Salads from TGOSR
Bean/chickpea salad (Empedrado)
Four servings: 300 g of canned beans, or
chickpeas; 200 g of canned tuna fish, or desalted
shredded codfish, or both; 2 tbsp of extra olive oil;
some vinegar (to taste) 1 green & 1 red peppers; 2
tomatoes; 1 large onion; and 1, or 2, garlic cloves
finely chopped & salt.
Preparation:
First of all, put the white beans or canned
chickpeas in a sieve and rinse their cooking liquid
off; next cut the rest of ingredients into small dice
and place in a bowl, add the olive oil, the vinegar,
the salt, the garlic, stir the ingredients and keep in
the fridge for a later consumption.

Broccoli and bean salad (Ensalada de brócoli y
judías)
Four servings: 1cauliflower head, cut into flowerets;
150 g of canned white kidney beans(rinsed and
drained).
Ingredients for the vinaigrette: 3 tbsp of cider
vinegar; 5 tbsp of olive oil, salt & white pepper.
Preparation: Boil the cauliflower flowerets in salted
water for 10-15, and let them cool on their own
simmering liquid. Put the cauliflower and the beans
(previously rinsed from their cooking medium) in a
bowl, add the vinaigrette and keep in the fridge for a
later use.

Xató (Catalan salad with codfish & canned tuna fish,
anchovies, black olives, escarole (or arbequine), and
romesco sauce) (18)
Four servings: 1 escarole, 200 g of desalted codfish
cut, or shredded, into long strips; 200 g of canned tuna
fish, 12 canned anchovies, some black olives.
Ingredients for the sauce: 4 toasted almonds: 3 garlic
cloves; 1 hot pepper; salt; oil; vinegar; paprika.
Preparation:
1· Mash the almonds, the hot pepper and the garlic to a
fine paste in a mortar. Mix the oil, the vinegar, the black
pepper and a pinch of salt. Stir all the ingredients and
reserve.
2· Rinse the escarole under the tap, and spread it on a
salad platter together with the codfish, the tuna, the
anchovies, and the black olives.
3· Pour the sauce on the salad, previously mixed, and
stir it all to mix all the flavors and ingredients.

Notas: The xató is a sauce made from toasted almonds and hazelnuts, bread crumbs with vinegar, garlic, oil, salt and ñora as a characteristic
ingredient. This sauce accompanies an escarole salad with anchovies, tuna and cod.

Shrimp salad (Ensalada de gambas y surimi )
Ingredients: Iceberg lettuce, cut into strips; corn (canned
presentation): carrot, grated; shrimps (previously boiled for a
few minutes); pineapple chunks (canned ones are OK);
surimi sticks, cut into fine julienne.
Dressing:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and add a pink sauce made
with mayonnaise, ketchup and some lemon juice.
Finally, this salad can be garnished with some chopped
chives on top of it.
The photo of this shrimp salad doesn't show the pink
sauce specified in the recipe so that the rest of ingredients
can be clearly seen.

Well, this is also a complete dish as it contains a source of proteins, in the form of shrimps and surimi, and a source of vitamins and fiber in the
form of lettuce, carrots, and pineapple. Those who want to keep an eye on their diet should bear in mind this type of salads. Also, the addition of
a little of olive oil will increase the intake of vitamin E, that is, a good antioxidant.

Murcia salad (Ensalada Murciana)
Ingredients for six servings:
6 ripe tomatoes (canned tomatoes can be an option,
although fresh ones are better); 2 green onions (or
shallots); 3 hard-boiled eggs; 75 g of black olives; 150 g
of desalted codfish (canned, tuna); a pinch of sugar
(optional); and salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar to
taste.
Preparation: At the same time, peel, the tomatoes,
remove the seeds and cut then into dice. Cut the eggs
into thin slices. Cut the green onions into julienne. Mix
all the ingredients in a salad bowl, add a pinch of salt
and black pepper. Add the oil and vinegar to taste.
Also, boiled potatoes, cut into dice, can be added to this
recipes (as can be seen in the photo).
Notas: A salad is primarily a cold dish with mixed vegetables, cut into pieces and seasoned mainly with salt, lemon juice, olive oil, and vinegar.
It can be taken as a single dish, before or after the main course and even as a supplement (as a snack). In Spain, the most common salads
include tomato, lettuce and onion. A good way of enriching salads is by adding canned tuna (marinated, natural or oil), carrot, egg, cucumber,
some asparagus tips (usually canned) and the dressing described above, or in the recipe; sometimes it includes chopped garlic, ground pepper,
and many other ingredients that can turn a simple salad into an elaborate preparation. It is usually a cold dish; in any case combining warm or
cold ingredients doesn't seem to be a contradiction.

Pasta salad (Ensalada de pasta)
Ingredients:
Pasta cooked in salt and water: lettuce cut into fine julienne;
green onions, thinly sliced ; tomato salad, cut into dice; cooked
ham, cut into dice; surimi sticks, diced; hardboiled egg, diced;
cheese (cheese of any kind), diced; mayonnaise, or pink
sauce.
Preparation: What is left to do now is to mix all the ingredients
and add the mayonnaise on top of it (you can also use pink
sauce).
The photo of this pasta salad doesn't show the mayonnaise or
pink sauce on it. Also, many of these ingredients are optional
and can be replaced for any other ingredients: canned tunna,
boiled ham, surimi, etc.

Notas: Carbohydrates and Fiber
Pasta is rich in beneficial carbohydrates. A cup of white spaghetti provide 43 grams of carbohydrates, while an equivalent serving of wholewheat spaghetti offers 37 grams of total carbs. Carbs serve as a primary source of energy for our body. Whole-wheat pasta also provides a
considerable amount of dietary fiber, so it's a particularly beneficial type of carbohydrate. Fiber helps fight chronic diseases -- including obesity
and type 2 diabetes -- and it also promotes digestive health. A 1-cup serving of whole-wheat pasta contains 6.3 grams of dietary fiber, providing
17 percent of the recommended daily intake for men and 24 percent for women. White pasta , that is, whole-wheat pasta, is lower in fiber, and
about 2.5 grams per serving.

Valencia salad (Ensalada Valenciana)
Ingredients for four servings: lettuce; salad tomato; 1
radish; 1 hardboiled egg, cut into wedges; 1-2 cans
of tuna; onion, cut into rings; olives; olive oil; wine
vinegar; salt.
Preparation: Rinse the lettuce and cut into not-toosmall shreds. Wash the tomatoes and cut them also into
wedges.
The radishes are washed and skinned or just open.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and season with salt, olive
oil and vinegar.
In general, all salads contain more or less the same
ingredients depending on the climate zone where you
live.
Notas: This salad contains proteins of a high nutritional value in the form of tuna, and in the form of hardboiled eggs. the tomato and the lettuce
do provide high levels of fiber, so it can be certified that it is a very complete dish, and, to make things even better, to sprinkle on it some extra
virgin oil would add a rich source of vitamin E, whose antioxidant effects have been reported in many scientific studies.

Countryside salad (Ensalada campera)
Ingredients: 200 ml of virgin olive oil; 200 g of
olives; 500 g of canned tuna fish; 2 onions; 3 eggs; 4
potatoes; parsley; 1green pepper; 1 red pepper; salt; 2
red tomatoes; 50 ml sherry vinegar
Preparation: Start cooking the potatoes with the
skin. Prick the potatoes to determine doneness (if the
fork has trouble entering, boil them a bit more). Cut
the potatoes into pieces. Boil the eggs hard, and cut
them into wedges.
Chop both peppers and onions into dice and cut the
tomatoes into wedges. What is left to do now is to
add it all to the bowl, prepare a vinaigrette with the
oil, the vinegar, the salt, a pinch of salt (adding some
freshly ground black pepper wouldn't be a grave sin),
and finally add the tuna, the olives, and keep it in the
fridge until the moment it is going to be eaten.
Nota: This is another excellent salad that contains fiber, vitamins, proteins, so we can deduce from it that this is also a very complete dish. A
barbecued steak, or any other meat followed by some pieces of fruit, can crown a family reunion and make our bodies a bit healthier.

Rice salad (Ensalada de arroz )
Ingredients: 1 cup long grain rice,1 small
can of corn and one of peas, 1/2 red pepper,
1 onion, 3 tbsp of raisins (seedless), 50 g of
pitted olives; 2-3 stalks of celery.
For the sauce: 6 tbsp olive oil,2 vinegar
tbsp; 1 tbsp of mustard;1 tbsp of honey, and
salt.
Preparation: Cook the rice in salted water
and with a bay leaf. Once the rice is
cooked, put it in a sieve and rinse it under
the tap water to cool it down and to get rid
of the starch released during the cooking
procedure. Now you can mix it with rest of
ingredients. what is left to do is prepare the
sauce, which will be poured on the salad
just before it is going to be consumed.

Nota: The health benefits of rice include its ability to provide fast and instant energy, regulate and improve bowel movements, stabilize blood sugar levels, and slow down the aging process; it also
provides an essential source of vitamin B1 to our bodies. Other additional benefits include its capability to boost skin health, increase the metabolism, aid in digestion, reduce high blood pressure,
help weight loss efforts, improve the immune system and provide protection against dysentery, cancer, and heart disease. Rice is a fundamental food in many cultural cuisines around the world, and
it is an important cereal crop that feeds more than half of the world’s population.

Lettuce and tomato salad with stuffed eggs
(Ensalada con huevos rellenos).
Ingredients for 4 servings: 4 hard-boiled eggs, cut
into halves, and the yolks removed and set aside for
a later used; 1large onion, cut into brunoise; 1 red
pepper, finely chopped; 2 cans of tuna, drained; 3-4
tbsp of mayonnaise;100 g of green olives; 1/2
lettuce, cut into julienne strips ; 1 carrot, grated; 3-4
salad tomatoes, cut into wedges; 4 oz. of cooked
ham, cut into strips; salt.
Preparation: Prepare a vinaigrette with the following
proportions: one part of vinegar, one part of olive oil,
three parts of sunflower oil, and a pinch of salt.
These proportions can vary depending on one's
taste. Do not add salt, as this will be done directly on
the salad. Mix the tuna (drained) with the onion, the
red pepper and the mayonnaise. Used this paste to
fill the halves of the eggs. Place the lettuce in the
dish, together with the tomato wedges, the ham
strips, the olives and some grated carrot. Grate he
egg yolks on top of the stuffed halves just before
serving the salads.
The top 5 properties of lettuce: Detoxifying properties: regular consumption of lettuce helps aids in eliminating toxins from the body, especially in the intestine, and it prevents constipation; it also improves
digestion significantly, which is why it is recommended to be consumed both before meals, and during them. Furthermore, lettuce helps purify the blood, it regulates cholesterol, and glucose levels. Perfect snack for
those on diet: lettuce is low in calories, nourishing; it is good in regulating appetite thanks to the filled up sensation and so it can help us get rid of extra pounds in a natural and healthy way. Anti stress properties: it
seems that salts present in lettuce provides its tonic properties, eases breathing and reduces stress; a more frequent consumption of lettuce help us to give up tobacco, alcohol or narcotics. Also, when it is consumed
at the evening meal it works as a mild sedative and help us sleep all night through. Anti rheumatic properties: significant amount of iodine, and other salts in lettuce help relieve rheumatic pain, keep tissues young for
longer, and help children to grow bigger and stronger! Also, such salts contribute to normal thyroid function and have a powerful anti-sclerotic effect. Properties to stimulate liver; a regular consumption of lettuce
contributes to a healthy liver and stimulates a good hepatic functioning, and it is recommended in biliary dyskinesia or chronic hepatitis.

Chicken breast salad (Ensalada de ave)
Ingredients for 4 servings: 6 oz. of chicken breasts, boiled
and cut into julienne; vinegar;1 carrot, grated; salad tomatoes,
cut into wedges; 1 egg; 2-3 hardboiled eggs, cut into quarters;
1/2 lettuce, cut into strips; 1-2 green smith apple, peeled and
cut into julienne at the last minute to avoid it oxidizes and gets a
brownish color; mustard.
Prepare a vinaigrette with the following proportions: 2 tbsp of
vinegar, 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 and a half tbsp of sunflower oil,
and some salt. Prepare a mustard mayonnaise (3 tbsp of
mayonnaise and a tsp of mustard), and mix it with the apple,
cut into julienne, and the chicken meat cut into dice.
Next, arrange a crown of lettuce on each plate, place the egg
and tomato quarters at intervals with the lettuce (see the
photo), and place the chicken, apple and mayonnaise
preparation at the center of the dish. Garnish the center with
the grated carrot and season the lettuce, the tomato and the
egg quarters with the vinaigrette.

Mixed salad (Ensalada mixta)
Ingredients for 4 servings:
1 iceberg lettuce, cut into strips; 2 artichokes, previously
boiled and cut into wedges (canned ones are a good
option); 8 canned asparagus, drained; 2 hardboiled eggs,
cut into wedges; 1 large salad tomato, cut into thin wedges;
1 large onion, cut into thin rings; 2 small tuna cans (drained
of oil). 1 cucumber cut into half slices.
Preparation: Put all the ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle
on them a vinaigrette made with one part of olive oil, one
part of vinegar; salt and black pepper to taste and toss the
salad to get an homogeneous union of flavors.

Beans stewed with clams and prawns (Alubias con almejas y
gambas)

Ingredients for 4 servings: 11 oz. of white beans, soaked in
water from the night before; 1 large onion, cut into julienne; 1
carrot and 1 leek stalk, both cut into half-moon slices; 2
tomatoes, cut into quarters; 3-4 oz. of prawns, peeled; 2-3
clams, soaked in salted water from the previous night to
eliminate any remaining sand; 1 l of fish stock.
Preparation: Cook the beans with some salt until they're soft,
remove from the heat, sieve and set aside on a warm place.
Sauté the veggies until they soften; add the fish stock, simmer
for some min, mix with the hand blender and strain through a
china cap (this can be done the previous day).
Sauté the prawns, and put the clams in a small pot with a little
bit of hot fish stock and wait until the clams open. And finally,
mix the beans with the veggies cooked in the fish stock, the
clams and the small amount of stock used to cook them until
open. Canned white beans can also be used; discard though the
cooking liquid and rinse the beans with abundant water.

Shepherd Soup (Sopa de Pastor )
Four servings: 4 cups of beef stock; 6 slices of dried-out
baguette bread; 4 eggs; 1 roasted red pepper; 1 onion; 2
garlic cloves; 2-3 tbsp of finely chopped parsley; 2 slices
of Serrano ham, chopped into small dice; salt to taste;
olive oil to sauté
Preparation: Chop the pepper, the garlic and the onion
into slices . Sauté the garlic and the bread in a frying pan
with some olive oil and remove before both elements
burn. Fry the onion and the red pepper in the same oil,
and return the bread and the garlic to the same pan. Add
the beef broth to the preparation and bring to a boil. Crack
the eggs into a bowl (so no piece of egg shell will get into
the soup), and add them to the soup. Serve the soup
straightaway once the eggs are set. Sprinkle some finely
chopped parsley (to taste) on each soup dish.

This recipe is indeed another savory dish that can give delight to those who, like me, are fond of soups. There is something curious as to this sort of recipes (Shepherd soup, or
Garlic Soup), and I'm referring to the fact that today we have to reserve some bread to let it dry out and then use it for preparing the soup, but in some old times dried-out
bread was used to prepare these recipes as a cost saving measure before the leftover bread became stale and moldy. The type bread to use is preferably the baguette type.
although in those old days I mentioned before the bread used in Spain was that known as "pan de hogaza".

Veggies soup (Menestra de verduras)
Four servings: 1lb. raw carrots; 1 lb. green beans; 1 15 oz.
canned artichoke hearts; 1 15 oz. canned peas; 1 small
broccoli; 3 oz. of Serrano ham (1 slice 1/8 inch thick); 4 - 6
tbsp of Spanish olive oil; 1 tbsp of flour; 1 yellow onion; salt
to taste (Any ingredient can be replaced for another one)
Preparation: Peel and chop the carrots, the onions and the
turnip into small cubes. Cut the Serrano ham into small dice.
Slightly fry the ham dice in a large pot, add the chopped
onion and sauté for 5 minutes on a medium heat. Next add
the flour, stir well so it doesn't cling to the bottom, add the
chopped carrots and water (or a light broth) to cover the
ingredients and let it all simmer for some time. Add the
green beans and the turnip when the first ingredients are
half-cooked. Salt to taste and continue simmering until all
ingredients are cooked to a point where they are a bit soft
but not mushy. Now you can add the canned artichokes and
the canned peas, and let the last two ingredients get some
heat.

Leek and codfish soup (Porrusalda)
Four servings: ½ kilo of desalted codfish,
shredded into 1-inch pieces; 350 g of potatoes;
3 leeks,3 garlic cloves; 2 or 3 carrots, sliced;
salt & olive oil; and 500 ml of a light veggies
broth.
Preparation: Heat some olive oil in a casserole
and start sautéing the leek, the carrots and the
garlic; after some minutes, add the potatoes
and continue sautéing for 4-5 minutes. Next,
add the light veggies broth to almost cover the
ingredients, let simmer for 13-17 minutes.
Finally add the codfish and let simmer for
another 3 minutes before serving.
Porrusalda o purrusalda es un plato típico vasco-navarro preparado principalmente a base de verduras, predominando entre estas el puerro gruesamente picado, de hecho el significado en euskera del vocablo
purrusalda es literal caldo de puerro.[1] [2] Su presentación es parecida a la de un estofado, es decir, un plato caldoso con tropezones grandes que se sirve caliente, generalmente como primer plato.[3] Los
tropezones son generalmente de bacalao desmigado, u otra verdura picada, aunque se puede encontrar la patata cocida.[4] Por el precio de los ingredientes es considerado como un plato económico.[5

Porrusalda or purrusalda is a Basque Country-Navarre dish which is mainly prepared with vegetables, and in which coarsely chopped leek is
the main ingredient; in fact the literal meaning of porrusalda is the Basque word puerro (leek).The aspect of this dish is that of a stew, i.e. a
large soupy dish with chunky pieces of food served usually as a first course. Another element to take into account is desalted codfish, shredded
and added to the stew some 5 minutes before the conclusion of the recipe. And as to the price of this recipe, it is not very expensive and can be
regarded as a an economic course. It could be included in the list of recipes belonging to the Mediterranean Diet.

Veggies Soup (Menestra de Verduras)
Ingredients: 1 onion; 3 garlic cloves; 4 tbsp of extra
virgin olive oil; 2 potatoes; 1 small zucchini;1 small
eggplant; 2 carrots; salt; pepper; 1 tsp of sugar; 2
ripe tomatoes; 1 bunch of basil; fresh parsley, 1.5
liters of water, 1 chicken breast, boneless.
Preparation: Peel the onion, garlic, carrots and
potatoes. Wash the zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant.
Chop finely the onion and garlic. Cut the potatoes,
carrots, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant into dice.
Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and the garlic,
and fry for 5 minutes. Then, add the remaining
vegetables, chopped as described above.
Sauté all the veggies for about 15 minutes over a
medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cover with water,
add, pepper and sugar to taste. Next, add the
chicken, chopped; the basil and parsley, finely
chopped. Bring to a boil and cook for 35-40 minutes,
or until chicken and vegetables are very tender.
Veggies in a soup, cooked with some boneless chicken breast is a recipe to bear in mind, above all in winter; it's not only a matter of a hot soup to keep you
warm, it also contains a series of ingredients that are healthy and have savory taste as well as a mouth-watering aspect. Some spicy sauce added to it, as a final
touch doesn't distort the recipe; also, some turns of black pepper mill would be a sacrilege. I have also found some variation in which the chicken is replaced
for cubes of pork lean meat, or small meatballs, previously fried in a little oil, and added at the same moment when the chicken meat is indicated to be popped
in.

Garlic Soup (Sopa de ajo)
This is a very economical and delicious soup that was
devised by peasants to kill their hunger and warm their
bodies in the long winter nights of a God-forgotten Spain.
The idea was to make a good use of bread leftovers, as
even bread was very expensive in those dire days.
Four servings: Garlic: 1 and half bulb; four 1-inch thick
dried out baguette slices of bread (100 g/0.22 pounds); 1
liter and a half of a light stock (1 1/2 L of water enriched
with 2 stock cubes will do); 2/3 eggs; 4 tbsp of olive oil;
black pepper (1tsp); salt (1 tsp); paprika 1 tsp).
Preparation: Shred the bread into small pieces and add it
to the stock. In the meantime, peel the garlic cloves and
fried them in a sauce pan with the oil on a medium fire ring
until the cloves get a brownish color. Keep aside part of the
oil and start mashing the garlic, the pepper, the red paprika
and the salt in a mortar to get a brownish-red paste that will
be incorporated to the stock together with part of the oil.
Stir the soup with a wire whip to allow the bread get thinner
and to obtain a good mixture of all the ingredients. Crack
the eggs and stir both yolks and whites in the mortar with a
fork (don't use the wire whip now as it would add air to
mixture, and this is not a dessert). Finally, allow the soup to
simmer for 10 minutes, cut the fire and slowly add the
whisked eggs while stirring the soup with a fork to mix all
the ingredients.
Typically Castilian in origin, the garlic soup is a traditional dish with a humble origin, which has undergone, with the passage of time, many variations in
different parts of Spain. The Castilian garlic soup is one of the typical dishes of the Spanish cuisine that has a special significance in the area of Madrid and
Castilla-Leon, although it is well known and prepared all over Spain. There are as many recipes as cooks, but garlic and bread are still the basic ingredients of
this humble recipe that, over time, has evolved to become a special dish, with a series of ingredients that unthinkable in the middle ages for a normal family.

Castilian stew and soup (Cocido madrileño)
Four servings: 1/2 k of shank; 1/2 stewing chicken; 1pig's trotter,
quartered; 1/2 k of chickpeas;1 marrow bone (4-5 inch-long); 100 g of
streaky pork in a piece; 100 g of dry-cured ham; 1 chorizo sausage; 1
black pudding sausage; 150 g of short noodles; 1 carrot; 1 cabbage; 6
medium-sized potatoes; oil, some garlic cloves, celery, paprika,
saffron, and salt.
Preparation: Keep the chickpeas soaked in water from the previous
night; a good trick is to add some baking soda in the soaking water to
improve the cooking process; this water will be eventually discarded.
Pour 1600 cc of cold water into a pressure cooker, add the shank, the
pork, the marrow bone, the cured ham, the pig's trotter, and the
stewing chicken. Let all these elements almost reach boiling point
before adding the carrot, the celery, the chickpeas, and the salt. Next,
lock the pressure cooker and let simmer for 16-18 minutes; after this
time, open the cooker, and add the potatoes, the chorizo and blood
sausages, the cabbage, cut into quarters. Lock again the cooker, let 46 minutes more; and finally open it again, sieve the liquid from the
meats, discard the marrow bone and reserve the meats, veggies,
potatoes in a warm place (a preheated oven for example), and use the
broth produced to cook the small noodles. The resulting soup will be
the first course, and the remaining elements can be arranged on a
tray from which the second course will be served. Sprinkle some
paprika (to the taste) on the stewed ingredients and also drizzle on
them some extra virgin oil (recommended)

Catalan stew and soup with assorted meats and veggies
(Escudella i carn d'olla)
Six servings: 500g of ground beef meat; 1/4 of stewing chicken; 1
chicken cut into quarts; 200 g of raw pig's ear and snout; 1/2 pig's
trotter"; 1 ham dry-cured ham marrowbone; 100 g of streaky pork;
a big piece of backbone; 2 beef marrow bones pieces; 150 g of
white Catalan sausage; 150 g of black Catalan sausage (both
types of sausages are known as Butifarra blanca y Butifarra
negra, respectively); 250 g of chickpeas, soaked previously in
water 12 hr; 1cabbage; 250 g of peeled potatoes (rather small
ones, or cut into cubes); 1turnip; 1 carrot; 1 leek; 1 branch of
celery.
Ingredients for the meatballs: 200 g of ground pork meat; 250 g
of ground beef pork; 1eggs; 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs (finely
ground); 1 garlic clove, finely chopped; parsley; salt; and flour.
Ingredients for the soup: 400 g of "galets" (a type of snail-shaped
pasta piece)
Preparation of the meatballs: Mix both types of meats together
with the egg, the parsley, the garlic, some salt and pepper, first
with a fork and then with both hands to make a meat mass, which
must be cut into 4 quarts to form 4 meatballs that will be dredged
in flour and subsequently added to the stock.
Preparation of the soup:
Put the pig's trotters, ear and snout, together with the stewing
chicken, chicken and bone pieces in a big pot and cover it
sufficiently with water. Next, bring the pot to a boil and start to
skim off the fat and other oily impurities released by the
ingredients; after some 10 minutes add the chickpeas and bring
back the pot to a boil. This done, add the carrot, the turnip, the
celery, and skim off again. Let it all simmer for 90 minutes, a
period long enough to render the meats soft. Then, add the
cabbage, the potatoes, the sausages, the meat balls (pilotas in
Catalán).
Let the pot simmer another half hour, check the salt taste, and add
salt if necessary. Next, sieve all the ingredients, collect the soup

where the "galets" will be cooked, place all the veggies, potatoes,
chickpeas and meats on serving dish to be kept in a warm place (a
preheated oven, for example). The galets will be boiled in the soup
according to the manufacturer's instructions, while the rest of
ingredients will constitute the second course. Drizzle oil and add
some salt and pepper to taste.

Fish soup (Sopa de pescado)
Four servings:100 g of rice; 1/4 k of angler fish;
1/4 K of clams (whether fresh or frozen, soak the
clam in brine water to get rid of the sand they may
content; 1/4 K of mussels, 2 garlic cloves; 1 onion,
finely chopped; 1 tbsp of tomato purée; Olive oil,
salt, 1 bay leave, parsley, and some saffron.
Step 1: Prepare the fish stock by simmering the
fish's bones, head and other parts that are not
commercially viable, together with the bay leave
and the parsley. Simmer for 20 minutes, sieve the
stock and reserve it for a later use. Any fish stock
must not simmer more than 20 minutes with the
fish bones, or other elements, as it would turn
bitter to the taste.
Step 2: Fry the onion and the tomato to produce
the sofrito base; add some of the fish stock
previously reserved (2-3 tbsp) to thin out the
sofrito base, and let the preparation simmer for 1012 minutes on a mild heat. Next, add the whole
amount of fish stock, let it reach boiling point and
add the rice, and 8 minutes later add the fish cut
into pieces and the clams and mussels without
their shells.

Spanish bean stew (Fabada asturiana)
Ingredients for 4 servings: 500 gr of Asturian white beans (fabes de la
Ganja), soaked in water the night before; 2 Asturian chorizos; 2 Asturian blood
sausages (black pudding); 100 g of shoulder of pork (a salted presentation of
this piece of pork meat that is soaked in water to desalt it and which can be
replaced by 1-inch slice of bacon it) 100 g of cured de tocino (replaced by
100 g of bacon), 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, some parsley, and salt
Preparation: The first step is to have the beans soaked in cold water for
at least 12 hours. They first become wrinkled but rehydrate again in no
time. Also soak the meats in another bowl, but in lukewarm water. Next day
place the meats first and the beans in a pot using the same soaking water;
add the onion, the parsley, and the garlic cloves. Put the pot on a medium-tohigh heat, and start to skim off the fat bubbles resulting from the boiling
process. From time to time, add some cold water (not in excess) to cut the
boiling process. This is called "frightening the beans" (asustar las fabes); it
stabilizes the stew, or so they say. Next, lower the heat to a minimum level
until it gets to a boiling point again and keep this rhythm of boiling for 3 hours,
while checking that the beans get soft. Add the salt only at the conclusion of
the recipe, never at the beginning as the meats used were salted; if the broth
is too liquid, mash some beans in a mortar and add them to the broth.

This dish and the Fabada Asturiana are indeed hyper-caloric, and their content of fats is also high. This type of recipes were designed to feed people with the ingredients that
were at the disposal of peasants and rural people. All the meats used come from pork preparations as these animal were easy to rear and could be fed with the leftovers
coming from the domestic use. They provide a lot of energy and are not very healthy with regard to the present parameters of our modern and sedentary life-style. However,
beans are excellent as an anti-aging food, and are known to be a good source of proteins.
The following link will add more info about beans:

Beans stewed with clams and prawns (Alubias con almejas y
gambas)
Ingredients for 4 servings: 11 oz. of white beans, soaked in
water from the night before (*); 1 large onion, cut into julienne; 1
carrot and 1 leek stalk, both cut into half-moon slices; 2
tomatoes, cut into quarters; 3-4 oz. of prawns, peeled; 2-3
clams, soaked in salted water from the previous night to
eliminate any remaining sand; 1 l of fish stock.
Preparation: Cook the beans until they're soft with some salt,
remove from the heat, sieve and set aside on a warm place.
Sauté the veggies until they soften; add the fish stock, simmer
for some mins, mix with the hand blender and strain through a
china cap (this can be done the previous day).
Sauté the prawns, and put the clams in a small pot with a little
bit of hot fish stock and wait until the clams open. And finally,
mix the beans with the veggies cooked in the fish stock, the
clams and the small amount of stock used to cook them until
open. (*) Canned white beans can also be used; discard though
the cooking liquid and rinse the beans with abundant water.

This bean soup that I present here is indeed a much healthier recipe than those using pork meats, sausages, black puddings, etc. Many of the ingredients used in such dishes
were humble and economic, on the one hand; but also they provided a lot of energy, so peasants working in the farm lands and in the woods ate these fat-rich foods that
became burned in their daily exhausting activities. So, cholesterol-derived diseases were very rare in those days for farmers and the likes. This recipe above is a sophisticated
and refined dish that won't cause any serious fat-related impairment. As to the other recipes, they don't represent a danger if they are consumed moderately (once a month).

Lentils soup with spare ribs & chorizo (Lentejas con
costilla de cerdo)
Four servings: 250 g of lentils; 150 g of spare ribs, cut into
1-inch pieces; 80 g of streaky bacon, cut into thick pieces;
some chorizo slices; 1 carrot, sliced; 1 onion, finely
chopped; 4 tbsp of tomato purée; 2 garlic cloves, peeled; 1
slice of bread fried in oil; 1 bay leave; 1 litter of
chicken/veggies broth;
Preparation: Salt and pepper the spare ribs and fry them
in a casserole with some oil until they get brown color, and
set aside. Next, add the chorizo slices, let them fry very
lightly, add the onion, and let simmer for some time on a
medium heat. After some minutes add the tomato purée, let
simmer another ten minutes (add some of the stock if you
see the ingredients look to thick). In the meantime, pound
the garlic cloves and the fried bread in a mortar, and the
result is added to the casserole together with the bay
leave. Finally, add the lentils and the stock; at first you will
think there's too much water, but lentils absorb a lot of
liquid, so keep an eye on them to see if they need more
water (not more broth)The cooking time now is around 4555 minutes (depending on the type of lentils). A pressure
cooker can also be used, although taking into account the
frying procedure explained before.

Fresh tuna-fish stewed with potatoes
(Marmitaco)
Four servings: 500 gm (1.1 lbs) of tuna fish
cut into 1-inch cubes; 3/4 potatoes (1.1lbs);
cut into 1-in chunks; 1 red pepper; cut into
brunoise; 1 green pepper; cut likewise;
tomato purée, 8 tbsp; 2 medium sized onions
cut into brunette; the pulp of a rehydrated
"pimiento chorizero" (a dried-up red pepper
used to color and flavor pork meat in the
production of chorizos)
Preparation: Start frying the onion dices in a
casserole on a medium heat ring and add
some salt; after some 10 minutes start
adding the red and green peppers, and stir
the ingredients with a spatula. Keep stewing
all the vegetables for a minimum of 5
minutes, and then add the tomato, and after
another 5 minutes add the potatoes, the pulp
of the rehydrated pepper (or its substitute)
and stew on a medium heat for 20 minutes.
Salt the tuna cubes before they are added to
the stew and allow a 2-minute cooking (no
more than that as the fish cubes would
become less juicy). This dish should be
consumed before it gets cold.
The origin of Marmitacoo, or Marmitako, can be found in the Basque fishing boats. In years gone by, cooks had very few ingredients on board to prepare a
good meal; so some fish, potatoes and little else were enough to keep the crew alive and kicking. Its name comes from the earthenware pot known as
"marmita", which is the casserole in which marmitako is prepared. It is indeed an excellent stew that is famous on all the northern part of Spain, and is also
known as Sorroputum in Cantabria, or Caldeirada in Galicia.

White beans stewed with black pudding
(Alubias blancas con morcilla )

Ingredients for 6 servings: 18 oz. of dry
white beans; 3 oz. of chorizo; 4 oz. of
spare rib; 1 oz. of salt pork; 6 oz. of black
pudding; 1 carrot, sliced, 4 tbsp of Biscay
sauce.
Preparation: Keep the beans soaked in
water from the night before. Cut the spare
ribs and the salt pork into cubes, but leave
the chorizo whole. Next, place all the
ingredients in a pot with enough water to
cover them and start to simmer on a low
heat. The water must be at room
temperature as this facilitates the
expansion of flavors from the ingredients
to the surrounding liquid, which will
constitute the soup. The boiling process
must be slow and continued until the
beans get a soft consistency, so it will
prevent beans from braking. The Biscay
sauce must be added during the boiling
time. The chorizo will be cut into slices
when the soup is to be served.

Fried mushrooms, filled with Serrano ham
(Champiñones rellenos de jamón.
Ingredients: 7 oz. of mushrooms; 3 oz. of 4 oz.
of Serrano ham, finely chopped; 1 garlic clove,
finely chopped; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1/2 l of
béchamel sauce; 4-5 tbsp of breadcrumbs, finely
ground.
Preparation: Remove the mushroom stalks, and
sauté the caps and the garlic in olive oil.
For the filling: Sauté the onion, add the Serrano
ham, stir and add the béchamel sauce to form an
homogeneous mixture. Stuff the mushrooms with
this mixture, and use the rest of the sauce to
dredge the stuffed mushroom caps in it. Place
now the mushrooms in the fridge so the
béchamel sauce get thicker and harder. Next,
dredge the pieces in the breadcrumbs and deepfry in oil. Serve before they cool down.
There are numerous species of mushrooms, most of them are edible, and their low amount of calories has made of them a food common in slimming diets, a
non negligible percentage of their composition provides very important nutrients for our health. Mushrooms are a good source of B vitamins, which are
necessary for the proper functioning of the nervous system. They also provide zinc and selenium, and are included in the diet of vegetarians and people under
a weight-loss diet or with cholesterol problems: it's a non-animal food (it is not a vegetable either, contrary to what many people think), with no fat, hippocaloric and easy to digest. Zinc is needed for healthy hair and nails; besides the lack of zinc leads to problems in the formation and functioning of the
reproductive system, hence its reputation as an aphrodisiac food. Selenium is a trace element with antioxidant properties that helps preventing degenerative
diseases and tumors, and it also has an excellent impact on the health of skin, hair and nails.

Coca de recapte (It is a kind of Catalan pizza dated from
Roman times)
Ingredients for 4 servings: 400 g of flour; 150 ml of water;
20 g of pressed yeast;
10 g of salt; 4 onions, finely chopped; 3 peppers, baked
and peeled (can be replaced by canned ones; 2 baked
eggplants; 2 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped; 4 herrings, or 68 anchovies ; olive oil; salt.
Preparation: Dissolve the yeast in warm water and add
some salt.
Make a flour volcano and add the yeast. Knead the mass to
get an homogeneous consistency, and let it sit with a tablenapkin on until it doubles in size.
Make a sofrito with the onion and the tomatoes in some oil.
Flatten the dough on a lightly floured surface, and give it an
elongated shape of 15 x 20 cm in size. Spread the sofrito
and the baked veggies on the dough; add some salt, place
the herrings on, and sprinkle some olive oil. Place the
preparation in a preheated oven, and bake until the dough
is clearly cooked.

It is mainly produced and consumed in the Catalan provinces of Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona and Lleida. It is a dough preparation topped with peppers and
eggplants -previously roasted in the oven- and other ingredients, such as tuna, onion, sausages, olives, tomato, herring, etc. Its origin is unclear, although
some attribute it to the times when Romans ruled Hispania, and it because coca resembles the Italian pizza, although many other talk of a possible Arab
origin. Here we have again a very complete and healthy preparation, as we come across a display of proteins, fiber, vitamins, and carbohydrates. Fats must
be restricted to the type of meats (pork preparations, such as sausages, bacon, etc.) used and the amount of oil used in the roasting process of the veggies
mentioned before.

Codfish fritters (Buñuelos de bacalao)
Four servings: 200 g of desalted cod-fish, drained on
paper towels; 1 egg, 150 g of flour; coloring powder (better
if you can afford saffron, a few chopped strands); Salt, 1
tbsp of yeast, or baking soda.
Preparation: Shred the desalted codfish into small pieces
and mix all ingredients in a bowl to form an homogenous
and not-too-thick paste (a bit runny, but only a bit). What is
left to now is to scoop some paste with a tbsp and drop it
on hot oil and fry until the fritters get a nice brown color;
you can use a deep fryer, or a sauce pan with enough oil
(in this case you can use sunflower oil, although take into
account that this type of oils have a lower boiling point, so
they become denatured earlier). Once they are fried, drain
them on paper towels to discard excess of oil.

As to codfish fritters, they are also a salted type of puffs that are delicious as a finger food; I have mentioned before that croquettes can be eaten warm or at room temperature,
but this does not apply for cold codfish puffs as they taste much better just straight from the pan or the deep fryer. They can also be served accompanied by a salad in order to
balance the intake of fiber and vitamins from the salad ingredients.

Cheese & bacon puffs (Buñuelos de queso y bacon)
Four servings: 125gm of grated cheese; 125 gm of bacon
cut into very small cubes;1 egg; 125 g of flour; 300 cc of
water; Salt; 1 tsp of yeast (o baking soda); coloring agent.
Preparation: Fry, lightly, the bacon in a sauce pan with no
oil, and reserve it on kitchen roll paper. Mix all the
ingredients in a bowl together with the bacon to form a nottoo-thick paste. Scoop some paste from the bowl with a tbsp
and drop it into the hot oil. Remove each fritter when they
get brown, and let them drain on paper towels.

Puffs, sweet or salted, are a dough that is fried in plenty of oil, and can be made with water, milk, egg or yeast. They also may include a filler that can be sweet or salted, as for
example apple or fish.The Moorish were the first to consume puffs. Their citizens, were people of modest means, who inhabited the southern territories of the Iberian Peninsula
and had menial jobs; some of them were hawkers who sold this product in fairs and street markets. Puffs were, in their sweet version as desserts fried in oil and covered with
honey, very typical in Seville and Granada. Furthermore, this specialty was adopted by gypsies, after the expulsion of the Moors from the Spanish peninsula , and has come to
these days. In some Latin American countries like Colombia and Mexico, puffs are served at Christmas; in Colombia it is customary to prepare them with a mixture of eggs,
grated cheese, corn flour and sugar. In Mexico they are commonly found in many popular fairs.

Codfish croquettes (Croquetas de bacalao)
Ingredients for the croquettes: 300 g of desalted, and
boneless codfish, shredded; 100 g of potatoes; 2 eggs; 1
tbsp of parsley finely chopped; 3 tbsp of flour; 200 g of
breadcrumbs, finely ground; olive oil.
Ingredients for the béchamel: 50 g of butter; 2 dl of
milk, black pepper; nutmeg.
Cut the potatoes into cubes and put to boil in water for 15
minutes; add the codfish 2 minutes before the time limit
expressed; sieve both ingredients, put in a bowl together
with some béchamel sauce, the fine chopped garlic
cloves and let it cool for 4 hours in the fridge. Form the
croquettes with 2 tables spoons (in the same way as
quenelles), flour them, soak them in the whisked eggs,
dredge them in the breadcrumbs, and fry to slight brown
color. They are also delicious at room temperature.

Codfish - first salted for preservation reasons, and then desalted for the preparations of the different recipes- was a good solution for those inland
regions of Spain as in those days when there were no refrigeration systems to keep the fish meat in a good preservation state, so the people in
Madrid, for example, could eat a fish preparation without having to travel to a coast town. The same applies for other sort of fish meats. Today,
though, desalted codfish is still found (and I hope for many years to come) in our markets for the preparation of many recipes. Also, it can be
bought salted today, kept in the fridge, or in a very dry place, for months, and then desalted to prepare any recipe of the uncountable number of
preparations that the Spanish Recipe Book has in stock; all of which is a good advantage to its favor.
PhotoGastrosite by Carlos Mirasierras

Serrano -ham croquettes Croquetas de jamón)
Four servings: One golf ball of butter; 4 tbsp of flour; milk;
350 g. of cured ham cut into very small cubes; 3 eggs (2 of
them fresh, and the other one hard-boiled and finely
chopped); breadcrumbs (finely ground).
Preparation: Meltdown the butter in a pan on a medium
fire, and add the flour to get a thick paste. At this moment
add the milk (preheated) bit by bit to get a thick béchamel
that will allow to produce the croquettes.
Now add the ham dice and the hard-boiled egg to this
béchamel, stir all the ingredients and pour this paste in a
bowl to get cold.
Once the croquette paste is cold, arrange 3 plates in a row:
one containing the flour, another containing the egg/s
whisked, and the other containing the breadcrumbs. Form
the croquettes by cutting some paste with a tbsp and
shape a quenelle-like croquette with the help of another
tablespoon. Now, flour the croquettes, soaked them in the
whisked egg and cover with breadcrumbs, while giving the
finishing touches to the form of croquettes with both hands.
Finally, fry the croquettes in abundant olive and place them
on paper towels.

Boiled ham and cheese croquettes (Croquetas de jamón
cocido y queso)
Four servings:
100 g of grated gruyere cheese; 50gm of boiled ham, cut into
small dice; 25 g of flour; 150 gm of finely ground breadcrumbs;
25 g of butter; salt, pepper, nutmeg; 1 whisked egg, parsley, oil,
and some lemon slices.
Preparation:
Mix the cheese, the egg, the boiled ham, and the butter, melted
down; add the salt, the pepper and the nutmeg to all this and
make an homogeneous paste. Form 1-inch balls with this
paste that will be dredged in flour, then soaked in whisked egg,
covered with breadcrumbs and finally fried in oil.
Many people think of the kroket as a quintessentially Dutch delicacy, but according to Johannes Van Dam, a well-known food expert in the Netherlands, the Sun King's chef was
the first to describe them in writing. In fact, Van Dam has tracked down a French recipe for croquettes dating back to 1691, while the earliest Dutch recipes supposedly come
from the 1830s. Even the name kroket was taken from the French - from croquer, 'to crunch'.
Croquettes gained in popularity in the Netherlands in the 18th century, when French food was all the rage in the Low Lands. And, while their origins are French, what is typically
Dutch is the way these treats are consumed today. Once a frugal way to use up leftover bits of stewed meat, nowadays kroketten are often mass produced and bought readymade from fast food chains and snackbars, and consumed as street food. The Dutch love their kroket so much that McDonald's has even created a burger with a kroket-patty
called the McKroket.

Chicken croquettes (Croquetas de pollo)
Four servings: 300 g of chicken meat (cooked, roasted or
boiled from a stock preparation); 1/2 onion, finely chopped;
4 tbsp of flour; 250 dl of warm milk; 200 dl of stock (or
similar amount of water and 1 cube stock); 1 egg;
breadcrumbs (finely ground); olive oil, a pinch of salt.
Preparation: Chop the meat, remove the bones, skin, fat
and reserve. Fry the onion in a pan on a light fire until it
gets softer; then add the flour, stir all the elements and
cook for a few seconds while stirring the mass; then add
the milk and the stock (both warm), and the nutmeg
(Béchamel sauce). Spoon again all the elements, add the
meat, and go on cooking on a mild fire until you see that
the mass takes on a semi-compact aspect and detaches,
bit by bit, from the walls of the casserole.
Let the mass get cool; next start to form the croquettes by
scooping some of the mass with a table spoon and shaping
a quenelle with another table spoon; cover with flour, soak
each piece in a bowl containing 1-2 whisked eggs, cover
with breadcrumbs and finally fry in a generous amount of
oil. Croquettes can be accompanied by a green salad to
add some fiber to your diet.

Tuna-and-rice peppers (Pimientos rellenos de atún y
arroz)
Six servings: 2 cupfuls of boiled rice; 6 red/yellow/green
bell peppers, equal in size; 2 cans of tuna fish (some 250
g), sieved; 100 g of pitted black olives, cut into slices; 1/2
cupful of a not-too thick mayonnaise; olive oil; finely
chopped parsley; Salt & ground pepper to taste.
Preparation: Cut the upper part of the peppers and
remove the seeds. Place them in a wire basket in hot water
and let them simmer for 10 minutes (they should be firm
after cooking).
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, add some salt and pepper
to taste, and start carefully filling the bell peppers with the
stuff previously mentioned. Put some shredded cheese on
top of the peppers and place them under the oven broiler at
160ªC (320ºF) until they get a nice gratin color.

Meat-stuffed bell peppers (Pimientos rellenos de carne)
Four servings:
Eight red bell peppers, seeded and with the stalk and top removed;
400 g of beef meat; 100 g of canned mushrooms, sliced; 2 onions,
finely chopped; 6 tbsp of tomato purée; 2 tbsp of flour; 4 hardboiled eggs, grated; olive oil; salt
Preparation:
Sauté the onion in 3 tbsp of oil on a medium fire for 5 minutes; after
this time, add the mushrooms, simmer it a bit more, add the flour
and mix it all; ten minutes later add the meat, some salt and
continue simmering for 4-5 minutes. Now is time to add the tomato
purée and to let it simmer until the ingredients turn into a thick
mass. What is left to do now is add the grated eggs, and start filling
the peppers, which you can crown with some shredded cheese.
Place these peppers in a roasting pan and in a preheated oven at
160ºC /320ºF).

Tuna fish in tomato sauce (Atún con tomate )
Four servings: 1/2 kilo of fresh tuna fish cut into 1-in
dices; 1 onion, cut into brunoise; 250 dl of fried
tomato; 2 garlic cloves, cut into small dices; 1 dl of
olive oil; salt & black pepper; half a glass of white
wine; a pinch of oregano & 1 bay leave.
Preparation: Fry the tuna dices on an intense heat in
a pan with 3 tbsp of olive oil, and reserve (the ideas is
to "seal" the external side of the tuna dices and leave
the central part of them more juicy). On another clean
pan add 2 tbsp of olive, fry the garlic and add the
onion before the garlic turns too brown; keep frying
both ingredients on a low fire for some minutes, add
the tomato and allow 10 minutes of cooking on low
heat.
Once this process is over, add the tuna fish, the salt,
the pepper and the wine; stir the ingredients to get a
perfect combination and allow 2 or 3 minutes on a low
heat (The sauce must have a thick aspect).

Oxtail stew (Rabo de ternera/buey)
Four servings: 1oxtail, cut at the joints; 1 onion, diced; 1
carrot, sliced; 2 garlic cloves, peeled, 2 small tomatoes,
chopped; 1/2 litter of red wine; 3/4 litter of beef stock (to
cover the meat pierces)
Preparation: Salt and pepper the oxtail pieces, dredge them
in flour, remove the excess of it ,fry in some olive oil, and
once they are brown move them to a pressure cooker with
some oil. Fry the onion and the carrots in the same oil (as
long as it hasn't got burned due to an excessive gas fire) as
well as the tomatoes, the garlic cloves for at least 1015minutes. Add the wine, allow it to evaporate, and then add
the stock. Now you can also move these ingredients to the
pressure cooker. The amount of liquid in the cooker must not
be too excessive, or too short.
Place the cooker on the fire with the lid on and locked, and
allow 30 minutes of cooking. Next, let the cooker cool down,
open it, remove the tail pieces to check if they are properly
cooked (if so, the meat detaches from the bone vertebra
easily); in the event that the sauce is too watery and
abundant, it can be reduced and concentrated by boiling it
separately some more time (without the pressure lid on).
Once this has been accomplished, process the sauce and
vegetables with a hand-held-blender and pass the content
through a sieve (a china cap will do), mix again the pieces
with sauce and reserve the stew in the fridge till next day, as
stews cooked the day before taste much better.

Stewed meatballs with cuttlefish (Albóndigas con
sepia)
Four servings: 500 g (2.2 lbs) of ground meat (70% of beef
and 30% of lean pork meat); 4 medium-sized cuttlefish (cut
into 1-inch pieces); 3/4 potatoes (some 500 g/1.1 pounds); 2
medium sized onions, cut brunette; 5/6 tbsp of tomato
purée;100 gm (0.22 pound) of green peas (canned green
peas can also be used, but should be added only 6/7 minutes
before the conclusion of the preparation.
Preparation: Put the ground meat, the garlic, the parsley, the
salt and the breadcrumbs in a bowl and mix all the
ingredients to get an homogeneous mass that will be kept in
the fridge for a couple of hours. Next, start forming the
meatballs as usual and cover with flour, not excessively,
before they are fried in a pan with some oil and reserved.
Start frying the onion in casserole with some oil for some
minutes, add some salt, as well as some water if the onion
starts to get thicker and runs the risk of getting burned. Add
the cuttlefish cuts and stir it all (after a few minutes you will
see that the cuttlefish start to release some juices, which is
normal and convenient). Once the cuttlefish's juices have
become reduced, add the tomato purée and let the recipe
simmer for 10-12 minutes; after this time you can add the
meatballs and simmer for about 45 min.
This sort of recipes are known in Spain as: "Mar y Montaña", that is, "Sea and Mountain", because the main ingredients include fish and beef, or pork, or
poultry, or any other land animal added to the sea land animal.

Meatballs with mushrooms (Albóndigas con setas)
Ingredients for the meatballs: 400 g of ground meat
(50% lean pork meat & 50 beef meat); 20 g of finely ground
breadcrumbs; 2 garlic cloves, cut into small brunoise; 2
eggs; half glass of white wine; salt, black pepper, nutmeg,
and parsley.
Ingredients for the sauce: 400 g of assorted mushrooms
(fresh or canned); 1 small onion; 2 bay leaves; 1 stock
cube; 1 glass of white wine; 200 ml of stock (or same
amount of water with a stock cube); salt & pepper.
Preparation: Mix the ground meat, the garlic, the parsley,
the salt and the breadcrumbs in a bowl to get an
homogeneous mass that will be kept in the fridge for a
couple of hours. Next, start to form the meatballs and
dredge them in flour, not excessively, before they are fried
in a pan with some oil and reserve.
Later, fry the onion in a casserole on a medium fire, and
once has softened, season to taste, and add the meatballs,
the stock, the wine and the bay leaves; stir the ingredients,
and let simmer for an hour (if you use canned mushrooms,
add them 10 minutes before the conclusion of the recipe).

Russian Steak (Bistec ruso)
I have read several recipes on this minced meat preparation, but
all of them are different and quite bizarre. So I have finally come
up with a recipe that my grandma used to cook a long time ago.
Four servings: 800 g of minced beef meat; 1 egg; parsley and
3 garlic cloves finely chopped; salt ; breadcrumbs (finely
ground).
Preparation: Grind the meat in the processor to the size
normally used in hamburgers. Mix the ground meat, the egg, the
salt, and the finely chopped parsley and garlic, to form balls the
size of a tennis ball, and then flatten to a half-inch-thick
hamburger-like steak. Cover with finely-ground breadcrumbs
(it's necessary to homogenously press the meat on the
breadcrumbs, so they cover the meat, and then fry in a
generous amount of sunflower oil.

Lamb Casserole (Caldereta de cordero)
Four servings: 1 kilo of lamb meat (breast or shoulder of
lamb), cut into 1 and 1/2-inch pieces; 50 g of lard; 3 garlic
cloves; 1 tbsp of dried herbs (thyme + oregano; 2 onions,
cut in brunoise; 2 tbsp of flour; 1bay leave; 100 cc of dry
white wine ;200 cc. of meat stock, or water enriched with a
stock cube; a few mint leaves;3 peppercorns and salt.
Preparation: Season the meat pieces with salt, black
pepper and the dried herbs. Melt the lard in a casserole,
wait until the fat is a bit hot and add the cloves, let then
brown a bit, remove them and reserve for a future use.
Now you can add the meat, and let it brown, too, on a mild
fire. Add the onion and allow some simmering before
adding the flour that will be dissolved by the addition of the
wine and the bay leave. Let the alcohol evaporate on a
high fire and cover the ingredients with the stock. The stew
must be on the fire for at least 25 minutes, now on medium
heat; on the other hand, pound the garlic cloves, the mint
leaves and the peppercorns and add it all the casserole
before the conclusion of the recipe.

Lamb is the meat of a young sheep (male or female, less than 300 days old and a weight between 5.5 and 30 kilos) that is used for human consumption; after
this period of time the meat is renamed as mutton. Lamb dishes are often found in some Maghreb cuisines, where lamb tagines are the most famous
preparations. It is a very common meat ingredient in Mediterranean gastronomies, as well as in India and in parts of China. Lamb in Argentina is one of the
most prized delicacies in Patagonia. Argentina top lamb meats come from the province of Tierra del Fuego and neighboring regions. In many barbecues and
grills of the country this lamb meat is a priced food item. In Mexico, lamb is widely consumed barbecued, grilled, or baked together with great a variety of
sauces and spices. Spain and the rest of European gastronomies could not be an exception, and many recipes can be found in the numerous lists of recipes
dated from the middle age.

Stewed tripe with cured ham and Asturian Chorizo and
black pudding (Callos a la madrileña)
In general, tripe (callos) is sold blanched, so all you need is
to cook it on a sofrito (sautéed sauce),and that's all. Four
servings: 800 g of tripe cut into 1-inch pieces; 2 Asturian
chorizos, cut into 1/2-in slices; 2 Asturian black pudding
sausages (a kind of smoked black pudding sausage); 150
g of dry-cured (Spanish) Serrano ham, cut into dices
(better if the ham is Ibérico); 2 small onions, cut into
brunoise; half glass of tomato purée; 1 green pepper, cut
into big chunks (in the event they have to be removed); 1
tbsp of flour; salt % olive oil.
Preparation: Sauté (slightly) the chorizo slices and the
ham dices in a casserole with olive oil (no more than 4
tbsp) on a medium-low fire; add the onions, finely chopped,
stir well to mix all the elements and after 5 minutes add the
flour and stir again to prevent it clings to the casserole. Add
the tomato purée, the green pepper and mix everything
properly; add some water, or a glass of white wine to
deglaze the flour on the bottom. Next, add the tripe, stir
well and add some water (500 cc). Simmer the recipe
for 90 minutes, but add the Asturian sausages 25 minutes
before the end. You can also add canned pinto beans 5
minutes before the end.

The origin of this recipe is uncertain, although some recipes dated back to 1599 mention it, as when a novel called Guzmán de Alfarache, written by Mateo Alemán describes a
tripe dish as "revoltillos (mixture of different ingredients) made of guts, with some parts of the stomach of the animal". Some argue that immigrants from Asturias brought the
recipe from their land, this would explain why Asturian chorizos and black pudding sausages are used in the traditional recipes; although some variants of this dish are found in
different parts outside Spain. As in many other humble recipes, this dish born in rustic taverns has become over time in the menu of the most prestigious and posh restaurants
of Spain.

Stewed meat with mushroom cream (Carne
con champiñones a la crema)
Four servings: 600 g of veal (or pork) sirloin;
100 g of mushrooms, cut into thin slices; 8 tbsp
of butter; 1 onion, finely chopped, 1tbsp of flour;
1 glass of white dry wine; 2 dl. of milk cream;
black pepper.
Preparation: In the first place, fry the
mushrooms in the butter for a few minutes, then
add the onion, some salt, and continue frying
until both elements turn a bit brown. Add the
wine until both the alcohol and some of its liquid
fraction evaporate, add the flour, stir with the
wire whisk to get a thicker mass that will give
rise to a béchamel-like cream; and finally add
the milk cream to it, and process the resulting
sauce with a grinder to get a mushroom cream
that will be reserved for a later use.
In this meat and mushroom recipe the use of Parish mushrooms is much appropriate than that expressed in the recipe "Meatballs and Mushrooms", since in the former case
the cream provides a wrapping sauce that doesn't change neither the uniform color of the dish nor the taste that Paris mushrooms have. Therefore, assorted mushrooms should
not be used with cream-based sauces since color and taste end up becoming a bizarre composition.

Pork chops with plums and plum mermelade (Chuletas de cerdo
con ciruelas y mermelada de ciruelas)
Four servings: 4 pork chops of 175 g each; 16 pitted prunes; a glass
of red wine; 2 tbsp of flour; 2 tbsp of olive oil; 25 g of butter; 1 tbsp of
red currant jelly; 25 cl of milk cream; salt & pepper.
Preparation: Keep the prunes soaked in the wine for 12 hours. Drain
the wine and reserve it for a future use. Sprinkle the chops with salt
and black pepper, cover with flour (lightly) and fry them with butter and
olive oil until they take on a nice brown color, and set aside.
Add the wine and the prunes to the pan where the chops were fried.
Allow some simmering for a few minutes, remove again the prunes,
and reduce the sauce to a third of its size by increasing the gas fire;
add the red currant jelly together with the milk cream and stir well with
a wire whip until the sauce gets an homogenous consistency.
That done, add again the chops, let them simmer on a medium-tohigh gas fire until the sauce reaches a boiling point for a few secs, and
serve the chops straightaway with the sauce on top. You can also
sieve the sauce with the china cap to get a thinner sauce. Finally, flour
the prunes, as well as some zucchini sticks, fry them and use them as
accompaniment.

Baked Pork's Knuckles (Codillo de cerdo al horno)
Four servings: 4 knuckles; 5/6 onions (small-sized); 4/5
tomatoes (medium-sized); 4 un-skinned garlic cloves; 2
carrots, cut into thick; 1 red pepper, chunked; 1 green
pepper, chunked; 2 potatoes, chunked; 8 tbsp of olive oil +
4 lard cubes (which can be replaced by some more oil); 1
glass of white wine & some warm stock; salt & pepper.
Preparation: In the first place, brown the knuckles in a
frying pan with some oil. Set them aside for later on, and
add the wine to the pan to deglaze the brown
coating produced by the process of browning the meat; add
also some stock and let both liquids get concentrated on a
medium-to-high heat. Wet the roasting pan with some of
the oil and add the lard; place the sliced potatoes, the
onions, the tomatoes, the un-skinned cloves, the carrots
and, of course, the knuckles. Drizzle the remaining oil on
all the ingredients, add some salt and pepper and introduce
into a pre-warmed oven at 200 ºC (392ºF). Adjust the oven
temperature to 160º C (320ºF) and wet the preparation
frequently with the sauce made in the pan. The baking time
is estimated to be 1 hour and 20 min.

Stewed pork knuckles (Codillos a la cazuela) (This is, more or
less, the same recipe, but with a different cooking procedure that
excludes potatoes)
Four servings: 4 knuckles;5/6 onions (medium sized) cut into
brunette; 5/6 tomatoes (the same size as above); 4 un-skinned
garlic cloves; 2 carrots cut into 1-inch slices; 1 red pepper, cut into
strips; 1 green pepper, cut into strips; 1000 cc of beef stock; 2 tbsp
of flour.
Preparation: As in the other recipe, fry first the knuckles and the
garlic cloves until they all get brown, remove the knuckles from the
casserole, set them aside and discard the cloves; now add the
onion and the flour; stir the ingredients and add the carrots, the
peppers, a pinch of salt, and let it simmer for a few minutes, then
add the tomato, let another 10-minute simmering, and finally add
again the knuckles, together with the stock. The procedure now is
to let the recipe simmer on a mild heat for 25 minutes, remove the
knuckles again, process all the ingredients with a hand-blender,
sieve it all with a chine cap, and put back again the knuckles in
the casserole. The time left now of cooking is about 25 minutes
(knuckles are cooked when you see that the meat around the bone
shrinks and this allows the bone to be seen). The presentation of
the recipe must be juicy but not soupy.

Stuffed Beef Roll (Redondo relleno con ciruelas)
Four servings: 1500 g of beef skirt steak; 220 g of pitted prunes
previously soaked in 200 ml of red wine for an hour; flour; 2
carrots; 1large onion, cut into 3-4 pieces; 100 ml of olive oil; 1
tsp of beef extract; a golf ball of butter; salt & black pepper; some
zucchini slices dredged in flour & egg and fried to accompany the
recipe.
Preparation: Spread the whole piece of meat out on the cutting
board, salt and pepper and place on the pitted prunes (which
have been previously strained); save though a few for the sauce.
Roll the meat on itself to make a big sausage-like piece, taking
care that prunes don't spread out from the inside and then tie it
with a butcher's string. Place the meat, the carrots, the onion, the
olive oil, and the wine used with the prunes in a roasting pan and
move it to a preheated oven to (200ºC (390ºF). Turn the meat
from time to time and wet it with the surrounding sauce.
When you think the meat is done, untie it and reserve it in the
oven (now turned off), collect the sauce, and the veggies, and put
it all in saucepan with the golf ball of butter, the beef extract, the
flour, and some more wine if the amount of sauce seems to be
short for the amount of meat. Bring the ingredients to a boil and
reduce a bit. Next, process the sauce with the veggies, strain it
thru a china cap, and boil until it thickens. Accompany the meat
with sautéed zucchini.

Beef stew (Estofado de vacuno)
Four servings: Five-hundred g (1.1 lbs) of beef meat cut into1inch dices; four middle-sized potatoes (1.1 pounds), cut into cubes;
1large carrot cut into not-too-thin slices; 3 ounces of green peas; 1
bay leave; 1 glass of white wine; 1 big-sized onion, cut into
brunoise; 5 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, or 5 tbsp of tomato
purée; 4 tbsp of olive oil, salt, pepper, 3 un-skinned garlic cloves.
Preparation: In the first place, start frying the meat (with no salt
added) in a casserole on a medium fire until it browns. Add the
chopped onions to let them get some brownish color, and add the
tomato together with the garlic cloves and the bay leave.
Stir the ingredients so they don't stick on the casserole surface
(add some water to thin out the mixture) and continue simmering
for a while. Then add the wine, stir it all, and let simmer for a few
minutes; add the water (enriched with a stock cube) to sufficiently
cover all the ingredients, and stew for 70-80 minutes (or use a
pressure cooker for a shorter time). It is important to control the
stew process, and stir the ingredients to avoid they stick to the
bottom of the casserole. Once the meat has been stewed, add the
potatoes (do not lock the PC with the lid), together with some more
water (in the event the preparation looks short of juices ), allow the
recipe stew for some 20 minutes, and serve as usual. In general,
stews are more savory from one day to the other.

Fricando
Four servings: 800 g of beef cut into steaks of 50-60 g each; 30-50 g of
dried up mushrooms (Marasmius oreades, also known as scotch bonnet or
fairy ring mushroom); 1 onion, finely chopped; 3 tbsp of tomato purée; 750
cc of mineral water; a glass of brandy; salt & black pepper.
Preparation: First, it is of the utmost interest to have the mushrooms
soaked in the specified amount of water for at least 6 hours (this is to
extract the organoleptic properties of the mushrooms, which will pass to
the water; don't ever use hot water).
Salt and pepper the steaks, dredge them in flour (cover them properly but
reject the excess). Star by frying the meat in a casserole with olive oil (6-8
tbsp); it must be done on a medium fire, although trying not to overheat
the oil in excess as the other ingredient will be later added to this oil. Once
the meat has been fried and has browned a bit, add the onion and give a
good stir to deglaze the flour on the bottom, which is now brown and which
will give color to the final sauce. Let the onion simmer for 10-15 minutes on
a medium-to-low heat, and rehydrate with some of the water in which the
mushrooms were soaked (now the mushrooms must be sieved and kept
aside, and the water must have a slight brownish color).
Next, add the tomato, stir again, and let simmer for another ten minutes
(rehydrate if necessary). Now, add the meat and the mushrooms, stir it all,
add the brandy (do not flambé) and cover with a lid. Stew the preparation
for 2 minutes, and finally add the water with no lid on. The remaining time
of cooking will, more or less, be 60 minutes.
The photo on the left side of the recipe shows the mushroom in their dry
presentation.