Tortillitas de Camerones

Among the tapas I devoured in Andalusia, Spain in these past years, this crunchy ,aromatic and 

 thin shrimp fritter is one of my favourites. It reminds me of Filipino ukoy, minus the vegetables. No complains here! 

I first tried this addicting nibble about 3 years ago in Malaga, Spain. FF and I had a fantastic guided Tapa Tour on our first night in the city and among the array of fabulous foods we had that night, this shrimp pancake was by far, the one I liked  the most. I liked everything I ate that time. I tell yah. Everything. So when we went back to Spain last year, I tried ordering this particular dish ,every chance I got. Some restaurants make good shrimp fritters, other even better but there are places that made it mediocre at best. How can I tell? Well, let's just say, I ate  too much tortillitas de Camerones while in Spain that I might have cough out a shrimp or two without even knowing it.

I will be coming back to the south of Spain next week! This time, with some Filipina friends in tow. I intend to show them around the city, hit the beach, catch as much Vit. Sea as much as possible and of course, eat some mouth -watering Andalusian foods. So while counting the days , I am keeping my stubby fingers crossed that our flight won't get cancelled . Our budget airline is on strike and will be cancelling 50 flights, every freakin day til end of October!😓.

 While waiting for our holiday dooms  fate, I decided to cook some tapas this weekend to keep my spirits high and  to remind me of the good things  that yet to come. And it was pretty darn good! I could almost smell the sea and feel the Andalusian sunshine already !

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups of baby shrimps, shell, tails and all, use fresh ones if you can get it

1 egg, beaten

a medium sized red onion

2 stalk of green onion

a handful of parley, chopped

5 tbsp. all purpose flour

2 tbsp. chickpea flour

1 tsp. turmeric powder

1 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika powder

200 ml water

salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying

Let's make some Tortillitas de Camerones

 1. Put baby shrimps, onion, green onion and parsley in a big mixing bowl.

 2. Add in flours , turmeric and paprika powder. Mix well.

3. Slowly stir in water, Mix until well combined.  Batter must  not be too thick  nor too runny. If the mixture turns out dry, add more water, if it's too watery, add a spoonful of flour until you're happy with the consistency.

4. Stir in beaten egg. Season with salt and pepper. Cover bowl with cling foil and let it rest for about 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator.

5. Heat oil in a frying pan, scoop about a tablespoon of the mixture unto the hot oil, spread batter as flat as possible to make your tortillas extra crunchy.  Fry to a crisp. Dry on a paper towel and serve with lemon wedges.

One Pot Garlic Shrimp Pasta

I bought a pack of Pil Pil spice condiment in Malaga , Spain 2 months ago and have been using it quite often. I don't exactly know what's in it but it goes wonderfully well with seafoods and chicken. It's garlicky and a bit spicy . This pasta recipe is just one of the many dishes I've tried using this  spice. It's very simple yet deeply satisfying pasta dish which doesn't require a lot of washing. Lastly, only a handful of ingredients is all you need. An absolute keeper!

Pil Pil spice is also available in Amazon.

Ingredients:

250 g pasta , cooked according to packages instruction

400 g shrimps

1 tbsp. Pil Pil spice

2 tbsp. minced garlic

1/4 cup good quality olive oil

250 g cherry tomatoes, washed and keep whole

1 tsp. dried sage

Parmesan cheese, as much as you want!

a  handful of parley

salt and pepper to taste

Got 15 minutes ? Get a wide pot, pan  or even a wok and try this out!

Cook your spaghetti in salt water. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Put you pan, pot or wok back in the stove. Pat dry using a paper towel, heat olive oil in it and add the Pil Pil spice. If you can not find this condiment anywhere, just use mix smoked paprika powder and some chili powder.

Add the minced garlic. Sauté for 3 minutes.

Dump peeled, cleaned, deveined shrimps into the pot. Stir, stir  and stir until each piece is slathered in   the flavourful oil.

Next add the tomatoes. Please keep it whole. These are small bombs of flavour that burst in your palate in every mouthful. Cook  for about 5 minutes.

Add your cooked spaghetti into the pot. Carefully mix everything until .

Add your Parmesan cheese, season with salt and pepper, garnish with chopped parsley and well, that's about it! Quick and easy, like I said!

Mini Prawn scotch egg

I saw.... I drolled... I searched for its name.

 Scotch egg, it is called. Usually cooked using sausage meat and chicken egg. 

  Another recipe online using prawn inspired me, so I gave it a try. A nice finger food, amuse bouse, appetiser  or bit- sized snack, 

Ingredients:

500 g prawn, washed ,shelled and deveined

2 cloves of garlic

1 shallot

1 chilli , optional

1 small piece of ginger, peeled

2 stalks of spring onion, finely chopped

a handful of cilantro, chopped

100 g water chestnut

2 tbsp. cornflour

Seasoning: 

sesame oil, fish sauce, 1 tbsp. sugar salt & pepper

1/2  cup flour

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

oil for frying 

Cookings instructions:

 Put garlic, shallots , ginger, chilli in a mortar and pound away. You can use food processor instead. I like to use my wobbly arms today . Ground until aromatics turn into a homogenous paste. Take paste  out and set aside.

Pound shrimp/prawn in batches. 

 Add spice  paste into the prawn pate . Add finely chopped spring onion. Mix until well combined.

Finely dice water chestnut. 

Add into the prawn paste.

Add  chopped cilantro, season with sesame oil, fish sauce, sugar , salt and pepper. 

Into the prawn goes the corn starch. Mix! Mix! Mix!

Cook quails egg for 2 and half minutes. Carefully peel. Toss in flour.

Take about 1 tbsp. of prawn mixture.

Put quails egg in the middle an carefully wrap egg with prawn paste, adding more mixture if necessary. 

Gently roll prawn ball in flour.

Dip in egg.

Finally, in breadcrumbs. Tip:  Add 3 tbsp. desiccated coconut into the breadcrumbs for extra texture and flavour.

Pop in the fridge , uncovered. Could be made a day before .

Heat oil in the pan, fry until golden brown for 3-4 minutes. Serve with your favourite dip or salsa.

For bigger scotch eggs using chicken egg. Boil chicken egg for 6 minutes. Fry scotch egg for about 5-6 minutes. It makes delicious breakfast or brunch. 

Pasta Aligue with Garlic Shrimps

FF was huffing and puffing as he finally  deposit that brick of a luggage I was traveling with  in Asia. I had it with me from the Philippines,  dragged it along in Singapore, then in Bali before finally  hauling it back to Germany.

What's in there anyway, stones? He asked, as the ugly blotches of red slowly creep back off this sweaty forehead. My usually uncomplaining husband , the forever gentleman, who tend  forget that I could twist and turn patients twice my size and height and but never let be lift anything heavier than a basket of sweets when where together, groaned in exhausted frustration . We've been travelling for 36 hours and both of us are beyond weary when we finally reached our doorstep.

 He exhausted  inquiry turned to disapproving scowl as I open my luggage , exposing kilos upon kilos groceries! Yup, I bought cans  of cheap sardines, bottles of spread ,tins of biscuits among other things , as if I'm off to barren Antarctic for the next  6 months. I admit, I got carried away with buying things  that would remind me of home.
We have enough foods in Germany, you know. He reminded me, barely containing his sarcasm , as I put my loot into the pantry.

I will make it up to you, I promised my husband. Today, I had the chance to do just that.
I cook that Aligue ( crab fat) in a bottle I bought from the Philippines. How can something so inexpensive end up this delicious? If only I knew, what fine treat this cheap bottle  would bring to our plate, I should have wipe that grocery shelve clean!

The simple dish was so delicious, it's worth the Hernia risk!

Pasta Aligue

300 g of shrimps, peeled and deveined
1 tsp cayenne pepper

4 cloves of garlic

olive oil for sautéing
1 large onion, finely diced
3 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 jar aligue sauce
300 ml shrimp or fish stock
200 ml cream
salt and pepper
handful chopped parsley
a pack of your favourite pasta, cooked

1. Season shrimp with sea salt,  let it rest for 5 minutes . Heat olive oil in the pan, add shrimps , garlic and cayenne pepper. Cook until it turns opaque, about 5 minutes or less

2. Transfer shrimps to a bowl, drizzle with lemon juice, season with more salt  if necessary, pepper and add chopped parsley. Set aside.

3. Using the same pan,   melt butter under medium heat. Saute onion until  soft and fragrant. Add flour. Deglaze with shrimp/fish stock. 

3.  Bring to a boil. Stir in aligue. Bring to a gentle simmer and add in cream. Season with salt and pepper.

 4. Cook pasta according to package's instruction. Toss over sauce until well combined.

Serve with garlic shrimps .

Shrimp and Corn Chowder

Shrimp and corn jostle for the upper hand in this flavourful   and satisfying soup. Filling , yet not too rich, this will make a delicious start of a dinner celebration, or a simply enjoy it with crusty warm  bread as a light lunch. Day or night, it  will never fail to please  your palate.

Ingredients:

500 g king prawns, peeled and deveined

4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges

2 carrots, peeled and chopped roughly

1 celery stick, chopped

1 small stalk of leek, chopped

1 big onion, diced

3 tbsp. butter

1 big can of corn kernel, liquid discarded

1L shrimp/crustacean stock

300 ml water

a handful of chopped parsley

salt and pepper

Cooking Instruction :

1. Heat butter in a large pan. Add diced onion and cook gently for about 5 minutes or until aromatic and softened. 

2. Add carrots, celery, leek and potatoes. Add water and half o the stock, bring to a boil and lower the   heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

3. Using a hand held mixer or blender, process until your desired consistency is achieved, I like my chowder a bit ''chunky'' so few pulses will do. You could process it until smooth.

4. Put the thickened chowder back into the pan. Add the rest of the stock, adding more liquid if necessary . Stir in corn kernel and shrimp. Cook for about 7 minutes.

5. Stir in cream, bring to a boil , season with salt and pepper.

6. Saddle the soup into individual bowls and garnish with chopped parsley .

Shrimp and mango Spring Rolls

Conversation  with  girl friends these days are starting to get frustrating. Why?  Most talks tend to revolve around weighing scales , diet plans and something green .No, not that green. I'm talking about broccolis, beans, cucumbers, salads and like.  Not my favorite subjects, I tell you. I'm starting to miss the days when gushy girl talk  about Romnick Sarmento and his  I'll make-you- choke- on- your- own- spit gaze, are muffled over truck loads of chicirya and drums of soda. He was the Philippine's  Heart throb ( dub-dob dub-dob) of his time .   Used  to be the coolest guy on Earth, or so I believed . I young then ,with face full of zits and got no cable TV. That was long before I laid my eyes on Top Gun and Aviator glasses and Tom Cruise. Where did the years gone by ?

I invited few  girlfriends for lunch last month. Before talks and tips about how to shred unwanted pounds could even start, I whisk a some freshly deep fried spring rolls under their noses.  Served with a good dose of low-fat-not dip,  it was gone in a brisk.  LDL , 24 '' dream waistline and dietary restraints all thrown out of the window. Women, are just diabolical creatures, aren't we?

Shrimp Lumpia ala Emily

500 g, raw shrimp, peeled, divined and chopped coarsely

Marinade:  2 cloves of garlic finely  minced, 1 tsp.

grated ginger root, 1/2 tsp. sesame oil, 1 tsp light soy sauce,

2 tablespoon cornstarch

1 big mango, stone remove, flesh cubed or sliced, your call.

salt and pepper

1 small egg beaten

Spring roll wrapper, Oil for deep frying

Cooking Instructions:

Mix raw shrimp and the marinade mixture  ( exept cornstarch) together  Refrigerated for about 30 minutes. Before wrapping, season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle cornstarch.

Place spring roll wrapper on a work surface. Brush edges with beaten egg. Place about a tablespoon of  marinated shrimp and about 2 tablespoon of cubed/sliced mango. Form filling into a log, fold the lower edge of the wrapper over the filling. Fold the left and the right edges like an envelop. Roll up tightly. Repeat until shrimp filling and mangoes are used up.

Heat oil in deep fryer/ wok or pan. Deep fry spring rolls until golden brown. Serve piping hot and with  your favourite sauce. Like Garlic Aioli or sweet-chili Mayo dips.

  

Perfect finger food. Worth every damn calorie!

Filipino style Arroz Valenciana

Every time I go back home to the Philippines, Nanay always asked what I want to have as my first welcome home meal.  I could request a whole lechon and I know, my Family will go scourge the neighborhood and beyond for the most promising swine to satisfy my home sicked palate. Anything for the long gone child,per se.

To answer that question,  I always and I mean always, requested Tinolang Manok ( native chicken soup), grilled tuna jaw and lastly, something that might request the most work, the Arroz Valenciana . 

My mother's brothers can cook tasty Valencianas. They're the official cooks in the family . So during family feasts and celebrations,  if there will be a pig squealing, chicken chucking or ducks quacking, they are the men behind the animals' distress calls. Don't take it against them or our family, they are farmers who raised animals, very well if I may add ,( much better than how commercialized animals in most develop countries are raised) and slaughter it, for food.
 Valenciana Is always present in our family get together and reuinon. Eating it is somehow interlaced with good times with family and close friends. 

I was feeling under the weather lately and missing my country. It would be another year for the next holiday, so I end up doing something that could make me feel like I'm back home, enjoying a festivity with my big and loud family. Pleasure the palate and soothe the mind. Food really comforts me. 

It was quite a lot of work to cook this dish but it worth it. I was quite happy with the result. By our next family reunion, I'm going to cook this and make my uncle Dodong and Uncle Cito proud of me.

Ingredients:

350 g sticky rice + 300 g jasmine rice

1 L chicken stock

1 tsp. turmeric powder ( originally, astuete or annato seed is used but I can't find it here)

1 chicken leg, chopped into bite size pieces

350 g pork shoulder, sliced into bite size pieces

200 g pork liver , sliced

300 g shrimps, shelled

1 medium sized onion, diced

4 - 6 cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 red bell pepper, cut into small squares

2 tbsp tomato purée/ paste

1 cup of raisin

1 cup of green peas

3 bay leaves

Oil for sautéing

Salt and pepper

Fish sauce

Cooking Instructions:

1.Cook sticky rice, jasmine rice in the rice cooker. Use about 800 ml of the chicken broth, add salt and turmeric, mix well until rice is submerged in the yellow tinged broth. 

The Protein cast and characters.

2.While rice is cooking. Chop and slice meat and vegetable and set aside.

3.Heat vegetable or olive oil in a non stick pan big enough to hold the protein chunks and carbs.Sauté diced onion until translucent, add in chopped garlic. Add in chicken and pork slices. Keep stirring  and cook for about 10 mins. 

Hello Iron!

4.Add in the liver.

 5.Add a dash of fish sauce. Put bay leaves in the pan. Season well with salt and pepper, cover and simmer for about 8 mins under high heat.

 

6. Take the lid out. Add chopped Bell peppers, peas and raisins. Stir! Stir! Stir!

7.Dissolve the tomato purée in the remaining 200 ml of chicken broth. Add the mixture into the Pan. Let it simmer for another 10 mins, uncovered.

8.Add in the just cooked rice into the pan. Mix thoroughly.

9.Stir in shrimps. Cover Pan until shrimps are cooked or turn pink. Mine was already glazed so it only took 5 more mins. Test taste. Season with more salt, pepper or fish sauce if needed.

Well? What are you waiting for? Dig in and enjoy!