Tapas night: Easy patatas bravas

Es un plato tradicional la mayor parte de las regiones de España.

IF YOU HAVE AN OVEN AND SOME POTATOES, YOU ARE IN FOR A TREAT.

Ok, so the photo makes it look simple... and it is!  Simple, yet very tasty little dish for a cozy night in. My girlfriend has been insisting that I make these again and again. However I keep refusing just because I am afraid I am going to become addicted to it and not cook anything else...

I have tested this recipe several times and I can say that it has worked 100% of the time.

Ingredients:

For the sauce

• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes (or 10+ ripe fresh tomatoes)
• 2 tsp sweet paprika (pimenton)
• 1 chilli, chopped
• pinch sugar
• chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

For the potatoes

• 900g potatoes, cut into small cubes
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Fry the onion in hot oil for 5 minutes until softened.
2. Add the garlic, tomatoes, paprika, chilli, sugar and salt and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Roast potato cubes with oil and some salt and pepper in the oven for 40-50 minutes (200C/gas 6/fan oven 180C) until the potatoes are crisp and golden.
4. Serve the potatoes with the sauce. Sprinkle with parsley.

This is it, amigos, have a little fiesta and share the joy!

The beauty of autumn: BEST roast pumpkin soup

Because it is not December yet, I am still allowing myself to post about pumpkin. To be honest, so far whenever I looked at this photo, it made me want pumpkin soup. I think I may be a bit obsessed with pumpkin - I even get things delivered to my house with the word pumpkin in the address field!

Anyway... This recipe has never failed and I have had this many times. If you don't even cook on a regular basis, you should have most ingredients, apart from, maybe, pumpkin. Of course, if you live in England, you would probably use butternut squash, a cousin of pumpkin. It's all relative.

Ingredients

    1 butternut squash/pumpkin, about 1kg
    2 tbsp oil
    1 tbsp butter
    2 onions, chopped
    1 garlic clove, chopped
    2 chillies, chopped
    850ml hot vegetable stock
    4 tbsp sour cream (crème fraîche)

Preparation:

1) If you live in the woods, heat your open-fire to 'very hot'. Or if you live a more convenient kind of life just heat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

2) You can choose from two difficulty levels :

*QUICKIE- Cut the whole squash into cubes, discard the seeds , then toss in a large roasting tin with oil, salt and pepper OR

*THE BOSS- Cut the top of the squash off, discard the seeds, carve the inside of the squash. Then toss the flesh and the 'bowl' with oil, salt and pepper on a large roasting tin.This way you can actually serve the soup in the same pumpkin, and eat the pumpkin later. LIKE A BOSS.

3) Roast for 30 mins, turning once during cooking, until golden and soft. You can also roast the whole seeds with the same batch: just season, add oil and some chilli. I like to have it "can-you-please-pass-me-a-tissue-spicy".


4) While the squash cooks, melt the butter with the remaining oil in a large saucepan, then add the onions, garlic and chilli. Cover and cook on a very low heat for 10 mins until the onions are completely soft.

5) Tip the squash into the pan, add the stock and the crème fraîche, then either cook until smooth or whizz with a blender.

Make this  for you and your friends and share the magic...

Weekend market special: fig, mozzarella and basil salad

I'm not sure what kind of markets do people go to on weekends, but when it is a Saturday - I'm at my local market in Leeds city centre. If you have ever been, you're familiar with the constant shouting of what seems to be "...all these [something] for a £1!!..." As this comes from proper Yorkshiremen I can never really understand what they're selling... until I see the sign "2 boxes of figs £1". I had never tried figs before...

So I found this recipe in a magazine and wanted to share with you all. Personally I would swap mozzarella for feta as it was lacking that savoury touch to the figs. Otherwise it is very refreshing and easy to make.


Ingredients:

1 lemon, juiced
5 tbsp oil
2 tbsp mint leaves
3 tbsp basil leaves
70g rocket salad
9 figs, halved/quartered
300g mozzarella, torn
squeeze of balsamic glaze


Directions:

1) Mix lemon juice and oil, add salt and pepper to make the dressing;
2) Toss everything together with the dressing and squeeze a bit of balsamic glaze on top.
Couldn't be more complicated!

This could serve up to 6 as a starter. Sharing is caring.

Roast butternut squash triangles with hazelnut pesto

 

Halloween has just passed and I had great fun. Coming from Eastern Europe I never used to celebrate it, however having spent a few years in England I decided to enjoy more holidays, both local and global. Oddly enough, the reason being is the weather. Whenever I travel and come back to UK, I keep questioning how is it possible to live under this daily grey cover above our heads. So here we are in the kitchen on a Friday night, with a nice seasonal butternut squash. Let the party begin!

It is really really simple to make this and the cooking time is perfect: while the butternut squash is roasting, you have enough time to make the pesto... and a cup of tea.


1) You just cut the squash into round slices and trim the sides to make little triangles. DO NOT WASTE ANY PART OF IT! I could have sliced the whole squash, but I carved the thick part and made soup in it. Whatever 'cuts' were left, I used them to make the best squash soup, and the seeds - I roasted them too... You know what they say - when life gives you squashes... Roast for 35 min in 200 C. Just don't forget to rub them in some oil and season with salt and pepper before placing in the oven.

2) For the pesto you just need to combine the below ingredients, I used pestle and mortar, but you can use a blender if you like.

A quarter of a cup roasted hazelnuts (10 min in 180 C) ;
35g rocket salad, finely chopped;
A tablespoon of grated Parmesan;
A tablespoon of oil.

3) You can roast the seeds  for 10 mins in 200 C, with just some oil, salt, pepper and chilli. There is a debate going on whether you should eat the seeds whole or hulled, but most of my friends seemed to enjoy the crunchy insoluble fiber provided by the husks...

So there you go, a simple way to enjoy a butternut squash this (and every) autumn/winter.