Day 40

The first recipe of the day was not what I pictured as Spanish. It was a shrimp cake that to me seemed like chinese food. I loved it. You saute a brunoise of celery, onion, red bell pepper and garlic. Add saffron to it (okay, not chinese) and chill it until cool. Mix in equal parts chopped raw shrimp. Add eggs to wet mixture and flour and water to thicken to a pancake batter. We fried them in a teflon pan and kept them warm over the stove. The smaller the pancake, the better it worked.

If you thought we were done deep frying, you were wrong. See the picture below? That is cheese, my friend. We are about to deep fry cheese. With HAM IN IT. Ridiculous? Yes.


They were over the top. And wonderful. You mix up flour, egg yolks, and milk. You whip egg whites and fold them in to the yolks. You fold in cheese (tetilla and manchego), serrano ham, grated onion. Fry, fry, fry. Eat while hot so you scald your mouth and suffer severe burns that are worth every blister. I don't have any pictures of cooked cheese balls. They do sit in your stomach a bit though. We prepped our paella next.


That's my cubed swordfish and chopped garlic. We had all our ingredients ready similar to a stir fry. First was Spanish chorizo, then chicken, then shrimp (cut into thirds), then swordfish, then vegetables (onion, red bell pepper, tomato), then "wet seafood" (calamari, clams, mussels), then garlic and saffron, then rice, then chicken stock, fumet, and clam juice. Simmer and put in oven to cook. Finish on stove top to evaporate any extra liquid.


Serve with lemon wedges and parsley. And sangria if you like day drinking like my class does. Our sangria was made from possibly the shittiest wine ever, orange juice, brandy, 7 up, and fruit with skin. Don't leave the fruit in more than half a day or the skin will leach bitterness into the death punch. Oh and you might get a headache. Enjoy.


Next week we have a terrible challenge involving secret proteins and time limits. I might puke. Why can't we just go back to France?