Tortilla de patatas, for non-Spaniards

(Traditional cooking method first; scroll down for an updated method).

This entry is dedicated to you, my non-Spanish friend who loves tortilla but does not quite know how to make it. I'll tell you a little secret: it's not that difficult. You just need some patience to chop-chop-chop, fry-fry-fry and clean-clean-clean afterwards. And probably a little practice until you learn exactly how long you should fry the tortilla. But that's it. In any case, don't worry, because even though your first tortilla might not look perfect, I can assure you that all the trials will be delicious. So grab a knife and let's get started!

You will need (for 6 servings):

• 1 Kg 130 g potatoes
• 275 g onion
• 1 large pepper (optional)
• 4 large eggs
• salt
• 1 L olive oil

These quantities are approximate. I just weighted the ingredients I used in this tortilla, hoping that serves you as guidance. But you can vary the ratios and put more onion if you like, or leave the pepper out, or if you feel really vicious, you might add some pieces of chorizo. Just saying.

About the oil: If you use olive oil your tortilla will have an incredible taste, so this should be your first option. But you can also use sunflower oil instead. In any case, the oil will not retain any strong taste, so you can keep it and use it again later.

How to prepare an authentic Tortilla de Patatas:

1- Peel the potatoes, wash them and dice them into pieces approximately 1 cm thick. Do the same with the onions and pepper.

2- Heat the oil in a large pan and deep-fry the potatoes and the onions-pepper separately (the potatoes will need more time to cook).

The oil should not be too hot, because you don't want your potatoes to get crispy. You want them cooked but soft. But you also should watch out that the oil is not too cold, otherwise the potatoes will be soaked in oil and your tortilla will end up too greasy. This is one of the points where you might need some practice.

Also, don't forget to stir the potatoes a couple of times while frying them, so that they cook homogeneously and don't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Take the potatoes out of the pan trying to drain as much oil as possible. You can also let them rest on a colander while you fry the onions-pepper.

3- Bring the fried potatoes, onions and pepper to a big bowl. Add some salt. Whisk the eggs and add them to the bowl. Use a fork to mix it all together.

4- Heat a pan the desired size and add a few drops of oil. Pour in the egg mixture and distribute it evenly with the help of a fork. Let it cook a few minutes at medium heat. Be careful that the tortilla cooks inside without its surface getting burnt.

5- Now you have to flip the tortilla over. To do this, you should help yourself with a plate. Put the plate on the pan, covering it, and place your hand in the centre. Flip the pan, so that the tortilla lays on the plate now. Gently, let it slide back to the pan, the uncooked side downwards. Use a spatula to fold the edges in, so that your tortilla will look round and nice. Let it cook for a few more minutes, and serve.

Forks, ready, enjoy!

Update 10. June 2017 (just a few years later, phew!):

I realised that deep-frying poses a serious obstacle for me: I'm afraid of burning myself, I'm terrified of how long I will have to spend cleaning the kitchen later, and I don't even know where to store the oil afterwards. As a result a couple of years had gone by without a single tortilla making an appearance on my dining table. 

That's no way to live one's life, you will surely agree. 

So I have modified the cooking method, even though I swore I would rather never eat a tortilla again than use microwaved potatoes. Well, guess what. I have swallowed my words, of course. In any case, the final texture is so close to the original that my Spanish friends could not tell the difference. The trick is being generous with the oil when frying the onions. Even so you will be using way less oil than with the traditional method.

1mod - Peel, wash and chop the vegetables. For this method I find it best to chop potatoes in thin slices. They do not need to be regular, but let's say, about 2-3 mm thick, 2x2 cm wide and long is a good size.

2mod - Bring potatoes to a big bowl. Add salt and 2-3 tablespoons olive oil. Use a fork to stir everything and better distribute the salt and oil. Cover with a microwave plastic cover and cook in your microwave at highest power for 5 minutes. Take the bowl out, stir the potatoes again, and microwave for another 5 minutes. Do this a couple of times, until the potatoes are cooked. Use a fork to check they are soft.

3mod - Pour some olive oil on the pan, enough to cover the bottom. Heat to medium-sized and fry the onions (and peppers if using them) until they are cooked and tender. Don't be shy with the amount of oil, you don't need a large amount, but you want the onions to taste like fried, not boiled. This can totally make the difference in the final flavor.

4mod - Add fried onions and peppers to the bowl containing cooked potatoes. Add whisked eggs and mix everything together.

5mod - Pour mix on the same pan you used to fry the onions. You won't need to add extra oil. Using a fork carefully, distribute the mix evenly on the pan. Cook for a few minutes on medium-low, until you notice that the egg is almost cooked. Then flip the tortilla over as explained on step 5 above, let it cook for a couple more minutes, and serve.

Tomato soup with spices

(Texto en Español más abajo)

Summer in Berlin. And I'm using italics because this year summer has been almost inexistent, as all my berliner fellows are well aware of. So here we are, end of August and temperatures of around 15 ºC. My plan for last night was to make a gazpacho, but on my way home the chilly wind made me discard the idea. What to do then with all the red tomatoes in my fridge? I started revising my list of reference blogs and found this tomato soup recipe published by Mercado Calabajío a while ago. The sound of tomatoes with paprika, saffron, and cumin suggested a very intense taste, making my blood flow warm in my veins again. And when German tomatoes are reddest and cheapest, and the weather invites for the first soup of the season, isn't that a great opportunity to try this recipe?

This impulsive decision caught me without any broth nor the vegetables to make it (I know, I know, shame on me!) so I used plain water instead. However, the extra virgin olive oil, and the Turkish spices did the trick. The result was a tasteful soup that I will surely repeat during the next days, before red tomatoes disappear from German supermarkets.

What you need:

• 6 red tomatoes
• 1 red pepper, large
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 onion, medium size
• olive oil
• paprika
• cumin
• saffron
• salt
• 300 mL of vegetable broth
• 6 slices of bread

How to prepare this Tomato Soup with Spices:

Chop the garlic, onion and pepper, and fry them in some olive oil in a cooking pot. Let them fry slowly until tender, but without overcooking. We don't want any dark-brown vegetables in this soup. Meanwhile, grind the tomatoes.

Sprinkle the paprika on the fried onions and stir a bit to mix it with the vegetables. Add the tomatoes right away so that the paprika does not get burnt, and let it cook for 10 minutes.

Now you can incorporate the salt, cumin, saffron, and broth. Mix everything together and let it cook for another 20 minutes.

Soak the bread slices in the soup, serve, and enjoy!

Sopa de tomate con especias

"Verano" en Berlín. Y entrecomillo porque este año el verano aquí ha sido prácticamente inexistente, como bien saben mis colegas berlineses. Así que aquí estamos, a finales de agosto y con temperaturas rondando los 15 ºC. Mi plan para la cena de anoche era hacer un gazpacho, pero de camino a casa hacía un viento tan fresquito (una rasca, vamos) que se me quitaron las ganas. ¿Y ahora qué hago con todos los tomates rojos que tengo en la nevera? Me puse a revisar mi lista de blogs de referencia, y encontré esta receta de sopa de tomate publicada hace algún tiempo por Mercado Calabajío. El sonido de tomates con pimentón, azafrán y comino sugería un sabor muy intenso, que hizo que mi sangre volviera a circular caliente por mis venas. Y precisamente ahora que los tomates alemanes están más rojos y más baratos, y que el tiempo invita a preparar la primera sopita de la temporada, ¿no es una oportunidad estupenda para probar esta receta?

Tengo que admitir que esta decisión impulsiva me pilló sin ningún tipo de caldo ni las verduras para prepararlo (lo sé, lo sé, una vergüenza) así que usé agua en su lugar. Sin embargo, el aceite de oliva virgen extra y las especias turcas cumplieron su cometido y el resultado fue una sopa muy sabrosa que seguro que repetiré en los próximos días, antes de que los tomates rojos desaparezcan de los supermercados alemanes.

Qué necesitas:

• 6 tomates rojos
• 1 pimiento grande (yo usé rojo, que es el que tenía; aquí los pimientos verdes no los hay tan a menudo)
• 1 diente de ajo
• 1 cebolla mediana
• aceite de oliva
• pimentón dulce
• comino
• azafrán
• sal
• 300 mL de caldo vegetal
• 6 rebanadas de pan

Cómo preparar esta Sopa de Tomate con Especias:

Pica el ajo, la cebolla y el pimiento, y ponlos con un poco de aceite en la olla que vayas a usar para hacer la sopa. Sofríelos a fuego medio, hasta que se pongan tiernos, pero sin quemarse. Mientras tanto, ralla los tomates.

Espolvorea el pimentón sobre el sofrito, remueve un poco y añade en seguida los tomates para que el pimentón no se queme. Deja que se cueza todo junto durante unos 10 minutos.

Ahora podemos incorporar la sal, el comino, el azafrán y el caldo. Mézclalo todo bien y déjalo cocer a fuego medio durante otros 20 minutos.

Sumerge las rebanadas de pan en la sopa, dejando que se empapen bien. Servir y disfrutar.

Pasta al limone

Pasta, pasta!

I love pasta, but am tired of making the same old bolognese once and again, and strongly refuse to use one of those sauces that you can buy in the supermarket. So I have decided to experiment with new recipes. For tonight I have chosen pasta al limone because I have never tried something like that before, but also (mainly) because I love citrus. I have followed my friend Gata Vagabunda's recipe and am quite happy with the result! The recipe is very simple, and the result is surprising (at least it was for me). So I would suggest you to give it a try sometime. Here it comes.

What you need for 2 servings:

• 250 g long pasta like spaghetti. They should preferably be thick-ish. I used bavette n. 13 instead.
• a bit of butter
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled but in one piece
• 2 big lemons, the freshest ones you can find
• 200 mL cream
• parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• basilicum

How to prepare this Pasta al Limone:

Fill a cooking pot with salted water and heat until boiling. Cook the pasta in that water until al dente (you can follow the time suggested in the pasta package).

Let's prepare the sauce while the pasta is boiling. First, zest the lemons using a thin grater. Beware not to take also the white part of the lemon skin, because that would make the sauce too sour. Keep this lemon zest for later.

Take a large frying pan and put some butter in it. Heat slowly until the butter melts, and fry the garlic cloves there. Once the garlic is toasted, take it out from the pan and instead add the cream and the lemon zest, salt and pepper. Let the sauce cook until the pasta is ready.

Drain the pasta, bring it to the frying pan with the sauce, and stir it all together. Serve and top with grounded parmesan cheese and a couple of basilicum leaves finely chopped. Ready! It will please your taste, and leave a delicious smell in your kitchen.

Going veggie: green beans with potatoes and carrots

Today I have prepared a vegetarian dish which is not only healthy and light to digest, but also very tasty. Having said that, some of you might still be reluctant to try it because, after all, it's just green beans, and green beans are boring by definition! Well, let me tell you that there is nothing boring about this dish. Even if you have eaten something similar one thousand times before, this recipe is different. Basically, El Comidista has added his personal touch (I would dare to even say reinvented) to a traditional mediterranean dish, and the result is amazing, so I strongly suggest to give this a try. You will be surprised!

You will need:

• 500 g of green beans
• 2 potatoes (medium size)
• 4 carrots (large)
• 1 onion (large)
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
• 150 mL of white wine
• 50 mL of balsamic vinegar
• olive oil and salt, for dressing

How to prepare these green beans with potatoes and carrots:

Wash the potatoes, put them in a cooking pot, unpeeled, and cover them with water. Boil then until they are tender. This process can take around 30 minutes. Afterwards, replace the hot water with cold one, and once you can handle the potatoes without loosing the skin in your fingers, peel them and cut them into large pieces.

Now it's a good moment to start preparing the caramelized onion, since it needs to cook for a while. Use the onion, wine, vinegar, and sugar, following the directions in this previous post.

Meanwhile, wash the green beans, and using a peeler, remove those sort of fibers that they have on the sides. Then, with the help of a knife, cut the beans into very thin and long stripes. Peel and wash the carrots, and chop them into thin sticks of length approximately half of the bean stripes. This task is somewhat laborious, and it might seem that right now we are just victims of aesthetics, but I promise it will pay off.

Vapor-cook the beans and carrots until they are tender, but take care that they are not overcooked. If you are using a rapid-express-pressure cooking pot, then you only need to cook them for 5 minutes after the valve rises.

Now choose your favorite serving plate and place there, in layers, first the potatoes, then the beans, the carrots, and end up with the onions. Add some salt and olive oil as a dressing, and voilà, you have just prepared a delicious and colorful dish full with vitamins!! Don't forget to share it with your loved ones.

Starting with gorgonzola

Last night we went to a little dinner party. Since I really enjoy cooking with friends, we came early to help the hosts. We prepared mainly some fingerfood, because the idea was not to be sitting down, but rather standing up and chatting and moving around. My contribution was some gorgonzola toasts in two flavours: one sort with caramelised onion and walnuts, and another one with red-pepper jam.

Gorgonzola, caramelised onions and walnuts toast

We begin preparing the caramelised onion. For this we need an onion. We will peel it and cut it in julienne strips: we will cut the onion in half and slice it very thinly to obtain curved sections. Put it in a frying pan with a little olive oil, cover it with a lid, and let it cook slowly for 20-25 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the onion has softened and looks transparent. Then add a bit of salt, a teaspoon of brown sugar, 150 mL of white wine, and 50 mL of balsamic vineger. Remove the lid now and turn the heat up for 5-10 more minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Once the onion has cooled down we can proceed to prepare the toasts.

Take about 100 g of gorgonzola cheese (I used the piccante variety and liked the result, but next time I will try with gorgonzola dolce), put it on a plate, and smash it with a fork to blend it down.

Now spread a fine layer of gorgonzola on the bread (I recommend some slices of slightly toasted brioche). Using a fork, take a little bit of the onions, and let them fall gently on the cheese, so that they do not scatter on the toast, but take a form similar to a nest. On top of the onions, place some walnuts. Ready!

Gorgonzola and red-pepper jam

For these I simply spread some gorgonzola on the toast and added some of my sweet-and-sour red-pepper jam on top. The combination is both colorful and delicious!

Sweet-and-sour red-pepper jam

My mother is always researching and trying new recipes. She found this one somewhere in the web, or in one of the multitude of cooking books and magazines that she owns, who knows, and since then it has been almost a constant in her fridge. I love its sweet and sour taste, its gorgeous shiny red color, and it fits perfectly with cheese, of which I am a huge fan. So I have decided it should definitely appear in this blog.

You will need:

• Two large, very-red peppers
• A bit less than one glass of apple vinegar
• One glass of white sugar

How to make this red-pepper jam:

Wash the peppers and chop them into very small pieces. Put them in a saucepan, add the vinegar and the sugar, and stir to mix well all the ingredients.

If chopping the pepper feels like a tedious process to you, think about using your blender instead. In that case, break the peppers into pieces, add the vinegar and blend-blend-blend until you obtain a mixture with the desired texture. I prefer to see small pieces in the jam, completely homogeneous jams seem artificial to me, but I guess this is a matter of taste. Afterwards, just bring the mixture to the saucepan, add the sugar, and stir together.

Let the jam cook very slowly for a couple of hours, stirring every now and then to check that it is not sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Do not use a lid, since we want the vinegar to evaporate. In order to know when you can stop cooking, you can check that the mixture has the consistency of any jam that you have seen before (although you should keep in mind that a warm jam is somewhat more liquid-ish than a cold jam). A second test is trying a little bit to see if it still tastes too much like vinegar. If it does, let it cook a bit longer.

As I said, this jam fits perfectly with cheese. You can use some creamy cheese, for example. In the picture above, I am combining it with some old goat cheese, which makes a very good companion. But you can also simply spread it on plain bread, on butter, or on some liver pate.

Enjoy!