Spain | Anyone 4 Curry & Other Things

Translating a Quote from my home country, Germany, which goes as follows “… it does not always happen as one wants or has planned”. This applies to our desire to travel to Europe on another 1-month long trip to countries we have already visited many times in the past and also to new countries, which are on our “bucket list”.

But since my health still does not allow me to travel so far abroad, I have decided to ‘visit’ those countries through my kitchen, i.e. trying to bring you easy recipes from those places.

So I am starting off with Spain. This was triggered by a telephone call from our friend Francesca in Madrid. And since we had taken our girls some time ago for a long family holiday to Madrid, we have very fond memories of some of the delicious, but so simple, dishes eaten in either our favourite ‘Bodegas’ or in the homes of some of our friends.

Francesca’s Mama one day made for us an easy Chicken dish for Lunch. And it only took her 45 minutes before we were able to sit at her table, accompanied by a chilled Cava ‘Segura Viudas’, lots of chit-chat and lots of laughter. Oh yes …… those were the days!

Pollo con limón

What you need: (for 4 people you can use 8 or more Chicken drumsticks)
8 x Chicken drumsticks, washed, dried and kept aside
500 g x Chorizo, skin removed and sliced
12 x (or more) Potatoes, peeled and cut like thick chips
2-3 x decent size red (for colour) Capsicum, halved, cleaned and cut into strips
Some lemon slices (skin removed)
2-3 x Cloves of Garlic (pounded slightly)
1x Bunch of Spring onions (the green part only) cut into small rings
Some Olive oil
Salt and black pepper (to taste)

How to make this dish

In a large pan heat the Olive oil, add the earlier prepared chicken drumsticks and brown those from all sides, take out and keep aside.

Now add the also earlier prepared potatoes and fry those lightly – add some salt.
Next add the Capsicum and Garlic and fry those too for a few minutes only. Now add the chicken drumsticks.
Turn down your heat and cook all this for appr. 30 minutes.

Before serving your “Pollo con limón” add all your Chorizo slices and fry for 5 minutes with your sliced lemon.
To serve, sprinkle the Spring onion greens over your Chicken and add some more Lemon halves.

That’s it – all done. Ready to be enjoyed.

Namaskaram,
Carina

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In 2013, Jo and I took our two girls for a one month vacation to beautiful Madrid. Ostensibly this was meant to be a little “educational trip” for Bianca to look at fashion (she is now a qualified Fashion Designer) and for Andrea to look at Architecture; she too has since qualified and is working as well.

One of the Studios/Salons Bianca and I visited was to this very beautiful Store of “Adolfo Domínguez“ (for more details look at my blog entry of 23.06.2013 – Fashion for comfort & love!). After our “work” we always made our way to the top floor where, to put it simply, we felt a bit like inside the world of “The Devil Wears Prada”. Sometimes it seemed to us, that every woman there nibbling on a lettuce leaf and/or having their glass of delicious wine, had walked straight out of pages of VOGUE. In retrospect I would have liked to eat (and photograph!) my way through Chef’s small but very delicious looking menu.

(Pic. Above: Inside the top-floor Cafeteria at “Adolfo Domínguez” – a little heaven amidst the noise and hectic of Madrid.)

But one item from his blackboard I really loved and in the end he very kindly shared the recipe with me.

I have altered it a little bit – in order to suit our own pallet giving it a little bit more ‘kick’ especially re the spices -.

This is lovely for Snacky food served on a bed of beautifully crisp green salad with the Onion Jam as an accompaniment and when made smaller and a bit thicker also as cocktail party food.

So, why not give those little Fritters a try – maybe you too end up liking them as we do in my own little family.

Little Courgette Fritters with fiery onion jam

Recuerdos de Madrid – Memories of Madrid

Right at the beginning a little word of advice, when you make the onion jam, make double or even treble the amount you want for your fritters, this thick chutney like jam is so Moorish, it keeps well in your fridge up to a week – you also might want to have it with your favourite cheese!!!

I used the following:

Appr. 1 lb courgettes (yellow or green), top and tailed, coarsely grated and kept aside in a bowl
A small chunk of hard cheese (either freshly! grated Parmesan or Cheddar), kept aside

2 eggs, slightly beaten with a fork
App. 4 Tbsp of Besan (yellow) flour also known as garbanzo bean flour, chickpea flour (or plain)
Salt and pepper (you will need a bit more salt here than usual)
¾ Tbsp of Kashmiri Chilli powder
½ tsp of fennel powder
½ tsp of cumin powder
Small bunch of Spring onions (use the green part only!)
Vegetable Oil for frying
1 very clean cheese clothes
A few sheets of kitchen paper towel

To make the onion jam I used the following:

4 large onion, thinly sliced
½ Tbsp Oil
3 green chillies
5 small garlic pods
1 Tbsp (maximum) soft brown sugar
½ tsp of dry red chilli flakes
Heat oil in a wide pan, add your onions and the garlic, stir and on low heat and cook this for the next 20 minutes, approx.. or until onions are very soft.

When done let this cool down quickly and transfer to your Blender with the chillies, sugar and the chilli flakes and “blitz” until everything is very smooth.
Return to the pan and once again on very low flame cook for an additional 10 minutes. Done! And ready to be used with the fritters.

Tip the grated Courgettes onto the cheesecloth and wring out as much of the liquid, which will have appeared, and move to a large mixing bowl. Now add the eggs, cheese, flour and all the spices and the spring onion greens and mix well. Check seasoning.

Take your pan, add just enough oil to cover the pan and heat on medium flame. When hot add dollops of your fritter mixture with a big spoon carefully into the oil, flatten the fritters slightly and gently fry for 3-4 minutes on either side. A word of warning: do not take your eyes off them for a second – they can turn dark very quickly (see my own disastrous first attempt: delicious but near cinder top and bottom!!)

Remove and keep on the sheets of kitchen paper to lose some of the oil (do not cover). If you make a large batch, keep them on a baking sheet inside your oven on very low heat to keep warm.

When you finished making all your fritters, bring them to your table with the beautiful jam in a separate bowl and enjoy!!

Carina
Notes: You can of course also use half/half (yellow/green) courgettes.
The amount of chillies used is suited for our own pallet; tone it down if you want, but……you do want ‘the kick’!