Ajillo, Bagna Cauda and Sangria.

What is Bagna Cauda?

    Bagna càuda is a warm dip common in Piedmont, Italy, however with various neighborhood varieties. The dish, which is served and eats in a way like a fondue, is made with garlic, anchovies, olive oil, butter, and in a few sections of the locale cream.

What is Ajillo?

    Ajillo is a prevalent Spanish dish discovered mainly in the south and midpoint of Spain. The essential ingredients comprise of garlic and olive oil, and one primary ingredient, for example, shrimp or squid, there are numerous varieties. It's regularly served in Spain's tapas bars as an hors d'oeuvre. In any case, this dish is popular to the point that it's every so often offered as an entrée.

The Spanish alcoholic beverage.

    Since these are a Spain dishes up there, it is not too much if we enjoy it with a Sangria. Sangria is an alcoholic refreshment of Spanish origin. A punch, the sangria generally comprises of red wine and cut fruit, regularly with different ingredients, for example, citrus juice or cognac.
    This recipe is using the Japanese liqueur, the plum liqueur 
(UmeShu) which will provide you a better fruity taste.

Ingredients for Spanish lunch set.

Preparing time : 15 minutes.
Cook time : 20 minutes.
Ready in : 40 minutes.

Firefly squid Ajillo

40gm	Firefly squid
1 clove	Sliced garlic
1 nos	Dried Red Chile
100 ml	Olive oil
1 pinch	Salt
2 tablespoon	Sherry

Prawn Ajillo

4 tails	Shrimp (Black Tiger)
40 gm	Cremini mushroom
1 clove	Sliced garlic
1 nos	Dried Red Chile
100 ml	Olive oil
1 pinch	Salt
2 tablespoon	Sherry

Bagna Cauda
50 gm	Halved garlic
1/2 cup	Milk
1 tablespoon	Anchovy Paste / Anchovy
3 tablespoon	Olive oil
4 tablespoon	Cream
as need	Leek/ Scallion
as need	Purple cabbage
as need	Carrot
as need	Paprika / Bell pepper
as need	Celery

Umeshu Sangria
梅酒のサングリア
1/2 nos	Cube apple
1 nos	Cube lemon
1 nos	Cube kiwi
1 stick	Cinnamon
2 cups	Umeshu / Umeshu non alcohol (Plum liqueur)
1/2  loaf	sliced bread / Sliced baguette

Method:

Mise en place 1 : Cut all the vegetables into stick size which you could easily dip the anchovy paste and eat. Tear the purple cabbage into bite size.

Mise en place 2 : Deveined and remove the shell of the shrimp, wash with cornstarch water, and rinse thoroughly to wash away the impurities and starch, then dry with kitchen towel, set aside.

Wash the shrimp with cornstarch water.

Wash away the starch and impurities.

Dry with a kitchen towel.

Mise en place 3 : Remove the eyes and mouth of the firefly squid, do the same if you use common squid. Wash with salt water and strain away the water, then dry with the kitchen towel, set aside.

Remove the eyes and mouth of the firefly squid.

Wash with salt water.

Dry with kitchen towel

Mise en place 4 : You can skip this step if you love the garlic smell, the garlic smell may stronger than the anchovy if you skip this step. Blanch the halved garlic to remove harsh taste then strain away the water. Simmer the blanched garlic with milk to remove the garlic smell for 15 minutes, then strain away the milk.

Blanch the garlic with water, and strain off the water.

Simmer the blanched garlic with milk for about 5 minutes.

Strain off the milk.

Mise en place 5 : Remove the stem of the Cremini mushroom and slice into half.

Mise en place 6 : Place some crushed ice in a bowl then ready in the fridge.

Mise en place 7 : Infuse the mixed fruits with Umeshu ( Plum liqueur), serve cold or warm as you like.

1) Making the Bagna Cauda : Blend the blanched garlic, anchovy paste, olive oil, and cream in a food processor until they bind together.

2) Arrange the vegetable stick on the crushed ice neatly as you like, you can just chill the vegetables stick if you are not going to use any crushed ice.

3) Making the Ajillo : Fill the Cazuela plate with olive oil, garlic, and chili (both prawn and squid section)

4) Heat the Cazuela plate on a stove until it is slightly bubbling.

5) Add the prawn / Squid into each plate, the mushroom will go with the shrimp.

6) Sprinkle both plates with a pinch of salt.

7) The shrimp and squid cooked quickly and it will harden if it is over cook, try to use rough heat to cook the seafood thoroughly.

8) Enjoy the Bagna cauda as a dipping sauce for the vegetable stick, the dip should serve warm.

9) Enjoy the squid and prawn Ajillo with the sliced baguette/ bread, the olive oil should work nicely with the bread.

10) Sipping the cold Plum Sangria, oh what a heaven.

Melon Cream Soda

Melon cream soda     Hehe, I am going to celebrate 31st post with this melon cream soda, with champagne, melon juice, and melon syrup. The taste is balance and not so sweet, comes with a little of a sour aftertaste.

     This is an easy fruit punch recipe, you can use any soda around your place. For the melon, you can try any melon which you can get easily, like watermelon or honeydew, the color is different depend on the melon you use, red orange and green, pretty pretty huh?

    The floating ice cream could be any type, try to pick the color which is contrast to the melon, so the color balance, but don't over weird the combination ( like chocolate and melon??? pretty weird huh?)

Ingredients for Three cups / Three serving Prepare Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 5 minutes Ready in: 20 minutes 1/2 nos Melon / Rockmelon 2 tablespoons Lemon juice 2 tablespoons Sugar 3 nos Cherry 6 tablespoons Melon syrup 1 cup Champagne / Soda 3 scoop Vanilla ice cream as need Ice

Method:

1) Halve the melon and scoop away the seed, ball out the melon flesh with a baller, two melon ball for one serving.

2) Diced the rest of the melon (without the skin) and blend it smooth with sugar and lemon juice in a blender.

3) Sieve and press the juice through a strainer.

4) Arrange ices in the cups, then pour in the melon juice, melon syrup, melon ball, champagne, and sit a scoop of ice cream on top of the ice.

5) Garnish with the cherry (fresh or pickled).

Blend tea of Green and Rosemary

Blend tea

Not only for the cooking, a herb could be consumed as a tea as well. Rosemary, a camphor smell like herbs which always serve to cook red meat, its pungent smell even strong to serve as a tea. However, its mild flavor is able to active your brain if you endure yourself to swallow it through the throat, no doubt the pungent smell will wake you up immediately when you are feeling snooze in the middle of your work. Rosemary is a good morning tea for those who hard to awake at the very early morning because its nutritious works well in blood circulation, hence able to improve one's concentration and memorization, furthermore, the rosemary could also relieve muscle pain.

    On the other hand, one's pregnant should be avoided overtake of this pungent herb. It should be hard to drink if a tea is filled with only camphor like smell, even I feel dizzy when I approach my cup to my mouth, but if it comes with multi-flavor, it will become easier to drink.

    At the simple blend tea recipe here, the rosemary will mix with green tea and lemon skin, which improve the refreshment to another stage, and I hope you will like it.

Ingredients For one person (2 cups)

1 tablespoon         Green tea leaf

1 sprig                  Rosemary

as need                 Lemon skin

500 ml                 Hot water (90°C)

Method:

1) Slap the sprig of rosemary to force it release its smell and flavor.

 

2) Brew the green tea and rosemary in a tea pot with hot water.

3) Brew for one minutes.

 

4) Serve the tea with lemon skin.