Glass flatbread ( Coca de vidre )

I know! It is a long time I don´t write anything. But this is because I had to follow an special diet as I am pregnant, and sugar was not in the list!. This is an exception as I wanted to celebrate a very special day cause my niece Bruna is now one week old. She is sooo cute.

The dessert today is coca de vidre (or coques de vidre, in plural), that is a typical catalan thing. Vidre in catalan means glass, because it is very thin and easy to break, and also because when you pour the anisette into the flatbread right after the oven, this mix with anisette and sugar crystalizes. Of course you can make small rounded pieces and you will have a cookie instead, but normally it is like a bigger portion. You can find them in Catalonia, but more likely around Barcelona area (it was created in Sabadell...my city!).

The clue here is using the flour you will use for making a pizza (or just buy a thin fresh pizza base) and also the other important thing here is the anisette. I don´t know if you can find this in some other countries. All the people here use one that is called Anís del Mono (anisette from the monkey, yes quite weird name...it was created some time ago, when Darwin was claiming about the theory of evolution) (you can find it in any supermarket). You have to pour the anisette just right after the oven. Another key factor is trying to make the coca as thin as you can. I guess some of you will have a hard time finding anisette .....sorry!

A nice woman from California (Loran) wrote me some weeks ago after visiting Barcelona and she found it so delicious that asked me for the recipe. It also can be called Coca de Caramel, but it is not the official name. 

I am going to post the easy recipe today for it, that I got it from another blog (La cuina de casa), that it is so easy. 

What you need:

a fresh pizza base

oil

pine nuts (or laminated almonds)

sugar

anisette

Let´s start

1.Just roll out the dough (Fresh pizza base) using a rolling pin. Shape it the way you like it. But make it a very thin layer.
2. Put oil on top (paint the coca)
3. Put the pine nuts and sugar (be generous!)
4. Introduce it into the oven for 10-15 minutes 180-220ºC (around 400F)
5. Pour the anisette just right after you remove it from the oven. It will react and it is going to crystalize.

That is ALL!!

There are also some videos where you can get the difficult recipe, where you prepare the pizza base instead of buying it. Have a look at these videos

http://youtu.be/JIwMPNHfEoA (they use almonds instead of pine nuts, but it is not very common but it taste good anyway..)
(oli is oil, farina is flour, sucre is sugar, ametlles is almonds, anís is anisette, sal is salt, aigua tebia is warm water, 2 cullerades means 2 tablespoons) (deixar reposar la massa 15 minuts, is let the dough stand for 15 minutes).

http://youtu.be/CEWRwr0qX90 (they don´t put pine nuts...)

Enjoy/ Bon Profit

Coconut Cake (Pastís de Coco) & fondant

Hi everybody!. I´ve seen that I have no recipe this month, so even cakes are not the best thing to feel healthy, there is always time for baking one. This time is a coconut cake, with fondant (this is an option). You can have a look at two possible outputs, because one of them is from some time ago and I did not post it. Fondant is an option for a lot of different cakes. Have a look at this video from Robin Hassett, it is very interesting and you will have an idea how to work with these things...(colorants, sugar paste..)

This is a soft cake that last for several days as it is wet inside.

What you need for 4 people

2 eggs

7 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp sifted flour

10 gr baking powder

100 gr coconut

400 ml coconut milk

some vainilla flavour

Option: Fondant

ready to use: I have used RegalIce

food colorants: I have used Icing colors from Wilson

Let´s start

1. Preheat the oven at 200ºC

2. Prepare a recipient with some butter and flour or non stick spray. This is not a big cake, so use a small one.

3. Beat up the whites only. Add some vainilla flavour. Put it in a bowl.

4. Mix the egg yolks, the sugar, the flour, the baking powder, the coconut and coconut milk.

5. Add this mix into the bowl with the egg whites slowly and mix it with a spatula.

6. Pour it into the recipient and put it inside the oven for about 30 minutes. 200ºC ( lower fire plus fan).

7. Let it cool down before adding the fondant.

While it is in the oven, you can prepare the layer of fondant and the decoration with the food colorants.

Have fun with your imagination.

Enjoy/ Bon Profit!

Meatballs (Mandonguilles)

I went to see my grandma the other day and I asked the exact recipe for her yummy meatballs. So I would like to share it with you. This is with aubergine/eggplant. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What we need for 4 people (16 meatballs)

400-500 gr of Ground Meat (botifarra fresca). It is made of Ground Pork here.
2 bay leaves
1 carrot
1 tbsp of ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 aubergine/eggplant
4 tbsp of fried tomatoe sauce.
1/2 of a big onion
Aprox. 250 gr of bread from the day before
a bunch of peas
3 tbsp of brandy/cognac
some flour

some water

salt
sugar
oil

Let´s start

1. In a bowl add the ground pork and the egg. Add salt and black pepper if it is needed, depending on your ground meat. With a fork, mix it. Make breadcrumbs and add it to the bowl.  Mix it well. It tastes much better if you do it with regular bread from the day before. Don´t use the crust. Let it marinate for at least half an hour
2. Cut the aubergine/eggplant and add some salt and sugar.
3.In a frying pan, fry the minced onion with oil. Then add the tomatoe sauce. Then drain through a strainer and place the liquid into a final saucepan with some water.
4. Make the meatballs by hand or using an small recipient. Use a little bit of flour for the surface. You can get 16 meatballs. Fry them with some oil in a frying pan.
5. Put the saucepan on to the heat (low heat) and add the cinnamon, the bay leaves, some salt. Add the peas and the carrot and the brandy. After that add the meatballs. Add more water till the meatballs are nearly covered (3/4).Cook over a low heat. Let them on to the heat for at least half an hour or an hour, or till the sauce starts to thicken.
6. Meanwile fry the aubergine/eggplant coated with flour.
7. Add them into the saucepan when the sauce starts to thicken. Let it for 5 minutes. It is ready to serve.

Enjoy/Bon Profit!

Strawberries with vinegar (Maduixes amb vinagre)

Happy St Valentine! Well, in Catalonia this is not very common to celebrate, because we have another special day for love here: Sant Jordi´s Day (St George´s Day). In that day, women give a book as a present to men and men give a rose back to them. It is the 23th of April, so I really recommend to come here around that time, as you will have a the chance to see the great atmosphere of that day.

Anyway, in St Valentine everything seems to be red that day, so I had a go to something healthy and delicious. That is Strawberries with vinegar. It seems an odd combination but it tastes really good. Give it a try. This is a traditional recipe from my grandma (I have added some cinnamon that works very well with it, and the whipping cream).

What you need (for 2-4)

500 g fresh strawberries
1 banana
4 tbsp of vinegar (not balsamic)
5 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of ground cinnamon
1/2 lemon (juice)

if you want: some whipping cream with some ground cinnamon at the top (200 ml of double cream with 4 tbsp of castor sugar)

Let´s start

1. Clean with water the strawberries and then cut the green part.
2. Cut the strawberries and the banana to small pieces.
3. Add the vinegar, sugar, lemon juice and ground cinnamon and mix it with a spoon.
4. Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours in order to macerate the fruit. The more, the better. While in the fridge, remove the mix with a spoon a couple of times.
5. Serve it with some whipping cream aside and some cinnamon at the top if you wish.

Enjoy/Bon Profit

"Ràdio Sabadell"...experience!

Hi!!!

Today my post is going to be a little bit different as it is not about a new recipe, but it is about something that happened to me this morning that is related to this blog.
They contacted me to go to the Radio Sabadell and talk a little about my blog and explain a recipe. I decided to explain the Pavlova as it is something not very well-known here and it is easy.
It was a nice experience and the program is really worth it.

If you want, you can listen to it (it is in Catalan), but if you don´t understand a single word in this language, don´t worry, at least you will have the chance to hear my voice ;-)

xxoo

To hear it, you can go to:
http://www.radiosabadell.fm/RSPodcast-V1.0/faces/home.xhtml
and choose the program "Amb molt de gust" from this date 04_02_11 (Jordi Samper...). I am talking the the first 10 minutes or so.

If you want , you can also check the recipes in a blog from the Radio, created by Maria Mas or more sepecifically to my recipe