CHICKEN SOUVLAKI

We will travel to Greece. I wish I could go there again in real life. But we will go to Greece by cooking. Today we will cook Chicken Souvlaki.
More meat cooked in skewers. This time it will be chicken, but normally pork is the meat chosen for this recipe. Souvlaki is very popular in Greece, and as you surely know, you can find meat in skewers in many countries. They have different names, they are cooked in different ways, different meats, vegetables or even fish are used with the skewers. But all of them are delicious. Now, Chicken Souvlaki.

Ingredients:

½ pound breast chicken
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ cup sliced onion
½ cup sliced green pepper
Some extra virgin olive oil to sauté the onion and the green pepper
Some pita bread
Half a lemon

First we will prepare the chicken cutting it in cubes. Once the chicken is cut, we will put the chicken pieces in a container. We will add the oregano, the salt, the black pepper, the olive oil, the red wine and the garlic powder. We will mix everything well and we will let it marinate for about four hours.
To make your Souvlaki you can use wooden or metal skewers. I will use metal skewers this time. If you use wooden ones, you should soak them in water for some minutes before threading the meat.
When the chicken is ready, we will thread the pieces of chicken on the skewers. We will put the skewers with the chicken on an oven tray and will put the tray in the oven. The oven must be preheated to 400ºF. Cook the chicken for about 20 minutes or till they are done.
While the chicken is being cooked, we will heat some extra virgin olive oil in a pan and we will sauté the onion and the green pepper slices. Just for a couple of minutes.
Remove the chicken from the skewers.
Once we have the chicken and the onion and green pepper ready, we will serve them on pita bread. Squeeze the lemon on the dish and enjoy your Chicken Souvlaki.

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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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GROUND BEEF TACOS

Let’s cook some tacos. Mexican? Tex-Mex? Good, anyway. This is what I call comfort food. And you can use your imagination to make your tacos. You can fill them with the ingredients you like. I will show you the tacos I made today. Tomorrow they may be different.

Ingredients:

Some vegetable oil
½ chopped onion
½ cup chopped green pepper
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
½ lb ground beef
½ cup cubed squash
½ cup frozen corn
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 chopped arbol chili
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Some fresh cilantro
4 tablespoons mole
½ chopped tomato
Some lettuce
Some salt to taste
Some taco shells
Some sour cream
Some shredded cheese
Some guacamole

We will start preparing all the ingredients. First we will cut the vegetables. Then we will heat some oil in a pan. Not too much oil. We will sauté the onion and the green pepper. Do not use all the onion now because we will need some later. We will add the garlic in a couple of minutes. And then we will add the ground beef. We can add the frozen corn now too. We will stir the ground beef and let it cook for some minutes. When the ground beef gets a brown color, we will add the spices. Add the cumin, the oregano, the arbol chili, the black pepper and some salt to taste. Stir again. Then we will add the cilantro and let it cook for one more minute.
We have to prepare the mole too. To do this we will use another pan. We will heat the mole in the pan for three minutes. That will be enough.
Now we will prepare a little salad for our tacos. We will mix the tomato, the lettuce and the rest of the onion.
We only have to serve our tacos. We will fill them with some of the ground mixture, some mole, some salad, some sour cream, some shredded cheese and some guacamole.
And now enjoy your tacos!

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