Croque-Monsieur

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot whole milk
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Nutmeg
5 cups grated Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
16 slices white or whole wheat sandwich bread
Coarse ground spicy mustard
Thinly sliced ham (go to the deli for this)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once. Stir for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter & flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, and the Parmesan, and set aside.

Toast the bread slices.

Brush half the toasted bread with mustard, add a slice of ham to each, and sprinkle with half the remaining Gruyere. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with the remaining Gruyere, and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve hot.

Link

Snails & Rabbit in Romesco Sauce | 4 servings:

8 rabbit pieces + the liver / 2 lbs of snails (weight includes shells) / 2 medium onions / 4 garlic cloves / 4 tablespoons of Romesco sauce (see recipe below) / 1 small red chili pepper / flour, salt, black ground pepper / 2 cups of water / Olive oil

Rinse the snails thoroughly. Begin heating a large, heavy pot filled with cold water. Add a few branches of thyme and a head of garlic. Toss in the snails and cover with a tight lid. Set heat to low. After a few minutes skim any foam, add a little salt, and cook for another 20 minutes. Strain and set aside.

Put some olive oil in a dutch oven. While it heats up, clean the rabbit, dry, add salt and pepper over it and coat in flour. Fry the rabbit in the dutch oven at medium heat. Set aside when golden brown.

Add the two chopped onions to the dutch oven and stir at low to medium heat until they start to brown, and then add the chopped garlic. Stir until fragrant. Add the chili and the pre-cooked snails. Stir at low heat for 10 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and set aside. De-glaze the casserole with the two cups of water and add the cooked rabbit back in.

Give the dutch oven a good shake and simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes. Chop the rabbit liver (or an equal amount of chicken liver) and add it to the pot. Stir and toss until the liver is cooked. Cover with the lid and simmer for another 10 or 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add the Romesco sauce and stir the casserole so that all ingredients mix. Hold at low heat for another 5 minutes.

This dish is better the day after or if you cook it in the morning will be perfect for dinner.

Romesco Sauce | A very traditional Catalan sauce used on meat, fish, rice, pasta, and/or potatoes:

5 ripe tomatoes / 2 garlic heads and two garlic cloves / 5 dried red peppers / Olive oil, salt and pepper / 5 to 6 ounces of toasted hazelnuts and 5 to 6 ounces of toasted almonds / 2-3 mint leaves (optional)

For best presentation, the nuts should be peeled and toasted in a skillet.

Quarter and roast the tomatoes and garlic heads. After 45 minutes in the oven at 375ºF, the tomatoes and garlic will be ready.

Soak the dried peppers in boiling water for about an hour. Remove the seeds from the softened peppers.

Peel and seed the roasted tomatoes. Use a food processor to pulverize the tomatoes and roasted garlic. Then add in the peppers, mint leaves, 2 raw garlic cloves and the toasted nuts to make a thick paste. Slowly add olive oil to the running food processor until you get a fine textured, smooth sauce.

Leftover sauce can be frozen, or stored in the fridge with a little olive oil on top to seal out the air.

See the original recipe.

If you get really inspired to cook, order prepackaged Spanish food, Iberian hams and beautiful Spanish tableware from La Tienda online.

Things we’ve learned so far…

The Catalan language is not “almost like” Spanish.

The Sant Andreu Arenal railway station cannot be reached from the San Andreu

Metro station (get off at Fabra i Puig instead to catch a train to La Garriga).

Food is either really expensive or really cheap.

Pasta is “fantastico” with pesto, chicken and out-of-date mozzarella.

Flip-flops slip—and slide—on wet cobblestones.

Our hometown…

La Garriga is a Catalan town of about 15,000 in the province of Barcelona—and it is our hometown for the next month. With special thanks to the Catalan version Wikipedia, I can include a little information about the town:

La Garriga is renowned throughout Catalonia for its most important industry, furniture making, for its thermal waters, for its Art Nouveau buildings, and carpets that are made during the festival of Corpus Christi.

The town of La Garriga adjoins the national park of Montseny.

La Garriga was a favorite vacation spot for the Catalan bourgeoisie in the early twentieth century.

La Garriga was one of the Catalan towns bombed by General Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

The Roman villa of Can Terrés is located south of town. It was built in the first century B.C.

Imagewest’s office in Barcelona…

The agency is currently installed in the College of Industrial Engineering in central Barcelona. The buildings here are massive brick structures with high arching ceilings, tall windows, and iron gates. Our office is small but accommodates all of us with a little room to spare.

Our first big adventure…

We had an amazing adventure this week. Our agency team visited a phenomenal digital Ad Agency called BG Media in Badalona, Spain.

Badalona is a beach town about 20 miles north of Barcelona.

Our commute is usually about 1.5 hours, but Thursday morning it took a little longer. We left our home in La Garriga and took the train into Barcelona, as per usual, but detoured—via the metro and another train—to Badalona, about 20 miles north of Barcelona.

Thanks to excellent directions, all of us arrived unscathed and on time, in spite of angry skies, wind and rain (unusual considering the time of year).

Agnieszka Rosicka, the marketing director for BG Media, met us at the door. Agnieszka, originally from Poland and recently from Tenerife, presented BG Media with passion and energy. The agency is 8 years old and successful, in spite of a difficult economy. BG Media focuses on digital solutions and demonstrates special skill at communicating effectively with each clients target audience. We were especially excited to learn their clients include Formula 1 and motorcycle racing teams.

BGMedia’s working process is very similar to how agencies work in the US. An account manager works closely with a client and represents the clients’ needs to the agency creatives. One trend is for web design to affect direction of print media rather than vice versa.

Agnieszka—and the agency Director, Victor Betran—were gracious, helpful and very generous with their time. We learned a lot. Thanks BG Media!

After our visit, the team explored a small portion of beachfront Badalona (in the rain) and dined at Sala 2 before returning to the office for an afternoon of research and brainstorming.

Weather here is usually beautiful and warm, but we’ve had rain most of today. The locals seem to take it all in stride. They’ve been extremely kind and helpful, and we’ve been able to communicate fairly well, in spite of our very obvious lack of language skills (either in Spanish or Catalan).

To kick of this year’s blog, I’m including a recipe for Pa Amb Tomaquet, a kind of tapas, and very popular in Barcelona . . .

Ingredients (for four portions):

4 slices thick good crusty bread
1 tomato, halved
1 clove of garlic, halved
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Few grinds of black pepper

Directions:

Grill or toast bread slices, and bring to the table while still warm. Rub grilled bread with garlic halves, then thoroughly rub the tomato halves into the toast to soak the surface. Drizzle with good olive oil to taste, then sprinkle with some sea salt and pepper.

We traveled first by autobus into Madrid, took the Metro to the train station, and then bought very affordable tickets on the AVE to Toledo. Public transportation here is great (although bus schedules may be a little tricky to decipher) and a savvy tourist can go just about anywhere with a little experience and some map-reading skills. The AVE is a high-speed and very comfortable train service in Spain that runs to most major cities on the Iberian Peninsula. Do remember that when waiting in a que for anything official in Spain (like buying tickets for AVE), you’re expected to “take a number” and watch for that number to appear on a display over one of the ticket clerks. You won’t receive any service if you don’t follow the rules.

Toledo, a UNESCO World Heritage site, sits on a tall craggy rock and is nearly circled by the Tajo river. Toledo’s train station was built at the bottom of the rock, near the river,  in 1916. Designed in the Mudejar architectural style, the building is covered with the elaborate textures of wood, brick and tile; the windows are filled with richly colored stained glass; the look and feel of the place is very exotic. The station sets the tone (and raises expectations) for the walk up the hill into old Toledo.

All the guide books describe Toledo as “an easy day-trip”. Toledo is 2,500 years old and just might require a little more time. Several groups have called this city home over the centuries, including Christian, Islamic, and Hebrew cultures that coexisted during centuries within its walls  We spent only a day there out of necessity (remember, we’re here working 5 or 6 days a week). Given the opportunity, I’d visit several times during several seasons. Points of interest are not always well marked, so expect lots of walking and don’t be afraid to ask questions and for directions. Do remember though, this is Spain and most people do not speak English. Learn a little Spanish before you come to Spain.

Among many other things, Toledo is known for it’s Mazapán, a confection made with sugar and almonds. No, I didn’t misspell the word and please understand that Mazapán is not the same as Marzipan (at least, from the Spanish point-of-view). In Toledo, Spain (1150, during the reign of Alfonso VII), the recipe for Mazapán—called Postre Regio—was created. There are even mentions in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights of an almond paste eaten during Ramadan and as an aphrodisiac. Mazapán is Toledo’s most famous dessert, (especially popular at Christmas, but available year-round) and has PGI status—Protected Geographical Indication by the EU. Almonds have to be at least 50% of the total weight, following the directives of Mazapán de Toledo regulator counseií. Google the word Mazapán for more information. For those of you who enjoy the recipes, here’s one for Mazapán (use great care… this stuff gets hot!):

Mazapan de Toledo

1 cup water
2 cups sugar
3 cups whole almonds, blanched and ground
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
3-4 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

In a saucepan, heat water and sugar until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Let it boil steadily without stirring the temperature reaches 230-234 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and beat until mixture turns slightly cloudy. Stir in ground almonds, egg whites, and vanilla. Cook over gentle heat for 2-3 minutes or until mixture pulls away from sides of pan. Turn mixture onto a surface that has been sprinkled with some of the powdered sugar. Knead the mixture until smooth, working in the rest of the powdered sugar. Pull off pieces and roll into balls or olive-shaped pieces. Wrap in foil or wax paper and store in airtight container. You can aso make small figure shapes, such as doves or fish.. And if you brush with egg white you can put them in the oven under the grill for a minute or two to brown the top.

Toledo Album

Ingredients:

2 hard-boiled large eggs
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 pound ground beef chuck
2 tablespoons raisins
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped pimiento-stuffed olives
1 (14-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, drained and chopped. Reserve 2 tablespoons juice
1 package frozen empanada pastry disks, thawed
About 4 cups vegetable oil

How to Prepare:

Cut each egg crosswise into 10 thin slices. Cook onion in in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened. Add garlic, cumin, and oregano and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in beef and cook, breaking up lumps with a fork, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Add raisins, olives, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and tomatoes with reserved juice, then cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced but mixture is still moist, about 5 minutes. Spread on a plate to cool.

Preheat oven to 200°F with rack in middle.

Lay a large sheet of plastic wrap on a dampened work surface (to help keep plastic in place), then roll out an empanada disk on plastic wrap to measure about 6 inches. Place 3 tablespoons meat mixture on disk and top with 2 slices of egg. Moisten edges of disk with water and fold over to form a semicircle, then crimp with a fork. Make more empanadas in same manner.

Heat 3/4 inch vegetable oil in a deep 12-inch skillet over medium heat until it registers 360°F on thermometer. Fry empanadas, 2 or 3 at a time, turning once, until crisp and golden, 4 to 6 minutes per batch.

Transfer to a shallow baking pan and keep warm in oven. Return oil to 360°F between batches.

Recipe Courtesy of Epicurious

By the way… empanadas are very similar to the curry puffs we ate in Kuala Lumpur!

The picture of the modern-looking structure is our apartment building. It’s part of a cluster of 4 identical buildings around a central court. There’s a pool in the middle, a green-space and a playground for a daycare center. Our building is the only one with short-term rental space (called Apartahotel).

I found the iron window grill filled with greenery last night in the old part of town. Lots of whitewashed walls, window-boxes and red tile roofs there. I’ve even seen a few building with thatch on the roof.

Villanueva del Pardillo Album

Villanueva de la Cañada is special—the small population (about 16,000) tend to be very successful, have money, college educations, expensive automobiles and work either in their own businesses, or in the professions (law and medicine) or for the European Space Agency (which has facilities here in Cañada). The largest waterpark in Europe is on the edge of town (nope, I haven’t visited yet). There are two Universities in town, both private: Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio and Universidad Camilo José Cela. José Cela is some distance from downtown Cañada and the homebase for our Imagewest International team during this visit. Alfonso X El Sabio is in the town of Cañada, at the end of an avenue lined with shops, cervacerias and cantinas. College life seems a little more subdued here… less drama (at least on the surface), sports aren’t a component of the University curriculum like in the States, and I haven’t seen any Greek letters. Of course, I don’t speak much Spanish so I may be missing tons. These two schools, along with others we’ve visited, are attempting to embrace the Bologna Accord.

Cañada in the Evening Album

Ingredients:
3 ounces triple sec
4 ounces brandy
2 cups orange juice
1/2 apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 orange, slices from
1 liter cheap, dry red wine
3 cups ice