Picadillo Andaluz

El picadillo Andaluz has its origins in Seville, Spain. Unlike other picadillos that have ground beef, this one is made of vegetables soaked in a vinaigrette of Sherry vinegar and good Andalusian olive oil. My aunt, Lolita, always claimed that it should be eaten with a spoon, as she was told by people from Andalusia. It should be served cold as to become a very refreshing salad or to accompany meat or fish. 

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers chopped
3 tomatoes chopped
1 onion finely sliced or finely chopped
1 green pepper
2 parts olive oil
1 part Sherry vinegar
salt to your liking 

An hour before serving, finely chop the cucumber, tomatoes, onion and green pepper, then mix them in a bowl. Add the olive oil, sherry vinegar, and salt. Keep it in the refrigerator for an hour. However if the ingredients have been kept in the refrigerator and are cold it can be made just before serving.

Serve in individual bowls. Everybody will like this dish. It is perfect for a summer lunch or dinner.

Tomato and Cheese Brochette with Pedro Ximenez Vinegar (Brocheta de tomato y queso con reducción de vinagre de Pedro Ximenez)

Pedro Ximenez is a sweet, thick Spanish wine great for pairing with desserts. Today I made brochettes of cheese curds, tomatoes and herb crostini with a reduced Pedro Ximenez vinegar.

Ingredients:


micro greens
grape tomatoes
Wisconsin cheese curds or tofu
herb crostini bread
Pedro Ximenez vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt


Make the crostini ahead of time as follows: cut the bread in squares, toast it, rub with garlic and the herbs of your choice, and drizzle it with olive oil. Lay them in a pepper towel. 


In the meantime combine a cup of Pedro Ximenez vinegar and  1 tablespoon sugar and let it reduce. Remove from the heat and let it rest in the refrigerator.


Assemble the brochettes with tomato, cheese, crostini, cheese, and tomato. Lay them on a plate, add the micro greens, drizzle with some of the reduced vinegar, olive oil and salt. This is nice appetizer, tapa or little salad on a stick.

Three Sauces (Tres Salsas)

Jars waiting for their sauce filling

Basic Tomato Sauce (Salsa de Tomate Base)


This is a very simple tomato sauce. If you get tomatoes by the bushel at the farmers market, you can make a big pot and preserve or freeze it.


The Basque cooking is simple and very tasteful. As a matter of fact, many of the great cooks in Spain are from the Basque Country. We don't cook with spices, so if you think that the sauce lacks a punch of spice, go ahead and add your favorite spices: basil, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, Rosemary.


1 White Onion finely chopped
2 Garlic Cloves finely chopped
1 leek (if big)
1/2 green pepper
4 Ripe Tomatoes
3-4 tablespoons Chicken Stock
Salt
Pepper
Extra Olive Oil


Spices? Add your favorites, of course; hot? add your favorite hot pepper, as hot as you can bare.

Tomato Sauce

Chop very fine the onion, garlic, leek and green pepper. Add to a pan with two spoons of olive oil. When the onion is translucent add the tomatoes and salt and let it simmer until it gets the consistency you like. Then put it in a blender or a hand blender, and purée everything. 

*** Always taste your food, simmer your sauce so the ingredients come together, and leave it to rest.


Mexican Sauce (Salsa Mexicana)


This is a very different Mexican Salsa than the one we are used to eating and seeing. I do it this way to introduce one more ingredient, kernels of corn, and to give it a crunchy bite. It is fun to scoop out of a plate and taste  every ingredient with the citrus flavour of the lime.


3 Ripe Tomatoes
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Green Pepper
1/2 Red Pepper
1 Jalapeño (if you like it really hot you can add more, many more!!!!)
1 Ear of Corn
3 Limes (juice)
2 table spoons of Olive Oil
Salt
A handful of cilantro

Mexican Salsa

Chop very fine the tomatoes, onion, peppers, and jalapeño and put them in a bowl. In the meantime put a pan of water to boil and add the ear of corn when is done remove the kernels and add to the rest of the ingredients. Add the olive oil, the lime juice, the salt, and top it off with cilantro.

Spanish Sauce (Salsa Española)

This is what my mom calls Spanish sauce. It goes really well with fish, like monkfish, or with shrimp. It is smooth and velvety. You can also use it with meats and poultry.


Ingredients:
1 Small Onion
1/2 Green Pepper
3-4 Cloves of Garlic
5-6 Large Carrots 
1 Small Can Tomato Sauce
2 Teaspoons Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
2 Teaspoons Sugar 
1/4 Cup White Wine
1 Cup Chicken Broth 
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Salsa Española, a carrot based salsa

Sautée onion and green pepper in olive oil. Add chopped garlic and sliced carrots, continue to cook. When the vegetables are soft, add salt, pepper, and sugar, stir well. Then add tomato sauce, white wine, and chicken broth. Cook for several minutes, taste for flavor, and then purée in a blender.

From left to right: Tomato Sauce, Mexican salsa, Spanish Salsa

Egg-Filled Tomatoes (Tomates Rellenos de Huevo)

There are some products that are very versatile like tomatoes, potatoes, rice...and eggs. This is a fun and a different way to combine eggs with tomatoes. We can serve them for breakfast, lunch or supper.


Ingredients:


Ripe tomatoes
Eggs
Olive oil
Salt


Potatoes
Arugula or any type of greens.
Green Onion.

Who said that eggs can't be elegant and delicious?

Take ripe tomatoes, cut the tops off and then empty the seeds and pulp out with a grapefruit spoon and put them on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil on the insides. Crack the eggs and fill the tomatoes one at a time.


Preheat the oven at 300º F. Put the baking sheet in with the tomatoes on it for about 15 minutes. In the meantime cut thin potato slices, cut them in thin strips to make straw potatoes. Deep fry them, when brown put them on paper to take all the extra oil off and set aside.


When the egg-filled tomatoes are done put them on individual plates, add the straw potatoes, and add an arugula salad with a vinaigrette and a green onion. (For any vegetable to be wrinkled, have it in ice water for 15 to 20 minutes, it will wrinkle more the longer you have it in the ice.)


*** If you just make the tomatoes you can fill them with your favorite scramble eggs or a cream cheese filling. (We will add these recipes soon!!!!)

Garlic Bread with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

A great dish for lunch, especially at this time of the year when tomatoes are plentiful and cheap at farmers' markets, and, if you live in Wisconsin, there is no shortage of any kind of cheese. If you are not happy with just garlic bread, try this dish.

Ingredients:

Slice(s) of bread

Garlic gloves

Salt

Extra olive oil

Slices of tomatoes

Mozzarella Cheese

Basil

Balsamic Glaze Vinegar. I buy my glaze from Target.(If you don't find balsamic glaze, make a reduction with a good balsamic. Recipe below.)

With and without balsamic glaze 

Toast the bread before hand, rub the garlic on the toast, sprinkle salt over the bread, add the sliced tomatoes, the mozzarella and then put it in the broiler until the cheese is melted, be careful not to burn the bread. When the cheese is melted take it from the broiler and drizzle balsamic glaze vinegar and sprinkle with basil.

To make a balsamic glaze reduction you are going to need:

4Tablespoons Balsamic Vinager

4 Tablespoons Sugar

2 Tablespoons Water

In a pan put the sugar on low until it becomes golden brown, add water until it starts boiling, then add the balsamic vinegar.

The balsamic vinegar compensates the acidity of the tomato

If you live in the Eau Claire area, you can make this dish year round. Just Local Food  Cooperative sells tomatoes from Spencer that are excellent for being a greenhouse tomato.

justlocalfood.blogspot.com/

This is a wonderful dish for vegetarians and non-vegetarians as well. It's a dish full of great and healthy ingredients. Garlic for your blood circulation, olive oil to increase your good cholesterol in the omega family, tomatoes for its antioxidant...and cheese for its content of calcium.

Pa amb Tomaquet (Bread with Rubbed Tomato)

Who hasn't bought a great bread and two days later it's soggy or it's hard as a rock? "Pan amb Tomaquet" is considered Catalonia's Natonal dish, and is one tasty solution to that old bread, as a matter of fact, that is always the solution to my problem and nothing goes to waste.

Ingredients:

Rustic Bread or old bread (toasted)

Ripe Tomatoes
Salt
Extra Virgin olive oil
Cold cuts of your choice. I highly recomend “fuet” or “Manchego Cheese” from

www.laespañolameats.com

Dry Salami will work as well.

Cut a ripe tomato sideways and rub it on the bread or rustic toast using its pulp. Add salt and drizzle extra virgin olive oil. They say the tradition started in order to moisten the dry bread from the day before. It is accompanied with cold cuts “jamón serrano,” “jamón ibérico” (looks like prociutto, just looks, different taste though), “fuet”, cheese, omelets and “longanizas."

Gazpacho

Gazpacho is a very refreshing cold soup for those hot and lazy summer days. It is very popular all over Spain, even though it is an original dish from Andalucia, in Southern Spain.  It is a very simple and quick dish to make.


Ingredients:


1 or 2 cloves of garlic
2 spoons of vinegar (more or less)
2 spoons of olive oil
1 slice of bread soaked in water
1 cucumber
1/2 green pepper
5 to 7 peeled tomatoes and cut in quarters ***
salt (to your liking)


We put everything in a blender and voila....

I learned this recipe from my cousin Mari Carmen

*** First put water on the stove until it boils. While you're waiting, make an "x" with a knife on each tomato. When the water starts boiling, add the tomatoes for 30 seconds. Take them out of the water and peel them.

Tomatoes

You say tomatoes... I say tomatos.

The world's smallest tomatoes.

The tomato is a fruit of  South America  and it was spread to the Philippines and the Mediterranean by the Spaniards.  I wonder what the Italians ate before they brought the tomatoes to Europe, umm?

“Solanun Lycopersicum”

(botanical name)

The tomato is rich in lycopene, an antioxidant, and prevents certain cancers.