Hummus

The hummus I made for Wil's party seemed to be well received, so here you go:

Ingredients

• 450g Chick peas (Garbanzos- this is the standard jar size here in Spain)
• 2/3 cup Tahin
• 2/3 cup Olive oil
• 1 Lemon, squeezed
• 1 teaspoon Cumin
• 2 cloves of Garlic, crushed
• Salt (to taste)
  

How to do it:

• Rinse the chick peas
• Put everything in a pan/bowl
• Blend it with a hand-blender
• If it is too thick, add a small amount of water and blend again until it is how you like it
• If oil starts to come to the surface after a while - get some more chick peas and blend them in
  

Cassoulet

When I went to Toulouse the first time with Wil and Rocio, we ended up in the Cave de Cassoulet near the river. We obviously had to try the cassoulet and since then I have been meaning to cook it for myself. This is a bit a mix between two recipes I found.

For 4-6 people

• 400g white haricot beans ("alubias blanco")
  
• 2 ducks leg in confit, cut at the joint
  
• 2 stick celery, coarsely chopped
  
• 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
  
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 slices pancetta, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 900ml litres water
• 1 toulouse sausage (coiled)
• 2 tablespoons goose fat
• 3 teaspoons tomato puree
• breadcrumbs to cover the dish
• 1 bouquet garni
• 6 pinches of salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper

The night before:

• Soak the beans in about 1.2 litres of water

On the day:

• Pre-heat the oven to 120C
• Heat the oil in the casserole dish at medium heat
• Add garlic, onion, celery, carrot and onion to the dish and sweat for 6 minutes
• Drain the water from the beans
• Add tomato puree, bouquet garni, salt and pepper, stir in and leave for a minute or two
• Add the beans, pancetta, sausage and stir
• Add 900ml litres water and stir
• Bring to the boil and remove the scum
• Put in the oven uncovered
• After an hour, remove the scum from the surface and stir
• Cook for another hour
• Submerge the ducks' leg in the mix
• Cover with breadcrumbs
• Return to the oven for another 30 minutes

Serve!

Updated after a recent experience when the bean were overdone and mushy - too long cooking with too much water.

Fajitas

Easy this one!

Fajitas for 4

• 1 large Onion
• 2 Red Peppers
• 1kg Pork/Chicken/Beef
• Oil for frying
• Mexican tortillas
  

Fajita mix

• 2 teaspoons Garam Masala
• 1 teaspoon Ground pepper
• 4 cloves Cayenne Peppers, crushed
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon spicy paprika

Instructions

• Heat Oil
• Fry Peppers and onion until tender/brown
• Fry meat until outsides cooked (i.e. not very much)
• Add spices
• Fry some more
• Eat in warmed tortillas

Pollo al Cilantro

Pollo al Cilantro (or Chicken Coriander)

One of our favourite restaurants is Panza es Primero, a cosy mexican place tucked away under el Puente de Segovia in Madrid. And our favourite dish there is Pollo al Cilantro (or Chicken Coriander). There are a couple of recipes floating around the net; this is mine:

Pollo al Cilantro (4 persons)

• 4 chicken breasts cut in strips
• 1/2 onion (chopped)
• a handful of fresh cilantro (just the leaves)
• 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 250 ml double cream
• oil

This takes about 45 minutes or so.

• Fry the onion, garlic, oregano and cumin in the oil until the onions are soft
• Put the onions etc, in a blender and add the cilantro. Keep the pan handy as we're going to fry the chicken in the pan with all the good stuff still there
• Blend until smooth
• Mix in the cream
• Fry the chicken until the outside is cooked
• Add the mix to the chicken and stir in.
• Simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes

Serve with rice or with tortillas. Dead easy, really. Alf, Susi and Alex were here today and it seemed to go down well.