Gazpacho (Cold tomato soup)

Difficulty: 2/5

Preparation time: 15 minutes.

So what is the famous Gazpacho?, well for a Spaniard, Gazpacho has only one mean, a fruity cold vegetable soup ideal for the summer. Gazpacho is is a cold Spanish tomato-based raw vegetable soup, originating in the southern region of Andalucía. Gazpacho is widely consumed throughout Spain, neighboring Portugal (where it is known as gaspacho) and parts of Latin America.

Gazpacho is mostly consumed during the summer months, due to its refreshing qualities and cold serving temperature.

For some northem Countries like UK Gazpacho could look a crazy drink, but actually it is exactly what you need in the winter. It is full of vitamins and the taste is excellent. It is perfect for a starter course and it can be altered to your own personal taste.

Another good thing about Gazpacho, it is the fact it can be used for your diet. I personally lost nine kilos in one month by only drinking Gazpacho!.

If you are one of these persons like to see the safe side of the food, I can tell you that Gazpacho is rich in antioxidants, because the amount of fresh tomato, so that means it is one of the best tools to prevent cancer.

Ingredients (for 4 people) :

• 12 Tomatoes.
• 1 Cucumber.
• 5 slices of white bread.
• 1 small onion or half of a big one.
• 1 Pepper.
• 1 tea spoon of salt.
• 2 Table spoons of vinegar
• 200 ml (1 small glass) of Extra virgin Olive Oil (if it Spanish…much better).
• 1 Garlic clove.
• 250 ml of water (1 cup).
• Sunflower Oil/Vegetable Oil to fry (one glass)
  

How to prepare Gazpacho:

1. Chop the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, onion and the clove in one big pan or container. Add the cup of water as well.
2. Use the blender to triturate all the vegetables. You should get a inconsistent soup, but bear in mind that more you blend better it will be. You should get this result after 3 minutes.
3. Once you get this soup, it is time to strain the Gazpacho with a strainer. Only strain 75% of the soup.
4. When you put the soup in the strain push the Gazpacho so you can get all the liquid, and leave the remains. Add the other 25% into the new pan.
5. Some vegetarians use this stuff to make veggie burgers, but to be honest, they are not my cup of tea.
6. Add the vinegar, salt, bread and olive oil into the new pan and blend everything until you get a smooth liquid, it will take you 3/4 minutes.
7. You can serve the Gazpacho in different ways. You can chop onion, peppers and cucumber in small pieces and serve it with them or you can add small chunks of bread…that is up to you.

Patties with Cheese (Empanadillas de Queso)

Difficulty: 2/5

Preparation time with ready made wafers: 6 minutes.
Preparation time without ready made wafers: 25 minutes.

The “empanadillas” (patties) is one of these plates you can find in a weeding, christening or some kind of ceremony with a big meal after that. I don’t know exactly why, but they always there. Patties best mate are normally croquettes, they love each other and they always share the same table. In this post I am going to introduce this great dish that kids love by the way.

I could go deep inside to the empanadilla and create super sophisticated dishes that Spain has been developing over the years, but I am going to stick with something simple, something you can prepare in less than 5 minutes and kids will love. If fact my mom used to prepare patties with cheese to my sister and I when we have to celebrate something ( a Friday for example :) ). After this post I will go deeper and deeper showing how to cook from the most traditional patty to the most sophisticated one (it contains black pudding!!!).

Ingredients (for 2 people) :

• 8 Wafers of “La Cocinera” ( If you can’t find this brand,you will find the recipe of how to do it from the scratch).
• 8 Portions of processed cheese.
• Sunflower Oil/Vegetable Oil to fry (one glass)
  

If you do not have Wafers “La Cocinera” you can do it manually (this is the way!):

• 3 cups of flour.
• 1 small tea spoon of salt.
• 5-6 Spoons (big) of water.
• 115gr of Butter.
• 2 Spoons (big) of orange juice.
• 1 Spoon (tea spoon) of Baking Soda.

How to prepare the Wafers:

1. Mix the flour, the salt and the baking soda in one bowl. Use a food processor if you can, so you will get the perfect finish.
2. Add the butter (be sure that the butter is a little bit warm), the orange juice and the water until you managed to create small balls with the dough.
3. Create a big ball with the dough and work it.
4. Stretch the dough with a wooden roller until you get a with a height of 1/2 mm.
5. Cut the dough with a cup/mold so you can create discs. You should get around 15 discs.
6. If you are not going to use them straight away, keep them in the fridge.

How to prepare Las Empanadillas (Patties):

1. Put some flour or paper on the table.
2. Add the discs you have created or the ones from “La Cocinera”.
3. Put a portion of processed cheese in the middle.
4. Fold them.
5. Close them with a fork.
6. Heat the oil in a saucepan (7/10), when the oil is hot fry the patties one by one, when you see that they are brown on the edges, turn the patties. It will take around 4 minutes each.
7. At the same time put some kitchen paper where you want to serve them, to be sure than when you add them absorb all the remaining oil.
8. This is the result:

Cheese patties are better hot…

Introduction

This is my first post, and unfortunately it doesn’t cover any recipe, but I hope you will understand what I pretend with this website.

I have been exposed to different cultures, I have been exposed to different people and I have been exposed to different cuisines so that makes me appreciate my roots; The Mediterranean Cuisine. What is all about then? What is all about that Mediterranean Cuisine? About that Kitchen… well the answer is easy!:
"It about getting the native flavour from the food you are cooking."
French cuisine uses plenty of sauces…Italian, Spaniards and Greeks always avoid that, they hate to hide the flavour with a sauce, and if they do it, it has to be quite dull, like the French do.

On the other side we have the Asian cuisine (Indian and Chinese) where the condiment, spice or sauce becomes the key.
Both sides are respected all over the world, but as you understand, I play in a different league than Asians, I will spend hours to get the flavour of the food while they will spend hours getting the flavour of the sauce so they can add it to their food.

All the recipes you are going to see here have been cooked by me, so any questions you have please drop us an email.