Homemade Brownies Rushed To My Doorstep

[American Chewy Chocolatey Brownies]

I couldn't believe my sensory systems when I opened my package from a secret pal from the foodblogoshpere. There it was, an entire panful of homemade Chewy Chocolatey Brownies carefully placed in a box filled with other goodies, express-courriered from the Low Lands.

Thanks to the lastest EBBP event hosted by Andrew, which translates into Euro Blogging By Post or Edible Blog By Post, anyone living in Europe who writes and publishes a food blog could participate in this virtual and real event. Virtual because you have to blog about it after receiving your food parcel from a secret sender who owns another food blog, and real because you get to taste the goodies (not just drool in front of the monitor.)

Talia at Pampoosh who blogs from Amsterdam sent me a parcel filled with edible goodies and kitchen gadgets. She explained in a handwritten note that she chose the traditional brownie as it represents her homeland the USA. She even took the time to create a recipe card for me so I can recreate the dessert myself. Encasing the chocolate brownie was a ultramarine-colored square silicon cakepan, that I have been vying for. My first exposure to silicon heat-resistant kitchenware was when I received a KitchenAid grabber for Christmas 2005. Adding to my silicon collection are a pair of baby blue magic gloves that Talia chose to complement my new cakepan. Boy was it useful when I tried out the pan last night, filling it with sheets of fresh pasta sheets, ricotta cheese, and a tomato beef sauce. Since the silicon material makes the entire panful of lagsagna wobbly, the magic gloves came in to rescue and assisted me to steadily retrieve the pan out of the oven.

Along in the food parcel came some Jong Belegen Kaas (means semi-matured cheese) from Holland's premiere cheese producer, Bastiaansen. The cheese is mild in taste but rich in flavor. It went perfectly well on small toasted slices of country bread. Somehow the flavorful bits reminded me of the kind of Kraft cheddar cheese that my mum used to feed me as afternoon snacks when I was younger.

The last item was a jar of jam from a fruit I would venture to say exotic, simply because I am not familiar with it. The marmalade was made out of organically grown berries known as argousier (french), duindoorn (dutch). and buckthorn berries in English (not a clue.) I guess it is pretty common in Europe because Lionel recognized it right away. He knew what it was. Anyways, we tried it out on toast this morning for breakfast and it tasted great! I thought it tasted like cherry tomatoes but that could be due to my being influenced by the picture that bore resemblance to tiny sweet berries/vege displayed on the jar.

By now you must be green with envy with all the goodies I've gotten :) Take heart, you might be able to recreate this little activity with a friend who lives in a foreign country. Wouldn't that be a neat idea? To send a surprise food package to each other? Here are some ideas from other food bloggers who participated in the event, to give you a start!

Note: Muchisimas gracias a Talia!!
Read about the goodie pack Anne in Stockholm received from yours truly in Barcelona.

Savoring Calçots at a Calçoltada

[Calçots Grilled On An Open-Flamed Hearth]

Twas a lot of fun partaking of this Catalan ritual of downing calçots (pronunced cahl-SOATS) dipped in romesco sauce and thin streams of cava from a porrón out in the open on a Sunday afternoon. Calçots are the homegrown sweet green onions that are cultivated in the northeastern part of Spain--the land of Catalunya, whose capital city is Barcelona. The seasonal vegetable has been described as a cross between a leek and a spring onion, and is esteemed an exquisite dainty. The fiesta when family and friends gather outdoors (or in the restaurant) with calçots as the central theme is called La Calçoltada.

I was invited by a friend to join her classmates at one of these calçots festivals in the outskirts of Barcelona. The place is within the compounds of a cava-maker 40 min train-ride away from Barcelona. Space is offered without cost but cavas by the dozen are obligedly purchased to consume. When we arrived at noon, many catalan families and groups have already been grilling their calçots and butifara (catalan sausages) away on the open grills fueled by wood (not coals, which would make the morsels taste even better.) Accompanied with cava (the catalan sparkling wine), or red wine, it was a big outdoor affair, reminiscent of the Memorial Day picnics we used to have when we celebrated the end of long winters in South Haven, Michigan. The weather that day was especially sunny. And as we gathered at the picnic table, warming sunrays kissed our faces and gave us an early hint of the verdure of springtime.

The region of Tarragona south of Barcelona usually sees the harvest of the first calçots in February. Then the peak season will last only for about three weeks. Grocers sell them in bunches of 50s. These sweet vegetables are grilled on an open-fire heath until the outermost layer is charred and a white smoke rises and then transferred to sheets of newspaper to preserve the heat. To devour them the traditional way, you have to peel off the blackened jackets to reveal the flavorful white bulbs, dip it in romesco sauce (made of ñora pepper, almonds, and hazelnuts), tilt your head back, and aim the leek-like onions at your wide-opened mouth. Most people down a dozen calçots in one sitting but it could easily be more. A note of caution: forget about being dainty at a calçoltada because it's a messy affair involving sooty fingers and if you’re not careful, a blackened nosetip.

[Tasting Cava the Catalan Way]

Resources: More on Catalan Cuisine http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/catalan.htm

Recipe: [ Salsa Romesco ]

6 ripened tomatoes (tops sliced off)
1 entire head of garlic
12 raw almonds
12 hazelnuts
1 tiny slice of baguette or pan tostado
1 ñora pepper
balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil

Place tomatoes, the head of garlic (as it is), the slice of toast in the oven, and roast for about 20 minutes until the tomatoes and garlic are soft and the bread hardened. Remove from oven and let cool.

Meanwhile, process or pound nuts until they are completed grounded. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar to the slice of toast and add it to the nuts. Keep pounding or run the machine. Then, add the dried pepper, and the peeled cloves of garlic, and lastly the peeled tomatoes. During the process, add olive oil until you get a smooth paste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: the sauce is great for anything off the grill, in my opinion. It makes a great vege dip too.

Maki Sushi for Beginners

[Maiden attempt at Maki Sushi]

Inspired by a simple sushi rice recipe from Mumu's food blog, I ventured into reproducing the always tummy-satisfying and taste-buds-relishing maki sushi. Like my friend amP, whom I was playing hostess to the past few days, I can eat sushi all day long and I won't get sick of it.

amP has a super interesting job. He is the stage manager for a touring Cirque Du Soleil show, which means he gets to call the shots for all the hundreds of shows they put up in each major city around the world. The only downside in my opinion is living out of four suitcases in hotel rooms and not having homecooked food. Nevertheless, I can attest to the culinary offerings of the in-tent dining services provided on-site all day long. It's no Michelin-starred, but certainly a far cry from mediocre cafeteria food.

Since he has some buffer time on his hands as Cirque changes city, amP came to Barcelona so he could do some shopping and gobble up some decent international food -- read: sushi. It looks like he really does have a perpetual craving for sushi since he didn't mind having his second sushi round for the day.

I knew I was going to have company and to make things merrier, I invited a few friends to join in the fooding fun. I decided to make the theme Asian, since it almost never fail to delight my friends here when I make food out of the ordinary i.e. nothing west of the Occident. I also recently learnt how to make Satay, the Malaysian national dish, so that was my segundo plato.

For the maki sushi, which worked really well as a primero plato, I rolled it up with strips of omelette, cucumber, avocado, and crabsticks, which despite its name, is made of fish. If you've patience to assemble everything together, these tiny morsels of vinegared compressed rice can be served up in a flash. Except that I panicked a little, when instructions calling for a wet knife to cut up the maki rolls defaulted on me. I had a pretty sharp chef knife but it didn't do the trick. I sufficed with a serated loaf knife, and at the very least could serve up my little makis. With no wasabe on hand, I improvised by using Coleman's English Mustard. The result is amazingly similar as it gives that same pungent punch that promises to clear out any nasal congestion.

For dessert, we savored to the last bit, a scrumptious Spanish dessert that my friend Emilie brought. The dessert is made out of milk simmered in real vanilla beans and then made into a sort of flan, with a tiramisu-typed sponge cake base. It was sublimal. It reminded amP of rice pudding, which I beg to differ because I didn't think much about rice pudding. Then again, to each his own *à chacun son goût*. Emilie promises to share the secret recipe she inherited from her almost-sister-in-law from Valencia, which I'll be delighted to share with you right here on this blog.