ARAGONESE LAMB

Back to my roots. The ideal thing would to cook this with Ternasco de Aragón, a very tender young lamb from Aragón, my home land. But as I could not get that, I will cook it with the lamb I could get in the supermarket. Let’s go to the kitchen.

Ingredients:

½ lb lamb steak

2 potatoes

Some extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, chopped

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon rosemary

½ teaspoon parsley

¼ teaspoon sage

Some salt to taste

Some freshly ground black pepper

To start with our recipe, wash and peel the potatoes. Then slice them. Get ½-inch slices. Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a pan, and when it is hot, start frying the potato slices. Do it in both sides but do not fry them completely because they will go to the oven later. Get rid of some of the oil in the potato slices.

Then put the potato slices on an oven tray. The lamb must go on top of the potatoes. Add some salt, black pepper and some drops of olive oil. The oven must be preheated to 350ºF. Let it cook and have a look from time to time. If you see that the meat is too dry, you can add some drops of water or more olive oil. The lamb will be ready in 30-45 minutes, depending on how thick the pieces are. Always have a look to the meat in the oven. You do not want it too done.

Meanwhile you can prepare a seasoning with some extra virgin olive oil, the garlic and the herbs and spices: oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, salt and black pepper. Mix this well. Five minutes before the lamb is done, add the seasoning to the meat, on top of it. Make sure the herbs are not burned.

Serve the lamb with the potato slices. Something delicious. Enjoy!

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BAKLAVA

A dessert from the Mediterranaean. This is really good. I love these Baklava and one day I decided to try to make them myself. Not bad indeed. I will show you how. It is some work but in the end the resultas are really good.

Ingredients:

A packet of filo dough

Some butter, unsalted and melted

2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

2 tablespoons almonds, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons chopped hazelnuts

2 tablespoons chopped raisins

½ ground cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 tablespoon rose water or orange blossom water

1 tablespoon honey

To start with our Baklava we will prepare our filo dough. I buy it frozen. Making it at home is quite hard. And the one you can buy frozen is really good. Filo dough is very thin dough. You use it in many layers. It is very fragile so you have to be very careful while handling it. You can buy frozen filo dough in almost any grocery now. You will have to let the filo dough thaw by itself. Follow the instructions in the package. Once it is ready, reserve it.

While the filo is thawing, we will make the syrup. To do this, take a small pan and put in it the brown sugar, ⅓ of the volume of sugar in water, that is to say, ⅓ of half a cup water, the rose water or orange blossom water and the lemon and orange juice. Heat it, and when it boils, let it simmer for about five minutes, stirring with a spoon. Once it is done, let it cool and when it is cool enough, put it in the fridge. The syrop must not be too thick.

Now we will prepare the filo and its filling. For the filling, take a bowl and put all the nuts there. Add the cinnamon too. Mix well with some drops of honey so that the filling is a bit moist. You have to make enough so that there is plenty of it for the filling.

We will come back to the filo dough now. Prepare a shallow oven container. Spread some melted butter on it. Take a sheet of filo dough and put it in the container. Brush it gently with melted butter. Do this layer by layer. A layer of filo, a layer of butter, a layer of filo… Do not overuse butter, though. You just have to put a thin layer of butter to wet the filo. It is hard work, but in the end, the the results will be amazing. When you have used half the filo, it will time to spread the nut filling. I normally make only one layer of filling, but if you want, you can divide the filling in several layers. Once you have spread the filling, go on with the layers of filo and butter, as we have done previously. And with this, we will finish preparing the baklava.

Turn on the oven to 350ºF. Put the tray with the baklava inside the oven. Bake it for 45 minutes. When the baklava gets a golden color, take it out of the oven and then it is the time of pour the cold syrup over it. Let it cool at room temperature and when it is cold enough, put it in the fridge. Now the syrup will have to wet the filo and the filling.

The secret is the difference in temperature. If the filo with the filling are hot, the syrup has to be cold. It can also be done the other way around: the filo and the filling cold, and the syrup hot. I have not tried it this way, though.
To serve it, cut the Baklava in little pieces with a very sharp knife. Now you only have to do once thing. Enjoy your Baklava!

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