Pica Pica for La Furia Roja

Tonight, I decided to treat Mr. P to some pica pica. Good thing because he came home from work, hungrier than normal. The theme for tonight's pica pica was Spanish. This is in taking my dear brother J's suggestion to prepare and put up a Spanish food entry in anticipation of the huge game that is upon us. I won't share my thoughts on that, allow the game kicking off in about 5 hours to do the talking. Let's just say this house is all red and yellow, leave out the black please!


For now I'll just tell you about my Gambas and Albondigas.


For my Gambas I don't like using tomato sauce at all. I like to do it in what I think is the classic way of just using the following ingredients:
- olive oil
- 400g of fresh prawns
- about 6 cloves of garlic
- about 3T paprika de pimenton
- 1T chili flakes
- salt
- pepper
- a splash of lemon


Peel and clean the prawns. Squeeze lemon over them and season with salt and pepper. Sliver garlic like you are going to make garlic chips.


In a hot cast iron pan, cover the bottom with olive oil. When oil is heated through, put in the garlic and lightly season with salt and pepper. This is a good time to add in the paprika, I like to use a lot since this is the main source of flavor. When the garlic is starting to show a cast of golden colour, throw in the prawns and toss in the flavourful orange oil. Make sure each prawn is coated in the oil. You may season again as needed. Finish with a little more paprika if you wish, and a dash of chili flakes depending on your tolerance for spiciness. Serve with a wedge of lemon in case, but I like eating it straight up. Toasty bread is good too for soaking up the garlicky-paprika oil in the end!

Now for the Albondigas, I honestly just had left over beef mince from my tortang talong preparation so this was an impromptu addition to the menu. Great because Mr. P was happy with the meatballs he'd been clamoring for. 

Ingredients:

Meatballs

- 250g ground beef/beef mince

- olive oil

- 1T garlic

- half an onion

- 1 tomato

- 1T parsley

- 1T bread crumbs

- 3T parmesan cheese

- 1 egg

Spicy Tomato Sauce

- olive oil 

- 1Tgarlic

- half an onion

- 1 stalk celery

- half a carrot

- 1C canned diced tomatoes

- 1T paprika

- 1t chili flakes

- 1T red wine vinegar

- soy sauce (just a dash)

For the meatballs, finely mince all the vegetables. Cook the garlic and onion until transparent and allow to cool slightly. Combine all ingredients and shape into balls. In a pan, add just a little olive oil and cook the meatballs over medium heat until brown on all sides and cooked through. Set aside.

For the sauce, mince and saute the garlic, onion, celery and carrots until tender in a small sauce pot with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, paprika and chili flakes. Pour in the canned tomatoes, red wine vinegar and soy sauce. Allow this to simmer until the sauce thickens. Taste the sauce to ensure that all ingredients are incorporated well, season as needed with salt and pepper. When the sauce is to your liking, pour it into the pan where you cooked the meatballs and simmer for a minute or two. This will allow you to pick up the bits on the pan and let the meat juices and tomato sauce combine. Serve on its own or with toasty bread to sop up the sauce.

If you make a bigger batch and have leftovers, you can serve it over noodles the next day for a classic spaghetti and meatballs treat.


In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these little Spanish delights. AND I hope our little pica pica fest is a prelude to a celebration for a Furia Roja win tonight (or tomorrow morning/afternoon depending on where in the world you may be reading this from). Vamos Espana!

Somewhat Osso Bucco

Had some friends coming over for dinner one time and this is what I served them.
You may want to try it sometime if and when Mr.P needs to load up on the protein!

The recipe is a bit rough but I know you'll get it!!!

Somewhat Osso Bucco

15 pieces beef short ribs about the size of your flip video
Marinate in garlic and light soy sauce.

Brown the meat in olive oil on all sides, once brown remove.

To the oil in the pot...
Add 1 medium onion chopped
3 roma tomatoes chopped
about 8 cloves of garlic (3 of which went to the marinade)
put the meat back
1 cup white wine
add 1 can tomato paste
2 cups water / or stock
bay leaf
salt
pepper

Simmer on low - medium for about 1 hour
add 1 cup white wine again
about 1 tbsp. oregano
2 cups chopped carrots

Simmer again for another hour.

Serve over lemon garlic olive oil orzo (for trina and emilio), or rice (for paolo and lucca), and a side of lemony garlic pesto


Hope you like it!

Red Wine Braised Beef and Couscous

I told you last night that I made this Beef Brisket Braised in Red Wine, right? Well, we had it tonight and it was so good. I made couscous to go with it and it was perfect. Because of Mr. P's crazy work schedule, Friday is his crash day. So, dinner has to be ready real quick so we can actually sit down together and enjoy it. Yay for me that I had the beef ready and, couscous is so quick and easy too. Here's how I did both dishes:


Beef Brisket Braised in Red Wine
I had about 750g of beef brisket and used:
-4 shallots, quartered
-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
-2-3 cups of red wine
-3 sprigs of thyme (modification from original recipe)
-salt and pepper
-2 tbsp olive oil

Season beef with s&p and brown on all sides with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Remove beef from pot and drain fat. Add the other tbsp of olive oil to the pot and semi-caramelize shallots on med-low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 3 minutes. Pour red wine into pot and let it reduce to about 3/4 of the original quantity. Add beef back into the pot and pour just enough water to cover the beef. I had some leftover water that I used to rehydrate shitake mushrooms, so I used this to give the sauce more body. Bring pot to a boil and then cover. Move pot into a 300 degree oven and let beef soften for about 2 hours. The flavors develop as it keeps so this can be done days ahead. Serve hot with couscous.

Couscous with Herbs, Roasted Eggplant. Garbanzos and Toasted Almonds
I made this dish mainly to use up leftover garbanzos and roasted eggplant slices that I had in the fridge. Usually, package directions of couscous tell you to "cook" the grains in salted water, but I always use broth. I made some vegetable broth last night out of peels and stems from veggies that would have otherwise gone to the bin.
Gather any herbs you may have. I used some thyme, basil and parsley.
Chifonade the basil and just chop up the other herbs. Throw them in your serving bowl. Meanwhile, toast some almonds in the oven for about 5 minutes, until brown. Once toasted, chop them up in a food processor and add to the herb mixture.
For the eggplant, I sliced them in rounds and brushed them with olive oil before grilling them in the oven for about 45 minutes. Once grilled, dice about 4 large rounds and throw into the serving bowl. Add your garbanzos to the same bowl and 1 cup of couscous.
Once broth comes to a boil, pour the hot liquid into the bowl and allow couscous to soak it up. After about 2 minutes, fluff with a fork to mix everything together.
It was really good and healthy too!