Bienvenido a mi casa - Tapas Night

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Ahora hay tapas. Bienvenido a mi casa. Espero yo tengo algo para todos. Bueno, aquí tengo un pequeño selección de tapas de mi mesa ...

... y un poco mas ...

¡Que aproveche!

Nun, ich denke, ich sollte die Sprache wechseln, das wird mir sonst zu viel und ich brauche ewig mit dem Schreiben.

Oops, maybe that was the wrong one, too. I better switch to what I can write best. Anyway, by now you have noticed what this is all about ... Spanish tapas.

After all, that still is the theme for this month's Bloggers Around the World.

We better do this properly now. Turn up the sound system for the Gypsy Kings ... "Bamboleo ..." or something like that. Maybe we can get into the spirit a glass of Sherry first ...

I imagine it would be great fun to do this with some of my favourite bloggers, but ... anyway, it was fun the way it was.

What lovely kind of tapas do I have for you tonight?

Cheese Empanadas:

Have about 200 g puff pastry ready. Mix some 100 g of cheddar cheese or manchego to be more Spanish with a few anchovies, 80 g dried tomatoes, 50 g green olives and 50 g pesto rosso.

Roll out you puff pastry, cut out circles of all the pastry. Divide the filling among all those pastry rounds and try to seal them by putting a bit of water on the edges and folding over. If you have rolled out your pastry too thin or get your empanadas too close to the heat in the oven, what you can see on the photo might happen.

Brush your empanadas with egg wash before you transfer them for 13 minutes to the oven at 225 °C. Just make sure, you place the tray in the middle of the oven.

Roasted Peppers with Chilli Cheese:

You just need to get some cheese with enough fuego for this, a lovely cheese with enough heat in the form of chilli. If you have the right shop around you might get some Spanish cheese for this, but then a simple cheese with chilli will do. As you see, you cut it into nice cubes.

The peppers are a different story. Get them under the grill to char the skin of the peppers. Then toss them in a bowl and cover with cling film to cool down. Then try to remove the skin of the peppers ... if you can ... and cut the peppers into small pieces. Serve them together with the cheese and a dressing of honey and sherry vinegar.

Steak with Cheese and Salad:

Well, get some steak, season it with salt and pepper and let it lick the heat in your pan, one and half minute on both sides and do it twice. Then let the meat rest for 15 minutes.

Cut the steak into stripes and place them alternating with some lovely cheese on a large plate. In the centre of the plate place some green salad. Toss over some capers and green olives and ... if you are a tiny bit naughty like me ... some innocent looking, but fiery peppers. Additionally sprinkle over some black pepper and sea salt. Squeeze a lemon to leave its juice on top and add some good extra virgin olive oil. There you go!

That's just a small selection. You can add also some olives with different fillings, some chorizo, serrano ham and more cheese to the table. Maybe you also want to offer some tortas de aceite as well. You can buy them in some shops or do your own.

Jamie Oliver has a lovely recipe for this in his book Jamie Does.

For sure you don't want to forget to serve some olive oil roasted padrón peppers sprinkled with some sea salt and more extra virgin olive oil.

Oui, c'est fini! Oh, wrong language again. After all, that was a Spanish tapas night. Maybe we can do something French another time, another challenge. Maybe, if I get someone to join me for a theme of French Chocolate ... something.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our little tapas night and I look forward to some further suggestions from you or any entries for the Spanish Tapas Bloggers Around the World challenge.

Nos vemos la próxima vez ...

Let's wrap again - Mushroom & Courgette Wraps

Come on, let's do a kettle wrapping. The good thing, there is not just one way to do it and you don't always have to use wheat tortillas to do so, although you can, of course. Well, you don't even have to use chicken or any other kind of meat. With that spirit, let's wrap again and do it the veggie way ...

Fine, you don't have to use cheese in it, but I simply can't do it any other way ... or ... rather don't see any point in leaving out cheese for me.
So, no matter how you like to have your wraps, here I tell you what I did this time ...

Ingredients:
A bit of oil
250 g mushrooms, cut into smaller pieces
1 medium courgette, cut into cube-like objects
1 red chilli, finely chopped (deseeded or not)
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp. tomato puree
Salt and pepper
Some fresh coriander
Some feta cheese or similar
Some lettuce or wheat tortillas

Method:
Heat up a pan with some oil in it. Then add the chopped garlic. Do you smell the loveliness of the garlic in your kitchen? Good, add the courgette and mushrooms. Give it all some heat. While you are at it, toss in the chilli.
Once the courgette starts to soften, add the tomato puree and if you have the feeling you need to, because things look to dry, add some more oil.

Adjust the taste with a bit of salt and pepper. When the things are finished in the pan, you can assemble the wraps or wait a few moments to let the mushrooms and courgette cool down a little bit.
So, place a bit of the mixture on a large piece of lettuce, that will hold. Add a few cubes of feta and a some chopped coriander leaves.
Of course, you can place the plate also the other way around like this ...

Fine, you can even use some wheat tortillas and wrap things that way ...

Enjoy your wrapping. Now I have to continue to do some preparations for a little party I am having tomorrow ...

Cheese, Cheese, Cheese and Cheese

Have a careful guess on what this post is all about. No, sorry, you are wrong, it's not all about cheese. What a misleading way to put a title of a blog post. How can I do a thing like that? Yes, just go for it and write it.
While I love cheese very much and all that, this is not going to be a post dedicated to cheese. And this is not a report of about the German cheese museum or a cheese festival that is taking place near to the museum and ... in fact is taking place next month and ... it's not too far from my place. Well, who knows, maybe I get the chance to visit it and then I could write something about it, but now it's simply a recipe containing quite some cheese. That dish is a pasta recipe with a cheese sauce, not just one of those where you put two kind of cheeses in or even three. No, it's Pasta with Quadruple Cheese Sauce.

Let us have a closer look at what we need and how we could go about.

Ingredients:
250 g Ricotta
250 g Gorgonzola
100 g Emmental
50 g Parmesan
2 hands full of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying
Yes, of course, pasta

Method:
Note the time your pasta needs to cook. It depends on type and size and when you make fresh pasta, well you have some extra work, but you will love it even more. Right, I didn't do my own pasta, although I could have done that.
Get a pan and get some oil to a hot temperature and fry the garlic and the tomatoes.
Meanwhile in a bowl over hot water you carefully melt the cheeses ...as far as they need melting ... in fact it will suffice to melt the Emmental and the Gorgonzola first and then stir in the Ricotta and Parmesan.

Once you have achieved a nice and lovely cheese mixture you can add the fried tomatoes and garlic to it. Check the seasoning ... eh ... we didn't put in anything so far ... so check whether some salt and pepper is necessary and add at own will.
Did you check the time for your pasta at the beginning? Since you can imagine that it doesn't take that long to put together the quadruple cheese sauce, you for sure agree that it's good to start getting the pasta ready at an early stage.
When all is ready ... enjoy ...

So I really hope, I can manage to visit this cheese festival. Do you know how it is when you want to go to so many things and would love to do so many things and in the end you don't even manage half of it? Well, well, well, life is like that ...

... then there are also these things happening in your life, I'm sure I have mentioned it more than once already here, when you go shopping and see certain ingredients and you feel you need to have them, although you haven't planned anything to do with them, then ... I guess it's time for the No Waste Food Challenge from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than ... is managing the challenge this month.
Well, this time it was the Ricotta ...

... and if you feel like it and have leftover cheese, why not go for a quintuple cheese sauce or even ... but that would be all up to you ...

All the small things - Tapas for Bloggers Around the World

What? You think I have forgotten? How could you possibly think a thing like this? That is ... that is ... true, I almost forgot that it's time for another round of Bloggers Around the World.
So, let' be nice and start all over again ...

¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?

I really honestly hope you are all doing well, no matter who you are and where you are. Maybe you have a hot, burning summer right now, or maybe you have too much water coming from above. No matter what, I hope you like to join us once more as we make our way to Spain.

However, I don't want you to do any elaborate cooking this month for our challenge. This month we like to concentrate on the small things. Anyway, that is what you should concentrate a bit more in real life, too. A small nice gesture from a family member, a friend or even a stranger can bring you joy. Maybe it's just a smile, a kind word, or a cool drink on a hot day.
Did I say drink? Yes, I did. That brings us closer to what we want to do here: food. And this time it's small food, tapas to be precise.

If you haven't already understood, in order to join us this time for Bloggers Around the World, it's ...

SPANISH TAPAS

You should have a lot of variation here. Just feel free to try new things or share your favourite ones. Here are some of my favourites as I tend to do tapas more often ...

.. fried dates filled with chorizo and wrapped in bacon ...

 

... garlic prawns ...

... cheese with thyme and honey ...

Of course I also want to try something new. So, have a go and give at a shot. If you like you can also invite some friends and have a tapas party with you. So, once again, you can make others happy.

Anyway, it's very easy to make me happy. Simply join us for our big tapas party here and share your tapas posts. Simple use the comment section down here and leave a comment with a link to your post ...

... and keep also the following in mind ...

1. Link to Cooking Around the World and this very challenge in your post.
2. Use the "Bloggers Around the World" badge (you know).
3. Use either an old post or write up something completely new.
4. You can enter as many posts as you manage or of course you can have just one big tapas party.
5. Enjoy the challenge end your life of course...

Of course you have time to join until the end of this very month. So, when it turns September, you shouldn't post any more posts for this, but rather watch out for the round-up.

I wish I could delight you with some impressions from Spain, but I simply don't have any suitable photos ready somewhere around me, although I wish I could take some fresh ones soon ...