The starter: Angulas (baby eels Spanish style)
We picked up the large tiger prawns from our friend Santi along with some meats and some eels. Yes, eels. See photo of the pan which looks as though it contains white worms. Gag. Anyway, they are really delicious - heat them up with olive oil, freshly fried garlic and piquillos (we brought these little peppers back from Italy), and serve with warm bread. It took me months to get over the grossness of eating eels that resemble worms, but I'm glad I did. We also served some lomo, serrano and figs.
The proper starter: Shrimps Spanish style
I washed the prawns (gagging more than a few times when removing their long antennae), rubbed them with olive oil, then dredged them in rock salt. I then left them covered in the fridge for 2 hours to fully absorb the oil and salt. Just before you're ready to serve the dish, get your griddle, drizzle over 2 tablespoons of good olive oil, fry each prawn for at least 3 mins on each side over a relatively high heat. You'll generate mucho smoke...be warned... toss over a handle of parsley and give the prawns a final flip over or two - then serve with lime wedges.
The main dish: Beouf Bourgignon
I never thought I'd try a recipe for a classic French dish as written by a non-French person...but having watched Julie/Julia on the plane last week, I couldn't resist.
The beef dish was surprisingly time-consuming; though I kept reminding myself that this was the Cordon Bleu style, not cooking.com and to just get on with it...anyway, by the time it was done, I felt like I'd really achieved something very grown up! I used this website link...
http://cooking.knopfdoubleday.com/2009/07/13/julia-childs-boeuf-bourguignon-recipe/
I opened up the thumbnail pdf of the recipe and off I went.
I found it helped to have everything cut, prepared and measured out before I began. A little bit Blue Peter but it worked.
All was going swimmingly until I got to the part at the end that tells you to see page 483 for how to stock braise the onions. Nice. I'm not sure what came over me, but I decided to wing it - I used small white onions (as used for boiling or pickling) and sauteed them in lots of butter until they softened - then when the butter had all but gone, I added a cup of beef stock. I left this to simmer for 10 mins and threw in a couple of sage leaves. No salt, as the beef had plenty enough.
Other than the made-up onion part, I followed the recipe to the word - doing the long version where you separate the sauce from the meat and finish it off in two parts.
I served the beef alongside a small piling of fresh fettucine - drowned in butter just before serving.
Divine
Pudding:
Chocolate cake made by Claudia. Delicious, as always.
