HARIRA

Today we will travel to the North of Africa. Harira is a delicious soup/stew, similar in a way to the Spanish Cocido but in fact, closer to a soup than to a stew. It should be cooked with lamb but you can use beef if you want. It can also be made without meat. The results are also delicious. This recipe is for a pressure cooker. An easy and convenient way to cook it. And good. Try. You’ll see.

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpeas

½ cup lentils

½ chopped onion

1 chopped carrot

½ cup chopped celery

1 clove of garlic, chopped

½ pound lamb, cut in not very small pieces

Some extra virgin olive oil

8 oz crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon parsley

1 tablespoon cilantro

Some salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon powdered ginger

A pinch of powdered cinnamon

A pinch of saffron

Some flour

1 egg, beaten

Some fine pasta, like fideo or vermicelli

The first thing to do is soaking chickpeas and lentils on water overnight.

The next day put some oil in the pressure cooker. When it is hot, add the lamb and sear it for about three minutes. Then add the vegetables, cut and prepared previously (onion, carrot, celery and garlic). Add the chickpeas and lentils to the cooker too. Add the crushed tomatoes but reserve one tablespoon more or less. Then add the parsley, the cilantro, the spices and the saffron. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Let it cook for about two minutes and then cover everything with water. Close the pressure cooker and follow the instructions for your cooker. With my cooker, I wait till it starts steeming and then I have it cooking for 20 minutes at a lower fire.

In the meantime, mix half a cup of hot water with a tablespoon of flour and the tablespoon of crushed tomatoes we had reserved.

When you can open the cooker, add the vermicelli, the mixture with the flour and the beaten egg. Go on cooking at a low fire. The Harira will be finished while the pasta is being cooked.

And then it will be ready. A wonderful dish. Harira. Serve hot. Enjoy!

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PINTO BEAN STEW

I love bean stews. We should eat them more often. Today we will eat Pinto Bean Stew. Let’s cook.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry Pinto Beans

½ chopped green pepper

½ chopped red pepper

½ chopped squash

½ cup chopped celery

½ chopped onion

1 clove of garlic, chopped

Some extra virgin olive oil

Some salt to taste

Some freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon Jamaican curry powder

½ teaspoon sweet pimentón

1 Spanish green guindilla, chopped

To start with our recipe you will have to soak the beans in water overnight. Make sure you use enough water. The next day remove the water and put the water in a pan with plenty of water. Add some olive oil, just a teaspoon and a pinch of salt. Cook the beans, bringing them first to a boil and then turn down the fire. Cook them till the beans are soft. When they are done, remove but keep the liquid.

While the beans are being cooked, we will prepare the vegetables. Heat some oil in a pan and sauté the the pepper, the celery and the onion. Add the squash, the garlic and the bay leaves three minutes later. Then add the oregano, the thyme, the curry powder, the pimentón and the guindilla too. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now, add the contents in the pan to the beans. And now we can add the liquid we want to our beans, according to your taste. If you like soup, add more liquid. If you prefer your beans thicker, add less liquid. Simmer for some minutes. And then serve and enjoy!

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SCOTTISH GUINNESS STEW

A stew for today. And one with a beer touch. And not any beer. We are talking about Guinness. A stew made with Guinness. Delicious. Let’s cook!

Ingredients:

1 chopped carrot

1 small chopped onion

2-3 cubed potatoes

2 bay leaves

1 clove of garlic, chopped

½ can Guinness Stout (not bottled)

Some beef stock or water (better results with stock, of course)

1 pound stew beef, cubed

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried parsley

Some extra virgin olive oil

Some salt to taste

Some freshly ground black pepper

Some flour

I will use the pressure cooker to make the stew. However, you can do it in a regular pan too. And even in a crock pot with really wonderful results. Slow is better from my point of view, but if you are in a hurry, you can use the pressure cooker. I will show you how today.

First we will prepare all the vegetables.

Get a Guinness can. Do not use a bottle.

Then we will seal the meal a bit in the pressure cooker using some drops of extra virgin olive oil.

Then we will add carrots, onion and potatoes and cook for a minute. Add the rest of ingredients except the flour and cover it with the beer and the beef stock. Close the pressure cooker and follow the instructions to cook the stew for about 20 minutes.

Once it is cooked, and when the pressure cooker is ready to open, remove the bay leaves. Then add some flour, spoonful by spoonful, stirring thoroughly to make the stew thicker. Add only the necessary flour to get this. Do not use too much flour. Let it cook for a couple of minutes.
And it will be ready to be served. A wonderful stew. Enjoy!

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COCIDO

We will go to Spain today. Cocido is a recipe you can find in many regions in Spain. Almost every region has its own Cocido. I will cook mine with the ingredients I could find here in the States. I will use a pressure cooker. You can do it in a more traditional way, of course, but pressure cookers are very useful and they give you good results.
Cocido is like a stew with meat and vegetables. Normally it contains lots of fat. But I will make a low fat Cocido. Let’s start.

Ingredients:

2 cups garbanzos (chickpeas)
3 small potatoes
1 carrot
1 green pepper
½ onion
1 clove of garlic
½ chicken breast
1 pork loin fillet
A little serrano ham
1 chorizo
1 morcilla
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Some water
Some salt to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon parsley
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon sweet pimentón
3 oz fideo (vermicelli pasta)

To cook our Cocido we will have to prepare the garbanzos first. We will soak them in water overnight.
We will prepare the vegetables. We will peel and cut the potatoes in medium pieces. We will chop the carrot, the green pepper and the onion. We will chop finely the garlic. You can add other vegetables if you want. For example, you can add celery and leek. Cauliflower is added in many cocidos. Feel free to do it if you like it.
Now we will prepare the meat we will use in our Cocido. We will have to cut the chorizo, the pork, the serrano ham, the chicken and the morcilla. Morcilla is like a kind of blood sausage. There are several kinds of morcilla. I like using one that has rice in it. You can use the one you can get, if you can get any.
Now we will take the pressure cooker and put some water in it. It will be enough water to cook the garbanzos. Do not put too much water, though. We will bring it to a boil and then we will add the garbanzos. Then we will boil the garbanzos for about five minutes. Now is the moment of adding the rest of the ingredients. We have to make sure we have enough water. If you need it, you will have to add some water so that all the ingredients are covered with liquid.
I add some turmeric to give my Cocido some colour. This is not really orthodox but I prefer turmeric to one of those artificial food colourings. You do not really need these artificial products.
Once we have all the ingredients in the pressure cooker, we will follow the instructions of the cooker. We will close the pressure cooker and, in my case, with my cooker, I will have it cooking for 20 minutes, starting to count when the cooker starts steaming. You just have to follow the instructions of your pressure cooker.
When we can open the cooker, as we should wait till it cools a bit, we will prepare a soup with the fideos. To do this we will remove some of the liquid from the cooker and we will cook the fideos using that liquid. We will do this in another pan. This is very good. By doing this you will have this delicious fideo soup that will be a part of our Cocido.
Serve the fideo soup and the Cocido and enjoy it.

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MARMITAKO

A fish stew from Spain. This is a delicious fish stew that Basque fishermen cooked themselves in the boat. They fished for tuna and bonito and made it their meal. Fresh fish, for sure. And good vegetables. Potatoes, peppers, garlic… Really delicious. I cannot avoid envying those fishermen eating their tuna and potato stew. But we can cook it too. Let’s do it.

Ingredients:

1 pound tuna, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Some tomato sauce
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
1 cayenne pepper
Some extra virgin olive oil

To cook our Marmitako, first we will cube the tuna. Then we will sear the tuna for a while in a pan with hot oil. We will reserve the tuna. The next step will be to cook the onion and the green pepper in the same pan. Two minutes later we will add the diced potatoes and the garlic. Then we will let this cook for five minutes. Now it is the moment to add the tomato sauce, not too much. We will add the spices now: parsley, cayenne pepper, bay leaf, salt and pepper. We will add some water now, just to cover our stew. We will turn down the fire and cook it for about 20 minutes. At the last moment we will add the tuna. And in a couple of minutes we will have our Marmitako ready. Delicious!

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GOULASH

I discovered Goulash when I visited Hungary some years ago. I had heard about it but I had never tasted it. And it was such a discovery for me. I have developed my own Goulash recipe… by now I am sure you will know I am so brave to do this. I just hope Hungarians do not think I am too brave. Let’s cross fingers!
My Goulash is a pressure cooker Goulash. It is fast but delicious.

Ingredients:

1 pound beef chuck
1 small chopped onion
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
8 black peppercorns, some whole, some split
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 large peeled diced potatoes
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 chopped carrot
½ cup chopped squash
½ chopped green pepper
1 chopped seeded red chilli
1 teaspoon mixed herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary)
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
Some water

First we will cut the beef in cubes. They must not be too large. Then we get all the rest of the ingredients ready. Peel and cut the potatoes, chop the onion, garlic, green pepper, squash, carrot and red chilli. Once you have everything ready, put the oil in the pressure cooker and let it heat a bit. Then season the meat with salt and put it in the cooker. Seal the meat for some minutes stirring the beef. Now you only have to add the rest of the ingredients. Add water so that all the ingredients are covered by it. And then follow the instructions of your cooker. Close the pressure cooker and proceed according to the instructions. Once it is done, open the cooker.What I do now is to remove some liquid and prepare with that a noodle soup in another pan. You just have to add some noodles and let them cook. In this way you will have two dishes, the Goulash noodle soup and the Goulash itself. Maybe it is not too proper for a Goulash but, why not trying? Another option is to prepare some dumplings. For this you will need all the Goulash broth, so you will not be able to make the Goulash noodle soup. You will need one egg, five tablespoons of flour and a bit of salt. Mix this and let it stand for 30 minutes. Then, with the help of a spoon drop the dumplings into the cooker. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes when the dumplings come up to the top. And then, serve it. Close your eyes and imagine being in Hungary on a cold evening enjoying your Goulash.

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