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Archive for the ‘Spain’ Category

(Tortilla De Patatas – Spanish Omelette ) & Park Guell

10 Jun

After my Spain Vacation, I was keen to learn about their Cuisine. Suprisingly this spanish Omelette is the one, I used to make very often for my child as a complete meal.  I did n’t invent this dish, I came to know it long back from my friend Sharada. She is good in Malabar Recipes.

It was interesting to know that Spanish use olive oil in almost all the dishes. Garlic is one more ingredient they love to add in to the recipe.

I prepared this Spanish Omelette with a little variation from the original one. In the Original, they add the Olive oil, raw sliced potatoes and saute it with onions then followed by beaten egg. They use more oil to let the potatoes cook in that. But I use little oil of any type, boiled & smashed potatoes and corriander leaves as a variation.

Ingredients:

  1. Olive oil – 1 Tbs
  2. Onion – 2 , finely chopped
  3. Egg – 4 , beaten
  4. Potatoes – 2 , medium sized, boiled and smashed
  5. Salt for taste
  6. Corriander leaves – 1/4 cup, finely chopped
  7. Pepper – 1/2 tsp

Method :

1. Add the oil to the small pan and add onions. Saute it till it becomes slight brown in color.

2. Add the smashed potatoes, coriander leaves and salt to the beaten egg and pour it into the sauted onions. It should be atleast 1/2 inch thickness or little more.

3. Lower the heat and let it cook for 5 minutes and with the help of the other pan just flip it over and cook on the other side for 2 min, because we dont want to break it by doing the usual way.

4. Serve it warm. Good to have as a breakfast and also as a side dish.

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Let’s look at this Spain attraction Today…..Park Güell

Yesterday in my post I have wrote a little about the Spanish Architect Antoni Gaudi. This is one of his Garden city project, initiated by Güell and designed by Gaudi. It was a city planning project aimed at building houses for the spanish people. It was developed by them in a 35 acre  hilly area very close to  barcelona. Surrounded  by trees and a unique architectural buildings with colorful marble pieces in his creations can inspire anyone. You can also visit Gaudi and Güell’s house inside this park and it is two among the 3 houses they built .This project was a failure  financially, but it was taken over by the city and converted in to open park. One can have a glorious view of the city from here enjoying the nature around them.

Some of the pictures…….

View of Barcelona city and seashore from Park Güell.

One among the three houses that he has built in this park.

You can see the colorful art work with marbles .

Open terrace of the building and view of Barcelona city and seashore.

This is piece of wall ceiling with colorful marble decoration.

At the main entrance to this Park Güell.

The two hut buildings near to the entrance.

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures and include this place in your list of attractions to visit in Barcelona. You will have a nice peaceful and woderful feeling in there.

 
9 Comments

Posted in Baby food, Breakfast, Non-Vegeterian, Side Dish, Spain

 

(Spanish Flan – Caramel Egg Custard ) & Sagrada Familia

09 Jun

Flan is one of the popular Spanish Dessert . It is spread over entire europe , Unites States and other countries. I have googled to know the ingredients and used my own way and measurement to prepare this. It came out well and the taste was also excellent.

Ingredients :

  1. Egg – 4
  2. Milk – 200ml , warm
  3. Condensed milk – 100 ml
  4. Sugar – 1 cup
  5. Sugar – 3 Tbs
  6. Vanilla Essence  a little
  7. Cherries for decorating.

 

 

 

 

 

Method:

1. Add the sugar in a bowl and slightly wet it with few sprinkles of water. Now allow it to caramalise in a medium heat. It takes approx 10 – 15  min.

2. Once the sugar is medium brown in color carefully pour it to the Oven safe bowl and do a quick swirl to make a coat of caramel in the bowl.

3. Beat the eggs slowly without making too much of air into it. Add the warm milk and condensed milk  and vanilla essence and give a quick mix.  Add the 3 Tbs sugar crystals which gives a small air holes in the final product.  Looks like emmentaler cheese.

4. cover this bowl with a silver foil and let in a sit in a another dish filled with hot water.

5. Preheat the oven and cook for 30 min at 180 C.  Heating time and temp depends upon the thickness of the custard. I used a flat bowl, so it took less time and temperature. Insert a knife to check whether the custard is cooked properly so the knife comes out clean.

6. When it is done allow it to cool for couple of hours and rest in the fridge for 2 more hours and it is ready to serve. ( I didn’t refrigerate it, after it was done the custard got separated automatically and so i flipped the custard in a serving plate along with the caramel.)

Over to Spain Attractions…

Sagrada Familia is a famous church in Barcelona, one of the Gaudi’s most popular work. Gaudi is a architect from spain whose works are just amazing and has a vast difference compared to other architectures. He has done other  projects as well which are popular too. The construction of this church started during 1882 and it is expected to finish by 2026, according to wikipedia. One of the longest construction work ever done before. This massive structure is one of the top tourist attraction. So never miss it when you are in Barcelona.

Now they are focusing on roofing and construction of 6 towers.

Some of the pictures …


 
11 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Spain

 

(Arroz Caldoso Bogavente – Lobster soupy Rice) & Barcelona Beach

08 Jun

Never had an idea before how the spanish cuisine will look like until I was in Spain. We went to a Restaurant called Marina Manchos, which had an exotic spanish cuisine of food varieties. Enjoying the view of Mediterranean sea from our table, we wanted to try some seafood. We decided that we will try Lobsters and asked the waiter for options. He suggested this Lobster Soupy Rice which is a one pot meal for 2. Between they served a cup of potato chips, Spanish pickled olives & little cucumbers and Bread with a spread of fresh tomato puree. When the dish arrived on the table, it was in a big deep pan  and looked like it can serve the entire family . Since it was the first time I am trying lobster, my first sip of the food was kind of skeptic but not the rest. After returning back from vacation, the first thing I did was buying the Lobster and making this dish at home. Believe me, it was one of the dish I just loved it . We packed the remaining and had it for dinner. Honestly what we had in restaurant was excellent than which I made. Probably  because of the fresh seafood and  may be  some chefs secret ingredients.

Choice of restaurant is very important, especially when you are in a new place and trying new food. Fortunately the one we tried was good. Bit expensive but worth it.

Ingredients:

  1. Lobster – 2 , divide in to pieces
  2. Squid – 100 gms (optional) I did not add it
  3. Fish stock – 2 cups
  4. Water – 4 cups
  5. Parboiled Rice – 2 cups
  6. Onion – 2, finely chopped
  7. Tomato – 2, finely chopped
  8. Bell Pepper – 1/2 , cut in to small pieces
  9. Garlic – 5 pods
  10. Olive oil – 2 Tbs
  11. Paprika powder – 1 Tbs
  12. Coriander leaves a few or  Petersilie  a little
  13. Salt for taste

Method:

1. Heat the pan and oil to it. Add Onions and garlic and saute it till it is translucent.

2. Add paprika then followed by tomatoes and cook till tomatoes become soft approx 5 min.

3. Add the fish stock and water and let it boil. Once it starts boiling add the rice and let it cook for 15 minutes.

4.  Add the lobster and bell pepper when the rice is half cooked and allow it cook. Add some water if required, to look like soupy rice .

5. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it warm.

Now coming to Barcelona attractions……..

Barcelonata is a very beautiful beach with not much waves but it is very deep after 5 feets from the seashore. Lot of people were swimming though the water was bit cold. My daughter started building a sand castle decorated with shells.

Beware, there is also nude beach called Mar bella. Even in Barcelonata, there were  few taking sun bath.

Ships returning to Barcelona Port.

Port Vell near from the Columbus Monument


Monument Columbus.

Throughout the city and in the beach side one can see these palm trees.


 
8 Comments

Posted in Main Dish, Non-Vegeterian, Spain

 

iHola!! Spaniola ! Fresh Prawns Pan Fry

06 Jun

Guess what ? Last week, we had been to spain for Vacation . We visited places around Barcelona city and enjoyed the famous Spanish architectures. This week, all my posts going to be little informative about the places we have visited and definitely some special recipes.

La Ramblas is a long 1.5 Km shopping street in Barcelona which has lot of shops, few museums, Restaurants and La Boqueria market. This market is famous for its fresh Mediterranean sea food, spices, Fresh Juices, chocolates, meat shops, fruit stalls and vegetables shops. You can see the pictures at the end of this post, to get a feel of the market. We visited this market and I could not just pass through without buying any sea food. Since we had a plan of site seeing that day, On our last day of stay in Barcelona we went to this market and I picked up some fishes, prawns and a Crab and cooked them at home. It was a feast for all of us. Since we stayed in a vacation apartment in the city, it was just comfortable for us to decide to go out for a restaurant or stay at home and enjoy the home food.

This crab was weighing 1 Kg, but after cleaning, it was around less than a half a kilo. I made Crab Kurma and Fish Kuzhambu. Both of them dishes are south Indian recipes.
Here is the recipe for prawns pan fry
Ingredients:
  1. Prawns – 1Kg ( clean the prawns and include only the meat)
  2. Onion – 1/2 kg
  3. Oil – 2 Tbs
  4. Ginger paste – 1 tsp
  5. Garlic paste – 2 tsp
  6. Garlic – 2 Tbs, chopped
  7. Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
  8. Chilli Powder – 1 tbs
  9. Corriander 1/2 cup, chopped
  10. Salt for taste.

Method:

1.  Heat the pan and add oil. Add onions and garlic and saute them till it is translucent. Add little salt to help cooking onions faster.

2. Add ginger and garlic paste and mix it for 2 minutes.

3. Add the spice powders chilli and  turmeric and stir for 2 minutes in a slow flame. Add 1/4 cup water and cover the pan with lid and let it cook for 15 minutes in a medium flame.

4. Add the prawns and mix them up with the masalas for 5 minutes.

5. Add the chopped coriander and serve it. Good to go with Rice and as a side dish.

La Boqueria Market pictures:


Inside the market you can get a fresh juice for 1.50 Euro.

Not only in this market, all over the city there were many fruit shops with all kinds of fruits.

Eye catchy Candy Stalls. Check the prices before buying…I felt it was bit expensive.

My daughter was just not moving away from the candy stall until she got one.

Fish stalls

Fish stalls had a good collection of all kinds of sea food fresh from theMediterranean sea.


 
12 Comments

Posted in Non-Vegeterian, Spain

 
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