earliest know recipe that we know with gelatin is from 1747.  The poet Oliver Wendell  Holmes mentioned  trifles that contained jelly in1861.  Today it remains  true to the homes of every English family that I have visited in the two years of daily interaction as a missionary in England.
There are different variations of the recipe.  I will share two.

Ingredients
 2 or 3 Bananas
 One small bag frozen raspberries
 One package lemon jello
 One package raspberry jello
 One package sponge cakes or
 Half a pound cake  ( you can buy it or make a small pound cake)
 Vanilla custard recipe
Heavy whipping cream
chocolate flakes or almonds for garnish

You will follow the directions on how to make the lemon jello.   Once done you place slices of bananas evenly and the frozen raspberries previously cooked for 8 min. with 1/3 cup of sugar.
Cool and refrigerate till firm.
Follow the directions of the raspberry jello, then add this mixture to the set lemon jello and add slices of the sponge or pound cake evenly so that it will look attractive.  Cool and refrigerate till firm.
Make one recipe of a vanilla custard ( you use if you want a recipe of Bird's English custard).  When done spread evenly on top of the two jellos that are already firm.  Let cool and refrigerate.
By now you should have a total of three layers.  You will finish the recipe by whipping till stiff some heavy cream.  Place this last layer on top and garnish with chocolate flakes or toasted almonds and serve.

Spanish Potato Omelet ( Tortilla española)

Walking through the streets in every town in Spain, in every bar, restaurant or fast food eatery you will find a well rounded potato omelet which is the one dish that every Spaniard will love to eat.  It does not matter if it is 11 in the morning, lunch or dinner, it can be eaten at any time of the day and in every corner of the country. 
It is amazing that that such a simple recipe, with so few ingredients can have so much taste.  The secret is in the olive oil and the amount of each of the three or four ingredients.  But this I will come back a little later.  First, like always I like to do a little research on the background and possible history of each of the recipes that I cook.
Tortilla de patata or tortilla española, the  earliest mention in the recipe books in Spain  dates from 1881 when Fidel Romero de Gallego writes about the dish in his "Hogar y Cocina sin desorden", published in Zaragoza. In page 40 it can be read:

Tortilla de patatas Fritas
Cuando estén fritas las patatas cortadas en ronchas delgadas, se echan los huevos y se hace por las regals de la tortilla sola. 

Which translates:

Fried Potato Omelet
When the potatoes are fried in thin slices, you add the eggs and you follow the rules of how to make a regular omelet.

The instructions are concise.  The truth is that when potatoes came in to Europe they were not a favorite of the wealthy people.  Omelets recipes go back to a couple of centuries before this first recipe from Fidel Romero, but they were filled with all varieties of vegetables and not potatoes.  Potatoes were ingredients that the poor people ate.  Therefore, it is likely that the Spanish potato omelet did exist much earlier than  1881, it is just that it remain a recipe of the low class, the peasants and the hard working  part of Spanish society. 
Today " La tortilla española" is on the table of every rich, poor, elegant and  not so elegant Spaniard.

Ingredients
four to five large potatoes
Olive oil 1/4 to 1/3 cup
One medium yellow onion
salt to taste
four to five large eggs

In a frying pan place the olive oil  and heat.  Thinly slice the potatoes  and onion.  Add to hot oil and let cook stirring occasionally till it is golden.  Add salt to taste.
In a separate bowl beat the eggs and add a pinch of salt.  To the eggs add the cooked fried potatoes, draining the excess oil.  Soak well the potatoes into the eggs mixture.
In a separate smaller frying pan, add a tsp. of oil and add the mixture of potatoes and egg. Cook one side and turn over with a plate so that the other side cooks.  Do this process several times, back and forth till the middle of the Tortilla is cooked.
Serve hot or cold with bread or any other complimentary dish.