Steamed mussels with fries (moules frites)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Steamed mussels are considered the 'National dish' of Belgium, they are always accompanied by the famous Belgian Fries.

Ingredients (2 people):

•   1 Kg mussels.
•   2 onions.
•   2 celery branches.
•   4 blades of thyme.
•   2 bay leaves.
•   2 or 3 White wine glasses.
•   60 grams of butter.
•   Salt.
•   Pepper.

Method:

1-   Clean mussels.
2-   Cut onions into thin slices.

3-   Cut celery into pieces (including Green part).

4-   Melt butter in a saucepan.

5-   Add onions and celery until they become transparent.

6-   Add mussels and stirr well, mussels will start to reléase their juice.

7-   After 3 minutes , add wine , bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
Mix well.

8-   Once mussels are open, they are ready to be consumed.
Serve them accompanied by fries and buttered bread to dipp into the sauce.

My Comments to the Recipe

When I was in Belgium a could try mussels and fries, it just was the same recipe I have presented, celery has a peculiar taste, you shouldn't get rid of it, it provides the real taste of belgian mussels.

Mussels are soft and delicious.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

 

Belgium

Belgian endive with ham au gratin

                                                                               Receta en Español

Endive is known as 'Belgian White Gold'.

Endivie does not grow wild in nature, its natural form is chicory, which has green leaves and is quite bitter.

The discovery of the way of growing was made by Belgians, it dates from the time when Belgium was formed.
In 1830, during the Belgian revolution, a farmer from Schaerbeek, Jan Lammers, watched skirmishes near his farm, he decided to leave; to protect his products , he covered them with ground.Among his crops he had chicory, widely consumed in Belgium at the time.After a few weeks, when the farmer returned to his farm, he was surprised by the fact that chicory had grown with white leaves , and its taste was less bitter, this new chicory was called 'witloof' (White leaf in Flemish).Years later,Frans Bresiers, the head of the Belgian National Botanical Garden, made a few tests and grew the endive the way we know it today.Belgium is the country in the world where endives are eaten in greater quantity, Today I present you a very popular Belgian recipe, endices wrapped with ham and cheese bechamel ,really delicious!.

Ingredients:

•   8 endives.
•   8 ham slices.
•   400 ml milk.
•   2 cloves of garlic.
•   4 tablespoons flour.
•   150 grams of butter.
•   300 grams grated cheese (better if gruyère).
•   1 teaspoon of sugar.
•   Salt.
•   Pepper.
•   Nutmeg.

Method:

1-   Clean endives and take out the outer leaves, cut the base.

2-   Chop finely garlic cloves.

3-   Melt 50 grams butter in a saucepan medium heat.

4-   Add endives to the pan, add sugar, put the quantity of water you need to half cover the endives.

5-   Cook covered at medium heat for 15 minutes. Five minutes after starting cooking add the garlic.

6-   Stirr regularly , after 15 minutes endives will be slightly caramelized:

7-   Place endives on an absorbent paper , let them dry for 30 minutes. (Keep the liquid of cooking the endives in the saucepan).

8-   In another pan we prepare the bechamel sauce, melt 100 grams butter at high heat, add flour . Once butter is melted put aside and let the mix get slightly red.

9- Add milk little by little and stirr quickly with a wooden spoon.

10- Add 300 ml of the remaining cooking water (if you have less quantity add that quantity) keep stirring.

11- Set at low heat , add salt, pepper and nutmeg.

12- Add half of the cheese and let it melt , keep stirring until the mix  becomes thick and creamy.

13- Roll up each endive in a ham slice, put the rolls in a oven proof plate.

14- Pour bechamel over the rolls.

15- Preheat oven at 210ºC and place the plate into the oven. Cook for 20 minutes  , heat above and below.

16- After 10 minutes of cooking we add over the endives the remaining cheese , let cook in the oven for another 10 minutes.

17- Serve hot accompanied by fries or  mashed potatoes.

My Comments to the Recipe 

cheese bechamel is delicious , it provides softness to the endives, they can be a Little bitter but the taste is wonderfull thanks to all the ingredients of the plate.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Sources:
http://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_ainsi-naquit-le-chicon?id=5568513
http://www.supertoinette.com/fiche-cuisine/251/naissance-et-culture-de-l-endive-ou-chicon.HTML

 

Belgium

Belgian fries

                                                                                                                      Receta en español 

Belgians are proud of their fries, there are a lot of places on the streets where you can buy these belgian 'delicatessen' , they can be accompanied by different sauces.

The origin of their recipe is uncertain, French and Belgian people claim to be the creators of the fries.

Belgian people place the origin of the recipe in Namur, inhabitants used to fish in the river Mosa, where they could find little fishes that they fried.

One year, middle XVIII century, Winter was too severe and the river was frozen. There was no way of fishing, so locals decided to cut potatoes the same length as little fishes and fried them.

They use a special method of cooking potatoes that makes them crispy outside and soft inside.

This is the secret of their method:

Ingredients:

•   Potatoes.
•   Sunflower oil. (In Belgium they use beef fat).
•   Salt.

Method:

1-   Wash, peel and cut potatoes into long strips about 1 cm thickness:

2-   Put oil at medium heat in a deep saucepan, the quantity of the oil must be enough to cover the strips of potatoes.

3-   Put potatoes into the saucepan and fry them during 8 minutes, until they become soft. Add salt at this point:

4-   Put the fries in a plate and let them cool.

5-   Put the oil at high heat, take a little quantity of fries and let them fry during 2 minutes, they become golden, put them in a plate and do the same with another little quantity of fries.
This second frying makes the fries crispy outside, keeping its softness inside.

My comments to the Recipe

I have tried fries in Belgium and I can tell that the fries made this way are even more delicious. If you use a frying machine it is easier to know the exact temperatura of the oil. The first frying must be done at 140ºC and the second frying must be done at  170-180 ºC.
I have used sunflower oil because olive oil has a stronger taste that can vary the result.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

 

Bélgica

Bahraini Halwa

                                                                                                                       Receta en español

Halwa is an Arabic word that means sweet.

It is a dessert wide spreaded throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, India and even European countries like Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia...,so far I've avoided to make this recipe because I thaught it would have a chewy texture.

In Bahrain Halwa is the staple dessert ,besides, they have their own halwa recipe. I should try this time making the halwa recipe.
It has been a nice surprise, it is not chewy, it is gelly like, very tasty and easy to eat.

Most Halwa are made from semolina flour , but Bahrain's recipe differs in that it is cooked with corn starch and canola oil.

Bahraini Halwa  is a variation of the halwa made in Oman, most Bahraini shops where this sweet  is sold ,are run by the Showaiter dynasty, so the recipe that I bring you today is called in Bahrain "Halwa Showaiter" but in other countries it is called  Bahraini Halwa.
It is usually taken with coffee and is widely consumed during the three days of Eid after Ramadan.

In the following link you can see how they make this sweet in Bahrain: Halwa Showaiter.

Ingredients (for a 24 cm diameter recipent):

•   800 grams sugar.
•   1200ml water.
•   4 teaspoos lemon juice.
•   60 grams butter.
•   2 tablespoons grounded cardamon.
•   1 tablespoon nutmeg.
•   10 saffron threads.
•   120 grams corn starch.
•   1 dose food coloring, this is optional, I didn't use it.
•   330 ml canola oil.
•   2 tablespoos Rosewater.
•   150 grams raw pistachios.
•   130 grams raw almonds.
•   100 grams nuts.
•   3 tablespoons raw sesame seeds.

Method:

1-   Infuse saffron in a cup with 240 ml of boiling water: I use the microwave to quickly boil water, put the saffron into the boiling water and let stand for one hour. 

2-   Toast almonds and pistachios in a saucepan without oil, we toast them during 5 minutes at low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Before toasting:

Toasted:

Add nuts:

3-   Put the sugar in a large pot with 960 ml water, saffron infusion and lemon juice , boil over medium heat , when it reaches boiling point, reduce heat to low, stir and cover the pot, cook for 5 minutes.

4-   Add Little by Little canola oil and stir well,  cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

5-   While the previous mix is cooking, prepare Brown butter : Put the butter in a pot and heat over medium heat during 2-3 minutes, until butter is melted.

6- Still over low heat add cardamom and nutmeg into the pot with butter:

7- Add rose water , coloring liquid (optional) and 240 ml water. Add corn starch little by little, quickly stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps.

8- After the 30 minutes cooking of point 4 are finished, add litle by little the mix obtained at point 6 into the pot of point number 4,stir in circles and cook during 15 minutes over low heat.
There will be big bubbles, be careful not to burn, we see that the mix thickens becoming a gelly, when it reaches that point , put aside and remove with a spoon the excess of oil that you can see at the surface.

9- Put again the pot over low heat and add the dried fruits (except the sesame), stir well and cook during 5 more minutes.

After that pour the mix in the recipent where you want to present the dessert.
Sprinkle over the Surface sesame seeds.

It can be eaten cold or warm, both ways it is delicious!.

My Comments to the Recipe

As I said before, I was astonished by its gelly texture . It may be too much sweet, because of this you should eat it by little portions, despite of that it is tasty with a special flavour given by the spices.

Where to buy the ingredients in Madrid

Sesame seeds can be found at herbalist's shops.
The rest of the ingredients you can see where to buy them following the links.

Rose water
Canola oil

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools



Bahrain

Bahrani Prawn Balls (Chebeh Rubyan)

                                                                               Receta en Español

This dish is widely eaten in Bahrain when celebrating, usually accompanied by Muhammar (sweet rice Bahrain) it is a dish where we can notice the influence of Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines in the gastronomy of Bahrein .

Ingredients:

For the Balls:

•   650 grams raw or frozen shrimps .
•   4 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves.
•   1/2 teaspoon turmeric.
•   1/2 teaspoon grounded black lemon (loomi).
•   90 grams rice flour.
•   Salt.

For the filling:

• 1 large onion cut into small pieces.
• 25 grams of butter or  ghee.
• 1 teaspoon of Baharat (Bahreini blend of spices).
• 1/2 teaspoon grounded black lemon (loomi).

For the tamarind sauce:

• 1 teaspoon of tamarind concentrate.
• 1 small onion finely chopped.
• 470 ml of water.
• 1 tablespoon ghee  or 40 grams butter.
• 1 large tomato.
• 1 teaspoon of Baharat (Bahreini blend of spices)
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chili pepper.
• Salt.
• 2 teaspoon sugar.

Method:

1-   Peel and wash raw shrimps. I used raw prawns, peeled and frozen, this way I just had to thaw them.

2-   Mix shrimps and coriander leaves in a bowl , use a blender to obtain a paste.

 3-   Add turmeric, black lemon, rice flour and salt , mix well and cover with transparent film. Put it in the fridge. While it cools we prepare the rest of the ingredients.

4-   Pour ghee or butter into a frying pan.
It is easier to use butter , in case you want to use ghee, you can read how to prepare ghee in this post ,section number 3: ghee.
Heat butter or ghee and add the large onion cut into pieces,Baharat and grounded black lemon (loomi), stir well and fry at medium heat until onion gets golden.

5-   Dilute tamarind concéntrate in a cup of wáter, let stand 10 minutes and stir well so that it is well diluted.

6-   Put butter in a large saucepan, heat and fry small onion cut into small pieces.

7-   Peel the tomato, the easiest way to do that is to put the tomate during five minutes in boiling water.

After peeled ,cut the tomato into small pieces.

8-   Add to the saucepan diluted tamarind, water , tomato, Baharat, pepper salt and sugar. Cover and boil during 15 minutes.

9 - While preparing the sauce we can start making the balls. Wet your hands to prevent the dough sticking in your hands, take a spoonful of dough , flatten it in your palm.
Put in the center a Little quantity of the fried onion with spices and wrap the dough until you get a ball.
Repeat until you finish all the dough.

10 - Put the balls into the saucepan where we have the sauce, cover and cook at médium-low heat during 40 minutes.

This is the result:

 Serve with Muhammar (sweet rice Bahrain).

My comments to the Recipe

These are tasty balls with a great taste to shrimps, when cooked, they increase considerably its size. It was amazing!!.
The tamarind sauce was the best of the dish, you cannot miss it!

Where to by the ingredients in Madrid

Rice flour can be bought at a lot of asian products stores.
I particularly bought it in Madrid in a supermarket at José María Fernández Lanseros 1 (Super Ventas) , they sell a great variety  of asian and latino products.

In the next links you can see where to by the rest of ingredients.

 black lemon (loomi)
 Tamarind

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools



Bahréin