Frío

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.

For many of you, this is probably a childhood memory, and I bet that every once in a while you get tempted to buy them again and eat two in a row without your mom scolding you. Well, if I tell you that you can make them at home and that the size is up to you, I think you should already be on your way out to buy some good ripe strawberries.

What do we need?

• 500 g (1.1 lb) strawberries
• 250 g (9 oz / about 1 cup) cream cheese (Philadelphia type)
• 100 g (about 1/2 cup) heavy whipping cream
• 150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
• 2 teaspoons powdered cuajada (rennet-based setting mix)

How do we make it?

1. First, wash the strawberries and remove the stems. Blend them well with a hand blender until you get a strawberry purée.
2. In a small glass, put a bit of the strawberry purée and dissolve the cuajada in it. Set aside.
3. Put the rest of the strawberry purée in a saucepan and heat it until it boils.
4. Remove from the heat, add the portion of purée with the dissolved cuajada, and stir well.
5. Put it back on the heat for about two minutes, stirring constantly. (BE CAREFUL at this step because if the heat is too high the strawberry purée can splatter and burn you. Trust me, the stuff is worse than water — being denser, it really sticks to you.)
6. Let the purée cool down a little and then add the rest of the ingredients (sugar, cheese, and cream).
7. Blend everything well with the hand blender and you'll see it has already taken on a lovely petit suisse color.
8. All that's left is to pour it into whatever little glasses you want to serve it in and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Tips:

– We used shot glasses — they look really cute and it's the perfect portion size, since we have to admit this is a pretty rich dessert (now I understand why our moms wouldn't let us eat too many… :-P). You can also use the little glass yogurt jars or any small cup you have around.

– I can't tell you for sure how long they'll keep in the fridge, but with these ingredients I'd estimate they'll last a week without any problem.

Salmorejo is one of my favorite dishes, and I can vouch for the fact that I’m not the only person in my family who, the moment we get back from a long trip abroad, the first thing we ask for at home is a good salmorejo and a proper Spanish potato omelette. This dish is typical of Córdoba and it shares similarities with gazpacho since, at the end of the day, it’s a kind of cold soup or cream with tomato as its base. Needless to say, the better the tomatoes you use, the better the salmorejo will turn out.

What do we need?

(serves 6)

•   1 kg (2.2 lb) ripe red tomatoes
  

•   1 piece of bread
  

•   150 ml (2/3 cup) olive oil (or to taste)
  

•   1-2 cloves of garlic
  

•   Salt
  

•   Vinegar
  

•   4 eggs
  

•   200 g (7 oz) Serrano ham
  

How do we make it?

• Wash the tomatoes, cut them into pieces and put them in a bowl.

• Add the bread (it can be stale bread that we’ve soaked in water for a few minutes beforehand to soften it), salt, garlic, vinegar and a little olive oil.

• Blend with the mixer until you get a smooth cream. Keep adding more olive oil until you get a soft, creamy texture. The amount of olive oil depends on personal taste. The more oil you add, the thicker it will get and the pinker it will look.

• Taste and adjust the salt and vinegar to your liking. Set aside in the fridge.

• Boil the eggs, peel them and cut them into small cubes.

• Chop the Serrano ham into small cubes too.

• Serve the salmorejo very cold with ham and egg on top.

Tips:

• Some people prefer to peel the tomatoes for a finer result. To make this easier, you can blanch the tomatoes first to remove the skin comfortably.
• You can make the salmorejo a bit lighter by skipping the bread and reducing the amount of oil.
• As always, garlic is up to personal taste, but don’t go overboard or you’ll kill the flavor.

*[English version] SALMOREJO (Spanish cold tomatoe soup)

• **Ingredients (serves 6):- 1 kg ripe red tomatoes

• Bread

• 150 ml olive oil

• Vinegar

• Salt

• 1-2 cloves of garlic- 4 eggs- 200 g cured ham

• Wash and cut tomatoes into pieces. Place into a large bowl.

• Add bread (you can use stale bread so put it before with some water in order to soften it), salt, garlic, vinegar and a bit of olive oil.

• Blend all the ingredients with a mixer or blender until you get a smooth cream. Add more olive oil until creamy and soft. (The amount of olive oil is up to you).

• Try and add more salt and vinegar if necessary. Place into fridge.

• Boil the eggs, peel them and cut into small pieces.

• Cut ham into small pieces.

• Serve cold salmorejo with some egg and ham in the top.

  Tips:- You can peel the tomatoes. For making it easier, scald tomatoes in boiling water.

• If you want to prepare a lighter version, avoid adding bread and reduce the amount of olive oil.

• Use garlic according to your preferences but don’t add too much or you won’t taste the other flavours!

Comments

zordor (2012-08-21 05:56:31):

Haha I can vouch for it, I can vouch that the first thing we need to see on the table is salmorejo and potato omelette :) Ufff you’ve made me so hungry! Well, not even hungry! Salmorejo is something you can eat even when you’re not hungry!

Marisa (2012-08-21 09:26:34):

Yummmm! I’m making it tomorrow