Principales

This is a different way to make a pseudo quiche or savory tart, and it's also a great alternative for those who can't or don't want to eat gluten. Compared to a traditional quiche, it's missing the crunch of the shortcrust pastry, but on the upside it's less calorie-dense and adds a really pleasant hint of sweetness.

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 4 eggs
• 350 ml (1.5 cups) milk
• 85 g (3 oz) fresh spinach
• 100 g (3.5 oz) sun-dried tomatoes
• 110 g (4 oz) goat cheese
• A handful of chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese (I used Skyr)
• Salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Wash the sweet potato, make a few slits in the skin, and microwave it for a couple of minutes (you can skip this step, but it softens it up a bit and makes it easier to slice).
3. Take the sweet potato out, careful not to burn yourself, peel it, and cut it into very thin slices (about 3 mm / 1/8 inch).
4. In a bowl, toss the sweet potato slices with salt, pepper, and olive oil, then arrange them in an overlapping pattern in a round oven-safe pan, covering the bottom and the sides.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, add the cream cheese, milk, and sun-dried tomatoes, and mix well.
7. Once the baking time is up and the sweet potato is soft, take the pan out, place the lightly chopped raw spinach over the sweet potato base, and pour the milk and egg mixture on top.
8. Finally, scatter the chopped goat cheese and walnuts evenly across the surface.
9. Bake for about 30 minutes and it's ready to enjoy.

PiC Tips

• The cream cheese isn't necessary — I threw it in to use up some that had been sitting in the fridge for a few days. If you want to use cream instead of milk like in traditional quiches, go for it; it'll come out a bit richer and creamier.
• When I say sun-dried tomatoes, I mean the ones that have been dehydrated and then rehydrated, usually packed in seasoned oil. If you only have plain dehydrated tomatoes and want to "revive" and season them yourself for any recipe, it's super easy. Bring 700 ml (3 cups) of water to a boil, then turn off the heat, add 50 ml (3.5 tablespoons) of white vinegar and the dehydrated tomatoes. Let them sit for half an hour. Then take the tomatoes out and pat them dry with paper towels. Transfer them to a jar with olive oil, garlic, and whatever herbs you like, and in a couple of days everything will have soaked up a delicious flavor.

I made this recipe following the exact steps from Kitchen Club, and honestly, if the ingredients promised to be a flavor bomb, the result was even better than expected. So many flavors that combined perfectly. If anything, the little fried egg would be a dispensable element, but the sauce was delicious and made all the tasters go back for seconds. Presentation-wise it didn't turn out anywhere near as spectacular as the original recipe, but the flavor was up to par.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

Mango huancaína sauce

• 80 g (2.8 oz) fresh cheese (burgos-style)
• 100 ml (scant ½ cup) evaporated milk
• 60 ml (¼ cup) mango purée
• 3 cracker or soda-style biscuits
• 1 slice of sandwich bread soaked in milk
• 2 tbsp chopped onion
• 40 g (1.4 oz) walnuts
• 3 tbsp ají amarillo paste (or to taste)
• ½ tsp cumin
• salt

Tuna tartare

• 300 g (10.5 oz) tuna
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 tsp shichimi togarashi (I didn't have any and used harissa paste)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) soy sauce
• 50 ml (3.5 tbsp) olive oil

Rest of the recipe

• 400 g (14 oz) sushi rice
• 2 ripe avocados
• 6 quail eggs
• 2 corn tortillas
• Salt, oil and sesame seeds

Method

1. Start by making the huancaína sauce. Sauté the onion in a pan with a little olive oil over high heat — it should be golden but still crunchy.
2. In a food processor, add the onion and the rest of the ingredients, and blitz until you get a creamy sauce.
3. Adjust the salt. Set aside.
4. Chop the tuna into medium dice and dress it with lime zest, harissa, sesame oil, soy sauce and olive oil. Stir gently and set aside.
5. Cut the avocados into medium dice and dress with salt and olive oil (you can leave the pits in until plating so they don't oxidize, or add a little lime juice).
6. Cut the corn tortillas into strips and fry until crispy but not burnt (they brown pretty quickly and harden as they cool). Set aside.
7. Fry the quail eggs with crispy edges.
8. When it's time to plate, spoon a generous amount of sauce on each plate, then place the sushi rice on top without packing it down, add the dressed avocado, the tuna tartare, and finish with the quail egg and the corn tortilla strips.
9. Garnish with fresh spring onion and sesame seeds.

PiC Tips

• You can easily find ají amarillo paste at Latin grocery stores. Same goes for mango purée, which they usually have frozen (a great option if it's not mango season or you can't find ripe ones).
• I haven't included how I made the sushi rice because I used the rice cooker and then cheated a bit by using a powdered mix that already comes with the salt, sugar and vinegar. I brought mine from Japan, but you can probably find something similar at Asian grocery stores.
• Remember to freeze the fish for at least 24 hours to avoid anisakis problems.

We're back at it after a long stretch of inactivity. It doesn't mean we stopped cooking tasty things during all those months, but laziness sometimes wreaks havoc... However, as a good friend once said, you have to defeat laziness. So, with the intention of picking up this little recipe collection again, Pics&Cakes is back in action. That said, since our official photographer is pretty busy these days, the photos might not do justice to the delicious things we'll be making. Apologies in advance.

And without further ado, today a traditional and simple recipe for homemade meatballs.

What do we need?

• 500 g (1.1 lb) ground beef
• 1 egg
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 slices of whole wheat sandwich bread
• 100 ml (about 1/2 cup) milk
• Salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Flour and olive oil (for coating and frying, respectively)
• 2 onions
• 4 carrots
• 1/2 glass (about 120 ml / 1/2 cup) white wine
• 1 tablespoon flour
• Salt and Provençal herbs

How do we make it?

1. Place the ground beef in a bowl and add the bread (previously soaked in milk), the egg, the olive oil, the crushed garlic, and salt to taste. Mix well with your hands.
2. Shape into balls the size of a ping-pong ball, or whatever size you prefer. Lightly coat with flour and set aside on a plate.
3. For the sauce, chop the onions and carrots and sauté them in a pan with a little olive oil and salt.
4. Once they get a bit of color, add the flour and the white wine. Stir and lower the heat. Let cook for about 20 minutes, adding water if needed.
5. Heat oil in a pan and fry the meatballs until they're golden on the outside. They don't need to be fully cooked through, because we'll finish cooking them later in the sauce. Transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside.
6. To finish, blend the sautéed vegetables with a hand blender or food processor so it comes together as a sauce. Add the meatballs and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes.
7. Sprinkle in Provençal herbs to taste and adjust the salt.

Tips:

– You can make the sauce with any vegetables you like and have around in the fridge. In our case, we had a surplus of carrots...

– You can serve them with French fries. For those, I recommend frying them in two stages. First over low heat until they're soft on the inside (poke them with a kitchen needle) and transfer them to a plate. Set them aside until your meatballs and sauce are ready. Then, reheat the oil from the fries and brown them over high heat for a couple of minutes. They'll come out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Just because summer is over doesn't mean we have to say goodbye to salads. Today, a super simple and quick recipe for a tasty, healthy chickpea salad. Since we're using pre-cooked chickpeas, it takes no more than 5 minutes to put together, so there's no excuse. Enjoy!

What do we need?

• 1 can of cooked chickpeas
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 1 small can of corn
• Mustard
• Herbes de Provence
• Salt and pepper
• Oil and vinegar

How do we make it?

1. First, drain the canned chickpeas and rinse them with cold water to get rid of that characteristic canned taste. Place them in a large bowl.
2. Dice the tomatoes and onion and add them to the bowl with the chickpeas.
3. Add the corn.
4. In a glass jar, make a vinaigrette. The usual ratio is three parts oil to one part vinegar. For this salad, you can pour about two finger-widths of oil into the jar, a third of that in vinegar, 1 teaspoon of mustard, 1 teaspoon of herbes de Provence, and a pinch of salt. Close the jar tightly and shake vigorously until the mixture has emulsified. Taste and adjust with whatever ingredient suits your liking.

Tips:

– As with all salads, more than a recipe, this is a suggestion. Feel free to add other ingredients or seasonings you have in the fridge.

A really simple recipe where all the originality comes down to a single ingredient: black garlic. Black garlic is just regular garlic that has gone through a specific slow-fermentation process, which transforms its look and texture and boosts its nutritional properties. For this burger we'll use it both to season the ground beef and for the accompanying sauce. The flavor is a little peculiar — feel like giving it a try?

What do we need?

• 300 g (10.5 oz) ground beef
• 2 burger buns
• Lamb's lettuce (mâche)
• 1 head of black garlic
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• Butter (optional, for toasting the buns)

How do we make it?

1. Crush two cloves of black garlic and mix them into the ground beef. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Divide the meat in two and shape the patties, then let them rest for about 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, get the black garlic sauce going. Put the cream in a small saucepan with 5 or 6 peeled black garlic cloves. Let it simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. You can blend the sauce with an immersion blender to make it perfectly smooth and uniform, or just use a fork or whisk and stir vigorously. Black garlic cloves are very soft and after cooking they break down with no trouble at all. Add salt to taste.
5. Cook the patties in a pan to your liking.
6. Toast the buns in a pan with a little butter and assemble the burger with a layer of lamb's lettuce, the patty, and the black garlic sauce.

Tips:

– You can make some fries on the side — they always go great with any burger.

Everyone who visits Turkey says that the kebab there is nothing like the ones we eat in Spain, so at this point I'm not entirely sure what to call this. In any case, what I can promise you is that it's delicious and the preparation couldn't be simpler. We discovered this recipe thanks to the YouTube channel Recetas de Cocina, which is always worth a visit. Give these kebabs a try and let us know how it goes.

What do we need?

• 400 g (14 oz) lamb leg chops
• 400 g (14 oz) chicken thighs
• 4 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons Ras el Hanout (a North African spice blend)
• Salt and pepper
• Lettuce (chopped or julienned)
• Sliced tomato
• Sliced or finely julienned onion
• Pita breads

For the yogurt sauce:

• 2 Greek yogurts
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 1 pinch of cumin
• Salt, pepper and fresh parsley

How do we make it?

1. Cut the lamb chops and chicken into bite-sized pieces.
2. In a bowl, combine 6 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of Ras el Hanout and mix well. Add the chopped chicken, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle in two teaspoons of garlic powder.
3. Mix well so all the meat is fully coated and let it marinate for at least 1 hour in the fridge (the longer it sits, the more flavor it will pick up).
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the chopped lamb.
5. While the meat rests, let's prepare the yogurt sauce. Mix the yogurt with the mayonnaise. Then add the crushed garlic, the sugar, the cumin, salt, pepper, and finally the lemon juice and chopped fresh parsley. Mix everything thoroughly (no blender needed) and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
6. Once the meat has had enough time to marinate, you have two options: cook it in the oven, or in a frying pan or on a griddle.
   a) For the first option, line a baking tray with parchment paper and spread the pieces of meat out separately. Bake at 200°C (390°F) until they look golden. When you take the meat off the tray, drain off any excess oil.
   b) If you prefer, you can sauté them in a pan or cook them on a griddle. There's no need to add oil since the marinade is enough. This option is faster since there's no oven preheating and the cooking time is shorter.
7. All that's left is to assemble the kebabs. In a pita bread, layer meat, lettuce, tomato, onion and yogurt sauce to taste.

Tips:

– You can adjust the yogurt sauce to taste, but it's better to go light than to overdo any one ingredient, especially garlic and salt, which are hard to fix once you've added too much. I recommend adding little by little and tasting as you go.

– It's better to cook the meats separately so people can choose whether they want their kebab with just one type of meat or mixed. Lamb tends to have a much stronger flavor than chicken, which not everyone enjoys.

– The meat quantities are just a guide. Adjust them depending on how many kebabs you want to make.

Believe it or not: we’re back! After months (literally) with our blog in some kind of hibernation, we’re back at it and hoping that this time our willpower won’t fade so fast. We’re returning with that recipe that’s been sitting at the top of the blog for so many days now, the one we know plenty of you have been dying to make: the Crispy Chicken. For lovers (or at least, frequenters) of fast food joints, the Crispy Chicken is a Burger King staple, a chicken burger with a spicy kick. But here we’re sharing the upgraded version. Meaning, the one we make with an actual chicken fillet and not some suspicious mystery patty pretending to be one.

What do we need?

• 4 tablespoons of flour

• 1 tablespoon of onion powder

• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder

• 1/2 tablespoon of paprika

• Salt

• Black pepper

• 2 eggs

• Cornflakes

• A splash of white wine

• 2 chicken breast fillets (not too thin)

• 2 burger buns

• 2 tomato slices

• 2 lettuce leaves

• Mayonnaise

How do we make it?

• First, we’ll prep the breading for the chicken. Mix the flour with the onion and garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper.

• In another bowl, beat the eggs with a splash of white wine.

• In a third bowl, add the cornflakes and crush them with your hand. Grab fistfuls and squeeze them little by little. We don’t want the pieces too small, so it won’t take much time.

• Take your chicken fillets and bread them in the same order as the bowls you prepared: flour, egg, and cornflakes. Let them rest while the oil heats up in a frying pan (or deep fryer).

• Fry the breaded fillets until golden and transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the excess oil.

• Now all that’s left is to assemble our ‘burger’. Spread a bit of mayo on each half of the bun, add a fillet, a tomato slice, and a lettuce leaf. Ready to eat.

Tips:

• Instead of onion powder, we used a packet of onion soup mix. A pretty curious ingredient that we’ll use in other recipes like COCA-COLA CHICKEN.

• The fillets should be a bit thick so they stay juicy, but you have to be careful when frying them to nail the perfect point: golden on the outside and fully cooked on the inside. We recommend cranking up the heat at first and then turning it down a bit to make sure they cook through properly.

I know you’re not telling us, but I’m sure you’re thinking “OMG, what happened to the best cooking blog I know?! It’s been too long since they updated and now I don’t know what to make for lunch!” :p

Well, so you don’t despair, here we are, back and with every intention of making sure this doesn’t happen again. After writing “I will not leave the blog without updating for more than 5 days” a hundred times on the blackboard, and to make the return to “work” easier, today we’re bringing you a simple recipe. Enjoy.

What do we need?

• Green beans

• Peas

• Carrots

• Minced meat

• Salt

How do we make it?

• Peel, wash, and cut the potatoes, then put them in a pot to boil with salt.

• After they’ve been boiling for 5 minutes — depending on how big or small you cut them — add the carrots, green beans, and peas.

• Let them cook until they’re done to your liking. I say it like this because I always prefer everything a touch overcooked so it’s softer.

• While we take them off the heat and drain them in a colander, we heat a frying pan with a splash of oil.

• Add the minced meat.

• Once the meat is cooked, add all the well-drained ingredients and sauté everything together.

• Serve and savor.

Tips:

• Depending on the size you cut the ingredients (potatoes and carrots), they’ll take a bit more or less time to cook. Keep that in mind.

• We use frozen green beans and peas. If they’re fresh, they may take a little longer to cook.

BLT stands for Bacon Lettuce Tomato, which translates to a spectacular combo. Especially if you make the bacon the way we did. Want to know the secret? Keep reading.

What do we need?

• 4 slices of bacon

• 4 slices of bread

• 2 tomatoes

• A couple of lettuce leaves

• 2 tablespoons of sugar

• Cayenne pepper

• Mayonnaise

How do we make it?

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).

• Meanwhile, wash the lettuce and tomato.

• On a baking tray, lay out the bacon in a single layer on parchment paper. Grind the cayenne and sprinkle it over the bacon. Sprinkle the sugar on top too, and put it in the oven once it reaches temperature.

• Let it cook for about 15 minutes, until crispy and quite dark.

• While the bacon is cooking, slice the tomatoes into rounds and leave the lettuce in big leaves.

• Toast the bread. Once it’s done to your liking, spread a bit of mayonnaise on it and assemble the sandwich.

Tips:

• You can add lots of things, even switch up the sauce. The base is the BLT trio. We added onion, but avocado works really well too.

• You can make it with regular sandwich bread, but we recommend “long-life” bread (long live the king!!!!!). I think you can usually find it in supermarkets labeled as rustic bread (already sliced).

[English version] BLT* *Ingredients:

• 4 bacon slices

• 4 bread slices

• 2 tomatoes

• 2 lettuce leaves

• 2 tbsp sugar

• *Chili powder *

• Mayonnaise

• Preheat oven at 200º C.

• *Wash lettuce and tomato. *

• *In a baking tray, place some baking paper and the bacon (in one layer). Sprinkle with sugar and chili powder. *

• *Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and crispy. *

• *In the meanwhile, cut tomato into slices. *

• *Toast bread, spread some mayonnaise in each slice and make your sandwich with all the ingredients (tomato, lettuce and bacon). *

• Tips:- You can add any other ingredient or sauce that you like. The essentials are Bacon Lettuce and Tomato. We added some fresh onion but avocado is also a perfect choice. **- You can prepare the sandwich with any kind of white sandwich bread but we like to prepare it with sliced bread. *

After a crushing victory by four votes, against the two for the Crispy Chicken (irony mode on), today we bring you a delicious recipe we’ve been making for a long time and that we’ve been in love with ever since we first tried it.

What do we need?

• One chicken breast

• One cup of rice

• Half an onion

• 200 ml (3/4 cup) heavy cream

• Curry powder to taste

• Salt

• 2 garlic cloves

How do we make it?

• Pour a bit of oil into a small pot. Chop a garlic clove and add it. When the garlic is slightly golden, add the rice.

• Stir-fry the rice for a moment and add twice as much water as rice. Add salt.

• When it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium-low and cover. It’ll be ready in 15-20 minutes.

• While the rice cooks, slice the onion into thin strips.

• Place a frying pan with a splash of oil over the heat and add the onion.

• Cut the chicken into strips and toss it into the pan.

• When the chicken is partly cooked, add a couple of tablespoons of curry powder.

• Let everything cook together for a bit and stir in the cream.

• Bring to a boil and add more curry and salt to taste. You’ll have to keep tasting as you go.

Tips:

• If you want a nice presentation, you can fill half a glass with the cooked rice. Press it down a bit with a spoon so it packs together. Flip it onto the plate and you’ll have a little rice tower.

• The first time Pastelera tried it, it was served with grilled peaches in syrup. Give it a try.

[English version] CURRY CHICKEN WITH RICE* *Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast

• 1 cup of rice

• 1/2 onion

• 200 ml cream

• *Curry *

• Salt

• 2 garlic cloves

• *First prepare the rice. In a cooking pot, pour a bit of olive. Peel and chop the garlic cloves and stir fry. When it’s slightly golden brown, add the rice. *

• *Stir fry the rice and add 2 cups of water. Add some salt. *

• When the water boils, turn the heat down and cover with the lid. It will be ready in 15-20 minutes.

• *Now, slice the onion. *

• *Pour some olive into a frying pan and add the onion. *

• *Cut chicken breast into strips and add to the frying pan. *

• *After a few minutes, add a couple of tsp of curry. *

• Stir fry again and add the cream.

• *Simmer for a while and add more curry and salt if needed. *

Tips:

- You can have an easy and nice presentation just using a cup to create a rice tower. Fill a cup with cooked rice, press with a spoon and turn the cup upside down over the dish.

- You can serve it with some canned peaches. Just grill them a bit and serve them as a garnish.