What are we eating ? | Spanish inspired recipes

Just before the weekend, all readers who cook ask themselves this eternal question: what are we going to eat? In order to inspire you, The Press suggests some suggestions for seasonal recipes that will make your mouth water.

Snack: chorizo ​​with spinach

Chef Aaron Langille offers you a simple recipe, but which marvelously combines “a ton of flavors and textures” and which he serves to many customers at his restaurant Le Diplomate, rue Beaubien Ouest, in Montreal: spinach with chorizo .

Ingredients

For 1 or 2 servings (dish or starter)

• 60 g chorizo ​​from Aliments Viens
• 200g spinach
• 1 C. tablespoon unsalted butter
• Salt
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 6 papalo, coriander or Vietnamese coriander leaves
• Sunflower oil (if needed)

Preparation

• 1. Begin by thinly slicing your chorizo ​​and placing it in a cold skillet. Heat the pan over medium-low heat, until the chorizo ​​fat begins to melt. If your chorizo ​​is not very fatty, you can add a little sunflower oil. Do not overheat your pan and avoid burning the sausage.
• 2. When the layer of fat covers the bottom of the pan, add the butter and swirl the pan to emulsify the fats together. Your pan is too hot if your butter is starting to brown or making a frying sound. In this case, remove it from the heat and turn it until it cools.
• 3. Again over medium-low heat, add your spinach and, using tongs, coat the spinach with the fat from the pan. To prevent the spinach from getting too soft, be sure not to leave it on the heat for too long.
• 4. Remove the pan from the heat, then add the lime juice. Finely chop your papalo or cilantro and add it to the pan. Herbs and lime juice should be kept fresh, do not cook them.
• 5. With the tongs, mix everything together, then serve.

presentation trick

“For the presentation, the best thing is to do something like when you serve long pasta. With tongs or a spoon, place some of the spinach and chorizo ​​in the center of the plate. And we repeat until the food forms a nice mound in the dish. »

Source: recipe by chef Aaron Langille of Le Diplomate restaurant.

Published on lapresse.ca on October 25, 2018.

Quickly done well: Andalusian gazpacho

For 8 guests

Ingredients

• 1.685 kg very ripe tomatoes, roughly diced
• 500g cucumber, peeled and roughly diced (about one and a half English cucumbers)
• 20g minced red onion
• 70g crusty bread
• 90ml olive oil
• 20ml sherry vinegar
• 15g of salt
• Pepper and Espelette pepper to taste
• A few basil leaves
• 100 g dry-cured ham in brunoise
• 2 hard boiled eggs cut into wedges
• 1 drizzle of olive oil for dressing the dishes

Preparation

• 1. In a large salad bowl, mix all the ingredients, except the ham and eggs, and let stand 30 min on the counter, at room temperature, then grind in a blender. Adjust seasoning.
• 2. Place in the refrigerator, serve very cold, garnished with dry ham, hard-boiled egg and a drizzle of olive oil.

Published on lapresse.ca on June 14, 2017.

Source: recipe provided by chef Adèle Prudhomme, formerly of Sainte-Cécile grocery store, now at the Réserve Naturelle — Wine merchant.

Call me boss! : Valencian paella

The great Spanish chef Quique Dacosta was in Montreal and agreed to show how to make a paella.

For four persons

Ingredients

• 220 g of paella rice, “bomba” or “senia”. You can find it in delicatessens. If you do not have access to this type of rice, you can use risotto rice, but you will have to rinse it thoroughly and for a long time to remove all its starch.
• 1.3 L of broth. It is a crucial part of the dish, which sets the tone. It has to be tasty.
• 4 or 5 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 C. pimentòn, smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp. saffron
• 1 tomato
• 200 g green beans (the Spaniards use flat green beans)
• 200g lima beans
• Rabbit, chicken, quail, snails… In all: about 600 g of meat per person
• Salt and pepper
• sprig of rosemary (optional)

Preparation

• 1. Brown the poultry in a frying pan (not the paella) and set aside. (The rest of the cooking will go into the rice later.)
• 2. Heat the broth. Make sure it is well salted and peppered to taste.
• 3. Heat the oil in the paella pan over high heat, but be careful not to burn it. It is important that the dish is horizontal and that the heat is distributed as evenly as possible over the entire surface (important if you are making the paella on a barbecue).
• 4. Fry the pimentòn and the saffron in the oil. To add some flavor, you can toast a sprig of rosemary over the fire while preparing the paella.
• 5. Cook the tomato in the oil.
• 6. Pour the rice into the pan and coat it with the flavored oil and the tomato.
• 7. Add both kinds of beans.
• 8. Pour the hot broth into the pan. Mix well.
• 9. Spread the pieces of poultry and company — snails in particular, a classic in Valencian paella — over all this, so that there is also some on the entire surface of the pan. When it’s time to eat, directly from the dish, diners must have their share, their area in the dish, with equal amounts of meat.
• 10. Leave to cook for 18 minutes without touching anything. It is normal for the rice to stick a little. We love the crunch. If there is a real lack of liquid, you can add a little boiling water.
• 11. Let the dish rest for 5 minutes when it is ready before serving it, to “relax” the rice.

We bring the dish to the middle of the table and we eat directly from the dish, with a spoon, each guest having his “zone”.

Published on lapresse.ca on July 12, 2018.

Guilty pleasure: the chocolate churros of the Mesón restaurant

Since its opening in 2014, the team at the Spanish-inspired Mesón restaurant in Villeray has been offering its churros with dulce de leche or chocolate. “The churro, in restaurants, is always popular. At least one out of two customers takes it for dessert,” says Marie-Fleur St-Pierre, chef at the Mesón restaurant.

Ms. St-Pierre explains that for the churros to be perfect, they must be fried as you go. The dough, on the other hand, is prepared in advance. Two churros are required per person.

The recipe for Mesón churros comes from Larousse Pâtisserie. “We adapted it a little bit to make it a bit sweeter,” says Marie-Fleur St-Pierre. For the sauce, we change it often, it can be with a homemade or chocolate dulce de leche, which is more typical Spanish. »

For The Press, Marie-Fleur St-Pierre offers her recipe for chocolate churros, easy to make, with canola oil. “It has to be the color of a wine bottle cork, which takes about 4 minutes to cook, then we roll it in sugar and eat it straight away. »

Servings: 8

Preparation: 20 mins

Cooking: 5 mins

Rest: 1 to 2 hours

Ingredients for the dough

• 1 L (4 cups) of water
• 240 g (1 cup) cold butter, cubed
• A good pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 900 g (7 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 8 extra-large eggs, beaten
• Vegetable oil for frying

Ingredients for the chocolate sauce

• 175 g (1 cup) 65% dark chocolate drops
• 250 ml (1 cup) 35% whipping cream

Preparation of the dough

• 1. In a saucepan, bring the water, butter, salt and sugar to a boil.
• 2. Turn off the heat and add the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until the preparation is smooth.
• 3. Add the eggs and mix lightly, until it looks like scrambled eggs.
• 4. Transfer to a plate and let cool for 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Preparation of the chocolate sauce

• 5. Place the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl.
• 6. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a boil.
• 7. From the first bubbles, pour over the chocolate and mix until it is melted. Keep warm.

Cooking the churros

• 8. Heat the vegetable oil in the fryer to 180°C (350°F)
• 9. Spoon the churros mix into a sturdy pastry bag fitted with a fluted tip, filling it halfway.
• 10. Dip 10 cm (4 in) sticks of dough into the hot oil.
• 11. Fry for 5 minutes or until the churros are golden brown.
• 12. Place the churros in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar. Serve with hot chocolate sauce.

Published on lapresse.ca on June 27, 2020.

Health ! : sangria

For 10 to 12 people

Ingredients

• 780 ml red wine (26 oz)
• 150 ml dark rum (5 oz)
• 60 ml orange liqueur (2 oz)
• 210 ml orange juice (7 oz)
• 210 ml apple juice (7 oz)
• Juice of a lime
• 210 ml of carbonated water (7 oz)
• 210 ml ginger ale (7 oz)
• 300 ml frozen mixed berries (10 oz)

Preparation

• 1. Pour the red wine, rum and orange liqueur into a punch bowl and mix.
• 2. Add orange juice, apple juice, lime juice and mix again.
• 3. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Just before serving, add carbonated water, ginger ale, frozen fruit and ice cubes.

Published on lapresse.ca on July 22, 2011.