This recipe I did during my first week at San Sebastián, to remember old times. In Spain one eats pickled mussels a lot, usually in a bar or at home and as a tapa; we serve the mussel over a potato chip with its juice and that’s it! Delicious!

A technique that I want to tell you about in this occasion is how to treat the mussel. Due to the fact that when we cook the “escabeche” we will be giving heat to the mussel, what we do in the previous step is only blanching the mussel. We open them with the help of a paring knife almost as if they were oysters. This allows us to get very big mussels and very tasty mussels as well.

So, in this recipe we work how to cook in acids, managing seafood and also a delicious recipe to enjoy with friends! Very complete!!

Preparation and handling of the mussels.

• First, filaments need to be removed, this is accomplished by cleaning with a pairing knife under running water. They should not be kept under water because they will open.
• Our aim is just to kill the mussels, not cook them, this is because we will cook them afterwards once we start with the escabeche. In order to this, we place them in boiling salt water (30% salt – their same medium of life, this way they don’t loose any taste) for 6-8 seconds. And then directly to an inverted ice bath (they should not touch the water so we can keep the juice).
• Go through the inside of the shell with a very sharp and thin knife, and cut the muscle once you reach it. You will see the mussel is almost the same size of the shell, much much bigger than when one does steaming preparations.
• Usually when we cook them for longer, the shell opens on its own because the mussel stops contracting.
• KEEP THE WATER –> we use it for the same escabeche or for other creative preparations we can think of. Even a leche de tigre for a cebiche. It is very tasty!!
• If you want to keep them for a day or two, keep them on their same water with some oil on top so they don’t oxidize and always at a very low temperature to keep the cold chain going.

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Important: the potatoes are cooked slowly in oil at low temperature. They are neither fried or cooked first in water, or anything like that. Patience always adds flavour!!

Clovis, that also makes a real good one by the way, ate this one with me in Berlin for lunch and a series

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This recipe actually is from 2011, from the latest Christmas, which I spent with my family in Berlin. So, given the circumstances this German Potato Salad could not miss this year. I’ve been cooking it for many years now, this recipe though has new important ingredients such as broth and the juice from the bacon.

Adding the vinegar while still warm not only keeps the potatoes firm but enrichens the flavour, as does the broth and bacon juice. It is a simple salad, delicious to eat with nothing more, with a grilled fish, with sausages, with turkey, etc…. and it is also very simple to make! So here you go, the step by step recipe.

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I am one of those who thinks both things saciate us. One has a short-term effect and the other one regulates us on a longer term. That’s why soups are perfect for the whole year! When it’s cold they heat us up, when it’s hot they also have a positive effect on our body. And, well, yes I must confess my family is addicted to soup, the whole year we have soups.

This delicious and exquisite soup with soba noodles, shiitake mushrooms and latin “tofu” (which is latin fresh cheese that does not melt) is for all seasons. For Peruvians right now that want to feel warmer now that it’s winter, for Spanish that are having a very hot Summer and for Germans that between rainy days and sunny days, well, it’s always welcomed. And for everyone else of course!!!

Now the easy part comes. I think this recipe has a bit more difficulty in finding all the ingredients (even though now we can find japanese stores everywhere!) than in preparing it, it’s really amazingly easy to make and very tasty.

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Just to feed a few minds and become a little more wise in the culinary world I want to tell you a few curiosities about milk and cheese making. Milk is composed mainly of two proteins that determine its behaviour in cooking: the curd (caseins) and the whey. Another interesting property of milk is that we can heat it up at very high temperatures but it won’t coagulate (like egg proteins that do, for example) unless the environment becomes acidic. That’s why during ricotta cheese preparation lemon or vinegar is added to the milk. This generates the acid environment that causes all the curd proteins to clump together to form a solid mass, while the whey proteins remain suspended in the liquid. This is the base for making cheese. Isn’t it great to learn and understand more about what happens when we cook? I love it! Anyway, let’s get to ingredients and preparation Enjoy!

There are a thousand ideas for recipes with the home-made ricotta cheese. I leave you some pictures of what I’ve donde with it and some of the top of my head: for a cheesecake (can’t wait), for a salad with pears, pizza, malfatti, all alone, for cauliflower and butter, pasta with artichokes and dried tomatoes, for these delicious ravioli with spinach… and more and more.

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For the ones who haven’t tried it yet and don’t know what it is: imagine a cold lasagna made of potato puree (with lemon and chilli) filled with whatever you like. In Perú we make it of chicken, octopus, tuna, crab, asparagus, whatever you like!! Be creative!!! Perfect for summer time, do it on a Monday and to the fridge. You’ve made yourself an excellent afternoon ‘snack’ for children after school, surprise for friends, light lunch. I love it. I am in love with my peruvian Causa. Let’s start with the menu then.

I have to thank infinitely to Sandra Gajate Benavides for the beautiful pictures she took

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Delicious and exquisit!!!

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