Spanish cuisine # 1 - Croquetas!

A week and a half ago I went to a friend's house in order to make the classic Spanish dish "croquetas". Sold in tapas bars throughout Spain cheap as chips but considered some sort of delicacy here, I have dedicated today's post to its recipe.

When I was growing up, one of my dearest memories was to be woken up by my father very early on the weekend to make mountains of croquetas. One time, he didn't even have to bribe me with a delicious breakfast, it was 6am and it was snowing and everyone knows that little girls (or not so little in my case) love snow, especially when it isn't very common. I was more than happy to get up that particular morning and by the time the rest of the family were up and about, my dad and I had made hundreds of croquetas.

The recipe is easy - it's basically a series of cold bechamel sauce little barrels covered in breadcrumbs, whisked egg, breadcrumbs again and deep fried (in very very hot oil).

Step #1 - making the bechamel sauce. I didn't use butter - but that's quite a personal choice, just make the sauce you're more comfortable with - but olive oil. However, if you use too much olive oil/butter, the croqueta will open when it's being deep-fried.

So, basically, you heat up the oil, and add a couple of tablespoons of flour and mix... and don't stop mixing!

Then it's time to add the pre-heated milk (about 1 litre) - and keep on stirring until the sauce thickens. If it still tastes floury, it just needs to be on the hob longer. It's now when you also add the salt and pieces of meat/fish you wish. In our case, we added amazing pieces of jamón (thick jamón cut into tiny cubes, deeeelicious - thank you Waitrose).

Step #2 - Cooling down the bechamel sauce. It is extremely important to place the sauce in a shallow pan and wait for an hour or so until the sauce is cold and ready to be "magicked" into croquetas.

Step #3 - The fun! My dad would always make the bechamel sauce the night before and it was giving the croquetas their characteristic barrel shape, covering them in bread crumbs and eggs that we did together. So the first step is to get a tea-spoon quantity of bechamel, roll it in the first plate of bread crumbs, cover it and give it its shape.

Then, you put it inside the whisked egg and make sure the egg covers it all around. This is extremely important because it will avoid the bechamel coming out when you are deep frying the croquetas.

After the would-be croqueta has been covered in egg, it is put in another bread crumb plate, cover it with more bread crumbs and presto - it is ready to be deep fried.

Once you have made all of the croquetas (we made around 70 by using a few tablespoons of olive oil, two/3 tablespoons of flour (non raising) and 1 litre of milk), they're ready to be deep fried. Make sure the olive oil is very very hot when you put them in - the hotter the oil, the quicker they'll cook and the less possibilities of the croqueta from opening).

When they're a golden brown colour - which they get very quickly - they're ready to be taken out of the pan. Et voila! Enjoy.

Easter break

After enjoying an absolutely gorgeous week weatherwise, it was no surprise that the weather during the Easter break was utter sh!t. All my plans to do some serious cycling died, together with picnics, walks and practically everything that implied leaving the house.

So how did I fill in the time? I have begun my magnum opus to date: a patchwork quilt! The idea had been in my head for a long time, but it wasn't until I was in Liberty looking at the gorgeous fabrics that it hit me. I bought some more lovely Amy Butler fabrics and went home ready to rock.

I still yet have to buy a sewing machine, so it's 100% handmade, wow.

And yes, I agree, I haven't really done that much, the culprit being this:

Evil evil stuff. I haven't fully recovered from the hangover yet, and it's 10pm the day after! Ironically enough, I spent the day in bed reading "Hellraisers, the Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed". How they managed to drink themselves stupid on a daily basis and not feel like utter sh!t the following day is something I'm quite jealous of today. Never again.

Sunday, sweet Sunday...

... with a lot to do!

Today has been a very creative and rewarding day as I've made LOADS of stuff (ok, three things finished, two are still work in progress): two flower broches and a... tablecloth!

I went shopping yesterday to get the materials. First stop, VV Rouleaux in Marlebone. It's this gorgeous ribbon shop where any woman (or man with a creative streak) could spend hours looking at all the different kinds of ribbon that exist, feathers, material flowers, bits and pieces... Then I went to the haberdashery department in John Lewis where I bought some really nice Amy Butler material, buttons, etc., and a piece of material from the upholstery department that would be magically turned into my tablecloth 24 hours later (it cost me a tenner - bargain).

So today I met up with a couple of friends and we sewed all afternoon and needless to say, it was brilliant. We had a great work surface with all the things we needed (including carrot cake).

We made these pretty flower broches:

This one has special sewing engineering on the back to aviod it from folding forward all the time.

It was also the first time I used a sewing machine - behold the beautiful table cloth:

What can I say? Fun fun FUN! I really should try to do more things creative...

I predict a riot

So the G20 came and went and I, like a good visceral Spaniard that I am, decided to walk yesterday during my lunch break to check out the "riot" outside the Bank of England. We had had emails at work warning us of the dangers of going to the office dressed in suits and were advised to dress down as a casual Friday (yeah, as if a banker/lawyer in dockers, deck shoes and a Barbour would not be able to be spotted out quite easily?!). I don't wear suits anymore (the jackets don't seem to fit since I moved to this muffin-lovin' country) so I sort of dressed down, a bit. Anyway, by the time I got to Bank, where, let's face it, there isn't that much space, all I could hear was cool carnivalesque music, smell weed as if I were in Brixton and see fellow City workers camouflaged in their casual wear whose curiosity was equal to mine.

Paris!

Last Saturday I went to Paris for the day with a couple of friends. We caught the first Eurostar (coolest train ever) from St Pancras and the last one from the Gare du Nord and spent the day cycling around the city on velibs (those brilliant bikes around the city that you rent per hours).

In spite of the fact that my friends almost missed the train (but were hoping I'd somehow manage to tell the driver to wait till they arrived!?), it hailed a bit (and hurt) and that we were charged €9 for a glass of Coca Cola at a café on the Rue de Rivoli, the day was brilliant.

I hadn't been to Paris since 2001 and I was in awe at how stunning the city is, though I don't really think my "dramatic" pictures capture the beauty of the city (yes, I am the one in the funky green helmet - probably the only person wearing one!). Definitely worth repeating soon.