COOKING: Churros

Sunday morning, churros y chocolate for breakfast... welcome to real Spain!

If you've never had a churro before, basically you are looking at a long, slim, slightly crunchy donut, traditionally served with a sprinkling of sugar and dipped into a cup of steaming hot chocolate. 

Usually available early in the morning at local cafes, they can also be taken away wrapped in a paper cone and enjoyed at home. 


But churros are really easy to make - and you'll find they disappear pretty darn quick off the plate! Here's how to prepare your own. This recipe serves about 4-5 people.


Ingredients:

500 g white flour
500 ml water
3 tsp of baking powder (or 1 x 16g sachet of Royal Baking Powder)
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil
For frying: 1 litre vegetable oil
For serving: a few pinches of caster sugar

Materials:

Two medium sauce pans
Cake icing plunger or bag, with a large nozzle
Spatula
Kitchen paper or tissue


Instructions:

1. Sieve the flour and mix it with the baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2. Bring the water to the boil in a medium sauce pan. Then remove from heat, add 3 tbsp olive oil and tip in the whole of the flour mix. Start stirring with a wooden spoon and don't stop, making sure the ingredients are blending together smoothly.

3. Keep stirring the mixture until it begins to come away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Keep mixing until the dough feels even, and quite hard. Leave to cool for a short while.

4. Pour 1 litre of vegetable oil into a sauce pan and put it onto the hob to heat it up - or switch on your deep fat fryer. The oil should be somewhere between medium and maximum heat - you can always turn it up if needed.

5. Prepare a clean, dry surface to pipe your churros onto. Put the slightly cooled dough into an piping sleeve or plunger. You will find the dough very hard, so you may need some strength to push it through. If you are using a sleeve instead of a metal plunger, it's easiest to twist up the sleeve's open end really tight, then lay it on the surface you are piping onto and press down on the bag with your fist.  

You can roll the dough up into cigar shapes between your palms, but the end result will be a much harder churro. For a proper, crunchy, chewy texture, piping is recommended because it gives the churros a rugged outside that allows the oil to seep in when they cook.

6. Aim to pipe the churros into strings of about 7-10cm long. Once they are done, pop two or three in the oil to test the frying temperature. They should be done in about 1-2 minutes, be golden in colour and be completely done on the inside when you take them out. Adjust your oil temperature if needed and fry the rest in batches. Lay them out on some kitchen roll or tissue to absorb some of the cooking oil before serving.

And there we are. Your pile of yummy breakfast churros is ready to be devoured. Sprinkle with caster sugar to taste, serve with hot chocolate - and don't forget to dip!

COOKING: Roast Chicken

Mmmm… there's nothing tastier than an oven roasted chicken served with chunky vegetables and potatoes.

I like oven cooking because it allows me to potter about doing other stuff while the food pretty much takes care of itself.

Here's a quick way to give your chicken a juicy Mediterranean flavour.

This dish normally serves four people, but can stretch to six - just add extra potatoes and vegetables.

Ingredients:

A whole chicken, cleaned

One lemon

Rosemary

Basil/Tarragon - or both

Sea salt

A few glugs of olive oil

Four large potatoes

Two carrots - two per head

One red pepper

One large onion

One head of garlic

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 210 ºC.

2. Wash the chicken inside and out and put it into a roasting tray. 

2. Cut the lemon in half. Remove all the garlic garlic cloves. Don't peel them, just place them on a chopping board with the butt of a knife resting on them one at a time, giving each a good whack with the your fist on the knife handle. This will crack the cloves, allowing the juice and the flavour to escape while cooking. 

3. Stuff your chicken with the lemon halves, about 5-6 garlic cloves, and the herbs. Save a twig or two of rosemary for the vegetables. Hold the chicken so the legs are pointing up, then pour in two glugs of olive oil inside, so it drizzles down into the stuffing. Place it back in the middle of the roasting tray. Rub the chicken skin with a bit of olive oil and sea salt.

4. Put the chicken in the oven, middle shelf. Set your timer on 35 minutes. 

5. Peel the carrots and chop them roughly, size is up to you (if they are very small you can leave them whole). Wash the potatoes well. Chop them up into bite size chunks, skin on. Chop the red pepper and onion roughly the same. Remove the rest of the garlic cloves and crush them as before.

6. Put the potatoes, vegetables and garlic onto a roasting tray and pour over a few glugs of olive oil. Sprinkle with half a handful of rosemary leaves and some sea salt, mix.

7. When the times goes, lower the chicken down to a bottom shelf and put the vegetable tray in on top, but not touching the top of the oven. Use this time to baste the chicken. (If the two trays do not fit into your oven like this, alternatively you can cover the chicken with tin foil and move it up, and place the veg tray on the bottom. When removing them later, pop the vegetables up for 5-10 minutes to give them "crunch".) 

8. Set the timer for 45 minutes. You may want to baste the chicken once more during this time. 

9. When the timer goes, check if the chicken is done by pushing in a sharp knife. If clear liquid flows out, it's ready. If not, leave in for another 10-15 minutes and repeat the knife test.

Serve and enjoy!

GUEST RECIPE: Jose's Tortilla de Patatas

The tortilla de patatas or tortilla española - Spanish potato omelet - is probably about the most nourishing and filling food I know. 

Made with yummy cooked potato, this weighty, juicy omelette is good to eat hot, cold, on its own, in a sandwich, on a cocktail stick dipped in mayonnaise or ketchup, or cut into cubes and thrown into a salad.

It is surprisingly tricky to get right though. Here, my first blog guest Jose, the tortilla ninja, shares how to make a tortilla perfecta. 



Ingredients 

3 Large potatoes
1 Large onion
4 Eggs (medium size)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt 

Utensils

Non-stick frying pan (approx. 25 cm diameter)
Sieve
Knife and chopping board
A large plate that will cover the frying pan


Instructions

1. Peel and chop the potatoes and the onion, mix in a bowl with two pinches of salt. 

2. Fry the potato and onion in 2-3cm olive oil, medium heat, stirring constantly until they are soft and have sunken into the oil. Never let them fry crispy.




3. Once cooked, drain the oil from the potato and onion mix using a sieve. (Make sure you collect the oil in a bowl and dispose of it safely - never pour cooking oil down the sink.)

4. Whisk the eggs. Put the cooked potato and onion into the eggs, mix well. 

5. Wash and dry your pan, place it on medium heat, pour in a about a table spoon of olive oil.

6. Pour in the tortilla mix and cook for 2-4 minutes, or until the bottom half is cooked. The idea is for the tortilla to be moist (not over cooked and dry), yet the bottom needs to be sufficiently solid to hold the tortilla together when it's flipped. 

7. Once tortilla has cooked on one side, flip it over. For this, take a large plate. Put it over the top of the pan. Holding the plate firmly in place with one hand, tip the pan upside down so the tortilla ends up on the plate. Slide the tortilla back into the pan, soggy side down. (This can be difficult. If it goes wrong, be prepared to eat your tortilla scrambled, it'll be just as tasty.) Cook for a further 2-4 minutes, or until firm. Again, don't be tempted to over cook.

And there we are. Tip onto a plate and tuck in. ¡Buen provecho!

* * *

Guest Profile: José

Rock musician by night, hard working family man by day and the world's best dad 24/7 - that's my husband José.

Although his roots are in Malaga, José spent his childhood in Cadiz. He loves to reminisce about the long drives from Cadiz to Malaga to see family during the holidays, with mum, dad, his two brothers, baby sister and grandma all stuffed into in a Renault 5. And one occasion, a live turkey in the footwell. (The feathered passenger ended up on the Christmas table.) 

When not working or spending time with Felix and me, Jose can be found in his "cave" playing guitar, preparing for a gig. 



For this month's guest post, Jose answered a few questions for our readers:

Q: If you had to cook for Gwyneth Paltrow, what would you make her?
José: Tortilla, of course! And rabo de toro.

Q: When would you say it's OK to lie?
José: It's a very deep question. I'd need to think about it.

Q: If you were a character from ‘Lost,’ which one would you be?
José: Said.

Q: What are you wearing right now?
José: Pyjamas.

Q: If you could have any super power, what would it be?
José: Time travel. 

You can find out more about Jose and his music on shamrockspain.yolasite.com.