tattum's kitchen

Japi Birzdey!

my mum with my aunt in 1969.

While I watch Jamie Oliver's program, and while I dream a little to be half as good as he is, I write this little post to share with you. Because today is my Birthday!!
So I'm going to post a couple of photos of some cakes I've made lately, to share them with you, so that  we can have a nice birthday party, with you guys, that I love so much.
I also wanted to send a big, huge kiss to my mum, 32 years ago her life changed a bit because I arrived. I love you mum!

this one is the chocolate & zucchini's melt in your mouth chocolate cake , just as good as it sounds.

         

this one is my favourite, and this photo is from the first carrot cake I ever made in my life (just afew weeks ago). It was good, not fabulous, because I used olive oil...tooo strong for a cake. so I've learned the lesson, yesterday, I made carrot muffins, and they were perfect. the recipe comes from my now best mate,  Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook.

So have a piece, with a cup of tea or coffee, and celebrate! Today will be a happy day!!

Besos a todos!

Fideua

I've been living in Spain for 20 years now, and , in a culinary way, there are many things that I never felt like making. I mean, spanish traditional dishes. I never felt like learning to prepare them.Why? I don't know, maybe because, deep down on me I'm a little neurotic.
My neurotic side, doesn't let me cook spanish food, (apart of the dishes I specially  like, like paella, or gazpacho) no "Tortilla Española", no "Lentejas" ,  no "Cocido" , no "Callos" , I just let my dear husband cook them. Maybe one day I'll tell you why. 

In Andalucia, where I lived, we had the "ferias". They are the village's festivity, it's during one week once a year. During that week, we danced "sevillanas", we had "fino", tapas, every girl dressed like "flamenca" and we had a lot, a lot of fun. 
But I never got dressed like a flamenca, never, in 20 years. My friends were always dressed with those lovely dresses, and I always went in jeans. Why? Maybe because I'm a little more neurotic than I thought, or maybe because I always felt that it was like wearing a costume. For my friends , it wasn't that, they learned since they were kids to dance " sevillanas" and the dress was something that went with it, so it was the complement of the dance. But me, I learned "sevillanas" dancing in the feria, not in the dance classes, so in my head I always saw that not permited sign.
Oh! If you can travel in the week of June  11th to Spain, make a stop in Marbella, 2 days is enough(if you can stay more , fine, you can go to the beach) and visit the "feria" , it starts at noon, in the town center,  and ends at 7pm. After that you have the night feria, it's fun, but it's much more fun for the kids and teenagers. And of course, you have the "Feria de Sevilla", in April, but I don't recommend it. Too many people, and the "casetas" are mainly private, so you have to be invited to access to one of them. So start with Marbella, and if you like it, you can always come back to Spain the following year and visit Seville.

Ok let's start with the fideua. Fideua is a paella but made with pasta instead of rice. You must find a short but thick pasta to make it. Like the one from the photo.

500gr short pasta
1 big onion chopped
1 clove garlic,minced
100gr grinded tomato
15gr saffron
2 fish consomme cubes
10-12 shrimps peeled (but don't throw the heads and shell away, keep them apart)
400gr clams
400gr squid rings
1l boiling water

First of all you need to make a fish stock. Fry the chopped onion in a deep saucepan, add one head of the shrimps,and squash it quickly, so that all the juices come out and mix well, do this with each shrimp head, after that add all the shells and the tomato. Stir well.

Add the hot water, the consomme cubes, and saffron. Take to boil and reduce the heat to medium. (This will taste even better if you prepare it a few hours before making the paella/fideua)

Once you are ready to make the fideua, lets say, 20 min before you want to eat, take a nice cup of white wine. For me the perfect is Barbadillo . It's really fresh, not too sweet, and a bit dangerous, because after a while  it's like water. ;)

Now, here is where my dear friend Paz can take that huge paella pan, and invite us all to eat. ;))

No, really, take a paella pan, or a big flat saucepan. Fry the minced garlic (take care  it doesn't burn), add the squids rings (I cut the rings in strings of 2cm large)  and after a few minutes they should look more white than transparent. Add the clams and cover the pan, wait till they are open. By now you should have  a base of liquid,  wait till it evaporates. Add the pasta around the pan and mix well. Add the half of the fish stock, and without mixing, reduce the heat to medium. Wait for the stock to evaporte, and add some more.

Once the pasta is done, and there's  still liquid , add the shrimps. Once they are done, put out the heat, and settle for 5 min. Just serve!

Hope you enjoy it!

Artichokes with Garlic and Parsley Sauce

          

My mum used to make this recipe very often.  We just loved it, because it was quite easy to make and because it was like eating "pipas" (sunflower seeds).
Now, I would like to ask a question. Are the sunflower seeds an important snack in your countries? Well it is in Spain. If you're watching a football game , if you're watching a film at home, if you're hanging out with friends, seating  in the park and you're spanish, for sure you will be eating "pipas". I think it's a quite dirty custom, 'cause the people that eat them, usually throw the husk to the floor and don't  sweep afterwards...but that's another story...

Now my artichokes. I added mushrooms, because I love mushrooms, but you can  make the recipe without them .

I use 2 artichokes per person. But it really depends on how big they are. Here,in Spain, they are quite small, but I've seen them in England, in the USA and in France, and they are amazingly huge! I was wondering, do they taste good?

Recipe:

4 artichokes and  their little trunk
1 or 2 garlic cloves
200gr of mushrooms
1/2 cup parsley
1 liter of boiling water
150gr of breadcrumb
2 dry consomme cubes
3 tablespoons of olive oil

In a deep saucepan, add the olive oil, and just before it starts boiling add the garlic and parsley minced.
After 2 min add the mushrooms and sauté. Add the breadcrumb and stir well so that it doesn't stick to the bottom, and add the water. Slow to medium heat. Add the dry consomme cubes (or salt if you prefer)

Now is the moment of adding the artichokes, but before, open them a bit from the center (so that the sauce will get to the heart). Close the saucepan and cook for 3o or 40min. It usually gets sticked to the bottom, so stir from time to time.
You can have them with rice or with my favourite, cous cous.

* To eat this, you must tear the leaves, one by one, and with the front teeth drag the part of the leaf that's nearer the heart. I think this sounds a little complicated...But it's the way of eating this because the leaves will be to hard to eat them completely. So that's why I  compared them to "pipas" you eat them one by one, till you get to the heart and you eat the whole of it.   Ok, if you don't understand this (and that woudn't be strange) email me, and I'll try to send you a photo of my teeth doing a simulation...wow! It sounds like you have to do a Master's degree to eat this, ijijiji ;))

C 'est Tout! Bon Appétite!

Truffles and Funghi Risotto

My Argentinian side, has that strange mix of nationalities, French , Italian, Spanish...all latin, all special. This mixture, and many more, has made Argentina a rich and complex country, with different people, with different customs, all living together, and feeling like true Argentinians. In the culinary side, Argentina is not only the place where  you can find the best meat (I may say the best of the world?), but its mixture of cultures, has made it also rich in an innumerable variety of dishes.
My Italian side, has made me a lover of pasta, and in many ways, also a lover for all that has to do with Italy. The risotto is one of them, I think it's absolutely delicious.
The risotto is so special, it's creamy, never dry, full of new sensations and flavors, and it gives you the possibility of  adding like a million of different ingredients.
This time, I made it with funghi and truffles, but I was thinking of making one with pumpkin, or  with asparagus,  or with   chicken liver, or with calamari, or with what your imagination suggests.

Now for the recipe you will need:
serving 2

250gr arborio rice (though I've done it a dozen of times with basmati)
1 big onion chopped
1 1/2 liter of chicken consomme
2 teaspoons of grinded saffron
1 cup of white wine
2 tablespoons of butter
30gr dried funghi
2 truffles
200gr grinded Parmesan cheese

In a deep saucepan, add the butter and wait till it's melted, add the onion and stir. Once the onion is transparent, add the rice and move well, so that it doesn't stick to the bottom.

After 2 or 3 min, add the wine and wait till it has evaporated. Meanwhile add the saffron to the consomme.

After the wine add the half of the consomme and reduce the heat. Wait till the rice has absorved the liquid and add the half of the consomme that you have left.

And after it has reduced add the rest of the liquid left.
Once you notice the rice done, and the liquid has evaporated completely, add the funghi and the parmesan cheese. Move well and remove from fire.

Wait 5 min for it to settle and serve with the laminated truffles on top  and a little of parmesan.

Hope you like it!

Kitchen Meme

When Alvaro and I moved to Madrid, we lived in a couple of rented apartments of 45 m2. In the beginning I didn't have a good time really. Apart of not having a job and of not having any friends or family near, the kitchen was more like a kitchenette and the house was full of ugly things of the owner (that he didn't even want, but that he didn't want to throw away)...I didn't like too much the place where we  lived... but not everything was bad of course, I was living in Madrid, and it's a big city after all, so you have many things that you don't have in the small, beach and touristic village I was coming from (Marbella).
Well, finally after 2 years, we decided to buy our first house....Ja! like as if that was going to be easy...
A year later, and after a desperate search of a home, we started looking outside Madrid. (Madrid was a "little" expensive) So after a few months, we went to see a house in a near village, El Molar. We had luck!
We found a new house that was being built in the moment, and for which we had to wait another year to move. No problem!

1) Show us your kitchen ( a picture) and tell us what is it about this place that reflects your own personality :
The kitchen was the first thing we had to decide about...distribution, colors, how, where,  why, what...are the normal questions you have to ask yourself if you wanna do it right.
One thing that Alvaro and I have in common is that we love to make our things, or at least, assemble our things ...and that's when Ikea came in to my life, tachng!
So my kitchen, my lovely and wonderful kitchen, has this look from above! And it does reflect a little of my personality. You see, I like to have everything in order, but I'm a little messy too, so I'm always between them, in a certain balance.

Like Angelika, I like to have the places I love near, and I also have a few pictures of my beloved New York. Pictures, that I took the first time I went there, and that I specially like above all.
The first one is from those buildings with loft from the SOHO...and the second one is from the Winter Garden, still with the Cats poster. The show had already ended, six months back, and I felt lucky for being able to take the photo. (though I know that I may not have much sense for many of you... but I'm a romantic...)

 

2) Open a cupboard (the one you feel to open), take a picture and tell us what we see.

This is my huge cupboard, where everything is; it has 6 shelves
n1 baking paper, silver paper,...etc
n2 all kinds of tea, and coffee
n3 dry consomme cubes, saffron, baking powder, salt, and japanese seaweeds
n4 various seafish cans, and vegetable cans
n5 all kinds of rice, basmati, arborio, long grain, short...and all kinds of sauces, (japanese mainly, like, 
      soy sauce, teriyaki, oyster sauce, sesame oil, Mirin, rice vinegar...)
n6 Corn Flakes, crispies, Flour, fusilli, Acetto Balsamico, Wine Vinegar...

3) Present us your favorite kitchen-based household appliance. and also...
5) My little steel friend: present us to your favorite cooking/baking recipient.

Like I told Paz, I can't live without my kettle .  I think it was the first thing I bought when I left my parents house, when I was about 17 and I moved with my boyfriend from the time (that's another story). It has been....mmmm....15 years (Oh! MY!!) and it's still  with me (never better said...jijiji) my best steel friend! As I said before, in my comment  in Paz's , in Spain, it's not very common to have one of these, they don't know what to use it for...

4) Take out one ingredient.....

Pasta! And I was thinking  in looking for something  more original, but the truth is that pasta is the first ingredient in my kitchen, the Nº1.

I would also like to participate in Paz's;

"10 important tools needed in the kitchen"
1º my kettle
2º a well sharped knife, or many...
3º my tea pot
4º a pasta strainer
5º pressure cooker
6º scale
7º a wok
8º toaster
9º  2 or 3 wooden spoons
10º a huge salad bowl

And here just about to end, I want to thank Angelika, the true flying apple, for tagging me in this meme. I had a great time having a look to her beautiful kitchen, and smelling around, like Max or Gino would have done. ;)
Oh yes, and I'm going to auto-invite myself to a must-be lovely kitchen at StephenCooks.
You should see his Pumpkin Ravioli,mmmmm....