Pork belly braised in onion and gin

Pork Belly braised in a rich stock of caramelized onion with gin. Serves 4

1 kg lean pork belly with skin removed.

4 onions chopped

3 carrots pelled & sliced lengthways

1 stick of celery sliced lengthways

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 litre of veg stock

1 bay leaf

4 sage leaves and a sprig of rosemary.

1 small wine glass of Gin

Carefully remove the skin from the meat and then roll and tie it with butcher's string. Salt & pepper, brown well in a casserole with olive oil. Remove while you cook the onions. Cook them fairly slowly until they are nicely brown and caramelized. Add carrot, celery, garlic, herbs and a small wine glass of gin. Cook for a minute then return meat to pan and add stock.

Cover with lid ajar and cook for around 2 hours or 2 and a half.

Turn the meat from time to time and keep an eye on the stock; throw in a bit more water if needs.

Remove meat to rest and strain the sauce. Reduce this sauce a little and throw in a bit of butter.

I served with baked piped potato and the veggie onion mix from the stock on the side.

Carme´s Cava Salsa

Thanks to Carme Ruscalleda.

Salsa de Cava

1 bottle of Cava
6 egg yolks
200 g sugar
1 vanilla pod (prepared)
20 g corn flour

Put all the ingrediants in a pan, mix well and put on the heat. Keep stirring.
Sauce should thicken at 85 degrees.
I served this with Chocolate Olivada Truffles.

Chocolate Olivada Truffles

Truffles with black olive.

120 g pitted black olives
160 g double cream
200 g chocolate (70%)
50 g Butter
1 orange zest
Chocolate powder (drinking)

Use good quality olives. I bought at the market and pitted them.
Put the cream to heat and before it boils throw in the chocolate in chunks and melt.
Whuzz the olives with a hand blender and add to the chocolate cream. Add the orange zest
and the butter in pieces. Mix. Place in a shallow dish and refrigerate for several hours.
When ready to make the truffles scoop a teaspoon full of mixture and throw into chocolate powder then form into balls. However you do this it is MESSY - but worth it.

I served them in a Cava salsa.

Piquillo Pepper Sauce

In Spain you can find sweet red peppers in tins that have been peeled. Skin roasted off - is best.
I made this pebrot (pimiento) de piquillo sauce in Cadaques off the cuff because there wasn´t enough Brandada (salt cod paté) to fill them - but I really wanted the combination.


2 cloves of garlic
glug of extra virgin olive oil
2 tins of pimientos de piquilo (or oven blast 3 sweet red peppers, cool, and peel)
1 tomato grated (cut in half and grate so you don´t add skin)

Peel and (knife) squash the garlic, chop, and cook for a minute or so, don´t brown - in olive oil.
Add the peppers and a grated tomato and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add salt & pepper and whooze into a fine paste.

Very versatile sauce. I served with Brandada. Salt cod.

Smoked Salmon Carbonara

This quick pasta dish was prepared for some Finns in Italy to give them a taste of home. It's not about serving tonnes of sauce or meat/fish. This type of dish is about creating a good strong flavour to work with the pasta.

Smoked Salmon approx 100g for 4 people

Single cream 200ml

2 egg yolks

Good pinch of dried dill

Fresh chopped parsley

Teaspoon of chopped capers

Salt & Pepper

Chop the salmon into small pieces and mix with the cream and all the other ingredients.

Cook some pasta and drain, whilst piping hot add it to the cream/salmon,

stir well (the heat will cook the egg) and serve with some fresh parmesan.

Hake Suquet

2 filets of hake

2 large potatoes

1 big clove of garlic

olive oil

fish stock

bay leaf

parsley

prawns (if you're feeling flashy)

You can't get more Catalan than Suquet. The Es Baluard restaurant in Cadaqués cooks a superb traditional Suquet; it's basically a one pan fish & potato dish - it's scarily simple.

This is a fairly quick meal for two.

Scrub up the spuds and slice them as thinly as you can. Toss them into a hot pan with a good glug of olive oil, give them a stir and keep them on a high heat while you squash & chop a garlic clove. Add the garlic and some salt and pepper, sometimes a chopped tomato is added now. Make some fish stock and (just) cover the spuds with it, add the bay. Cook vigorously for 5 minutes

Meanwhile lightly salt & pepper your Hake filets. Place the fish on top of the spuds and cover with the lid allowing some of the steam to escape, if you are adding prawns put them in with the Hake. Give it about 10 minutes. The potatoes should be fairly browned on the pan base and the sauce good, garlicky and gloopy! Add some parsley before serving.

The Suquet in Cadaqués is cooked with Monkfish and Gambas (fresh from Port de la Selva). Check it out: Es Baluard.

Artichokes with salty butter thyme sauce

12 artichoke heads

...

Cooking stock:

1.5 litres of water

2 tbs salt

3 bay leaves

1 clove of garlic - halved

juice of 1 big lemon

large sprig of fresh thyme

300 ml white wine

...

Sauce:

150 g unsalted butter

1 can of anchovies in olive oil

strands of finely julienned lemon peel (1 tsp)

1 big clove of garlic

thyme leaves (fresh)

black pepper

People are put off by 'preparing artichokes' and anchovies. Artichokes are easier then the instructions for cleaning suggest. Really you're just trying to get to the softer fruit in the centre of all those leaves. And anchovies are one of the best 'secret ingredients' you can use.

Put the Cooking stock ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil; while it's heating clean the artichokes. Don't worry about rubbing them with lemon - just do them quickly and pop them into the stock - if you can't do it rapidly pop them into a mixture of cold water with the juice of 2 lemons (to stop browning). Trim the stalk down to a less fibrous thickness; pull off a good few of the outer leaves until they look lighter green and softer; cut off the top half of the bulb and using a small teaspoon twist out the flowery fluffy bit inside. Then cut down the length and add to the stock.

Cook these a good 20 minutes or until they are quite soft. Meanwhile, make the buttery sauce.

Gently warm the butter in a sauce pan; roughly chop the anchovies then add with a bit of the can oil. In the pan using a fork (carefully) mash them in the melted butter; let it warm a minute then add a finely sliced clove of garlic; this mixture must then very gently take a slightly golden brown colour. Not long before serving add the fresh thyme leaves and some black pepper while still on the heat.

Drain the artichokes and let them stand for a minute or two to drain off the liquid.

Arrange on a plate. Add the lemon julienne (super thin strands of lemon peel - no white/pith) to the butter sauce and then drizzle over the artichokes. Serve with a good fluffy bread to soak up the salty buttery juice.