The Spanish theme also celebrates the fact that I drove to Walmart by myself in Manuel today. Doesn't sound much does it? But walmart is built on a hill and has a 4 way stop sign on the top.... I was dreading it! But Manuel and I did very well and we were so proud of ourselves that we called Matt to eeek down the phone once we made it to the parking lot!
I am not a huge meat eater (no size comments please ;), and when I do cook meat it is usually fish or chicken. Matt loves his pork and sausage and so I chose to make Spanish Pork and Sausage Casserole from the Catalan region of Spain. I was not able to find the special 'butifarra sausage' and had to use sweet Italian sausage instead.
Boneless pork chops, whole sausages, onion and garlic are all fried in a pan to brown before adding white wine, plum tomatoes, bay leaf, salt and pepper. The mixture is then left to cook covered for 30 minutes while filling the kitchen with some wonderful aromas. Just before serving the sausage is sliced and mixed back in to the casserole.
As a side I chose Spanish potatoes, which are new potatoes par cooked then fried in a little oil to crispen up prior to adding a spicy sauce with green bell pepper. The sauce was made simply with crushed garlic, crushed red chillies, cumin, paprika and white wine vinegar. It's not really a sauce in the true sense. It was added with the bell pepper to the potatoes for only two minutes and it really just gives a coating of flavor, no fluid is left, it all clings to the potatoes.
The two dishes went really well together and Matt ate a lot of his with his eyes closed and making some kind of moaning noise. I take that to be a good thing! Either that or Bentley was licking his feet under the table ;)
For desert I made Crema Catalana which is a cross between creme caramel and creme brulee. Milk was boiled with a cinnamon stick and pared lemon rind. Egg yolks, sugar and corn flour were whisked together and then added to the milk. After cooking for 5 minutes the mixture was poured into two pudding dishes and allowed to set and then chilled for several hours.
What is supposed to happen next is that sugar is sprinkled on top and then fired, as is done with creme brulee, but the fire torch wasn't working properly and the broiler (grill) didn't appear to do the job. So we ended up with a soft sugariness instead of a caramelized snap on top. But it still tasted really good and I was surprised how much of a flavor was achieved by just the cinnamon stick and lemon rind.
Tonight we're going to go see Inception at the movie theater, and I'M driving!!!
And as always, don't forget to kiss the cook!
It looks and sounds delicious!
ReplyDelete