Arroz a la Cubana

Why did I waste another two hours of my life? Do you know this feeling? Maybe you started watching a movie and thought you had to finish it only to recognise that it really wasn't worth it. In fact the movie was really stupid and not that entertaining as you hoped at the outset. It could be that it started out good, but then it has an absolutely unexpected useless end and you feel empty taking nothing away from this experience. I'm sure you know this feeling. Have you watched any really disappointing movies lately?

The feeling can even get worse when you apply it to watching series. You devote time to watch a few episodes or even an entire season. Maybe you even enjoy watching it only to be faced with the fact that they are going to cancel the series after the first season. Now you are never going to find out if they really will catch John or if they are going to safe the world or whatever ...

For that part, sadly, I have some experiences. Do you, too?

On the other hand, with watching food shows you are not so much in danger. They make you hungry, give you some inspiration and maybe even make you a bit adventurous. As to that, one of my favourite series is the show 'Somebody feed Phil' on Netflix. Do you have any favourite shows that involve food?

Besides that, I always love a good food and cooking movie. Thinking about it right now, I would say that my favourite one, right now, is 'Kiss the Cook', although ... thinking too much of it, right now, I want a cubano with this crispy bread, the meat filling, the cheese melting in your mouth and ... sadly that's not going to happen. 

That leaves me with my memories of our last trip to the US where we had some cubanos. Strangely I'm just finding out that I didn't take any photos of them, although we had some even at the day of the cubano in New York. Sometimes, this world is really strange.

That could easily lead us to whip up a cubano and write about it right here and right now, but that is not going to happen either. It's not that I didn't try it before or that I will not try it again. However, that would be another story.

Today's story is more simple, although it still has Cuba in it: Arroz a la cubana, something like rice Cuban style. 

Well, you don't really have to call it like that. You could just call it rice with fried eggs, just that simple. But what's the fun in that. You could make a beef stew and call it beef stew, but it just sounds better if you call it bœuf bourguignon. Another example, you could whip up a salad and call it mixed salad or ... for the fun of it ... call it anti-rabbit salad with honey mustard dressing.

I guess you get the idea. That being said, let's get cooking.

Ingredients

Cooked rice

Fried eggs

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 medium red onions, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

4 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

Olive oil

Coriander or parsley (optional)

Method

As the list of ingredients suggests we are not going hardcore here. Just cook the rice at your gusto and fry the eggs like you fancy them.

Then we just concentrate on the tomato sauce. Get some olive oil going in your pan. Toss in the onions and the garlic and let them catch some colour. Can you smell it? Do you love the smell of garlic being slowly fried in the pan? I do.

Then add the bell pepper and the tomatoes and let it all come together. The tomatoes should have enough liquid for the sauce. In case not, just add a tiny bit of water. 

If you want or have or like, you can add some chopped up coriander or parsley. Around here coriander is not always easy to get your hands on, sadly. But if I have it I would always add it.

Once all is finished you can plate up, although this is a bit of useless thing to say, more or less. Why would you plate up, if you haven't finished?!

Again, if you want or have or like, you can place some avocado on the side or some cooked or fried plantains. Just as you fancy.

In fact, this dish is something you can plate up anytime as an emergency. Here you have a lot of things you usually have in stock at home ... well I do. You could also use tinned tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes. 

Here we have come to the end of this post and I hope you don't have to say at the end of reading this post: Why did I waste this time? Well, at least it didn't take you two hours reading it.

On the other hand, if you think, oh what a shame it's already over again. Just stay a little bit longer. Leave a comment. Tell us what your favourite food movie or series is. Do you have an emergency meal? Maybe you have some more examples of dishes getting fancy names or ... as you want.

Thank you for being here and spending some time visiting this humble blog!

See you when I see you!

Identity Theft, Pizza, Burger, Spain

There is definitely something wrong! I know it! Lately, things are going quite differently around here. Just today, we did our spring cleaning, while winter just started a few days ago. My mind is off the track. Yes, you know, but this time it's even worse. I think I lost my identity. Someone robbed it. While I was thinking about writing something for the blog after such a long time and for not having just two entries for the whole year, the thoughts didn't come up in German, no, not even in English, but it was Spanish. I guess Rodrigo or Rodriguez is taking over again ...

Chilean Palta Reina - Avocado Stuffed with Tuna

I once new a Chilean family, which lived in our town when I was young, but first of all, that was already some time ago and I don't know what became of that family and knowingly I haven't tried that much food from Chile.
So, I did some research to look for an easy recipe, quickly to throw together for lunch and here we go with Palta Reina - stuffed avocados. I fancied a version with tuna today ...

That seems to be a healthy and colourful meal, perfectly for lunch. Make sure you use ripe avocados but not too soft ones and things can turn out fine. So let me tell you what I used and how I did it ...

What I used:
One avocado
Juice of half a lemon
1 piece of romaine lettuce
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
4 small tomatoes, quartered
1 can of tuna
Salt
Pepper

What I did:
I placed the washed salad leaves on a large plate. Then, I cut the avocado in half, pitted it and removed the skin. The avocado halves, obviously, where placed on top of the lettuce.
Afterwards, I added the quartered tomatoes to the plate and drizzled the lemon juice over the whole plate. A bit of salt and pepper over it and we are almost there.
Right, I mixed the tuna with the onion and the chilli, seasoned it with a bit of salt and stuffed the avocados with that.
Now, that wash't any big deal, was it? Fine, the avocado could have been slightly riper, but ... next time.

I hope you enjoyed that brief food trip to Chile. Whatever, you could also have some wine from Chile. I have a bottle here at my place. I will test it for myself whether that one is any good. It's a red wine from Carmenère grapes. I don't know, though, if that will be good for watching football, some peanuts and a glass of Carmenère red wine?
Today Chile is playing the Netherlands in the World Cup, but they can already be sure to move on into the knock-out phase of the last sixteen. That would leave us at least one more opportunity to post a Chilean recipe for Bloggers Around the World on either June 28th or 29th. Anyway, we are satisfied with Palta Reina for now ...

Mexican Guacamole and Beef Wraps

You can not avoid it, whether you like it or not. At the moment it's football, on television, radio, in conversations and ... yes ... and food blogs, too. No worries, though, I will focus on the food here. 
Today we are concentrating on Mexico, although it would have been interesting to have some Dutch, Spanish or Cameroonian food. As you know, or maybe not, Mexican is one of my favourite cuisines and it ignited (not just because of the chillies) my interest for cooking in the first place.
Therefore, it's the only right thing to give you some Mexican food today and ... Guacamole and Beef Wraps it will be.

I show them unwrapped to you, so you get a better picture ... or was it just the fact I couldn't stand it any longer to wait to eat the food.

Ingredients:
One ripe avocado
Juice of two limes
3-5 red chillies, finely chopped
3-5 cocktail tomatoes, quartered
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
One small onion, finely chopped
Salt, pepper
Beef steaks
Olive oil
Wheat tortillas
Cheddar cheese
Fresh coriander, chopped up

Method:
First of all marinate the beef for at  least half an hour. Oh, yes, of course, with the following, the juice of one lime, a splash of olive oil, 1-2 garlic cloves, 2-3 red chillies, salt and pepper.
Then go for the guacamole. Spoon out the flesh from your avocado and mix it together with the remaining lime juice, chillies and garlic and while we are at it, the tomatoes and onion. Season according to your taste with salt and pepper.
Now, after the beef has marinated enough, cook the meat with some more olive oil in a pan. Leave to rest afterwards and cut into pieces.
If you haven't made fresh wheat tortillas for yourself, you need to heat them up a bit now. Spread some of the guacamole on each tortilla and add a few pieces of beef. Grate over some cheddar cheese and be generous with some fresh coriander.

Ready to eat. Fold it once and eat quickly or bother to wrap things up properly and eat. Don't forget to enjoy it. If it's too hot, you are too weak or you simply need to use less chillies.

Here we go again with Bloggers Around the World: World Cup 2014 Brazil.

Additionally I will send this post over to Karen's (Lavender and Lovage) Cooking with Herbs, which is hosted this month on Lancashire food.

Alea iacta est - Avocado Salad with Egg and Salmon

No, don't expect any kind of history lesson, although this was one of my favourite subjects before I went to school and maybe the first few years while in it. That would be ancient history then with the pyramid building Egyptians and the Romans, yes, even Julius Caesar.
Indeed, 'alea iacta est' - 'the die has been cast'. Apart from that phrase and a few others, my Latin isn't that good anymore. Another one of my favourites is ... you probably think 'veni, vidi, vici', but no, it's 'mihi equus est', although that has never been true for me. I never had a horse.
'Alea iacta est', but not in the meaning of 'I have reached the point of no return', although that might be more true than the horse thingy. I guess, I better get on with my point then. 'Alea iacta est' can only mean one thing in my case: 'the die has been cast' and that in a literal kind of way. It's time for random recipe again. For that I always use my 100-sided die to determine a random cookbook. 
However, it wouldn't be random recipes, if there weren't another trick to come. Well, it would be random recipes, too, but it's more likely it comes with an additional twist.
This time it is that Dom has teamed up with Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline from Caroline Makes. The result of that is a random recipes and AlphaBakes combination. According to that we are heading for a random recipe starting with the letter 'A'.
Well, the first book that came up, didn't have any recipes with a letter 'A'. So I decided to roll the die again. Once more 'alea iacta est'. The second book was one that features dishes for 1 person. At least that would help not to eat too much this time, but would it be something lovely? Edible, sure, but would it be delicious and enjoyable?
There were indeed four recipes starting with the letter 'A', two sweet one including apples and two savoury ones. Fine, one of the savoury ones included apricots, but the die stopped on the final one ...

... Avocado Salad with Egg and Salmon. Oh, I might try that book again. The avocado salad was good and there was really not much effort involved to prepare it. In fact it took longer to randomly pick a recipe than actually making it.
You just have to have a hard-boiled egg and cut it into small pieces, peel and cut an avocado, cut some smoked salmon into stripes and whip up a dressing with a tbsp. of oil, the juice half a lemon, one tsp. of mustard, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a tsp. of rosemary and salt and ... there you go, a quick and light lunch, kind of.

I have another one for you ... 'errare humanum est' ... wait, one more ... 'in vino veritas', not that I am suggesting you are having some wine with the salad or that you I am going to reveal all my secrets, when you fill me with a bottle of wine.
Enough then with our Latin lesson, although you might need one or the other word of Latin in your life at some point.
Anyway, AlphaBakes random recipes ... I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did or ... well, it suffices already, if I enjoyed it, but there is no harm in making others enjoy things ...

Breaking Bad ... ? ... Baking Bread ... BAT sandwich ... ?

Sometimes things can be quite confusing and get mixed up. Because of that, at times I end up writing the second word even before I have started finishing the first word. Therefore baking bread can easily turn into breaking bad. Not that I want to write about any analogies between the crime drama series and the production of baked goods. I wouldn't have any ideas regarding that ... right now.
Anyway, why the confusion? Is it because of limited rain capacity, stress, information overload or any kind of subconscious dealings with hidden problems from the past. No, I don't want to take a psychological approach to bread baking either, although ... as far as I see it,breaking your own bread can be quite relaxing and you have a wonderful smell in the house and ... if you do not mess it up totally... you get a lovely tasting bread and ... for example ... you could do a delicious sandwich with your own bread, like this Open BAT sandwich ...

No, that wasn't a reference to Batman, just Bacon Avocado Tomato Sandwich.
What is your favourite approach ... no, I'm not referring to the psychological thing again ... method and way of baking your own bread?

Wrap it ... if you can - Lebanese Tomato and Feta Wrap with Harissa

I'm home again after work - home sweet home - whatever! I'm hungry. Somehow I'm not so much in the mood for proper cooking - whatever!
This week I went again to my favourite Turkish shop to get some red chillies. While there I grab some Lebanese flat breads as well. I could do for a while - maybe five or ten minutes - with just eating the plain breads with nothing added at all. After that, though, it gets boring and something with more flavour would be nice.
By the way I'm not so much focused at the moment. So preparing food can end in just throwing some things together. For lunch I just whipped up the ingredients I would use in a nice Phở, but ... without stock - I used chilli sauce instead.

Back now to the Lebanese flat bread. I like to have a wrap with it. Therefore I just take one of those breads and spread some harissa on it. I got it from that same aforementioned shop. Harissa is a seasoning paste containing cumin, coriander seeds, garlic, salt, olive and most importantly chillies. So we be generous. We want it to burn. It helps sometimes burning your sorrows away. At least you have something else to worry about.

Just throw in some erratically sliced tomatoes and some feta cheese. If you feel like having more seasoning, why not try some oregano or thyme or even some more garlic or ... that is if you are a totally crazy weirdo ... add some more chilli (I didn't do it - that means there is still a bit of hope). You might even drizzle some lemon or lime over it.

Now wrap the whole thing - if you can. I succeeded only the first try, the second one unwrapped itself again. Whatsoever, it tasted acceptably and I might even recommend to have a go at it, that is if you like the above mentioned ingredients.
If you want to be on the safe side, you can serve it with some yogurt on the side.
What else is going on? I bought an avocado as I said I would. Now initiated the process of growing an avocado tree.

However, the avocado is not just for having an avocado tree. Of course, it is also for eating. But what? Leafing through my cookbooks didn't bring any satisfying results and I didn't want to make guacamole again. After all my Lebanese wrap was satisfied with harissa already.
Then I remembered the Vietnamese Supper club with Uyen for the food revolution day this year. I had some avocado sorbet there. A recipe you can find on Uyen's blog.
Again we have a minor obstacle, not having the stated coconut juice at hand. No worries, we find a substitute.

I'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out whether it worked. I  will go to the freezer and beat it once more before I retire to bed. Somehow I'm a bit lacking of sleep. Last night it was only about four hours of sleep. I hope I don't have too many more 'sleepless' nights!

Quick Mexican snack - Quesadillas with Guacamole

At times I have a longing for Mexican food. However, there is no Mexican restaurant nearby. No worries! No big deal! Just do it yourself - as so often. Besides that making quesadillas is dead simple and doesn't take much time.  

If you have wheat tortillas, guacamole, and some nice cheese (cheddar maybe) it is really assembled in no time.

Heat some oil in a pan and place one of the tortillas in it. Spread your guacamole over it.

Bravely go on and grate some lovely cheese over it. Be generous - that is if you like cheese as much as I do.

Aftewards we go on and place a second tortilla on it. It's really that simple. 

Once the bottom tortilla has turned brown (if it starts to smell strangely in your kitchen, you waited too long), carefully turn the tortillas around to finish the other side. 

­

That would be it. However, somehow I have the feeling that there should be more. 

Of course, you can prepare the wheat tortillas yourself. Just make sure, they get big enough.

As to the guacamole, it would be really lovely, if you do it yourself. It's also quite easy and trouble free to make.

Just take a ripe avocado and half it. Remove the stone (by the way I just found an interesting article, I want to try next time I have an avocado here: planting an avocado treehttp://www.wikihow.com/Plant-an-Avocado-Tree - always like experimenting and I simply love watching how things grow). When you have removed the stone, you can spoon out the fruit and mash it up in a small bowl. You mix it then with a finely chopped onion, chilli, salt, pepper, two tomatoes, one clove of garlic and a bit of vinegar and oil. That's all!