Cooking Spanish food!

I’ve been on the Spaniards forum for more than a year now. I didn’t have great beginnings there, but bad things are easily forgotten and I’ve kept on participating more and more with time. I’ve been quite addicted to it in the last few months, and I must admit that I’ve met some very nice people there.

Well, the thing is that as Spaniards living abroad, we all are always trying to “connect” with those little details that we miss the most about Spain, and the most recurrent topic is always food. And I love food, that is a fact, so I don’t really need much encouraging or challenging in order to get in the kitchen and practice!

It all started with the simple and basic: Jamón and Queso Manchego. I’ve been able to find some Jamon Serrano in tesco but it’s really not worth it. It’s far too pricey and it’s not even a very nice one. However, I have found some proper, real extra mature Queso Manchego:

Bought from a local Spanish food importer – Quite good value for money!

Then there was a craze about Tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelettes = potato and onion omelette). Everybody in the forum, and I mean everybody, was making them and posting their pictures. And of course, I wasn’t going to not take the challenge!

Quite proud of how well this one turned up!

Then someone reminded me of “Arroz a la cubana” which is a dish that my mum used to make a lot for dinner when I was little. It consists of rice (boiled and fried with garlic and german “frankfurt-style” sausages) with tomato sauce (similar to passata, but sweeter) and a fried egg on top. I remember this dish very well, it was one of my favourite ones as a child. So I decided to try my luck.
What a disaster. I think the problem was that the ingredients were all wrong. I couldn’t get the right sausages, the rice was basmati and the passata was tasteless! (how much I miss “Fruco“!)

Not even looking that apetizing!

And last but not least, my latest creation has been “croquetas”. This is a very traditional Spanish dish. It’s basically made to take advantage of chicken left overs from roasts or casseroles, etc. The ingredients are: chicken leftovers, onion, flour, milk and stock. You’ll also need a couple of eggs and breadcrumbs. The theory is very simple and I had watched my mum making these for years and years, however, something, somewhere went wrong and I could simply not shape the “dough” into the croqueta shape. Nonetheless, they were super tasty and were highly enjoyed. I will just need some more practice to get the consistency of the dough just right!

They are supposed to be rounder and homogeneous!

Apart from all these, I have also cooked “estofado de cordero” (lamb stew) and Spanish-style rice, although you could never call it paella, it was quite tasty and nice. Let’s see what typical recipe I try next!