Sugared almonds :: Almendras garrapiñadas

You see? I am so into our most spanish traditional and popular sweets and desserts.

This time is the easiest but sweetest one. All you need are three ingredients and I bet it is gonna cheer p your friday.

Ingredients
 

• 1 cup of raw unpeeled almonds
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of water

Elaboration

Put all the ingredients together in a pot. Heat over high heat for 6 minutes (If you have from 1 to 9 in your stove, choose 9). You will see that sugar melts and begins to have a less watery consistency.

After these minutes, low down to medium heat (from 1 to 9, choose 5) and cook for 4 minutes while stirring. See that now the water starts evaporating and, all by the sudden, the sugar crystallizes.

This is when you remove the pot from the stove and don't stop stirring until the sugar get stuck to the almonds.

And that's it. This is perfect for a snack on the go while you have a nice weekend walk.

Enjoy it !

Bento box world :: El mundo de las cajitas Bento

I wish my lunchboxes would have ever look like this when I was a kid and I had to have takeaway. Japanese people really know how to make it cheerful and fun.

According to Wikipedia, a bento box is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.

The ones I am showing you are called "kyaraben" ("character bento"). Kyaraben are typically decorated to look like popular characters from Japanese cartoons (anime), comic books (manga), or video games.

How cool are they? Honestly, I will never do that with my kids, it is a lot of work, but I bet Japanese people are very talented and they can quickly fix these meals.

Images from Pinterest

Mini-pizzas of ham and pickles :: Mini-pizzas de jamón y pepinillos

Weekend is coming, yeah ! And I bet many of you will meet up with your friends around a table. Are you staying at home or going out to some bar or restaurant? If you decide staying indoors or you are invited to any of your friends' house, make sure to be nice and bring some food to share with the whole gang (this is something we always do in Spain).

Pinterest is a great source of  appetizers, snacks and finger food, perfect for these kind of occasions where you have to cook for quite a big group of people but you want to make it easy. However, I must confess that I have tried out some of the recipes stored there and... I failed. Pictures looked way much better that the recipes turned out. This time though, I succeeded and that's why I want to share the recipe with you step by step (or picture by picture).


Ingredients (8 units)

• 2 mexican tortillas
• 2 slices of ham
• 1 slice of cheese
• Pickles
• 8 teaspoon of fried tomato sauce
• Oregano

Elaboration
We will use a tomato can to cut the tortillas and make perfect circles. Make sure you use a cylindrical can whose base is the same perimeter as the holes of your muffins baking tray (we will cook them in there!).
For each tortilla I took 4 circles (or mini pizzas base).

Now, we are cutting the ham, the cheese and the pickles that will make our pizza filling.

It is time about to fix our mini-pizzas! Place the bases in the baking tray. Add a teaspoon of tomato sauce on each circle and spread all around. Then, start placing the ham as the main ingredient.

Follow with the pickles and the cheese. As the final step, put some oregano on top and take them into the oven, which has been previously pre-heated at 200oC. Cook them for 10-15 minutes.

Eat as soon as you take them out from the oven, otherwise, the tortillas won't be crunchy.

Easy and delicious recipe, isn't it? Note that you can use other ingredients as chorizo, mushrooms, bacon, etc,. There so many combinations!

By the way, this is a very family recipe that you can also make with your children :-) 

Font: Pinterest

Homemade energy bars :: Barritas energéticas caseras

Swedish translation here
 

As you have probably noticed I haven't been posting recipes weekly. The reason why isn't that I haven't been cooking or that I have been on vacations (it happened too, of course), it is that I have been too lazy lately. But I am trying to be back to embrace the cooking-shooting-pics routine to be able to post every sunday.
This week I am bringing you a super healthy energy bars that you can quickly make and that they are perfect to have as a morning snack.

Ingredients

• 30 gr. of Almonds 
• 80 gr. of Raisins
• 100 gr. of Dates

Elaboration
On of the best ways to measure the ingredients for your bars is using a cup as a measuring tool (as you can see in the pictures). Once you have got all the ingredients ready we will start to fill in the breaker.
Add the dates and the raisins.

Then, add the almonds (I added here a little bit of nuts too!). Now, breake them all for 1-2 minutes. Place the dough on a plastic wrap.

The point here is to build up easily edible bars that you can eat in one bite. So, cover the dough with the plastic wrap remaining and press with your hand until you get a compact dough.

I draw a 1,5 cm wide square and finally shaped a big bar to cut it into small ones afterwards.
If it is being a hot summer where you live (like in Barcelona!) put the large bar in the fridge for 20 minutes so it will be easier to cut.

Now there is no excuse to have an energetic healthy snack between meals!


Font: Original recipe here

Fantasy in your plate :: Fantasía en tu plato

Do you know the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words"? So it works also for meals. 

How many times we have been in a restaurant and said " oh, I want the same that this person is having". And you didn't even know what it was! It is because we eat through our eyes first and then through our memory: what we like and what we don't.

Bear in mind that if these situations repeat with of all of us, adult people, imagine with kids! They don't know what lettuce is and its benefits. They just like or dislike it. However, if you draw a palm tree with lettuce, wouldn't they like it no matter what is made of?

It is exactly what Samantha Lee does. She is a food artist. She started making food art when she was pregnant with her second daughter and wanted to encourage her elder daughter to eat independently.
She brings any fantasy world to the plate not matter what ingredients or food she uses.

I promise that if I ever have the time and the strength, I will prepare my future kids meals as Samantha Lee does.

 

 Pictures by Samantha Lee

Swedish version here

Tell me, wouldn't you love to be honored by these dishes?

Font: Lee Samantha

Quick butter cookies :: Galletas de mantequilla rápidas

I have tried quite a few recipes to make good nice butter cookies and I have always ended up messing around the kitchen for hours and, I’m sorry, I can’t allow it.

Here I’m sharing with you the BEST and QUICKEST recipe I have ever tried (for now). I got it from the book Chocolate (that you can find in Natura stores in Spain). I once woke up craving for something sweet and special for breakfast and I baked them in less than 40 minutes!

Tell me, don’t you feel like baking them right away? I think it is the perfect recipe for the coming Christmas meals to make with the kids! 

Ingredients (4 ppl)

• 200 gr of butter 
• 350 gr of flour
• 2 spoons of cacao powder
• 140 gr of sugar

Elaboration

First of all, sift the flour and cacao in a large bowl (I always tend to use crystal instead of plastic one before I am a bit paranoid and I believe plastic might leave some bad specks haha). 

Then, add the butter and knead all the ingredients with your hands until you get a consistency of breadcrumbs.

On a floured surface, stretch the dough into 1 cm sheet. 

Now it is the time to let your creativity fly away! As I want to make everything quick and easy, I make nice cookies with my super original winter cutter-like instruments! (I say “original” because they are from Ikea and come into a pre-made set, but they are cute anyway ;).
If you don’t want to spend money on it, choose a small cup, put it upside down on the dough, press and you will get a circular plain cookie.

Place the cookies in the baking tray. 

Bake the cookies in the oven for 30 minutes (previously heated at 180oC,). Remember it will depend on the oven you have to it is always good to have a look (and smell!) after the first 15-20 minutes to check how it is going on.

Take them out from the oven and display them in oven rack tray and sprinkle the sugar all over the cookies.

I made them with cacao but you can leave them without it and, then, soak them into black or white chocolate, add some jam, anything you just can imagine!

One more thing: eat them!! But be careful, they are too easy to bake them again soon ;)

Font: Chocolate

Spooky breakfast :: Desayuno fantasmagórico

Swedish version

In Spain we (or I should say I) don't celebrate Halloween in the American way. However, I can't resist myself to any Halloween recipe I find online. 

In fact, when I think about Halloween I quickly link this party to kids and I can see myself organizing parties for a freak crazy bunch of 7 years old children dressing up as Frankenstein, Casper or any other characters.
Aaaand, I would start the day with a very spooky healthy breakfast.

Pay attention because your kids are going to freak out!

Ingredients (4 units)

• 4 slices of sandwich bread
• 1 ripe tomato
• Olive oil
• 3 slices of cheese
• 4 pitted black olives

Elaboration
Grab the slices of bread and toast them. Cut the tomato in half and scrub it all over the surface of the bread. 

This is the catalan way of "pà amb tomàquet" (bread with tomato). Add a little oil on and the first step is done. 

Now, let's build the ghosts (now I'm remembering Casper haha!). Take one slice of cheese and cut into half centimeter strips. You can cut around 10 strips for each slice of bread. 

Place them strategically so that they look like a bandage. 

But a ghost with no eyes to look at you isn't a proper ghost boooo! Take 1 olive and cut them in half. Give each ghost his eyes!
Happy spooky Halloween to everybody!


Font: Cocina ahorro

Chocolate and coconut bites :: Mordiscos de cocholate y coco

There are many studies about chocolate and the way they make you feel better. But as I'm economist and I don't understand a word about science (honestly, I don't care either) I just eat chocolate and feel wonderful. Actually we neeeeed to eat some chocolate after dinner to feel the meal has completed.
The other day I was reading a book about chocolate that my boyfriend gave me for my birthday last year (and he has been begging me over and over to cook something from it) and I found a very simple recipe to make our night chocolate bites much tasty ;)

Ingredients (10-14 units)

• 200 gr dark chocolate
• 125 gr almonds
• 50 gr shredded coconut

Elaboration
 
Grab a bowl and break the chocolate into pieces. They don't need to be small at all, I just followed the squares the chocolate bars are divided into. Then, choose a pot where the bowl might fit. Fill it in with water. Be careful because you will have to introduce the bowl in the pot so if you add too much water it might pour. Let the water boil and the chocolate melt.

As you can see, I used a bowl with no handle which means that taking it off from the boiling water was a nightmare: I was burning my hands, I decided to use a clothe but didn't work it because it got wet so boiling again and I even tried with cooking calipers...I ended up burning my hand but, oh well.

Meanwhile, take the almonds (I used unpeeled ones) and make small pieces of it. I did with my hands but you can quickly smash it with a mortar or something similar. Cover the almonds with the melted chocolate.

Add the coconut and mix it all together. The result is a kind of liquid mixture because the chocolate is still warm so cover the container and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

After that time, you will see the chocolate mixture is more consistent so you can work with it. To make the chocolate bites you just need 1 spoon. Cover a tray or another container with greaseproof paper. 
Take 1 spoon of the mixture and place it in the tray. Do the same until you have finished with all the chocolate.

Put the bites in the freezer for 1 hour minimum until you decide you eat it. 

The final touch is adding some more coconut on top of the chocolate bites as a decoration and you've got it!! Isn't it easy Spanish Kitchenetters?

Newborn Cake :: Pastel de recién nacido

This is a very special recipe, with very valued ingredients (I didn't know diapers were that expensive!) and for a very special receiver (my first and only nephew :)

Ingredients

• 72 diapers 
• 72 elastics
• 3 cardstocks of different colors
• 1 cardboard
• 2 straws
• glue
• 1 ribbon
• 1 cellophane
• 1 scissors

Elaboration 
First of all you have to choose how big you want to make your cake. So, let's start by picking the cardboard and make the base of the cake that means drawing a circumference. Mine had a 20 cm radius. Then draw the first layer of the cake which should have 5 cm less than the base (mine, then, had a 15 cm radius). And, after that, make the same for the second and last layer of the cake which had a radius of 10 cm. Note: I know it's hard to deal with cm and circumferences so, choose 3 different sizes of plates and help you by using them as a template to draw the 3 circumferences.
Cut the 3 circumferences and it's shown in the pictures.
Once you have the skeleton for your cake, take the cardstocks and draw 3 different circumferences the same size each for the 3 previous carton ones you cut.

Now you have 3 different color circumferences. Each colored one matches with 1 of the 3 different sizes of carton circumferences, right? So now grab the glue and paste the cardstocks of each color to its carton. Note: buy a good glue, not like mine that made the paper wet and, in the end, there were some waves showing up (as you see in the pictures).
With the rest of the cardstocks draw 3 strips of waves (8 cms wide each preferably)

Take each line of waves and match it with the circumference of the same color. Put glue around the perimeter of each strip and paste it with its base up to getting the 3 completed layers of your cake: base, first floor and second top floor. Make a hole in the center of each base with the tip of the scissor.
Now it's time for the filling! It's very simple: grab one diaper and roll it. Take one elastic to hold the rolled diaper. Put the elastic at one end. Make the same for the rest of the diapers considering you should fill 3 different layers

With all the diapers rolled, fill in the layers of the cake (notice that the waves hide the end of the diaper that has got the elastic) and pile them one above the other. Get 1 straw and pass it through the center of the 3 holes to connect the layers and avoid falling down. Now you could either finish here or make your personal touch (I did the last thing ;)
I got some different colored markers and decorated the cake (I decided to put the name of my nephew and his birth day)

We are almost done! Take the cellophane and wrap the cake and tie the paper with the ribbon making a nice bow tie.

I know you cannot eat this cake but I'm sure you are also going to like it!

Time for you Spanish Kitchenetters!

** I had some help thank to Artesanies (Spanish) / BabyStepShower (English)

1-2-3 Basic cake :: 1-2-3 Bizcocho básico

This is one of my master recipes. It always works well and never disappoints the diners. The best: IT'S MADLY SIMPLE. The key is having one yogurt and you can almost make it.


Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 baking powder bag (16 gr)
• 125 gr yogurt
  (Now, you will use the empty yogurt container as a meter)
• 3 measures of yogurt container of flour
• 2 measures of yogurt container of sugar
• 1 measure of yogurt container of olive oil (or sunflower oil but I can tell you olive oil is better)
• 1 lemon zest

Elaboration

Not easy but THE EASYEST. Let's start. 
First, choose a large bowl to work comfortably. Put the 3 eggs in it and beat them. Then add the baking powder and stir everything all together (it is very important adding the ingredients and then stirring them for 1-2 minutes).
Get the yogurt and empty it in the bowl. Stir it.
Pick up the empty yogurt container and fill it with flour until it is full. Empty it in the bowl. Do the same 2 times more up to you have added 3 measures. Try to stir it but you will feel that it's quite hard so from now on just add the ingredients left up to you are done.
So, take once again the empty yogurt container and fill it with sugar. Empty the sugar in the bowl. Do the same 1 more time.
Now the olive oil: take the empty yogurt container and fill it with olive oil until it's full. Poor it in the bowl and now start stirring and mixing the ingredients.It will take you a little bit because in the beginning it is quite compact, but be patience and after a while it will smooth.
Wash the lemon and grate some peel with a grater up to the white part and stir everything once again.
At this time, switch on the oven at 150oC up and down.
Choose a tin to bake it. I like crystal ones because I can see at any moment how the baking goes. Mine is 23 cm and rectangular.
The only problem when baking it's that the cake might get stuck to the walls of the tin. To avoid it spread butter through the entire tin and, after that, spread also some flour. 
Now you are ready to poor the mixture in the tin and put it in the oven for 1 hour approximately. As I always say: it depends on the oven power. 

To know if it’s done choose a chopstick and puncture the cake. If when you pull the chopstick it is wet then you have to leave it for some more time.
After an hour, take the cake out from the oven and leave it in a mat until you can touch the tin without burning your hands. Then, take out the cake before is cold. Note: do not let it cold, otherwise, the cake will be stuck to the tin and you can even break it. If you feel you can't take it down, put some hot water in the sink, carefully sink the tin and leave it for a few minutes. Then try to take the cake off again.

And voilá! it's toooooo long to explain it (because I want to give you all the details) but it's terribly simple. The best? this cake is the base for any other cakes so you can fill it with some jam, chocolate anything!

You don't need to be a masterchef to make it spanish kitchenetters!