Onion rings in 3 steps to celebrate 4th of July

To celebrate the 4th of July, we'll bring you a super tasty and traditional american recipe: onion rings. It's a very simple, easy and fast recipe, and it will be most appreciated by your guests for the 4th of July. We've drawn inspiration for this recipe from Jamie Oliver magazine, we loved how they changed the original recipe, and so we've moved just a little bit forward, modifying this recipe just a little bit more. In this recipe onion rings will result crispy and tastier than the usual ones. The first time this recipe was mentioned was in a 1910 Daily Times issue published in Middletown, NY. The restaurand chain Pig Stand affirms anyway to have invented the original recipe in the 1920s. We do not know which one version is the truthful one, what is sure is that is a very american recipe. The following recipe is perfect for about 5 to 6 people, so if you have more or less people, then modify the quantities according your guests' appetite! 

Ingredients:

- 3 golden or white onions 

- 100 g all purpose flour 

- 300 ml or so of buttermilk (you can easily do it at home)

- 300 g of cornstarch

- 1 Tbsp of sweet pimenton (a spanish product, you can replace it with paprika)

- sunflower or olive oil

- salt & pepper to taste

Preparation: 

1) Cut the onion into rings into 3 or 4 mms slices the night before you cook them in order to let them dry well. 

2) Prepare three bowls, in the first one put the all purpose flour, in the second one put the buttermilk*, and in the third one put the cornstarch along with salt and pepper and the sweet pimenton (or paprika if you can't find this spanish delight). Meanwhile, put a pan on high heat with enough oil to fry.

3) Pass the onion ring through the first bowl containing all purpose flour, then for the butermilk one and at last dip them into the cornstarch. Fry the onion rings until they becomes golden brown, for about one minute or so. Remember to turn them upside down to fry them homogeneously. Take them out of the frying pan and let them dry a bit over a kitchen paper and eat them with your favourite sauce. 

Happy 4th of july to all americans and friends of America worldwide!

Greetings,

Angie 

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* You can find buttermilk in big retail stores, but you can easily do it at home squeezing a lemon into some milk and let it rest for about 10 minutes or so. In this way you'll have your own buttermilk almost immediately!

Mediterranean flavoured bread

2014 is the International Year of the Mediterranean Diet, so good and healthy. To celebrate this fact we bring you a bread really Mediterranean, and I tell you this because of his ingredients: tomato, cheese and onion with that golden touch of the Olive Oil. Can there be a more mediterranean thing than bread? Or olive oil?

For this kind of bread, I found my inspiration in the italian bread called "filone". It's and everyday bread, and it just do not need any addings and makes you addict to it! In the unlikely event of not eating it all right away, in the following days you can open it and warm it or toast it, you'll just need a drizzle of olive oil, and it will be just espectacular! 
This bread do not need the sourdough, and so it's perfect for those who are beginners in the art of bread. It's simple and fast, try it! Here in our blog we absolutely loves breads, and if you want another recipe from ours, here you are!


Ingredients:

For the first dough: 

• 15 g.of brewer's yeast
• 250 ml of warm water
• 375 g. of flour

For the main dough:

• 300 g. of flour
• 150 ml.of warm water
• 15 g. of brewer's yeast
• 2 spoonful of brown sugar
•  50 g. of Grana Padano cheese
• 1 big onion
• 15 sundried tomatoes
• 60 g of extra vergin olive oil
• 1 spoonful of salt
• more flour to work with the dough

Preparation: 

1º- We prepare the first dough, and to do so, in a bowl we add some warm water and we put in there the yeast. Add the flour and stir ithoroughly until we'll have a ball. Cover it with a plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

2º- We peel and cut à là brunoise our onion, that is in little dices. Fry it in a heated pan and put it aside.

The final dough ready for the last rest

3º- In a bowl, put the water and add the yeast and the sugar, stir to dissolve it. Add the oil, the flour, the salt, the shredded cheese, and the minced tomatoes. Add to our first dough, that now is a ball. Knead the dough in a surface covered with flour until it's completely uniform. If the dough is too sticky, just add some more flour. You can do this step with a kitchen robot or a mixer, of course! When it is uniform, we put the dough into a bowl and we cover it with a plastic wrap, and let it rest for other 30 minutes.

With the hands in the dough...what a joy!

4º- When you're done with this step, prepare and put some flour on a kitchen towel. Divide the dough into cylinders of the size you want and put them above the towel, each cylinder separated by a folding on the towel like you see in the picture, so that the breads won't stick to each other. Let it rest for other 30 minutes. 

5º- AftePasado er this time, we can see our breads have grown a little bit. With a well sharped knife, do some cuttings on the surface of the breads.

6º- Bake them in a preheated oven at 180° C with no fan for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy the recipe and keep eating mediterranean bread!

Saludos

AnGie

Caramelized Onion

The caramelized onion is a delicious element that you can use with a countless number of dishes, that will give a different touch to everything, and everyone will surely like.
There are many ways you can obtain a home made caramelized onion, each one of which is economical and tasty. We'll tell you each recipe, do not worry. Today we will bring to you the one we usually choose, because it's really simple!








 

Ingredients:

- Two middle sized onion (preferably dorata onion) .
- two spoonful of brown sugar (it can be white sugar, but brown sugar surely adds more flavour to it. Come on, try it!)
- Olive oil.
- One spoonful of vinegar (You can use the Modena balsamic vinegar, but every other vinegar will just be fine).

Process:

1. We peel and cut à la julienne the onion, or even in slices if you prefer.
2. In a pan on low/middle heat we add the olive oil, just a drizzle, and we put the onion to fry lightly. We stir a little bit until it becomes transparent. You can cover the pan to have a faster result.
3. At this point we add the sugar, and we stir a little bit more, to allow the sugar to get well incorporated, until it melts. We low the heat and stir approximately during 10 or 15 minutes (it depends on the uantity of onions you used). We don't want it to burn!
You will start noticing how the onion starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.
4. After that, we add a little bit of the vinegar you choosed, do not worry about pouring too much vinegar, because it will reduce on the heat...but you don't even want the onion to swim in  the Sea of Vinegars.
5. Increase the heat and stir for others 10 minutes, or until the vinegar reduced. You're looking for a sort of "mass", or our onion starts to become densier.
This step is known as "deglazing"", that is when we add some liquid in order to dissolve the cristals of the sugar that are stuck at the bottom of the pan, therefore getting their flavour.
6.Remove it from the heat and...let us eat! You can also let it cool and preserve it in a fridge in a closed box. It will last in perfect conditions at least for a week.

You can add the caramelized onion to meat dishes, to add to pizzas, puff pastry or quiche or salted tarts, for fish dishes, to add to hamburgers, to salads, veggies, bruschettas...you choose!

Have a great weekend!

Angie