Barcelona in May... Part Two

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

An early start is imperative. A good breakfast even more. Back pack and camera mounted we are ready. We didn't really had to do it the hard way. Tourist sightseeing buses, an underground web of Metro lines, even taxis and public transport buses are there to make your feet happier. But Barcelona is all about the eyes! It is an open air museum of art and architecture and it stretches for tens of square miles. The best way to experience it is by walking.
The first few hours passed by quickly. Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, La Sagrada Familia. Our eyes wide open registering every detail, curve and tile. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
When our feet (and alarmingly my back) started to protest, we took a repose and rewarded ourselves with a delectable assortment of tapas and two glasses of Cava.
 
It was mid-afternoon when we saw the sun reflected on the meringue topped houses at Park Guell . We found refuge from the sun under a stone-carved corridor, listened to the enchanting voice of a street singer and finally made our way to the top of the hill for a birds-eye view of the city I will never forget.



As the night approaches, the hordes of tourists meet at one point, Placa d'Espanya. Water and light are dancing and we have to struggle to remind ourselves to close our mouths and take some pictures! The images and the atmosphere are unique.
 The next day we take it easy. Shopping for bags and accessories al Passeig de Gracia, sundried tomatoes and chillies from la Boqueria, ceramics and off course ashtrays from Barri Gotic. More tapas, wine and art. 
 




And then I had to get on the plane. It's been three weeks since I came back but in my mind I'm still walking in the streets of Barcelona. Next appointment booked for October.



Barcelona in May...

Friday, May 25, 2012

...is simply seductive. There are so many, many places to discover, you can easily forget that you have to return to wherever that was you came from! Your first visit is nothing other than a chance to make a new appointment for your next. 

I stayed only two and a half days. Way too short to say that I have understood what it is all about. I walked and walked and walked; went to all the museums and gardens and plazas but the closest I felt to the city and its people was when, on my first night I lost myself in the narrow labyrinth that is the Barri Gotic. 
Columbus points the way to the New World, but I chose to go the other way and through a narrow alley I entered the oldest part of the city. It is medieval, Gothic, dark and dirty and I was hungry to see everything. It seems I was not the only one! So many tourists with cameras hanging down their necks, travel guides in their hands, pointing and shooting pictures. I kept walking, no time to look at the map. I had to catch the images of the city in the last of the afternoon light, the golden light! So I got lost. The noises of la Rampla fading with every step. My belly started to protest. My nose on high alert, I smelled the small restaurant before I even saw it. 

For some reason it was full of young women! Maybe because of the charming chef who sings while he prepares my tagliatelle carbonara con bacon. I wolf it down with a glass of fresh aromatic house Chardonnay. It is a tiny little place with paintings for sale on the wall and one central table where everyone sits. A group of German boys is buying beer to a group of French girls and they exchange names in a melange of English, German and Spanish. The girls eat their pasta with knife and fork, the boys have lost all interest in their food and order more beers and I finish my simple meal left in owe of this small hall in the wall bursting with young energy and Catalan music!





Fructose Fighter: Two months and a Cheesecake later

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Happy Anniversary to me! I've been a good sport for two months now. No added fructose has entered my body - to the best of my knowledge off course!

I didn't even blink a sugar craving eyelid when I was preparing this double layer, Baked Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake for our 7 year wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. 

We celebrated our 7-year itch with blood-red bubbly from Misal (perhaps the most interesting sparking wine I've drank during the last 3 years in Croatia) and a decadent chocolate glaze, over luscious milk chocolate and vanilla layers of baked cream cheese and caramelised biscuits. I'm describing it like I've tasted it! The truth is I didn't. Not even one little crumb! Georgie and half a dozen others at his office described what it tasted like. I drank all the wine though!

But I think my fructose free days are coming to an end. 

I still believe that eating sugar is really bad for our bodies. And I have certainly proven, mainly to myself, that I can quit the sugar addiction, if I put my mind to it.

This does not mean that I'm going to dip my face into a chocolate fountain but I will relax the restrictions a little bit. There are difficult and strange days coming up ahead and this is one less thing  I have to worry about.


Recipe: Baked Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake

For our 7th wedding anniversary, I decided to partially brake my vow against sugar entering my kitchen, and bake a cheesecake. It was a full monty of a cheesecake with a crispy biscuity base, a layer of vanilla flavoured cream resting atop a layer of milk chocolate cream cheese and all these covered with a rich, thick and velvety dark chocolate glaze. It was definitely one of the most decadent and rich desserts I ever made!

My anniversary being on the 6th of May, the web was overflew with Cinco de Mayo recipes for all types of Mexican flavoured desserts. I have nothing to do with the Mexican cuisine apart from the occational quesadilla but I used to be very well acquainted with the delectable concoction that is Dulce de Leche! Alas the inexplicable absence of any type condensed milk in Croatian super markets led me down a slightly different  road than the one taken by The Brown Eyed Baker from whom I got the inspiration for this seriously sinful dessert. 

Baked Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake
Adapted from The Brown Eyed Baker
For the Crust:
100g (3.5 oz) of digestive biscuits, crushed into crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
For the Milk Chocolate Filling:
1 tub (175g/ 6 oz) Philadelphia with Milka cream cheese or any other brand of cream cheese with chocolate, at room temperature
100g (3.5 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
For the Vanilla Filling:
275g (9.7 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
For the Dark Chocolate Glaze:
170g (6 oz) good quality chocolate 70% cacao, chopped
100g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons light corn syrup (glucose syrup)
Instructions
For the Crust:
Preheat oven to 160C / 325F. Line the bottom and the sides of a 20cm / 8-inch square pan with paper, leaving enough to hang over the edges (it will function as a handle when we pull out the baked cheesecake).

Grind the biscuits together with the sugar in the food processor. While grinding, add the melted butter and blend until they combine. Press the mixture evenly onto the bottom of the paper lined baking pan. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes.

For the Milk Chocolate Filling:
Beat the two types of cream cheese in the mixer for 5 minutes, until they are light and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue beating. Add the egg and keep beating at medium speed until it is well absorbed scraping down the sides of the bowl. 

Spread evenly the milk chocolate cream cheese mixture over the biscuit crust. Place the pan in the fridge for 30 minutes until the mixture holds firm. 

For the Vanilla Filing:
While the milk chocolate layer is chilling in the fridge, repeat the procedure to make the vanilla filling. Beat the cream cheese for 5 minutes until light and fluffy, add the sugar, beat more, add the egg and incorporate and finally add the vanilla essence. 

Spread evenly over the milk chocolate layer and place in the fridge for 10 minutes. Bake in the oven for 45 - 55 minutes until the centre only slightly jiggles. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before refrigerating it for at least 3 hours. 

For the Glaze:
Heat the chocolate, butter and syrup in very low heat, stirring continuously until it becomes smooth. Take the pan out of the fridge and pour the glaze evenly over the cheesecake. Put it back in the fridge for 30 more  minutes. 

Serve:
Lift the cheesecake from the pan using the "paper handles" and slice into squares using a sharp knife, wiping it clean after each cut. 

Return


I've been away for more than expected. 
Shut down due to a whim.
But my need remains strong.
I will return.
Silence is no more.




Ashtray Wednesdays: Barcelona

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

I've been reading books and studying maps and planning routes.
In two days I will be in the amazing city that is Barcelona and I don't want to miss a thing! My suitcase is not yet packed - and it wont be until about 10 minutes before I leave home - but my brain is overflowing with street names and buildings and churches and gardens. I cannot help myself from dreaming about all the wonderful wine and scrumptious food that I'm going to have over the next few days..

But what do all these have to do with today's ashtray? Well a lot, actually.

I have talked about synchronicity before. My life seems to be ruled by it! There I am all swept up in my daydreaming about Tapas, Jamon and Tempranillo, paying no attention to the ashtray that my hands are picking up from the basketfull of bubble wrapped treasures. It is an ashtray from Barcelona!!!

And it is one made out of a soda can! I know it does not look like much and it's definitely not the most elegant nor dazzling of my collection, but it's positively one of the most unique I own! Its originality and artistic care-freeness, (but not carelessness), illustrate in an unparalleled way the characteristic idiosyncrasy of city. I can picture the artist working on it, sitting by the steps of Park Guell, cutting and bending the soft aluminium with quick, experienced moves of his fingers and knife!

When I ask my friends for their contribution to my collection I give them only one simple instruction "buy something that expresses you". Aura, the friend who bought this for me (almost 4 years ago) seems to have done just that! She is a very creative and cultured individual, who wrote poetry and speaks half a dozen languages! I have not seen her for quite a long time but seeing her ashtray will always remind me of her aesthetically unique personality.



The Power of the Apron

Sunday, May 6, 2012

I've been cooking and painting all day today! 
Painting and cooking. 
It is almost the same. 
Playing with paint
I prepare before I start a painting as I prepare before cooking. I lay out my paints the same way I arrange my ingredients on the kitchen counter. And then the cooking starts. I chop and mix, adjust the taste, add more of this and that and wipe my hands on my apron! It's frantic and messy! 

Painting is even messier, I mix the paints, spill a bit more, wipe it, draw on the canvas, erase it, draw it again, get it right! And all the time I wipe my fingers on my apron.

Call me crazy but I think it is all in the apron! It holds the incredible power to transform me into a chef and a painter. It guards me and protects me. And bestows the confidence of the professional on me.


Mediterranean Risotto / Ριζότο με Λαχανικά

Wednesday, May 2, 2012


It's been so hot the past couple of days! And it happened quite suddenly. Only last week it was raining and the wind blew cold from the North. Today the thermometer hit the low 30's (that's 90F for my American friends) and I'm starting to think that summer has arrived, premature, yet here.




I spent the last weekend of April in Istria, drinking wonderful wine and eating my way though humongous quantities of fresh bread, prosciutto, wild asparagus and pasta! I came back fully sated and a couple kilos heavier. But who cares!!

The view of the sea brought back memories of summers past and I had to seriously restrain myself from dipping into the water, the Adriatic is still quite cold for my Aegean constitution!

Coming back to Zagreb I need something to remind me of the sea! That is, something different from the mini heatwave we've been experiencing! So I venture into the farmer's market to buy my favourite summer vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and courgettes!


Fresh thyme and feta cheese just completed my homage to the Mediterranean, serving as a prelude to what is going to follow over the next few months!

Mediterranean Risotto
Adapted from The Food Doctor Ultimate Diet by Ian Marber
Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 onion finely sliced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a little to drizzle over the courgettes
  • 100 gr (3 1/2oz) brown risotto rice
  • 200 ml (7 oz) vegetable stock
  • 2 springs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
  • 2 medium courgettes cut into medium thin slices (I used a mandolin)
  • 250 gr (8oz) red peppers coarsely chopped
  • A squeeze of lemon juice
  • 50 gr feta cheese (or more :)
Instructions

  1. In a big saucepan soften the onion in the olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir for a few seconds. Add the stock and the thyme, stir well and leave to simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the rice is just cooked and the stock is absorbed. 
  2. Put the courgettes and the peppers in a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and to so that are all covered with oil. Put under a medium - hot grill and brown turning them regularly. 
  3. When the rice is cooked, mix with the vegetables and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve topped with crumbled feta cheese.

You can pair this dish with a light fruity rose like Roxanich Rose 2009 or an aromatic Malvazia from Poletti
~~~~~~~~~~
Ριζότο με Λαχανικά
Εμπνευσμένο από το βιβλίο The Food Doctor Ultimate Diet του Ian Marber
Για 2 άτομα

Υλικά

  • 1 κρεμμύδι κομμένο σε λεπτές φέτες
  • 1 κουταλιά της σούπας ελαιόλαδο, και λίγο ακόμα για να ραντίσουμε τα κολοκύθια
  • 100 γρ καφέ ρύζι για ριζότο
  • 200 ml ζωμός λαχανικών
  • 2 κλωναράκια φρέσκο θυμάρι or 1 κουταλάκι του γλυκού ξερό
  • 2 μέτρια κολοκυθάκια κομμένα σε λεπτές φέτες
  • 250 γρ κόκκινη πιπεριά ψιλοκομμένη 
  • 1 κουταλιά της σούπας χυμό λεμονιού
  • 50 γρ φέτα
Instructions

  1. Σοτάρουμε το κρεμμύδι στο ελαιόλαδο για 5 λεπτά. Προσθέτουμε το ρύζι και ανακατεύουμε για λίγο. Προσθέτουμε τον ζωμό και το θυμάρι. Ανακατεύουμε καλά και βράζουμε σε σιγανή φωτιά για 25 λεπτά ή μέχρι να γίνει το ρύζι και να απορροφηθεί ο ζωμός.  
  2. Βάζουμε τα κολοκυθάκια και τις πιπεριές σε ένα ταψάκι και τα περιχύνουμε με λίγο λάδι. Τα βάζουμε κάτω από ζεστό γκριλ και τα αφήνουμε μέχρι να ψηθούν γυρνώντας τα συχνά.  
  3. Όταν το ρύζι βράσει, το ανακατεύουμε με τα λαχανικά, ρίχνουμε το χυμό λεμονιού και τη φέτα.