Tag: bite

Patatas bravas: one bite and you're in Spain right away! – Italian Cuisine

Served as an aperitif or a snack in Spanish restaurants and bars, patatas bravas are delicious fried potatoes with a slightly spicy sauce

If you have been on vacation in Spain do you know that the Spaniards prefer the conviviality of an aperitif with many different appetizers to lunch, the famous tapas. Colorful, tasty, delicious, tapas are accompanied with a nice glass of sangria, a lot of chatting and eating a Madrid like in seaside bars. Among the many tapas, one of the favorites, even for tourists, are the famous ones patatas bravas: French fries accompanied by a sauce that varies according to the area of Spain in which they are cooked. Their origin is not very clear. He talks about it Ángel Muro neither El Practicón, a treaty of 1893, introducing the use of saffron for the sauce. According to others, patatas bravas originated in some Spanish bars, but what is certain is that it is a popular dish and that it is even better enjoyed with a cervezto (a beer, in Spanish) ice cold. But how are they prepared? Here is the recipe.

The patatas bravas recipe

Ingredients

For the potatoes: 1 kg of potatoes (preferably yellow flesh), seed oil and salt to taste

For the sauce: 150 ml of tomato puree, half a red onion, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a few drops of Tabasco, extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste, Worcester sauce to taste.

Method

Start with the sauce that will accompany your patatas bravas.

Chop the onion, then place it in a saucepan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and let it dry. Then add the tomato puree and apple cider vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.

Add a few drops of Tabasco, the worcester sauce (if it is the first time you use it, try it before adding it!), the salt. Blend everything. Some add a few tablespoons of mayonnaise at this point to make the sauce creamier, evaluate the result and possibly try to do it with a minimum part of the dressing.

Wash and peel the potatoes. Then cut them into cubes (or into wedges, as you prefer). Boil them for a few minutes in boiling salted water (they must not become too soft or they will turn into a puree instead of becoming crunchy in frying!).

Prepare plenty of seed oil in a saucepan, let it heat up and try the heat with a crumb of bread or a piece of potato. If it sizzles it's ready. Transfer the potatoes and fry them. When they are golden, transfer them to a plate with absorbent paper to remove the extra oil. Serve hot with their sauce.

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how to choose the right one for a summer to bite … – Italian Cuisine

Sindria, cetrone, pateca, zipangulu: every region has the word to say it. And besides, watermelon is truly one of the most iconic fruits of the summer. Not to mention its beauty and its photogenicity, the fact that it is an accomplice (almost always) of a balanced diet and that it is thirst-quenching like few foods. In short, watermelon is the queen of summer. It is diuretic and stimulates the intestine, even if this false berry, or peponide, is not among the most dietary fruits and is not suitable for those with irritable bowels, since its fiber ferments. The ideal? Consume it in salads or appropriately made popsicles, generously, but without exceeding. And above all, to choose it well, an exercise that is by no means trivial.

Connoisseur's exercise
In fact it is not easy to recognize the hidden qualities (and the most obvious). The real danger is that it is not sufficiently mature (the same problem that occurs with its "colleague" melon) and the real threat is obviously represented by the fact of not being able to see the content, wonderfully covered by that striped skin that surrounds the pulp .

Whole, always
Here are some tricks. First rule, all too obvious (but repetita juvant) is to always buy it whole and never just a slice, even if the temptation to parcelise it is high, considering how cumbersome it is.

The fascination of the opaque
The skin must be firm, symmetrical and free of dents and scars. Be careful because, despite the aesthetic harmony, the dark and opaque skin is a good sign compared to the more gaudy colors. The streaks must be defined and close together, a symptom of thin skin and tasty pulp.

Knock Knock
As with the melon it is good to knock waiting for the fruit to give us the right feedback. Which in the case of watermelon must be a dull and empty sound.

The point of support
Another precious clue is represented by the color of the point where it rested on the ground during maturation, which should be creamy yellow. If it is white or greenish it is the signal instead that the maturation is not complete.

The petiole
Last but not least the last important sign to grasp is in the stalk, that if the fruit is ripe it must be dry and possibly curly. In the watermelon ready to be tasted and bitten it comes off almost alone.

The weight of water
Finally, remember that the more watermelon weighs and the more, in proportion to its size, it will be rich in water, an unequivocal sign of a correct maturation.

Emanuela Di Pasqua
17 July 2019

DISCOVER THE SALT AND PEPPER COOKING COURSES

The mussel in one bite – Italian Cuisine

Why always enjoy it the same way?

Better to fill it with imagination and bring it to the table as finger food in its shell, as in a saucer!

First of all

Clean the mussels by scraping the shells with a small knife, then rinse them under water. Detach the filament that comes out of the valves, pulling towards the rounded part and not towards the tip. Open in a saucepan with a drizzle of oil and a clove of garlic for 5-6 minutes. Eliminate the empty valves.

WE COOKED FOR YOU

Mussels with yogurt and spring onion mayonnaise