Category Archives: Food Blog

Elotes and Pineapple Salad , Ensalada de Elotes con Piña

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This is our favorite Summer Salad, Elotes Salad or Mexican Street corn Salad with pineapple. It’s basically Mexican Street Corn that you can eat with a spoon rather than digging into a whole corn on the cob covered with Cotija, paprika etc…which can be a challenge, except that I have added some grilled pineapple.
This is a great salad to serve at your next Barbeque, or as we like to do, add it to Tacos and even pile it high on Burgers. So SO good!
It’s very simple, you start by grilling corn and fresh pineapple and once they are cooled you cut off the kernels carefully with a sharp knife, then toss together with the pineapple chunks in a simple dressing.

Prep time : 15 min
Cooking time : 10 min
Serves : 6

INGREDIENTS:

  • 6 ears of Corn
  • 1/3- 1/2 of a fresh pineapple, peeled and sliced thick-ish (see note*)
  • 2 scallions, sliced
  • 1 small red onion, peeled and chopped fine
  • 1 small red chili pepper, deseeded and chopped fine
  • ½ cup crumbled Cotija cheese (see note**)
  • ½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro, more for on top

Dressing:

  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup crème fraiche
  • Juice of 1 lime, or more according to taste
  • A few dashes of Tabasco ( or Franks hot sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, more for on top
  • Salt and pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat (an outdoor) grill or grill pan to medium heat. Clean your corn if necessary and rub all over with a little oil. Place on the grill and cook for about 10 minutes, turning every few minutes. Do the same with the Pineapple slices. Remove them once cooked from the grill and let them cool.
Meanwhile mix mayonnaise, crème fraiche, lime juice, tabasco and paprika together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Cut the kernels off the cob, and cut the pineapple slices into bite-size pieces
Get out a pretty bowl and combine everything… the corn, pineapple, onion, scallions, chili peppers, Cotija cheese, cilantro, and dressing. Reserve some cilantro and Cotija to sprinkle on top.

Enjoy!

* Any left-over Pineapple is great grilled and then served with ice-cream as a dessert.
** If you can’t find Cotija, I think that Feta resembles it most, it has a similar texture and taste.

If you make this Elotes salad, be sure to leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you and if you love it, pin it. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! @thecookingspoonblog or hashtag it #thecookingspoonblog

Thai Peanut Curry with Chicken Meatballs and Zucchini

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Curries are always a great hit in our home, whether it’s just us or whether we have guests joining us for dinner. It’s so easy to prepare, everyone loves a Curry and it can be made in advance. This particular Curry is one I make very often because we love Thai Curries and also because it has Peanut butter in it. We love all things Peanut sauce, have you tried our Sate sauce?

TIP: I usually double the sauce and freeze half for later in small containers, it works so well for a quick dinner.

Prep time : 20 min
Cooking time : 20 min
Serves : 4



INGREDIENTS:


Meatballs
• 1 lb./450 gr. Ground chicken
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. Thai red curry paste
• Ground pepper
• Grated lime zest, just a little bit

Curry sauce
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 medium shallots, minced
• 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated or minced
• 3 garlic cloves, grated or minced
• 1 zucchini in bite-size pieces
• 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 can coconut milk, 13.5 oz./400 ml.
• 1 tbsp. Palm sugar or brown sugar
• About ½-1 cup water
• 1 tbsp. Fish sauce (adjust to taste)
• Juice of ½ – 1 lime (adjust to taste)
• fresh cilantro, rice and chopped nuts for serving

More Thai ideas: 


INSTRUCTIONS:


1. In a large bowl, add the chicken mince and add the garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, Thai red curry paste, ground pepper and lime zest. Mix to combine and shape into meatballs about the size of a golf ball, set aside.
2. In a large pot, bring the oil to medium heat. Add the shallots, and cook for 3 minutes, or until translucent. Next add the ginger and garlic. Stir and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes.
3. Now add the curry paste, stir for a minute and add the peanut butter, fish sauce, sugar and coconut milk and water, bring to a simmer. Carefully add the meatballs.
4. Bring to a simmer again and cover partially with a lid, cook for about 15 minutes then add the Zucchini, cover and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes or until Zucchini is bite tender. Check throughout cooking if you need to add more water.
5. Add the lime juice and check the seasoning, add more fish sauce if you want it saltier. I always check that the meatballs are fully cooked by cutting one in half.
6. Serve warm over cooked rice, with more cilantro, lime wedges and some chopped nuts.

Enjoy!

Fideuá – Spanish Seafood noodle dish similar to Paella

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Fideuá, is a Spanish dish very similar to Paella but uses “fideos” which is a tiny pasta (it looks like thin spaghetti cut into one inch pieces), instead of rice.

Fresh fish, squid, prawns, tomatoes, noodles all cooked together in a good home made fish stock.

Fideuá is similar to paella, mostly because it is cooked in a Paellera which is the large pan used for Paellas and Fideuás. You can buy them online, using a regular frying pan will only work if you are cooking for two people at the most, since the rice or the noodles need to be in a thin layer to get the perfect texture.

The best way to cook paella is outside on an open fire. But I make it on the stove all the time, when I’m using my 4 person paella pan. For larger amounts I cook it outside.

Serves : 4
INGREDIENTS:

  • 6 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (for cooking)
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 400 gr. Cleaned Squid, cut into pieces
  • 400 gr. Firm fish, Halibut, Monkfish , Seabass….
  • 4-8 large Shrimp (optional)
  • 400 gr. Fideos nr. 4, or thin spaghetti broken into one inch pieces
  • ¼ cup canned tomato sauce (tomate frito)
  • 2 tsp. smoked paprika (Pimentón de la vera)
  • A pinch of saffron
  • 4 cups (good quality) fish stock, preferable home made
  • Salt to taste
  • Aioli to serve
  • Lemon wedges to serve
  • Parsley to serve
  • Lot’s of Sangria to serve (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

First bring your stock to a simmer and have a ladle ready.
Have your onion chopped, garlic chopped, fish cut into large-ish pieces and squid cut into bite size pieces too.
Everything happens rather quickly so have everything portioned out, a little bowl with your paprika powder, the tomato sauce etc…
Heat the Paellera, (the paella pan) on medium high heat. Add the olive oil, and add the onion and stir for a few minutes until it starts to color slightly, add the garlic and stir for one more minute. Add the squid, and fry for a minute or two, add the fish and stir around carefully for another few minutes.
Now add the paprika powder, stirring all the time but and add the tomato sauce and Saffron.
Now add the the noodles , making sure to coat all of them in the oil and sauce, add about half of the hot stock, adding more as needed. If you need more liquid, add hot water.
Cook on high heat for about 10 minutes, lower the temperature and taste the liquid to see if you need to add more salt. Cook for another ten to fifteen minutes until the noodles are cooked. There should still be some liquid in the pan and the noodles will have stuck to the bottom of the pan in the middle and is considered the best part. Enjoy!
Serve straight away with Aioli and lemon.

Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

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If you love Raspberries, you’re going to love this recipe. I’m a little obsessed with this bread at the moment and have been eating it every single day for the past two or three weeks, I can’t even remember, we just can’t get enough of it.

Dark chocolate chunks with sweet Raspberries are just the best combination ever. Put those two in a rich Banana bread batter and you are pretty much in Paradise.

I used freeze-dried Raspberries, because I happen to have them, but you can use fresh ones if you prefer. Frozen ones on the other hand will dye your bread pink.

I love dark chocolate, the darker the better but if you prefer a little sweeter chocolate, by all means use semi-sweet.

As for the bananas, use them very ripe, when they’re speckled with black dots.

I have used olive oil here, a very mild kind since I love the fruitiness it adds to the bread, perfect with the Raspberries.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 medium very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 cup mashed)
  • 1/4 cup neutral olive oil
  • 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour,
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chunks, or chopped chocolate
  • 1/2 cup freeze dried Raspberries or 1 cup fresh raspberries

METHOD:

Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F. Lightly oil a 9×5-inch/23x13cm loaf tin and line with baking paper.

Puree the bananas in a food processor, add the oil, yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Add the (freeze-dried) Raspberries and stir until mixed thru, don’t over-mix. You want to keep the Raspberries whole.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top with the spatula.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out dry(-ish). It is still supposed to be moist since it’s a banana bread, however there should not be any batter still sticking to the skewer.
Should the bread become too dark you can tent some foil over the top loosely.

Remove from oven once it is finished baking and let it cool on a rack for about 10 minutes, then remove from tin with the parchment paper and let cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!