Mini-cakes of morcilla with egg :: Tartaletas de morcilla con huevo

When I hear the word MORCILLA I think: my gosh, it sounds too rude to think about eating it. And, actually, it is! On top of that, the way we usually eat it in Spain is in a barbeque lunch with trays full of meat, potatoes and things you can easily eat with your fingers in a casual relaxed meal (hold on Spaniards, at least is the way I do!)

This time I thought about cooking something more glamorous, chic and that you can eat for a tapas menu (did I mention I have a tapas obesession? ;)

Who wants to join the morcilla??

Ingredients (2 units) 

• 100 gr of 'morcilla' (blood sausage) 
• 4 slices of sandwich bread 
• 1 garlic clove 
• 60 gr of onions 
• 1 tomato (60 gr.) 
• 10 gr of dried apricots 
• 10 gr of raisins 
• 2 eggs 
• olive oil

Elaboration
First of all, turn on the oven and pre-heat it at 200ºC. Secondly, the 'boring' duties: peel and chop the onion. Do the same with the garlic. Take the tomato, peel it and chop it into the smallest pieces you could do. If you prefer, you can get rid of the seeds but I actually don't care having them.

Take the dried apricots (I took 2!) and chop them. Now, the master ingredient of the recipe: morcilla. First of all, peel it. You can easily make a slight cut and remove the skin. Once you have only the meat, chop it as well. As you see, now you have all the ingredients to start cooking it.
Grab a pan and put some olive oil on it. You might be moaning at me that I never put the measures of the olive oil but the thing is that I daily use it to prevent food from sticking so I just add the quantity I feel is all right.

Before you start developing your cooking skills, let's do some crafts. Choose 2 tins to make the containers of the morcilla (mine are tulip shapes). You will need 2 slices of bread for each tulip. Remove the side of the sandwich bread. I make round shapes because it's easier to handle. How to make it? easy: grab a glass, put it upside down and press it. The bread left outside the glass is what you have to remove. Voilá! easy, right?
Now with 2 breads fill in 1 tulip. Press the bread against the tin and mold it. Do the same for the second container. Add some olive oil in the base to make it crunchier when cooked and put it right away in the oven for at least 20 minuts (180ºC). When you see the edges are cooked, take them out.
Now, the filling! Heat the olive oil at maximum power and add the onion. Low the heat almost until the minimum right away and let the onion cook. The idea is having a poached tasty onion. You'll know it is done when it softens and turns into a golden color (approx. 15 minutes). Add the tomato and blend it a little bit. Then add the morcilla.
You can immediately add also the raisins and the dried apricots because it gives you the right indications to know when everything is cooked: when the dried apricots soften then you've got it. Cook everything at medium-high power for 10-15 minutes.
Put the the blend aside and make fried eggs. I chose a mini sauce pan perfect for the diameter of my tulips. If you don't have a small pan then grab any one and when the eggs are done cut it in a round shape till the egg fits (somehow) into the tulip.
And BRAVO! you made your first mini-cakes of morcilla!! Now it's all about eating in a fashion way: fill in the bread tulips with the morcilla blend, put one egg on the top and serve. I'm sure your hosts are going to love it!

Your turn, Spanish Kitchenetters!

Font: Valérie Berry