Cava | 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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Memories of a month in Madrid…..
…..and a Quiche named “our own Jewels in the crown”.

Some time ago we took our girls for a month long family holiday to Spain – to the beautiful and lively city of Madrid in fact. We rented a beautiful little flat in a nice and most convenient area. From here we took many trips, mainly by bus, to some of the interesting little towns often only a one to two hours bus ride away. There is so much to see – the towns, like Toledo and El Escorial by themselves, the churches, galleries, Museums etc. – so much beauty not to be missed!

Frequently arriving back ‘home’ late, we did not feel like cooking but just wanted to “chill out” as the girls called it. So to make one of my nice party/picnic/TV-viewing Quiches the day before was just the right thing to do. The only company this Quiche needed was some lovely red wine and/or Cava. Bliss!
So, to make this dish now when I am rather busy with house- and other matters, makes sense – only Cava is missing!! And instead of Spanish Red we have our Indian SULA.

For a 9 inches (22.5 cm) flan dish, I used the following:
250 g tender corn kernels (frozen) thawed
250 g tender green peas (frozen) thawed
2 x large onions, very finely chopped
5 x garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 x red large Capsicum, finely chopped
1x yellow large Capsicum, finely chopped
1 x green large Capsicum, finely chopped
½ x a generous bunch of fresh Coriander, washed and finely chopped
3-4 x Tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and some Pepper, to your liking
3 x Tbsp Flour
4 x Eggs, room temperature
2 x tsp red chilli powder (or less if you can’t stand the heat)
½ x tsp Cumin
10 x drops (at least) of Tabasco – optional – (this Quiche does need some heat)

Method:
Drain the de-frosted corn and peas (separately!) in a small colander. Heat most of the oil in a wide pan, add onions, garlic and the entire chopped capsicum stir and cook at medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Let this mixture cool down a bit and then add the coriander – stir.

Now ‘blitz’ the corn only until a very fine paste. Add this and the flour into a bowl, add your eggs and mix everything very well.

Combine the Capsicum mixture with the corn/flour/egg-mixture, stir and finally add more salt (if needed), Chilli powder, Cumin and of course Tabasco – stir once more.

In the meantime I have pre-heated my oven to 200 C. The total mixture gets filled into the flan dish and baked in the oven for ca 45 minutes.

Since ovens vary I recommend you check around the 45 minutes stage. In my case I switch off but leave the dish in the oven. Do not let the Quiche get dry – slightly moist is delicious.

This dish is equally good warm or cold; I happily freeze any left-overs.