El Jardin Secreto

After a couple of days of eating tapas, we were craving for a lot of vege. Or anyway, I was. El Jardin Secreto is a lovely and cozy place especially known for all their different hot chocolates and chocolaty deserts, but we're very happy with their salads and burgers. Also lovely is the wide range of non-alcoholic drinks, among which violet drink. They dress their meals and drinks with flowers as if it is a real garden. Specially a good place for a romantic being together.

Cathedral of Madrid

A good place to flee the city and have a moment of peace and quiet for a little while. If you don't mind the horde of tourists.

Stop Madrid

Madrid, of course, is full of tapas bars, but we really wanted to have some old fashioned tapas. On our way to our hotel we already spotted Stop Madrid, unfortunately it was closed as we wanted to visit at our cocktail hour (7 o'clock) and opens again at Spanish hours around eight.

Delicious old fashioned tapas at Stop Madrid, with your beer you already get some bread with tomatoes and you can't visit Madrid without having some proper manchego and iberico: Stop Madrid is the place to be!

Mercado de San Miguel

Mercado de San Miguel is a good place to try a little of a lot that Spain has to offer. A large covered market, with all kinds of stalls where you can get tapas, paellas, oysters, tortillas, jamon, manchego, chocolat, wines, beers...everybody gets what they like and then you eat it at one of the bars or many tables. 

A real tourist attraction, which is not surprising because you have a bit of everything, but also a whole lot of Spanish people that lunch here or have a drink in the afternoon accompanied with some nice snacks.

La Mallorquina

Taking a break to visit Madrid for a couple of days because the husband has to go there for work. Packed my sunglasses, shorts, sunburn...not necessary at all! Madrid this time of year is just like Amsterdam in the fall: raining and 10 degrees. No worries, enough to see and do and every sunbeam is a reason to take a walk.

Our apartment is in the middle of the center, right near Puerta del Sol. Perfect to be if you didn't book a place that includes breakfast, because on Puerta del Sol you've got La Mallorquina. A small pastry place, downstairs is the shop where, but upstairs is the breakfast room. Packed with people, but with a high turnaround, so you don't have to wait to long for a table. The waiters are just running around carrying trays with breakfast. They don't have a menu, so first have a look downstairs or just order napolitanas, which they have in a cream version or a chocolate one. Croissants, Orange Juice and some Café con Leche and your good to go.

Plaice Fillet with Spinach

My weekly organic box "De Krat" has been delivered today, a whole bunch of fresh ingredients to cook with!

Thinly slice 1/2 a Granny Smith apple. Saute 1 clove of chopped garlic and 1 chopped shallot in some olive oil until they're soft (about 5 min.) Than put 500 gr of spinach in hand by hand, it will shrink very much. Heat a knob of butter in another frying pan until the foam is gone. Put salt and pepper on 2 plaice fillets and, at the last moment, put a tbsp. of flour on them. Fry them on both sides for 2-3 minutes.

In the mean time the spinach should be done, sprinkle the juice of half a lime on and season with some salt and pepper. 

Spinach on the plate, apple on the side and fish on top. Finish with a bit of pepper and a slice of lime on top

 

Stew with Parsnip and Jerusalem Artichoke

Again a night of Cooking from De Krat. Tonight I'm using some ingredients for the very first time, one of the reasons why I have De Krat in the first place. Tonight I'm using: Venison, Parsnip, Jerusalem Artichoke, Chicory, Mushrooms and Apples.

The Stew:

Fry 40 gramsbacon in 1 tsp. olive oil, add 1 chopped shallot, 1 chopped clove of garlic and a tbsp. of thyme leaves, bake for about 5 min until it's soft. Fry 400 grams of stewing steak in pieces of 5 cm until its brown in a Casserole in 25 grams butter, than add the onion mixture. Turn the heat high and add 50 ml red wine vinegar, let it boil for a couple of minutes. Add 350 ml red wine and let this boil for a while. Add 3/4 of 350 ml boiling stock to the pan, together with the 1 Bay Leaf and 2 Cloves of garlic. Let it softly boil for 1 hour, stir every now and then and add some stock if necessary. Than add 1 tbsp. Dessert Wine and 100 grams Mushrooms and cook for another 15 minutes. Season with some salt and pepper if necessary.

Side Dishes: 

Jerusalem Artichoke Puree - Peel 500 gr of Jerusalem artichokes, boil them for about 25 minutes (keep some of the water apart). Mash together with a tsp. of mustard and a tbsp. of creme fraiche, salt&pepper and some fresh thyme. If Necessary add some of the boiling water to make it smoother.

Parsnip - Peel 500 grams of parsnip, cut them in pieces of about 5 cm long and put them in water with lemon. Cook for about 15 minutes, drain, add a knob of butter, salt and pepper.

Chicory Salad - Peel and chop 1 apple. Mix it with 1 tbsp. mayonnaise, 1 tsp. of mustard, 1 tbsp. olive oil and some lime juice, salt&pepper. Put in a couple of sliced pickled onions and 2 stumps of chopped chicory.

Salad with Bloater and Red Cabbage

De Krat Brought me some nice Bloater this week and also contain some Red Cabbage, Nice apples and something I don't remember the very difficult name of, but it was Japanese and can be used in stead of lettuce.

 

Thinly slice 1/2 a red cabbage in. Peel 1 big apple and cut 1/2 into chunks and thinly slice the other half. Make a dressing by mixing up 1 tbsp. mayonnaise, 1 tsp. mustard, 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar, a drip of honey, salt & pepper, then wisk 3 tbsp. of olive oil in slowly

Mix the cabbage with 8 halved pickled onions, the apple chunks and dressing, then put aside. Clean 2 Bloaters. Put the 400 gr of the Japanese veg (or something like it, like raw spinach) on two plates, squeeze 1/4 of a lime and sprinkle 1 tbsp. of olive oil above. Put the Cabbage salad  on top. Than the Bloaters, sliced apple, 1 sliced avocado and 2 thinly sliced spring onions.