HOMEMADE IBERICO HAM AND MANCHEGO CHEESE BURGER

Is there anybody who doesn't like hamburgers? So, if you are a fan of them, you probably begin salivating at the mention of iberico ham and Manchego cheese in a tasty homemade burger

This is a simple hamburger, elevated into something that goes beyond "gourmet", and is the result of high quality ingredients  arrange in a way that brings pleasure to whoever taste it.
I have created  a burger featuring two of my absolute favorite tapas staples, Iberico ham and Manchego cheese ... Wow factor!

Serves 4 burgers

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound organic ground pork
• 1/2 pound organic ground beef
• 1 egg beaten
• 4 Manchego cheese slices
• 4 Iberico ham slices
• 4 burger buns
• 2 cups fresh arugula
• garlic salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• unsalted butter
• homemade mayonnaise

PREPARATION

1. In a bowl, marinate  ground pork and ground beef  adding one beaten egg, garlic salt and fresh ground black pepper, knead the meat with your hands for a few minutes, cover and reserve in the fridge at least 30 minutes.
2. Shape the meat into 4 equal-size patties and brush them with olive oil.
3. In a medium cast-iron skillet, cook the patties for 3 minutes on one side and flip to the other side and place the  Manchego cheese slice on the top of the already cooked side.
4. Meanwhile, in another skillet brush the buns with butter and place them, cut side down, over medium-high heat until nicely toasted, for about 2 or 3 minutes.
5. In the same skillet place the iberico ham slices to warm them.
6. Spread homemade mayonnaise onto the bottom half of each butter bun.
7. Place fresh arugula,  cheese melted burger patties and iberico ham on the top.
8. Serve hot and enjoy.

ZUCCHINI SOUP AND IBERICO HAM

Zucchini and leeks combine to make a delicious creamed soup, whose flavor is heightened by the iberico  ham.
This soup could be served hot or cold( depends on the season), but anyway it's a great choice as a main course.
I also included potatoes and cheese for creaminess and texture and the result is a light, healthy soup that you will add to your favorites family recipes.
Zucchini are low in calories and contains significant quantities of potassium, folate and vitamin A and also has a high water content and very rich in fiber.
The recipe takes about  40 minutes to prepare so you don't need to spend hours in the kitchen.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 or 2 leeks chopped
• 3 zucchini chopped
• 1 or 2 potatoes peeled and chopped
• 2 and 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
• 3 oz. sharp cheddar cheese diced
• 4 iberico ham slices
• salt , to taste

PREPARATION

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute the leeks until soft for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the zucchini, potatoes and vegetable broth or water. Cover and bring to boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 25 or 30 minutes, until vegetables are soft.
4. Add the cheese and puree the soup with a blender.
5. Season to taste with salt.
6. Next prepare the crunchy iberico ham, preheat the oven to 375F and lay the iberico ham on to a baking tray over parchment paper and roast them for about 5 minutes until crisp.
7. Serve the soup in bowls topped with iberico crunchy strips and a dash of olive oil.
8. Enjoy!!!

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!!!