Cous Cous Salad

The cous cous salad my flatmate made tonight.

Bacon and Egg Salad

Jamon de Pato

While walking the streets of el Born, Barcelona I stopped at the supermarket to grab a few ingredients for a quick snack. One of the ingredients I grabbed was Jamon de Pato. At the time I was attracted by the rich colour compared to other hams, and given the price concluded 'This stuff must be good'. Well it was awesome. To the point were I went looking for a translation of 'de Pato'. I must admit I was rather shocked. It wasn't ham at all. It was duck cured like ham. I doubt that I'll ever find this in Australia. If I ever find it, I'm sure you'll see it on one of my salads.

PS.
Just found a recipe by Stephanie Alexander (well she stole it too). So I'll have to jump into this one, although it will take about three weeks.
Duck Ham

Licorice Smoked Steak

This was a bold experiment that I performed the other night. After eating pork and duck almost exclusively for 3 weeks I felt like a steak, but not any steak. A smoked one.

I smoked this in the oven using a couple of baking trays inside each other to separate the smoking mixture and the steak. Then wrapped the trays in aluminium foil to prevent the smoke from escaping.

The smoking mixture consisted of licorice tea, rice and brown sugar. Although aniseed would probably work better.

Score: 1 Chef
The process worked well but the texture of the steak was to soft. It really needs to be charred on a grill following the smoking. The licorice flavour transferred well to the steak but as expected could only be tasted on the outer surface. This is much more suited to thin pieces of meat.

Ensalada del Carmen – Redux

When in Valencia had a rather nice salad but it lacked any creativity. This is my attempt at enhancing the experience. The main replacements here are snow pea leaves for lettuce and goats curd for cheddar cheese. I added the chives to spice up the flavour.

Ingredients

Snow Pea Leaves
Chives
Grape Tomatoes
Red Onion
Prosciutto

Dressing

Goats Curd
Honey
Salt / Pepper
Balsamic vinegar and Olive oil

Method:

Toss it all together!

Score: 3 Chefs

Excellent! The goats curd and honey work really well together. Furthermore when the salad is tossed they coat the all the other ingredients providing a complex taste with every bite. The chives and prosciutto are a must.

Restaurant Review - Living, Barcelona

After walking the back streets of Barcelona for several hours looking for some modern food. (Tapas and Paella for every meal is starting to wear a little thin.) I stumbled across the little place called Living not far from Las Ramblas. I ordered there Menu del dia (set lunch in Spanish) for 11 Euros which is about the standard price.


The first course was a pineapple and tomato salad, which although quite simple was very nice. Main course was salted cod (sorry, I've forgotten the Spanish name) with some type of bitter vegetable.
Desert was apple pie.

Overall, It was great simple lunch.

PS. Hello to the girl sitting opposite me who broke out laughing every time I went to take a photo of my food.

Just Because I can!

I've obtained in flight Internet on my flight home and as I just looked up and saw that we are over the Black Sea. I thought I would post a picture I took at Club Del Gourmet a food store at El Cote Ingles in Barcelona.

They had the best of everything including Iranian Caviar from the Black Sea. (on the right)

The Smoked Salmon Terrine also looked very nice.

One Lucky Blogger

The guys over at Chocolate and Zucchini where lucky enough to get a meal at El Bulli.
They have a great post about the experience. El Bulli
As they put it:

... every single item managed to amaze and entertain, making the whole experience quite dazzling, both on an intellectual and sensory level.

Now I was it was open and I was going :(

Nou Teller - Barcelona

The other night I meet up with a Canadian girl and her boyfriend and went with them to a restaurant that was recommended by one of there parents.
Entree: Duck Carparcio - A simple and great tasting plate. I'll have to try this at home. Main Course: You have to be kidding me! A couple of calamari rings and a slice of lemon constitutes a main? I was trying to be smart about what I ordered. The logic was that squid is quite plentiful in the markets. So I assumed that it would be the the most likely to be a good meal.

Desert: A lump of cheese. It was twice the size but I ate some. I have no idea what type of cheese as the menu listed it as cheese and I guess that what I got.

If it wasn't for the duck carpaccio I think I would have cracked. I really hate to say this but Spanish restaurants has been a huge disappointment. I have struggled to find good meals. And luckily i won't go home thinking that it was my fault for been the silly tourist and eating at bad places. At one stage we recruited a Valencian guy to take us out, the meals didn't get much better.

Behind the Brown Door - El Bulli Taller

I did it!!!

After walking past it for three days I finally found the Headquarters and Workshop of Ferran Adrià head chef at the legendary El Bulli Restaurant.
El Bulli is currently ranked as the worlds best restaurant and I have been told that 600,000 people tried to get reservations last year. The restaurant itself is located at Costa Brava (about 60km North of Barcelona) and according to by Lonely Planet guide is a nice place to eat if your in the area.
The workshop itself is located just of Las Ramblas in Barcelona in a very busy shopping street and even though I knew the approximate location I've had to walk the streets for three days to find the "exact" location. (OK, I've found the building. I think the workshop is on the top floor). Maybe I should go over and knock on the door. As its only 50m from the Mercat de la Boqueria I could ask Ferran for a guided tour. ;)

Inside - By some lucky journalist

El Bulli website - Note the instructions of how to arrive via private jet, sea
or (for the unfortunate) road.

Best Market in Barcelona (Yeah its a Carrefour)

During a long stroll around Barcelona yesterday I made a stop off at the Carrefour Glories' store. After visiting a lot of the local markets I was very surprised by the range and quality of food on offer at Carrefour. I would assume that the local markets have essentially turned into tourist traps and that Carrefour is where your local Barcelonian person shops for their everyday needs (including 170Euro hams).

Valencia, Spain Markets

Discovered the markets in Valencia the other day. Really it wasn't that hard; They are huge.

They have an amazing array of meats, cheeses and seafood. Many of which are legal in Australia for customs reasons. Its cool seeing a leg of ham with hoof attached.

I bought myself some salami and pate which was an extremely difficult task given I don't speak Spanish (or Catalan for that matter) and the crowds where huge.

I wish I could that one of the hams home. Maybe next time I'm here I'll rent an apartment with kitchen so that I can have some fun.

One thing that I have noticed is that there was a very small variety of vegetables. Without including Asia vegies and parsley was about the only fresh herb. I guess the Spanish like there meat.

Lost in Translation

Its been a while since i last posted. I have a confession to make. I've legged it to Spain where i'm savouring the Spain food and wine.

Now that i've got my hands on an internet connection i'll make a quick post now and fill in the details latter.

Last nights dinner. :)