Avocado and Shrimp Salad

Hello everyone!

I hope you like this delicious avocado salad I cooked today. 

This dish is great for a dinner or just as a starter. It only takes a few minutes to prepare it and it is full of colour and flavour.

In Spain avocados are mainly farmed in the South and at Cannary Islands.

They have become part of Spanish cuisine in the last decade. 

Avocados are delicious and a good source of potassium, vitamin K, vitamin E and fiber.

Ingredients:

(Serves 2)

2 ripe avocados

150g cooked shrimps

Half a lemon

5 tablespoons mayonnaise

5 teaspoons tomato sauce or ketchup

Tabasco sauce

Salt

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy

15 minutes

Method:

Let’s start preparing the pink sauce. Put the mayonnaise in a small bowl. Add the tomato sauce and mix with a fork until smooth. Then add a splash of tabasco sauce and save it for later.

 

Make a small cut on every side of the avocados,

Halve the avocados, remove pulp using a spoon and save the shells for later.

Remove the pit, dice the pulp into thick pieces and drizzle with lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. 

 

Add the cooked shrimps and salt to taste. Finally add half of the pink sauce and mix carefully using a spoon. 

Fill the avocado shells with the mixture.

Top with pink sauce and decorate. I have used some shrimps here for the topping.

I hope you like it!

See you soon

María

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Halloween Cake

Hi there! Halloween is a special date for everyone and this year is even more special because my brother and his wife are spending Halloween with us. They baked a cake for my son and he has been helping them. The result has been really amazing. This is delicious and the time we have spent in the kitchen has been worth while. This cake is very easy to cook, so don´t be scared with the long list of ingredients for this recipe. I hope you enjoy cooking this cake as much as we did. Happy Halloween to you all!

Ingredients:

(Serves 8)
For the spongecake:

1 cup of yogurt
3 cups of self-raising flour
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of olive oil (light in colour)
3 eggs
1 packet of yeast
1/2 teaspoonful salt 
50 gr of cooking chocolate

For the custard:

2 yolks
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 glass of milk

To decorate:
3 bars of ready to roll icing (orange, black and green)  

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy
2 hours


Method:

Place the yogurt in a large bowl

Then add the sugar, the salt, the flour, 3 eggs, the olive oil and the yeast. Stir thoroughly using a whisk or a fork until you get a mixture without lumps.

Put the batter into the mould. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and bake for about 40 minutes, or until risen and firm to the touch.

Then leave to cool 

Carefully halve the spongecake

To make the custard place 1 yolk and 4 tablespoons of sugar and stir thoroughly, then add a glass of milk and stir over a low heat until the mixture is thick enough.

Pour the custard on the base of the cake

Finely chop the chocolate

Put the chocolate shaving on top, then cover the base of the cake with the other half

Roll out the icing bars and cover the cake with the orange one.

Roll out the black and the green bars and make shapes using a knife to decorate the cake

 Decorate the cake using these shapes.

Slightly brush the surface with water, so the shapes will stuck to it.

I really love this pumkin leaf!

And the cake is ready

Enjoy it!

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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Squid Meatballs

Hi everyone! Yesterday I cooked this delicious and healthy dish for dinner.  This is a traditional recipe from Cadiz, in the South of Spain. My granny used to cook this during Lent. Squid or cuttlefish can be used to prepare this recipe. This can be frozen once cooked and it will keep all its flavour and properties. It takes a little time to prepare it, but it is very easy and the result is absolutely worthwhile. So don´t be scared of this long list of ingredients.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

For the meatballs:

400 g. fresh squid (cleaned)

20 g fresh parsley

2 cloves of garlic

200 g bread

1 egg

Salt and pepper to taste

100 g breadcrumbs

100 g flour

150 ml extra virgin olive oil

For the sauce:

1 onion

1 pinch of saffron

200 ml Spanish white wine

1 fish stock cube

500 ml water

1 bay leaf

 

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy

1 hour and a half

Preparation:

Clean the squid and rinse well under cold running water, then cut it into small pieces.

Put the squid pieces, the parsley and 2 cloves of garlic in a food processor and mix for 30 seconds.

Then add the bread, one egg, salt and pepper to taste and mix for 20 seconds.

Put the resulting mixture on a large bowl.

Add the breadcrumbs and mix thoroughly using a spoon.

Wet your hands, so the mixture won´t stick to them and make the meatballs.

Coat the meatballs in flour. Put the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook until golden brown.

Place the squid meatballs in a large pot.

Julienne the onion

Stir fry the onion in the olive oil you've used to fry the squid meatballs for 5 minutes. Then add the white wine.

Cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Then add the pinch of saffron, stir well and pour the resulting sauce in the pot with the meatballs.

Dissolve the fish stock cube in half a litre of boiling water. Then add about 200 ml of this stock to the pot with the meatballs and stir well.

Add a leaf of bay, cover with lid and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Then our dish will be ready.

Decorate with chopped parsley and serve hot with homemade fries and salad.

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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Oven Roasted Ham and Potatoes

Hi everyone! Today I cooked this delicious recipe for dinner. This is the way ham is usually roasted in north west Spain. The tip for a tasty result is to marinate the ham and leave it in the fridge overnight. This is the way ham has been cooked in my family for generations. This is a very easy recipe and it is ideal for special days. My son loves this dish, specially those roasted small potatoes.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

1 kg fresh ham or unsmoked gammon joint
1 and a half kg small potatoes
200 ml Spanish white wine
500 ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground garlic
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt to taste

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy
1 hour

Method:

Place the ham in a roaster and pour the wine on it.

Salt to taste. Then add the ground garlic, oregano, hot and sweet paprika and pour 2 tablespoons of  the extra virgin olive oil on it. Leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180º C and place the ham in the centre of the oven using the grill too. Cook for 30 minutes, then turn over and cook the other side for about 15 minutes.

Once you have turned the ham over peel and wash the potatoes, then salt to taste.

Put the extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat and fry the potatoes for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. (Save this oil to cook other recipes.Olive oil can be used several times keeping all its flavour and properties)

When the ham is done set aside to rest.

Then remove the skin and carve into thick slices.

Place the fried small potatoes in the roaster with the sauce resulting from cooking the ham, bake in the oven for about 8 minutes and our dish will be ready.

Serve hot with salad or roasted peppers.

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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