IBERICO HAM CROQUETTES

Croquetas in Spain are typical "tapas" dishes, usually filled with ham, chicken, fish like cod, but nowadays, many restaurants are offering different versions of croquettes with other fillings as ingredients like boletus(mushrooms) or different cheeses(brie, parmesan…) or even shrimps.
Croquette has the origin in France , but many countries in the world have their varieties and ways to prepare, like Germany, where the main ingredient is potato.
Croquetas, is a small fried roll , delicious inside because of the béchamel and the fillings and crunchy outside.
We can enjoy croquetas any time of the day like an appetizer , a side dish or even as a tapa.

To prepare iberico ham croquetas we will need:

 INGREDIENTS

• 1onion
• 1/2 pound iberico ham chopped
• 4 oz.butter
• 14 oz. iberico ham broth
• 20 oz. milk
• 1 cup flour
• pinch of salt
• pinch of nutmeg
• olive oil(for deep frying)
• eggs(to cover)
• bread crumbs(to cover)

PREPARATION

Fist we will prepare bechamel:

1. Heat  butter in a saucepan and sauté  onion finely chopped and  iberico ham for about 5 minutes at low-medium temperature
2. Meanwhile, heat milk and  iberico ham broth to warm both liquids(we need these two liquids warm to make the béchamel)
3. Add  flour to the saucepan with  onion and iberico ham and stir everything with a wood spoon until the flour is well mixed 
4. Add  both warm liquids(milk and ham broth) , little by little,  to the saucepan, stirring constantly.
5. Stir for about 10 minutes in a medium-low temperature ( we can't stop stirring during these 10 minutes)
6. Add pinch of salt (usually it doesn't need too much because of ham broth) and pinch of nutmeg
7. Poured  béchamel into a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill until next day in the fridge

Second we will shape croquette mixture:

1. Beat 2 or 3 eggs in a bowl and put bread crumbs in another bowl
2. Roll  mixture croquettes into oval shape( you can use an ice cream scoop)
3. Roll  croquette into bread crumbs, dip into eggs and again into breadcrumbs to coat well
4. Transfer to a parchment paper baking sheet and repeat with remaining croquette mixture
5. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and fry croquettes in batches until golden brown
6. Transfer to a paper towel to drain the excess of oil
7. Serve hot and enjoy!!!

HAM BONE AND VEGETABLE BROTH

Is there anything better than  having a hot cup of soup in a cold day?

Many of us go directly to the grocery store to buy chicken or meat broth and we add the broth to enrich our food, but there's something really better…we can make this broth at home. Bone broths are easy to prepare at home and very inexpensive.

Bone broth has incredible and numerous health benefits, and today we will prepare our both from the iberico ham.

Iberico ham broths are nutrient-dense, easy to digest, and very rich in flavor and contain protein and minerals in forms that your body can easily absorb like calcium, magnesium, silicon and phosphorus. Also broth coming from bones contain chondroitin sulphates,  glucosamine and collagen that are beneficial for our joint health and our immune system.

Today we will need for our broth:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 or 3 celery stalks 
• 1 leek
• 3 carrots
• 1/2 onion
•  1 or 2 iberico ham bone(depending of the size)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• water (2,5 litres or 10 cups)

PREPARATION

1. First we need to blanch the ham bone from the impurities that could contribute to  give our broth a bitter flavor
2. Place bones into a large stock pot and cover with water, bring to a boil so the bones will pull out impurities
3. Discard this water, we can repite this operation twice
4. Fill  the stock pot with clean cold water and put the clean ham bones
5. Now it's time to add  celery, leek, onion, carrots, bay leaves and apple cider vinegar
6. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for  about 2 or 3 hours
7. Sometimes while is simmering there may be fat or scum on  top , we can remove it with a wood spoon
8. Low and slow cooking is necessary to fully extract the nutrients and also the apple cider vinegar helps to pull out minerals from the bones.
9. After cooling we need to remove the fat layer that it will appear on  top of the broth
10. Enjoy this wonderful broth to prepare soups or to enrich other recipes with a delightful flavor

BURRATA,CHERRY TOMATOES AND IBERICO HAM SHAVINGS

I love burrata!!! Fist time that I tried burrata it was some years ago in San Juan(Alicante) in an Italian restaurant, and it was love at first sight!
Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is mozzarella, while the inside is mozzarella and cream. The word burrata means "buttered"in Italian.
When the burrata is sliced open, the cream from the inside flows out. This cheese has a buttery, sweet and milky flavor that gently fills the palate.
Burrata cheese is traditionally enjoyed on its own, and today my recipe with sliced cherry tomatoes, olive oil, basil and ham shavings complete a delightful plate.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• Cherry tomatoes
• Burrata cheese
• Iberico ham
•  2 or 3 Basil leaves
• 5 raw almonds
• Olive oil(100ml or 1/2 cup)
• Bread toast
• Butter
• Salt to taste

PREPARATION

1. Put the raw almonds, basil leaves and olive oil in a blender cup or food processor and blend all together and reserve
2. Put the cherry tomatoes in a oven tray and roast them in the oven at minimum temperature  for at least 1hour or 90 minutes
3. In another oven tray we can prepare the iberico ham shavings, first put a parchment paper over the tray, then iberico ham and another parchment paper to cover the ham and bake the ham at 300F for 10 or 15 minutes
4. After this we can prepare our plate,  open burrata cheese ball in half and  put  roasted cherry tomatoes and iberico shavings ham inside the cheese
5. Drizzle the burrata cheese, tomatoes and ham with the basil olive oil that we had reserved.
6. Add salt to taste
7. If you like bread, you can prepare a bruscheta toasting the bread with butter in a saucepan, it's delicious serving burrata over the hot bread
8. Enjoy!!!

LENTILS WITH SPANISH CHORIZO AND VEGGIES

Lentils are a high quality protein and high fiber member of the legume family.Lentils grow in pods and can be found in different varieties: red, brown or green.
Low in calories and high in nutrition, are the perfect legume for each season, in the summer we can enjoy them in salads or in the cold winter we can prepare a soup to warm our body.
Compared to other types of dried beans are relatively quick and easy to prepare, so we can enjoy them even when we don't have too much time to spend time in the kitchen.

One cup of cooked lentils contains:

• 230 calories
• 18g protein
• 1g fat
• 40g carbohydrates(16g fiber and 4 sugar)

Also 1 cup serving provides folate,iron,manganese phosphorus, thiamin, potassium and vitamin B6.

Many studies have suggested that increasing consumption of plant foods like lentils decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Today we will cook the lentils with spanish chorizo and vegetables.

Usually I'm very careful with the ingredients that I use in my recipes and I found  iberico spanish chorizo, with no nitrites or nitrates added and only made with natural ingredients from iberico pork.

For this recipe we will need:

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound lentils(250g aprox)
• 3.5oz(100g)red pepper finely chopped
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 or 2 carrots(depending of the size)
• 1 or 2 potatoes(depending of the size)
  
• 1garlic clove peeled
• 1 tomato or homemade tomato sauce
•  3 tablespoon olive oil
• ham broth or water
• 3oz spanish iberico chorizo(80g aprox.)
• 1/2 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• salt

PREPARATION

1. Rinse the lentils in a colander
2. Diced  onions, red pepper , tomato(if you use natural) and the carrots
3. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepot and sauté(low heat)the veggies finely chopped except the tomato
4. Add salt
5. After 5 minutes add tomato sauce or the natural diced tomato and cook  the veggies 3 or 5 minutes more
6. Add lentils and potatoes(cut in half) to the veggies and cook for another 2 minutes
7. Add ham broth or cold water to cover the lentils 
8. Add spanish chorizo, salt and  bay leaves
9. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for about 1 hour
10. When the lentils are cooked, we can sauté garlic and half teaspoon of smoked spanish paprika in a small saucepan with olive oil over low heat and add this to the lentils
11. Cook for another 5 minutes aprox. and serve very hot
12. Enjoy!!!

CARAMELIZED ONION, BRIE AND IBERICO HAM

Iberico ham is a jewel in the spanish gastronomy, and now we know that is a nutritional food that we can enjoy without any guilty.
The nutritional facts in the iberico ham are:

• Proteins(33g protein in 100g of iberico ham)
• Vitamins, especially Vit B,Vitamin D and Vitamin E
• Minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc
• Oleic fatty acid( only the olive oil has a higher content):positive effect on cholesterol in the bloodstream(improving HDL and reducing LDL)

We can include the iberico ham in our diet, even if we are worried about our weight, 100g of iberico ham are less than 250 kcalories and it's a good alternative to red meat.

For this easy recipe we only will need 3 main ingredients: onion, brie cheese and iberico ham.

Today we will learn how to caramelized the onion without using any sugar(this is a good one!!!).

INGREDIENTS

• 2 onion
• brie cheese
• iberico ham
• bread toast
• olive oil 
• 2 tablespoon of water

PREPARATION

1. Cut the onions in julienne and heat 3 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan.Add the onions to the saucepan and cook at medium temperature, stir the onion with the oil and reduce heat, stir the onion constantly.
2. We will cook the onion for about 30 minutes at low heat.Gently the onion will turn brown, because of the sugar in the onion.
3. Now it's time to add 2 tablespoon of water to the onion and stir evenly until we get the brown color in all the onion.
4. Toast our bread in a toaster or grill in the oven with a touch of butter.
5. We will spread the brie cheese in the hot toast, then the caramelized onion and the iberico ham on the top.
6. You can finish the appetizer with a touch of balsamic glaze.
7. Enjoy!!!

TERNERA EN SALSA DE TOMATE CASERA

Después de mucho tiempo sin escribir, aquí os traigo una nueva receta muy sencilla y fácil de preparar.

Muchas veces nos compramos libros de recetas, que tienen una pinta buenísima pero cuando empiezas a leer la cantidad de ingredientes que necesitas y ves de lo que dispones en tu frigorífico, desistes de continuar cocinando.

En este receta, intento que los ingredientes sean muy básicos y así si se te antoja la receta puedas cocinarla en cualquier momento.

Voy a seros sincera y esta receta solo probe la salsa, porque a mi particularmente, las carnes en salsa no me van demasiado, pero a mi marido y a mis hijos les encanto, y con esto me vale para publicarla.

Para mi uno de los secretos de la cocina es tener tiempo y poder cocinar todo a fuego lento, todo sale mucho mejor.

Y sin mas, aqui va primero lo que necesitareis para esta receta,

INGREDIENTES

Para la salsa:

• 1 cebolla troceada
• 2 dientes de ajo laminados
• 2 zanahorias ralladas
• 2 o 3 tomates(según sea su tamaño)
• 2 cucharaditas de azucar
• sal
• aceite de oliva

Para el guiso:

• 500 gramos de ternera cortada en cubos(yo la compro orgánica y grass fed beef, pero ya eso es a vuestro gusto)
• 2 cucharadas de harina
• 1 vaso de agua o de caldo

ELABORACION

1. Enharinamos la carne y la marcamos en una cacerola con un par de cucharadas de aceite.
2. En un cazo ponemos suficiente agua y cocemos los tomates unos minutos, con el objetivo de quitarles la piel.
3. Una vez marcada nuestra ternera, la apartamos y en esa misma cacerola podemos agregar otra cucharada de aceite de oliva y sofreímos la cebolla y los ajos laminados(todo a fuego lento para evitar que se nos quemen los ajos).
4. Incorporamos las zanahorias ralladas y seguimos moviendo todo a fuego lento.
5. Retiramos los tomates del agua de coccion y una vez frios(los podemos poner en agua fría para poder pelarlos mas rápido), les retiramos la piel y las pepitas e incorporamos a nuestro sofrito una vez troceados.
6. Continuamos mezclando bien, ajo, cebolla, zanahoria y tomate, y agregamos sal y azucar para corregir la acidez propia de el tomate.
7. Pasados unos minutos retiramos de el fuego, lo pasamos a un vaso de batidora y lo trituramos muy bien.
8. Volvemos a incorporar a nuestra cacerola la carne que teníamos reservada, con la salsa que hemos triturado e incorporamos un vaso generoso de agua o caldo y dejamos cocinar a fuego lento,hasta que la carne este muy tierna.
9. A mi me gusta poner también alguna hierba para aromatizar, en este caso le puse orégano.
10. Plato rico, sencillo y nutritivo, y lo mas importante casero!!!.

GREEN BEANS WITH SWEET TOMATO AND POACHED EGG

When I write a recipe in my blog I usually start saying that it's very easy to prepare, and it's completely true!!!!.
This recipe is a good example, you can prepare a fancy plate with some basic and healthy ingredients like green beans, onions, tomatoes and eggs.
Today I'd  like to give you a brief information about green beans.
Green beans are classified in the vegetable group of food these beans are immature legumes with the outside part of the fruits called pods, and inside there are small seeds poorly developed.
Green beans contain few calories and 90%water and are rich in potassium, mineral that facilitates the removal of the fluids, so these vegetables are a good option if you want to  loose weight and prevent water retention.
Green beans are rich in Vitamin C(antioxidant), and Vitamin A as a beta carotene, another important  antioxidant and very important to keep a healthy skin and a good vision, and together(Vitamin A and Vitamin C)are indispensable for a healthy immune system.
Green beans are also very rich in fiber, specially mucilage, which helps to reduce the absorption of cholesterol in the intestine, and improve the intestinal transit  preventing  constipation.
Green beans are  rich in Iron, these vegetables contain twice as much iron than spinach.Iron is a component of the hemoglobin and is a key element in the process of energy making and metabolism.

After this short explanation, I'll write you the ingredients that you will need:

INGREDIENTS

For 2 servings

• 1 pound green beans(fresh or frozen)
• 3 or 4 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• salt
• olive oil

PREPARATION

1. Boil tomatoes for 5 minutes aproxim. 
2. Set tomatoes aside and wait until we can peel them easily, cut in small pieces  and remove the seeds.
3. In a saucepan pour some olive oil and sauté onion finely cut, when the onion is tender add the reserved tomatoes.Add a pinch of salt.
4. Keep cooking onions and tomatoes together over medium-low heat until the water from the tomatoes is gone.Add brown sugar and stir with the onions  and tomatoes for 2 or 3 minutes.
5. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil.Add  green beans and cook until tender.Rinse under cold water through a strainer.Set aside.
6. In a small pot boil water with vinegar and salt, and poach the fist egg when the water starts boiling.When the fist egg is poached(after 5 minutes aprox), set aside and add the second one .
7. Saute  green beans with  1 tablespoon of olive oil (we can use the same saucepan that we use to sauté  the onions and the tomatoes.Add a pinch of salt.
8. The last step is build our plate(if you have a ring is very useful), first green beans, the second layer with the sweet tomatoes sauce and finally on the top our poached egg.
9. Enjoy!!!

JUDIAS VERDES CON DULCE DE TOMATE Y HUEVO ESCALFADO

Cuando escribo una receta en mi blog siempre empiezo diciendo que es muy sencilla de preparar, y es completamente cierto!.

En este caso podemos preparar un sofisticado plato simplemente con ingredientes básicos y saludables que solemos tener habitualmente en casa, como tomates, judías verdes, cebolla y huevos.

Hoy os dare una breve explicacion de las propiedades saludables de las judías verdes.

Las judias vedes están clasificadas dentro de el grupo de los vegetales, ya que por sus propiedades se asemejan mas a ellos que a las leguminosas(como las judías pintas o las judías blancas).

Las judías verdes contienen muy pocas calorías y un 90% de agua, ademas de ser ricas en potasio, mineral que promueve la eliminación de liquidos de modo que es una verdura a tener en cuenta si quieres perder peso y ademas evitar retención de líquidos.

Las judías verdes también son ricas en vitamina C y vitamina A(beta caroteno)ambas funcionan como antioxidantes en el organismo, y juntas nos ayudan a tener un sistema inmunitario saludable que nos defienda ante posibles agresiones externas.

También tienen un alto contenido en fibra,especialmente mucilago, que reduce la absorción intestinal de colesterol, y ademas estimula el peristaltismo intestinal previniendo o mejorando casos de estreñimiento.

Otro mineral que se encuentra en gran medida es el hierro, en este caso contienen 2 veces mas hierro que las espinacas, el hierro forma parte de la hemoglobina, y es parte fundamental en el metabolismo y en la creación de energía.

Y dicho todo esto, os paso a describir los ingredientes que vamos a necesitar:

INGREDIENTES

• 500g de judias verdes(frescas o congeladas)
• 3 o 4 tomates
• 1 cebolla
• 1 cucharadita de azúcar moreno(o blanco como tengáis)
• 2 huevos
• sal
• aceite de oliva

PREPARACION

1. Cocemos los tomates en agua hirviendo por unos minutos
2. Una vez hervidos los dejamos enfriar y los pelamos, los partimos en cuartos y los quitamos las pepitas.
3. En una sarten con un poco de aceite de oliva salteamos la cebolla que previamente hemos picado finamente, cuando este tierna incorporamos los tomates y salteamos junto a la cebolla todo fuego lento de manera que se vaya evaporando el agua de los tomates.Salamos.
4. Antes de terminar de saltear el conjunto, incorporamos la cucharadita de azucar, y seguimos dandole unas vueltecitas de manera que desaparezca el sabor acido de el tomate.
5. En un cazo ponemos agua y llevamos a ebullicion para cocer las judias verdes.Una vez tiernas, las escurrimos en un colador, y las pasamos por agua fría del grifo o le ponemos unos hielos con la finalidad que recuperen el color verde original.
6. Para pochar los huevos, ponemos un cazo a hervir con sal y un chorro de vinagre, y cuando empiece a hervir,cascamos el huevo,y lo  incorporamos a el agua hirviendo y lo dejamos como por unos 5 minutos, una vez pochado lo sacamos y pochamos el otro huevo.
7. Salteamos las judías verdes con un poco de aceite y sal( las podemos saltear en la misma sartén donde salteamos la cebolla y los tomates)..
8. El ultimo paso es montar nuestro plato, yo para ello utilizo un aro emplatador que es muy útil.
9. Como fondo ponemos las judías verdes, seguidamente la salsa de tomate y finalmente el huevo escalfado.
10. Que aproveche!!!