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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Stewed Cuttlefish in Hot Tomato Sauce

Hi everyone! Today I cooked this delicious dish for dinner. Cuttlefish is highly consumed in Spain. There are different ways of cooking cuttlefish. The secret to get a soft result and keep the natural flavour of cuttlefish is that it has to be cooked  for just a few seconds over a high heat, or for a long time over a low heat. I usually serve this dish with rice, however steamed potatoes or chips are great too with this spicy homemade sauce.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

800g fresh cuttlefish
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
250 ml Spanish white wine
200 ml passata (mashed) tomato
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of hot paprika
Salt to taste

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy
40 minutes

Method:

Clean the cuttlefish, removing guts, internal shell and rinsing well under cold running water.Keep the tentacles because they are very tasty. Then cut the cuttlefish tube into stripes like these.

Finely chop the garlic and onion. Peel and dice the tomato.

Stir- fry the garlic and onion until golden brown.

Add the cuttlefish, salt to taste, stir well and cook for a couple of minutes over a medium heat.

Then add the diced tomato and cook for 2 minutes.

Pour the passata tomato into the pot and mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Then add the white wine, reduce heat, cover with lid and cook for 20 minutes stirring from time to time.

When the cuttlefish is done add 1 teaspoon of hot paprika and stir well.

Cook for a couple of minutes and our dish is ready.

Serve hot with rice.

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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Cod Loin in Vegetables Sauce

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to show you how to cook this delicious and healthy dish. Cod has a white, mild flavoured flesh and it is highly consumed in Spain, mainly in the North. A colleague from the Basque Country gave me this recipe years ago.I always use dried salted cod loins whenever I cook this dish in Spain. It's quite difficult to find salted cod where I'm living now, so I've used fresh cod loins instead and the result has been really good.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

800 g cod loins or cod fillets
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tomato
200 ml extra virgin olive oil
150 g wheat flour
Salt to taste

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy
20 minutes

Method:

First wash the vegetables. Chop the peppers and the onion, peel the garlic and the tomato, then cut the tomato into small pieces.

Put 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan. Add the cloves of garlic and stir fry until golden brown.

Then add the onion, the peppers and the tomato, salt to taste and stir fry for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are done.

In the meantime salt cod loins to taste.

Coat the cod in wheat flour, shaking off flour excess.

Put the extra virgin olive oil on a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the cod for 1 minute, then turn over and  fry the other side for 1 more minute.

Place the cod loins on a dish and save for later.

Put the vegetables in a mixing jug and mix using a blender.

Mix the vegetables until the sauce has an even and thick consistency like this.

Put the resulting sauce on a frying pan over a medium heat. Once the sauce is hot enough add the cod, then reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Serve hot covering the cod loins with this sauce. Optionally you can pour a little extra virgin olive oil on top. This would strengthen the flavour of our dish.

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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Fried Sprats

Hello again! Today I cooked these fried sprat fish for dinner. These fish are very small, so the best way to cook them is whole. Small fried fish is highly consumed in southern Spain. Sprats contain high levels of omega 3 fatty acids. These are very beneficial to our health because they help to lower cholesterol levels. Sprats have a smooth flavour. They are very similar to baby sardines or anchovies, so you can cook your favourite fatty fish following these steps.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

1 kg sprats (gutted and cleaned)

200 g wheat flour

250 ml extra virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy
15 minutes

Method:

Clean the sprats, remove guts and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Drain well and salt to taste.

Coat the sprats in flour, shaking off flour excess (I've used wheat flour although any type of flour can be used instead. In Andalucia fried fish is often coated in chickpeas flour. In Galicia corn flour is also used for battering small fish)

Put the extra virgin olive oil on a large frying pan over a high fire, when the oil is hot enough fry the battered fish for 1 minute.

Turn over and fry the other side for 1 more minute.

Using a straining spoon put the fried fish on a dish with kitchen paper. This will absorb the unnecessary amount of oil.

Decorate with lemon and serve hot with salad.

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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Galician Style Octopus

Hi again! We've been spending our holiday in Spain. Actually I cooked this delicious dish at my brother's kitchen. This is the way octopus is cooked  in the North West of Spain. The secret to get a soft result and keep the natural flavour of octopus is that it has to be cooked  for just a few time over a high heat, which is the case of grilled octopus,  or for a long time over a low heat, whenever we cook boiled octopus or stews. During our holiday we've been discovering new flavours and trying new and traditional recipes, so I'd like you all to enjoy them too.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

1 whole fresh octopus (about 1kg. cleaned and gutted)
500 g. potatoes
200 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of sweet paprika
1 tablespoon of hot paprika
Salt to taste

Difficulty and cooking time:

Easy
1 hour

Method:

Rinse well the gutted octopus with cold water ( if you are using frozen octopus, defrost in the fridge until it's thawed)

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.

  Gently lower in the octopus.

Cook over a medium heat for 40 minutes.

In the meantime peel, wash and slice the potatoes.

Put the potatoes into the pan with the octopus, cook for 10 minutes and it'll be ready.

Cut the octopus arms using a pair of kitchen scissors.

Place the octopus pieces and the boiled potatoes on a dish, pour with extra virgin olive oil.

Serve hot sprinkled with hot and sweet paprika to taste.

In Galicia the octopus is traditionally served in a wooden dish like this.

I hope you like it!
See you soon,

María

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