FAGORNEWS 2011 OF INTEREST CHICKEN CHILINDRÓN 24 WWW.mONSiEURcOcOTTE.BLOGSpOT.cOm DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: For novice cooks who want to rustle up something scrumptious. Ingredients (for 6 people - invite a few friends round!): A 1½ kg chicken, kindly sliced by your local butcher. 2 onions. 1 fat juicy red pepper. My mouth’s already watering! 3 green peppers. Homemade tomato sauce, thickened to taste (that’s the trick). Salt and pepper. PREPARATION: 1. Brown the chicken in olive oil. When it is browned to your liking, set it aside. 2. Peel and finely chop the onions. Wash the four peppers and slice as desired. Stew the onion and peppers in the oil you used to fry the chicken. Add the tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Add more tomato or less depending on how thick you want your stew to be. Leave it to cook on a slow heat for around fifteen minutes. 3. Add the slices of chicken and cook it all together for another twenty minutes. Serve hot. It can be kept in the fridge for up to two days and you can also freeze it. If you make it for your partner - real or potential - they’ll see you in another light. ;) Chicken chilindrón is famous for its aphrodisiac powers! CULINARY BLOGGERS Cookery is making an increasing appearance in the 2.0 world, with new blogs constantly being written and maintained by a group of professionals who surprise us with their creativity, rigour and imagination, offering us content, knowledge and opinions. And we present two excellent examples of the phenomenon in this issue of Fagor News. Our two guest bloggers in this issue are Paco Becerro, the creator of “Lazy Blog”, and Jose María Serrano, the man behind “Monsieur Cocotte”, who, as is now becoming a regular occurrence, have each contributed a tasty recipe. Paco Becerro confesses he is a selftaught cook: he is actually a law graduate, but over 20 years cooking in his family environment together with the numerous cookery courses and workshops he has attended and the large and ever-growing number of books on the subject he has devoured have allowed him to forge his own culinary personality, which has led him to start up the “Lazy Blog” project (www.lazyblog.net). He chose the name as his blogger friends had to insist for ages before he finally got round to starting up the blog and posting his recipes. Three years after its creation, “Lazy Blog” not only features over 300 re- COURGETTE- WRAPPED CREAMY SEAFOOD RICE WWW.LAZYBLOG.NET Seafood rice is normally eaten in large amounts as a single main course. As Christmas has just gone by and we’re counting the calories, today we’re going to prepare it in small portions, wrapped in courgette slices and served with a mix of salad greens and olive oil with garlic and parsley. Ingredients for 4 people (It will be enough for 8 servings like the ones shown in the photo.) For the rice: 300 gr. of bomba rice 8 prawns, 8 mussels, 8 clams cipes for traditional and international dishes but also has other points of attraction such as a basic cookery section for beginners or recipe competitions with themes ranging from Italian to Mexican cuisine and including Christmas recipes or ideas for cooking with cherries from the Jerte Valley. Paco’s excellent work has not only placed his blog among the top pages in the Wikio cookery blog ranking, but it has also allowed him to extend his activity to collaborations for “Directo al Paladar” (www.directoalpaladar.com) and to be one of the twenty bloggers chosen to attend the Virgen Extra Jaen 2.0 encounter, organised by the Jaén Provincial Government to show participants the entire process of virgin olive oil production. That’s not bad for someone who refers to himself as lazy in the title of his blog! Jose María Serrano, known in the blog world as Monsieur Cocotte, studied computer science and worked for banks and consultancy firms until the dot com bubble burst and he changed job, working for the Regional Government. But throughout all this time cookery was close to his heart, in spite of the fact that - as he himself declares - he isn’t a chef and doesn’t intend to become one. However it’s also true that he has been cooking for 250 gr. of squid rings 1 Italian type green pepper, 1 ripe tomato 2 cloves of garlic 1 litre of fish fumet (preferably made with monkfish or sea bass) Saffron, salt, extra virgin olive oil For serving: 1 courgette, 100 gr. of Mesclun salad, a dash of ajopere (a mix of extra virgin olive oil, a clove of garlic and a nice bunch of parsley). PREPARATION Blanch the tomato to loosen the skin, and peel it. Finely slice the cloves of garlic and fry them in extra virgin olive oil, in the same cooking pot you will later use for the rice. Remove when brown. In the same oil, make a sofrito with the chopped tomato and the green pepper. When it is soft, set it aside. Sautée the squid rings and shellfish in the same pan, and set aside. Heat the rice in the oil you used for frying until it is transparent, and add the sofrito and the fish stock. Brown the saffron in a frying pan, add a spoonful of stock and add to the rice and sofrito. Cook the rice for 8 minutes on a high heat and then add the squid, TOGETHER WE EVOLVE years, and this interest finally led him to create “Monsieur Cocotte” (http:// monsieurcocotte.blogspot.com), which he set up in March 2010 as an online recipe book, but since then it has evolved into a point of encounter for his cookery-loving friends and followers, not all of them cooks themselves, but all of them with a keen interest in the culinary world. Jose María’s aim is to post recipes he has tried out personally and to explain their preparation in his blog as clearly and simply as possible, enhancing them with a personal touch not just strictly concerned with cuisine itself: he accompanies them by a story, or a touch of humour (you have to laugh at his definitions of the degree of difficulty of each dish). His blog also includes links to programmes and videos on the subject of cooking and food. Social collaboration is also one of the strong points of “Monsieur Cocotte”, as he is highly active in Facebook and Twitter (twitter.com/monsieurcocotte), and much of the content that ends up in his blog originates from the comments on these sites, as Jose María considers them “crucial” for its functioning. With so many friends taking part, it’s easy to see why the results are outstanding. the shelled mussels and the peeled prawns. Reduce to medium heat until the rice is cooked. When the rice is almost done (around 14-16 minutes in all), add the shelled clams, previously soaked in a bowl of water to remove any grit, and turn off the heat so that the rest of the cooking can be done on residual heat. Leave to stand for up to 5 minutes, and serve. PRESENTATION Use the blender to prepare an ajopere, mixing 1 clove of garlic with 10 cl of virgin extra olive oil and a nice bunch of fresh parsley. Finely slice a courgette using a mandoline slicer and blanch for 2 minutes in boiling water. Place two courgette slices on each plate and with the aid of a serving ring, place a small portion of creamy rice on them and then carefully remove the ring. Garnish with the lettuce mix and with a dash of ajopere on the rice and another on the plate. Serve immediately so that the rice keeps its texture. #04 / FEBRUARY 2011
FAGOR FOCUS <strong>LVDI</strong> MARRIOTT