And we carry on with Jill and Sean’s
impending reception and it seems that I am in a playful mood. There is very
little that has not been done or at least attempted in the world of food, I am
sure that more progressive people have tried and succeeded in doing the things
that I am doing in my kitchen at home. Yet I still get psyched when I pull
something off that I think is cool. It is even better when I pull something off
for someone else and they think that it is cool. That sounded way dirtier than
I meant it, we soldier on. So here are two more of the small plates that will
be appearing at Jill and Sean’s reception.
The first of the two today is a take
on Gazpacho, a Spanish soup that is served cold; it is a killer dish that can
act as a very light first course or, in this case, a saucy little starter. It
is very fresh and a little spicy. I am sure that mine is not traditional but it
is very tasty. The inspiration for this dish came from a whole bunch of my
friends who swear up and down that a spicy Caesar is the very best hangover
cure in the world. I have taken some of the flavors that I associate with a
Caesar and worked them into this recipe and played with the presentation to
reflect the dishes origin. I hope that you dig it.
Gazpacho a
la Caesar to the tune of Friday I’m in Love by the Cure.
1 cucumber
peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 red and 1
yellow pepper, roasted, de-seeded and peeled
Salt and
pepper
1 bottle of
tomato juice
1 jalapeño
diced
1 tsp of cumin
seeds toasted and ground
1 tsp
chilli flakes toasted and ground
A splash of
Worcestershire sauce
A splash of
hot sauce, tobacco or any good sauce
1 cup of
water to thin it out
A splash of
balsamic vinegar
Cherry tomatoes
1 red and 1
yellow pepper, coarsely chopped
-This one
is super easy. Toss all of your ingredients, save the tomatoes and raw peppers,
into a blender and blend until smooth. Tastes and adjust the levels of heat,
salt, and acid to your taste.
-Run the
mixture through a sieve to remove any pulp that is remaining.
-Skewer the
raw peppers and tomatoes for the garnish. Pour the Gazpacho into a martini
glass and garnish with the skewered veg. Enjoy.
Now we move from an altered recipe to
one that is a little bit more traditional. I have been playing with Spanish
food on my kitchen a lot lately as you can see in this menu and one of the
things that I have found and love to make is Spanish Tortilla. Now when you say
the word tortilla we normally get visions of the flour or corn flat bread that
we see in Mexican food. This is not the case with the tortilla from Spain. The
Spanish term is somewhere between a quiche without the crust or an overstuffed omelette
with potatoes being the predominant filling. Part of what I love about making
this dish is the versatility of it; you can take the basic technique and put
your own spin on it by adding whatever you want as a filling. I did a very
basic one and then I did a fancier one with smoked salmon and asparagus. So
this is one you can play with.
Spanish
Tortilla to the tune of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee
4 potatoes
washed and sliced thin, I used the slicing attachment on my food processor but
you can use a mandolin or just a knife. I like my spuds a little thicker but
cut them to the thickness that you want.
6 eggs
beaten
Salt and
pepper
1 clove of
garlic minced
1 onion
finely diced
3 tbsp olive
oil
That is the
basic. Like I said you can add whatever you like if you want to try the fancy
one you will need:
100g smoked
salmon
6 spears of
asparagus, roughly chopped and quickly sautéed
50g of
Chevre, un-aged goat’s cheese
-Crank your
broiler on. Heat up half the oil in a cast iron or oven proof frying pan over
medium high heat. Add in your onions and your garlic and let them sweat a
little. Add your spuds and cook them until they start to soften, about 10-20
minutes depending on the thickness. Stir occasionally so they don’t burn or
stick.
-Remove the
spuds from the pan and let sit for a couple of minutes to cool so you can pick
them up with your fingers.
-Heat up
the remaining oil in the same pan over medium heat. Make sure your oil gets up
unto the interior sides of your pan. Pour in half of your eggs and then layer
in half of your spuds. If you are doing the fancy put your salmon, asparagus,
and cheese in, another layer of spuds and then the rest of your eggs. Let it
work over the heat until the edges turn a little brown and start to come away
from the pan.
-Pull it off
the heat and pop it into your oven for a couple of minutes until the top is a
golden brown. Let it cool for about 5 minutes and then run a paring knife
around the edges and then turn it out onto a serving plate. The easiest way of
doing this is to put the plate face down on the tortilla, put your hand flat on
the plate and then flip the pan over. It is easy just like that. Give it a try.
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