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Miwako

Ugly pictures, good stuff - 4 recipes

I have been cooking a lot of good stuff lately but my camera is travelling to Portugal to be fixed (or re-sold to the back market), so here we go, iPhone camera again 😅

I am attending a cooking school to learn classic Spanish cousine and I am really enthusiastic about it. The teacher is a really cool guy who is not afraid of being direct with us when we are doing bullshits, which happens more frequently than I expected. The rate of burned pans in my team makes us not really popular in the kitchen... but it is a lot of fun. And a lot of eat, which I compensate by promising to myself that I will retake swimming as soon as the course is over (it is called "mental training").

My roommate's family was visiting us and these are all things I made for them. "You always cook thinking about someone; otherwise, it's just making food": I couldn't agree more!

SEA BREAM "ALL'ACQUA PAZZA"

1 big sea bream

1 lemon

~10 cherry tomatoes

salt/pepper

wine

2 garlic cloves

This is something I like to cook when I am in a hurry but next to a decent fishmonger (another pro of moving to Spain). Clean the sea bream, open it in half (head off), place it into a pan with a lid and add: two spoons of oil EVO, two spoons of white wine and two spoons of water; tomatoes cut in half, garlic cloves cut in half and cover with few lemon slices. Let it cook for ~12 minutes and serve with parsley. In the picture, I also added black olives, but just because I ran into them ;)

EMPANADILLAS

Flour

Oil EVO

white wine

250 gr champignons 

Garlic

Chilli

Provola affumicata cheese

Oh, empanadillas! The one and only moment in which the teacher told me I was doing a good job (thousands of ravioli taught me something, after all). Mix the flour with oil, white wine and water and make a ball. Let it rest covered by a tea towel.  Meanwhile, pan fry the garlic with one spoon of oil EVO and the chilli, add the champignons sliced and cook for ~10 minutes. Blend. Roll the dough quite thin and make big circles, which will be filled with the champignons and cubes of cheese. Close like ravioli and fry them until golden.

STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS

4 green peppers

minced pork meat

1 spring onion

5 champignones

salt/pepper

Cut the champignons and the spring onion in brunoise (it's clear that I am taking cooking classes!) and add them to the minced meat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fill the green peppers and bake them in the oven for ~20 minutes or until golden.

RISOTTO AI PORCINI

Porcini mushrooms

1 garlic clove

chilli peppers

white wine

carnaroli rice

parsley

parmigiano cheese

Celery-onion-carrot

A super classic! Make vegetable stock with celery, carrot and onion. Gently clean the porcini, slice them and pan-fry them with two spoons of oil, one garlic clove and chilli to taste. Add the rice, let it toast a few minutes, add white wine and let the alcohol evaporate, then lower the flame and start adding vegetable stock until the rice is cooked. Off the stove, add grated parmigiano. I served it in cups made of melted parmigiano and a good sprinkle of chopped parsley. Super!

Cebiche AKA Anisakis I do not fear you

Finally, after 2 months and a half of literally living inside a suitcase, the God of expats has decided to reimburse me for all my suffering and has donated me the biggest wardrobe my clothes ever touched (and they still don't fit, damn it!). As if it were not enough, my new Alicante flat also has the prettiest kitchen ever, that I decorated with the forest green stuff I had in Cardiff. After all, I am glad I didn't burn everything from that period, as I was tempted to do in more than one occasion ;)

Time to re-take my favorite hobby ever: cooking with slowness. Problem is that in the middle of Angkor temples in Cambodia, my stupid and insensitive camera broke and now I am left with my hello kitty iphone :( 

I hope it will suffice for making my readers salivating, and if not believe my words: it was unbelievably tasty. My stomach is ready to pay the price and welcome all the nasty parasites that can attack it after eating raw fish, but if you do not like taking the risk and, unlike me, your mind contemplates the option "I want it now, but I can wait", then just freeze it before ;)

CEBICHE

(serves 2)

half red onion

one medium-sized sea bass

3 limes

2 chilli peppers

salt and pepper

coriander as if there was no tomorrow

extract the fillets from the sea bass and cut them in small pieces (1-2 cm maximum). Add lime juice and the rest of the ingredients sliced. Serve with an obscene amount of freshly chopped coriander. And now I am hungry again!